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/

Anise Bistro & Wine Bar Review

Now, I am no stranger to Anise.. I've been going there for over a year now but I thought it would be good to do a review of it right after eating there again and actually took some (really crappy) photos on my phone! Mind you, since I only started doing this blog, I keep forgetting to bring my camera out so as a result, I keep having to resort to my phone for photos so I apologise in advance!!

We intended to go out to eat somewhere else but ended up at Anise, hoping against hope that we'd get a seat because, if you don't know already, Anise only seats 21 customers max and it's very unique in the sense that everyone sits close to each other at the bar. There are NO tables so if you're agoraphobic, you might want to give Anise a miss ;) It was a concept I was sceptical about at first but accepted it in stride, soon grew accustomed to and actually started to like.

A pleasant surprise greeted us when we opened up the menu as they had just recently tweaked the menu, yippee!! A (not so long) while ago we were going to Anise VERY frequently and inevitably, fickle ol' me got pretty bored of it and we haven't been back in awhile but I'm SO glad we went back that night because it was great :)

Let's start with the amuse bouches. We ordered the foie gras terrine (for T because I haven't quite acquired the taste for it yet.. I'll get there, I swear!!) and half a dozen oysters baked with spanner crab meat and tomato hollandaise which verged on orgasmic haha!! Just the combination of creamy oysters, bits of crab and creamy tomato hollandaise - notice the emphasis on CREAMY? Yep, we loooove our creamy, rich food.. T very generously offered me one of his oysters so I had 4! Yumm.. they still had me wanting more though.

For entrees we had the spanner crab crepe with fresh truffle, pastis creme and english spinach which had replaced the spanner crab souffle on the old menu and also the southern blue fin tuna tartare with horseradish, herb and quail egg. The terrine was a nice fresh mixture of herbs and raw fish served with mini bits of toast but the real winner was the crab crepe! It was, you guessed it, ultra creamy. The crepe was light and the truffle sauce and pastis creme pulled everything together in one mouthwatering spoonful. It was ALMOST perfect, it would've been perfect if there was a bit more crab in it.

I had the double roasted duck with cherries, dutch carrots and golden eschallots that has been on the menu for a looong time and still my utmost favourite. I'm not a fan of duck and only a few places (probably about 3) do duck the way I like it.. crispy skinned and juicy just like expensive KFC, or should I say KFD hahaha!! T had something new, the bouillabaisse of local seafood with saffron aioli crostade and though I didn't try it, he said it was really good and sigh, sorry to say this again, CREAMY. He also found the seafood very fresh. 

The part of dinner that I was most excited about, dessert of course, was unfortunately the most disappointing for me. Out of aaaalll the new desserts, we chose the profiteroles with pistachio ice cream and chocolate sauce and I found the pastry to be a bit too crunchy and hard and the pistachio ice cream that reminded me of toothpaste. Sigh.. I knew we should've gone for the turkish delight semifreddo!! It's okay, there's always next time!

Anise has always been one of my favourite places to go for dinner. The waitstaff behind the bar are professional, efficient and have a vast knowledge of wine. The food is always good, unique and fresh with seasonal changes to keep things interesting. The wine list, is of course extremely extensive and if in doubt, the wait staff will recommend something to suit your liking. The ambience is comfy and sophisticated. They are now open on Sundays from 5pm and offer a Sunday supper menu which is a smaller version of their original menu and I'm soo glad they do that now because I can't tell you the number of times T and I have been craving to eat at Anise on a Sunday but haven't been able to go. Anise also offers a degustation menu which chnges every season and your choice if you want incredible matching wines or not. A word of advice, pick up the phone and book before you go if you want to be one of the 21 people eating there that night.

Rating: 8/10

Anise Bistro & Wine Bar
697 Brunswick Street
New Farm, Brisbane

Phone: 07 3398 7839
Website: http://www.anise.com.au/