Lygon street is a very popular and magnetic street in Melbourne renown for their Italian eatery paradise. The busiest place is starting from the junction of Lygon street with Queensberry Street and kinda ended in Elgin Street. So, along both side of the street, all you can see is these Italiano restorante' everywhere calling you to try their homemade pasta or traditional pizza.
I warn you!! This street is very touristy which I believe you can expect that hence most of them charge higher price comparing to some other restaurants that you would find in the down town. But its unique ambiance that we paying for is undoubtedly worthed. However, they can be aggressively pushy too sometimes, when you try cruising along the Lygon street, the battle is on. You will see lots of the restaurant's owner or representative standing in front of their shop and shouting or selling their food, most of them will promote and go for an extra miles by giving away the freebies or even offering 15% discount if we dine in their place and some of them even graping your arm trying to drag you come inside their restaurant. Seriously, I've seen alot like this in Asian countries but never thought that I would experience this in Australia as well. Hmmm.. Interesting!!!!! And very very overwhelming though.
For me, those kind of tricks would never work at all, I will become more suspicious whether their food is actually really good because I believe the famous and truly yummy restaurant don't need to use any of this bait to lure the pedestrians. Action speaks louder !! Later on, we spotted this cute and OH-SO-Italian decor from the outside and the owner was standing there didn't try to force people at all only helping when someone asking some questions. So that it is, this the one that we allowed ourself to become their victims. Now, let take a look inside....
Once we stepped inside, it completely blown our mind away. The place looks really cozy and more like an classic Italian home-style restaurant, you can feel that warmth welcome. The decoration is rather rustic and earthy with Italian kitchen stuffs hanging on the wall and the checkers-style table cloth give a nice colour against the wooden table and chairs. With some flowers and classic-art picture frames hanging on the brick wall here and there added some romantic touch to the dining room.
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| ??Shots of Frangelico and Martini $9.50 each |
I've never tried Frangelico before and always temp to try one. One sip from this little tiny shot, was completely got me owned. It was perfectly sweet with a strong hazelnut flavour. I better get a whole bottle when I come back to Sydney.
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| Complimentary Garlic Bread |
The bread was a little too tough, chewy and oily but love the taste of those garlic butter spreaded on top.
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| Half dozen of Kilpatric Oysters $17 |
If I see oysters on the starter menu, it's like nearly 90% that I will order them. This time we just go for the ordinary Kilpatric-style oysters. The freshly-baked oysters topped with heaps of slightly burn edge bacon, was quite dry and juicy in a way. Flavouresome!!!!
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| Cheerssss... |
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| Veal Parmagiana $33 |
Trust me, I know this photo looks terrible but its tasted absolutely beautiful. The crumbed veal fillet, nicely and finely cooked thoroughly then evenly topped with tomato sauce and melted mozzarella so we can get the full burst of flavours in every bite.
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| Gnocchi Boccocini $22 |
My bad, I didn't even know that this dish is a vegetarian dish.. I was in the mood of some soft gnocchi and on the menu they have this gnocchi served with boccocini, what a nice combination!!!! So yeah... I ordered this dish. But it was great though, the pillow soft gnocchi served with generous amount of boccocini as well as some black olives. I enjoyed this dish and it comes in a huge serving flat plate, hence I can manage to finish them off.
After finishing with our delicious mains, as it kinda weird in Italian restaurant to not try their homemade desserts. Looking at their dessert menu, they got so many interesting sweets listed there, but what they delivered on the dish is quite disappointing. As I mention a few times already by now, that I'm a sweets lover and very easy to please me with dessert but again this sweet really not as I expected to be in such a master of dessert country like Italy.
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| Lemon Tart $14 |
All I can taste was the strong lemon flavour here, and the pastry was too thick and not that crumbly and buttery as it should be.
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| Nutella Crepes $14 |
The Nutella filling crepes. Tell me, who doesn't like nutella???? Not me for sure or not anyone that I know of so far... But the nutella in this crepe doesn't help at all. It just a thin half folded crepe, very very too average crepe to be presented in the restaurant !!!! Smeared with a bit of nutella in between and served with vanilla ice cream. Obviously !!!! I need more of that yummy nutella, Pleeeeazze!!!! I think a 10 years old kid can even make this dish, it may sound too harsh. But seriously!!!
By the way, we actually really enjoyed our dinner for tonight, we had a nice entree and main meals but we didn't end the night on the high with the yummy desserts, which is quite a shame.
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| Chinotto - Italian-Style Coke |
FYI, Chinotto is like a traditional Italian style coke. Taste more bitter and strong compared to the normal coke. For me, it's a nice compliment to balance off the sweetness from the dessert.
La Spaghettata Restaurant
238 Lygon Street
Carlton
Ph: (03) 9663 6102
Keep on reading for the next blog:
http://octieappetie.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/snacks-time-in-melbourne-day4-part1.html
