Donna Bionda - TOWNSVILLE CITY

Food was good. Service not so good. First time diners.Went for lunch on a Friday. Stood waiting, no staff acknowledged us. Had to ask the barman if we could sit or should we wait to be seated. He said go in. We sat, & waited. No service. No menu. Another couple was seated next to us 10 minutes later with Menus when we had to ask for a menu. Barman obviously didn't advise the floor staff nor follow up to ensure we had been given menus etc, but given it wasn't terribly busy one would think you'd notice a new table. They had to walk past us to get meals & drinks...Got handed a dirty half crumpled A4 piece of paper with a 'lunch' menu. Unfortunately I didn't realise they were not serving the full menu as I was looking forward to the seafood pasta I had scoped out on the website - but not to be & we were there so we stayed. But it was a slim picking. Had to pull over a staff member for our first drinks. Meals were really nice. Drinks were empty for quite some time. Noticed tables outside having to bring empty bottles of wine to the staff so they could order more. Had to pull over staff again to order more drinks.Staff were not rude, but totally lacked in hospitality, attention & customer service. They had plenty of staff on & could have provided really awesome attentive service, but just wasn't able to do so. I'm sure with the right staff, we could have had an amazing lunch & the owners would have got more spend from us if we were actually served, but instead it was a typical average Townsville dining experience. Won't rush back, but I am sure we will try again in the future & no doubt the staff will be different but hopefully much better!

We planned to explore city arcade as it looked as though it had interesting restaurants. We weren't disappointed. After checking the menus available and marvelling at the self-pour tap beer, we decided to eat at the first Italian restaurant we had found in Townsville so far, Donna Bionda. It had wonderful table seating with beautiful wine glasses as well as high table lunch seating outside (with flowers). We ate arancini to share which was lovely and then shared a pizza which was beautiful and thin crusted. We had a beautiful Chianti Classico with the pizza, as one must! And finished with a cheese platter and an ice cream with rum-soaked fruit! All lovely. This city arcade dis one of the best things that has happened to Townsville in recent years!

Set up of offer a quieter, classy dining experience than some of the other noisy and bustling options in the 'City Lane' arcade off Flinders St.We arrived late so were grateful the kitchen was still open.My partner found the Grilled Baby Calamari w/ Cannelini Beans,Tomato & Pesto, pedestrian and unappealing. My order of Spinach Ravioli tossed w/ gorganzola, pear anddrizzled w/ truffle honey at $22 for an entree serve, over priced for what was presented. Tasty enough, although the portion size was a bit miserly.It may have been the late hour on a Sunday evening, and certainly the restaurant has potential.

Last time we were here was late 2016 and had a great night , last night not so much .We were a group of 6 , the 2 other couples received their meals and entrees on time but both times my wife and I were left waiting .Our waitress was lovely given it was her first shift and in many ways saved the night , however other staff left a lot to be desired .As only my wife and I were drinking wine , one waiter came over to take the wine glasses off the table , basically grunted at our table as he did so , even despite our companions passing him the glasses! 3 times my wife and I had to ask where our garlic pizza entree was and eventually it came . Then arrived main course , my pizza arrived on time , however it took at least another 15-20mins for my wife's risotto to arrive . When it did , the waitress who delivered it ( not our regular waitress for the night ) asked my wife if she'd like cracked pepper and shaved Parmesan , my wife says yes never to see this waitress again ! Our regular waitress then arrived and dealt with this immediately .Then , to top it off - the risotto was undercooked which my wife advised the waitress of . I'm afraid it was an underwhelming experience and well below what we'd experienced first time at Donna Bionda .

Wanted to see if DB was as good as we remembered from last year's visit. Yep. Great service, food, atmosphere. If you're wanting Italian in heart of town, then just head down City Lane.