It pains me to say it, but Key on the Wall is just not the place it used to be now that the Guida brothers have gone.

For a long, long time - at least 10 years - I counted this restaurant among my very favourites, and would have given it a 5-star rating without hesitation. Frank Guida ran the kitchen, and produced some of my favourite Italian dishes anywhere. I particularly loved the Gnocchi Quattro Formaggi. The gnocchi were superbly light and fluffy, and the whole dish was finished off under the grill, giving it a beautiful golden-brown colour and toasty cheese aroma. The lobster soup was another favourite - a wonderfully aromatic dish.

Giovanni Guida worked front of house, and was one of the most welcoming, attentive, and thoroughly professional waiters I've encountered anywhere in Melbourne. I and my friends ate at Key on the Wall regularly, and Giovanni got to know us, our likes and dislikes, so much so that we hardly needed the menu when we walked in. He knew, for instance, that I always ordered an entree-size pasta rather than a main - I didn't need to say so. He knew what we all liked to drink, and would practically have it on the table the minute we sat down.

However, it seems that much that was good about Key on the Wall was due to the Guida brothers themselves, and now that they've handed the place over to new owners, it just isn't the same.

The service is still polite, but hesitant and awkward. For instance, when I ate there for lunch recently, the waitress got confused and placed the dish I had ordered in front of one of my friends. This would be a forgivable error if the restaurant were crowded and the pace hectic, but it was almost empty. There's really no excuse for it - it's just a lack of concentration. Giovanni would have been appalled.

The menu is still the same, but the food is not the same quality as it used to be. I ordered one of my favourite calamari dishes, and it just wasn't as good as it was when Frank was in charge.

Overall it wasn't bad, and it could be that the new owners are still finding their feet after the changeover. I will still go back and give it another go. If they can produce Gnocchi Quattro Formaggi as good as Frank made it, that would be enough to keep me going back. But whereas before I would have given Key on the Wall a 5-star rating, I can now only give it 2. Judging by my most recent visit, it's now just an OK restaurant, rather than a favourite. And as a just-OK restaurant, it's going to have an uphill battle to stay afloat, because there are plenty of just-OK restaurants competing with it in Lygon St, along with several better-than-OK ones. Key on the Wall survived for so long because it was special. How long it can survive now it's not so special, I don't know.

I wish I'd known the Guidas were planning to leave, so I could have said goodbye properly, but if they are reading this: Giovanni and Frank, thank you for the magnificent food and service you gave us over so many years. You are greatly missed.

UPDATE 25 Jan 2012: I ate at Key on the Wall again today, and it continues its slide ever downwards.

New menu. Several of my old favourites, including the Gnocchi Quattro Formaggi, have gone, replaced with the standard "mix and match" pasta and sauce combinations that are my pet hate in Italian restaurants. As well, the prices have gone way, way upwards - and this for a place that was never one of Lygon St's cheapest anyway.

Service was awkward, bordering on inept. The waiter gave us the menus and then remained standing there, hovering uncomfortably close to us as we read them - and naturally, as it was a new menu that we were encountering for the first time, it took some time to read. I was so intimidated by the waiter's hovering, practically at my elbow, that I actually considered asking him to please move away and come back in a few minutes. I've never had to do that before; most waiters know that they should keep a polite distance until it's clear the customers are ready to order. When we finally did order, the waiter seemed to be so unfamiliar with the menu that he didn't recognise what we were asking for - we had to point to each item on the menu as we ordered it, as if to show him that it really was one of the dishes they were offering, and we weren't just making it up. He was painfully slow at writing down the orders, and after he'd written them down, he asked each of us "entree or main course size?", even though we'd already told him. It was excruciating.

When he brought the dishes out, he stood there holding the plates, unable to remember who had ordered which one, and we had to remind him. (There were only three of us, in an almost empty restaurant, so it shouldn't have been that difficult.)

I ordered the Penne Tonno - $19.50 for an entree size. Out came a huge serving of penne, so large I thought they'd delivered a main course size by mistake. It was topped with a niggardly amount of spring onions and tuna - perhaps the equivalent of two or three tablespoonsful all up. Now, technically, you wouldn't go hungry - it was a lot of pasta to get through. On the other hand, maybe you WOULD go hungry, because the dish was so unbalanced - too much pasta, too little sauce - that it was dreary and unappetising. It was crying out for more flavour. I ended up leaving a lot of it, not because I was full, but because I'd already eaten the tiny amount of tuna that was there, and the rest was so dull that I just couldn't face the idea of eating any more of it.

The final nail in the coffin was the fact that the waiter didn't offer parmesan, in spite of the fact that food was so bland that it was in desperate need of parmesan to add some flavour. We had to ask for parmesan.

Poor food, poor service. That does it. I've lowered my rating from two stars to one, and I'm unlikely to go back. I hope the new management changes the name of this place, because I'd hate to think people are continuing to eat here based on the good reputation that the old Key on the Wall had.

Not too impressed, got our meals wrong as they kept giving us the entree size. however, when they served us the main, it was laughable. i'm a girl, average weight, and was not full enough. the service is OK, not much personality. not very good value for money - just skip this place.

Approximate cost: $25

generous sizing, but pretty bland. so if you're looking for quality rather than quantity, go elsewhere, otherwise you'll be disappointed.

As the name suggests, you walk into this well-sized Italian restaurant and you'll be greeted by a big Key on the Wall!
We went here for a birthday dinner and, being Lygon Street, we were expecting a big Italian pasta feast. While the pasta and pizza was generously portioned and quite affordable, I'd probably match it in quality for La Porchetta, which isn't a bad thing, but it's not the authentic Italian I'd imagined. The pasta is very soft and the sauces have quite a bit of oil in them. It wasn't bad, just not as good as a few of the other amazing Italian restaurants along Lygon Street. This is a good choice if you want a big meal at a pretty cheap price.

Approximate cost: $15+