TUTTO Cucina + Bar — Restaurant in Adelaide

EDIT: Lowered the rating from 2 stars to 1 due to the company’s failure to handle our negative experience.

We went to TUTTO Cucina + Bar for a decadent anniversary dinner but was left feeling both unsatisfied, ripped off and disappointed. The following review is intentioned to be constructive rather than overly negative.

Let’s start with the entrees:

The focaccia with olive oil, balsamic and olives was just okay. The focaccia was dense and the olive oil-to-balsamic ratio was off (too much oil).

The burrata was tiny, especially considering the price. Slightly smaller than a golf ball and cutting it open was underwhelming. The heirloom tomatoes weren’t ripe so they were pretty crunchy.

The arancini balls tasted like they had been reheated from the freezer. Weirdly they were served on bed of uncooked split peas which was an interesting choice, especially since they would stick to the bottom of the arancini balls, but were inedible. The quality was just so not worth the price, but probably the best out of the three.

As a side we got the parmesan fries with the lemon mayo. First of all the “mayo” was more of a dessert-like lemon curd than a zesty, savoury dip. It was a deeply confusing pairing and just so far from good. The parmesan on the fries was a bit lacklustre and had melted slightly and re-solidified by the time it made it to the table. The flavour of the fries on their own wasn’t anything too special or moorish like typical parmesan fries, and really needed some sort of sauce to balance the flavour, yet as described the lemon mayo was not the right choice.

On to the mains:

The lasagne was good. Pretty standard though, not suited for fine dining. The skillet it was served in was extremely hot and they didn’t warn us prior so we burnt our hands accidentally brushing against it. The store-bought grissini bread stick on the side felt out of place, and the side salad was a stock-standard, pub-style salad made of rocket, cherry tomatoes, and peas.

The carbonara was not great. The sauce was over-salted and wasn’t authentic carbonara. It was runny and I was only able to get half way through before I realised I didn’t have to eat it just because I paid for it (same went with the fries). The bacon was super salty and slightly burnt too. However, we noticed they made fresh pasta which was lovely, and they were able to switch out the spaghetti with pappardelle by request which was nice.

The drinks were nice, tasty.

Final remarks: We had to move tables at the start due to it being extremely unstable/wobbly. Our server Rockney was charismatic yet slightly over accommodating, in the sense that he kept checking if the food was good while we were chatting and eating, which was a bit off putting. But this is just a personal preference! We recognise it was only the second night of their new menu and were prompted to give feedback, which was refreshing as they seemed to really care about the quality of the food. When paying the bill we were offered a free tiramisu in response to our semi-negative comments, which was a nice gesture but we politely declined. We assumed the quality may match the rest of the meal, sadly.

Overall, we won’t be back again but we appreciate the sincerity of...

We were looking for a restaurant that was nearby cus the initial restaurant we wanted to go to was fully booked and we found this restaurant. On Google we loved the look of the atmosphere and the images made it look luxurious so we went. Service was somewhat OK however the time it took to receive our food is longer then other fine dining restaurants we've been to. Only reason I'm giving it three stars for service is because the server's are relatively nice, but when it came to finding food that suited the dietary requirements of others (vegetarian and can't eat fried and spicy foods). I ordered a pasta richiette? (Can't quite remember the name) but it was basically cooked pasta with absence of pasta sauce with ricotta cheese, largely diced leek and thinly sliced cucumbers with small bits of greens. Worst pasta I've tasted. It was bland, hard to eat, and it left me wondering how such a high class restaurant can produce such terrible tasteless food. The ricotta cheese didn't do the dish justice since it overpowered the entire dish so all I was tasting was cheese. We also ordered vegetarian risotto, grilled chicken dish, and a grilled fish. But honestly everything tasted mediocre and not worth the money the risotto, at first tasted alright, but because it was slightly over salted and creamy, it took two people to finish it off as it was really filling. Another thing I need to point out is the dish when we first say it didn't leave a good impression. Looked like straight vomit with a few little thin radish slices on top. The chicken dish included a small chicken breast/leg and just a pool of puree with tasteless garnish of sliced cucumber (again). Chicken wasn't well cooked and I'd say pretty dry and finally, the fish we had was coked nicely but the sauce was way to sour which completely overtook the dish. It was also not presented well as it came out nestled in baking paper.

The atmosphere was wonderful and definitely would attract customers. But as for the food. Very disappointing coming from the fact that this restaurant is rated 4.5.

Creativity of the dishes and taste are being overlooked. Please do better next time. Hope this review helps because we're not...

I came here for dinner with my husband. I was excited to have the carbonara as it’s a favourite of mine and I was excited to find somewhere that cooked it with guanciale.

Unfortunately, while they appear to have gotten the ingredients right, the technique left much to be desired. The pasta was over cooked, the guanciale clearly hadn’t been properly cooked, so tasted of chewy unrendered fat, I found what appeared to be very white egg yolk and pasta water in the bottom of the bowl when trying to mix the cheese through in an attempt to make it edible, but it otherwise was just very wet unflavoured pasta with raw guanciale fat. I couldn’t eat more than a few bites.

It was extremely disappointing, and most of all I did not appreciate the waitress attempting to play it off as a problem with my taste buds, advising me it must be too bland for my liking, rather than an issue with the dish.

I will say that the bruschetta was lovely, the restaurant was otherwise a calm and relaxed environment, the staff were generally helpful and friendly. I imagine it would have been a lovely meal if the food was...