Bellaggio Woodfired Pizzeria & Ristorante Review

Interesting night.. T really wanted to get some cheesy pizza so while I was out, he looked up Italian restaurants online and when I got back, announced that we would be going to Bellaggio in New Farm. I checked out the menu online and was a little doubtful but agreed to go anyway because they had pastas as well AND because the website looked really nice (sucker). We were absolutely starving and immediately ordered the Frittura di pesce ($25) which is fried calamari, prawns and whiting fillets with their special dressing as a starter. I then proceeded to order the Tagliolini Carbonara ($21.50) - boring, I know but I wanted to compare it to the one at Tomatos where I work. And T could not even begin to pick a pizza from their extremely, extremely extensive pizza menu. Even I gave up after the first 10. Everything just started to sound the same. So we asked our waiter to recommend one and he told us about the special pizza ($22) which consisted of mushrooms, spicy salamai cacciatore, provolone and freshly diced tomatoes and so we got that (there may have been a few other things on the pizza but that was all I could catch through his accent).

The entree arrived and although I didn't have any because of the calamari, T said that they were really good and perfect as a starter so we started to feel a little better about the food that was to come. The pizzas that were being sent out to the other tables seemed to look good too. Soon, our pasta and pizza came and sadly, were VERY disappointing. The carbonara tasted like it had come out of a packet and was greasy. I could hardly have more than a few bites. T had some and he too, thought it was horrible. Size-wise, it was considerably smaller than the one offered at Tomatos which only cost $16.90 for double the size and definitely tastes heaps better. The pizza was below average, quite bland - T's made far better pizzas at home than the one we had.

When our waiter came over to ask us how everything was going, I responded with a bright "Good!" at exactly the same time T said "This carbonara is not very good, just being honest" and the waiter, English not being his first language said "Oh, it is good? Thank you!" and T said "No, it is NOT good, it's fine, just telling you" and the waiter said "Oh! I will tell them!".. all this while I was staring bug-eyed at T. After a few minutes, a lady came over and asked if there was a problem, upon which I immediately replied "No!" and T said "This carbonara wasn't very good that's all, it tasted like it came out of a packet". The woman then said "Oh no, this is made fresh on the premises, it must not be what you expected because we do a traditional carbonara" and I smiled and said "Yes, that must be it.. Can we take the rest of it home please?". She smiled and said "Oh! You're just saving your tummy!" and Tim said "The dog will like it". I swivelled my eyeballs towards him in shock and the lady replied "That's nice" in a sarcastic tone that really meant "You're an asshole" and T said "Well, we paid money for it, SOMEONE'S gotta eat it".. O-MY-GOD. I tried to shrink into my chair and appear as invisible as possible.

Needless to say, the lady was icy-cold to T when he paid at the counter. Afterwards in the car, he admitted that he probably shouldn't have blurted out the painful truth like that. TOO late! Putting that all behind us, I decided that I wanted to go to Freestyle Tout at the Emporium for dessert. When we parked the car, T jokingly suggested thae we go into Three Bistro for some oysters and garlic and gruyere bread that we love so much. I jumped at the suggestion and we walked into Three Bistro, shaking our heads in disbelief that we were actually going to do this.

A waiter that we were familiar with seated us and when we informed him that we were only there for oysters and bread he was totally cool with it but said that he had only a dozen natural oysters left and it all depended on whether a couple who just sat down would order them or not. If they did, they wouldn't have any natural oysters left for us! So we waited in nervous anticipation while our waiter went to take their order and as he walked past he said "I've got the dozen oysters!" Phew! We breathed a sigh of relief and T ordered 6 kilpatrick oysters for himself while I got 8 natural oysters with the champagne vinagrette that is absolutely to-die-for. T makes himself a little oyster sandwich with the gruyere bread which the waitstaff at Three started doing after seeing him do it a few times. We were fully stuffed after having that 2nd dinner and I thought I could still fit dessert in the end, declared myself filled to bursting point so we went home after a very unusual night of dining out. A proper review of Three Bistro to come soon (but you can tell already that it's going to be a positive one).

As for Bellaggio, one of the worst restaurants I have ever been to. The decor was cheap and tacky, it was uncomfortably cold and the food is really horrible. Adding insult to injury was the fact that their food was SO overpriced. Last time I let T pick the restaurant, ha-ha! Just kidding (maybe).


Rating: 3/10

Bellaggio Woodfired Pizzeria & Ristorante
695 Brunswick Street
New Farm QLD 4005

Phone: 07 3254 0275
Website: http://www.bellaggio.com.au/