La Porchetta Review

Location:273 Spring St, Reservoir, 3073, (there are numerous La Porchetta locations, as this is chain of successful Italian food)
Phone:(03) 9460 5525
Time: Dinner Time (around 7pmish)
Price: Reasonable (ranging from $7 for pasta and $17 for steak)
Cuisine Type: Italian

What got dished out:
I ordered a medium Porterhouse Steak with chips and mushroom sauce. I received a Well done steak. Like I've mentioned before in my previous post about how the standard of steak generally determines the quality of food.
I already know that the quality of food at La Porchetta isn't the best, it's the fast food of Italian food, kinda like McDonald's type thing.

I was actually kinda disappointed when the steak came out because generally La Porchetta don't exactly nuke my meat.
I couldn't be bothered sending it back because I was extremely hungry, and when one is extremely hungry, any food is good.

In haste, I forgot to request to have the mushroom sauce to be put in a container as a dipping sauce. When it came out, I wanted to kick myself. I HATE having any sauce on my steak. My reason? What happens if the sauce isn't nice? then I'm stuck eating it with my steak. Granted the mushroom sauce is pretty nice at La Porchetta, but it's not actually consistent.
I don't know if all the franchises have a set recipe, but clearly they don't. Sometimes it's runny, sometimes it's too buttery, and sometimes it taste nothing like the "standard" sauce.
The mushroom sauce I had that day was a tad on the runny side(too much water I think?).

The chips weren't that bad, but of course nothing beats McDonald's fries, but these suffice, at least the chips weren't so brown due to the lack of oil change.

The meal was edible and I completed the whole entire thing without having to think twice. I can't say it's the best steak I've had, but it wasn't the worst. In truth, it was the poorest La Porchetta steak I've had in a while. But who can complain? the steak is only $17 bucks, a lot cheaper than most places (by almost $10), so I don't have high expectations of it.

I did try a little bit of my friend's ravioli bolognaise. I think this has to be such a weird combination. Of course I always associate bolognaise with spaghetti and then whenever other pasta types are used, I just get weirded out. La Porchetta doesn't make a flashy sauce, nothing punchy about it. I mean I've been to a place where the sauce was really sour-ish due to the fresh tomatos. In truth La Porchetta is a safe house. I mean the sauce taste no different to ones that you get from a Dolmio's bottle. I didn't mind the combination. The pasta wasn't hard rock, I've tried in some places where the ravioli tasted like OMG WTF that with each bite I wanted to cry. There were no tears here.

My thoughts:
I've been going to La Porchetta for years, even in my uni days, because it's quick, easy and cheap, especially for some Italian food. It's not fine dining but it's a lot better than the stuff that you buy from the bamborines from shopping centres. I can live with cheap and okay food. I can't deal with expensive food for mediocre servings and mediocre tastings which La Porchetta is not.
It's probably one of the more famous chains in Melbourne for Italian food, the other being Sofia's but they do extremely large servings that could feed a family of four on one pasta dish. I find places like that food wastage.
I guess I like coming here because it is safe and easy. Stuff I should learn to make myself but can't be bothered because someone else makes it quicker (not better).
It's probably the reason why even years on, the La Porchetta chain is still very successful, there are a LOT of these chains lurking around Melbourne, it's some pretty crazy stuff and most people have the same mentality as myself (ahh the lazyness)...

And in truth, when it comes to Italian food, I use La Porchetta as the benchmark (you have to start somewhere), I generally crack it if the steak/pasta/chicken/pizza comes to me worst off than La Porchetta's and cost more. Generally you get a face palm type thing going from myself. and I'm mad as hell. =]

I know everybody has a benchmark for food, I mean you have to, how else do you know if something is good or bad? Unfortunately for me, when it comes to Vietnamese food, the standard is high because the benchmark happens to be my mother's cooking. When it comes to Italian, it's surely La Porchetta. Don't ask me why, it's just how it is.