Il Posto — Restaurant in Brisbane City

FOOD & DRINK My wife and I dined on a Monday night, when pizzas are $17, although it’s worth noting that this deal doesn’t apply to all pizzas: Those that are excluded from the deal are marked with an asterisk on the table menu, although you can’t see that online, and it didn’t make sense to me why some pizzas were excluded. In any event, we chose two qualifying pizzas; the "funghi porcini" for me and the "capricciosa" with extra anchovies for my wife. Full price for the fungi is 25, and for the capricciosa is 27, so I guess we saved 18 pesos. The funghi, as its name suggests, features porcini mushrooms, with mozzarella and fontina cheese and sage. The “capricciosa”, has mushrooms, with artichokes, tomato, ham and olives. Both pizzas were delicious, with thin, crispy bases, lashings of tasty cheese and topped with premium grade, high quality, fresh ingredients. They were made with love, care and attention to detail, and nicely presented to the table on large, stylish white plates. Serving sizes were generous. We both enjoyed our meals, so thanks to the hardworking pizza chefs.

AMBIENCE Despite it being a Mon night, which is usually a quiet night in the restaurant trade, there was still a fair turnout, giving the place a lively and fun vibe. There’s indoor and outdoor seating. We chose to sit indoors and were allocated a cozy table at the window, looking out onto Latrobe Street. The interior has been tastefully decked out in a low key style with soft mood lighting, brown wooden tables and white chairs and brown floor tiles. That all works well to create a relaxed, casual and laid back ambience, where you’ll feel right at home the moment you walk in. Tables are well spaced out, with good acoustics and we had no problem conversing. It’s a fairly dark venue though, which made reading the menu a bit of a struggle.

SERVICE We were warmly welcomed to the restaurant by a friendly lady, whom I took to be the maître d. Our orders were promptly taken and drinks came out pretty quickly. Our pizzas took about 20-25 minutes to make an appearance, but given the comfy and homely atmosphere, and the nice view from our table, we didn’t mind waiting, especially since our pizzas were freshly prepared and arrived piping hot, straight from the ovens.

COST Until recently, the Sun-Tuesday deal was for $15 pizzas, (you can still see this on the photo of the blackboard if you scroll to the bottom of their website) now they’re $17, which just proves my point that we’re heading towards “Weimar Republic'' levels of hyperinflation and neither our govt nor the Res Bank are willing to do anything about it. But still, our bill was a reasonable $51 for a beer, a cold drink and two pizzas, one with extra anchovies. That represents solid value for money, when a humble cup of coffee these days can set you back $5.

TOILETS The toilets are just outside the restaurant. They’re clean, well provisioned and easy to find, with separate male and female facilities. There are also additional toilets downstairs, just outside the Woolworths.

PARKING I.P. is located in the rather tired looking, little “Paddington Central Shopping Centre”, which is anchored by a well stocked Woolies Supermarket. The centre has its own car park on the ground floor, where there is unlimited free parking. It can get quite busy though, but there’s also ample street parking in any of the nearby side streets that lead off Latrobe Terrace.

SUMMARY Tony, the owner is a competent and professional restaurateur and under his guidance the place hums like a well oiled machine. He is an attentive and amiable host, who makes his guests feel welcome and appreciated. The food is delicious, and the ambience is homely, with a laid back and relaxed vibe. Service is friendly and attentive. Add to that clean toilets and easy parking, and you have all the ingredients for a pleasant night out with...

A Truly Disappointing Experience

I feel compelled to write this review after a deeply upsetting and frankly unacceptable experience at Il Posto. As a vegetarian, I expect restaurants that offer vegetarian options to handle them with care and respect. Unfortunately, this was far from the case during my recent visit.

The meal I ordered, which was clearly labelled as vegetarian, appeared to have been cooked in or contaminated by some kind of meat product. I say this with confidence because both my partner and I, who are vegetarian and had eaten nothing else that day, became sick shortly after dining there. Severe stomach cramps—an all-too-familiar reaction when food is cooked in meat or seafood—made the 3 hour drive home in rain unbearable.

What makes this experience even more disappointing is that I’ve eaten at Il Posto before without issue. Whether it’s a lack of training, carelessness, or outright negligence in the kitchen, this kind of oversight is inexcusable and raises serious concerns about food safety.

As vegetarians, we put trust in restaurants to respect our dietary choices—not to mention basic hygiene—and this trust was completely broken. For both of us to become ill from a single meal points to a serious problem with how this restaurant handles its food preparation.

I will not be returning, and I urge anyone to think twice before dining here. If a restaurant can’t ensure proper food safety and respect for dietary requirements, it doesn’t deserve...

A friend recommended that I dine at Il Posto. I wasn’t at all sure what to expect, and I recently decided to check it out. It was for me, hands down, one of the best dining experiences of the year. The location is ideal, in a beautiful spot in Paddington with multiple parking options nearby. Chef Catherine Stratton is Il Posto’s ace card. The three courses she served were exceptional and passion and enthusiasm she has for what she does was a treat to experience. Below I have listed what I ordered paired with the house Chianti, which was smooth, typical of the style, and paired beautifully with the food.

Entre: Kingfish cappacio with grapefruit, raddicchio and tuna aoli, Focaccia and white anchovies

Main: Eye Fillet, medium rare, celeriac puree, caramelized carrots Lamb shank with braised root vegetables and lentil ragu Smooth skin Dory, beetroot puree, fennel, Kipflers and almond current butter; Squid Ink tonnarelli pasta with sand crab, tomato, chilli and lemon pan grattato; Buffalo Mozzarella filled ravioli with porcini mushrooms and truffle cream sauce

Sides Winter greens Rustic beetroot Salad

Desserts Buffalo ricotta and raspberry filed cannoli with pistachios, white chocolate and mind

Crème Brulee (to die for)

I definitely recommend checking...