Templo — Restaurant in Hobart

If you can put aside anything you might know about food costs, you’ll probably really like the simplicity of Templo. The tiny restaurant is positioned in an unadorned grey shopfront, on the blurry line where the Hobart’s CBD meets the inner ‘burbs.

There are twenty-four seats, divided amongst high stools facing the tiled timber bar, low stools at a round, communal table, and a few coveted tables, with the lucky few in backed chairs facing their eating companions sitting along a banquette window seat. Exposed bricks, polished concrete floors and the golden light of the long Hobartian twilight gentled by blinds complete the picture.

The room’s only decorations are two rows of colourfully labeled wine bottles resting on thin, timber wall-mounted shelves. The wine list, along with today’s nine-item menu, is inscribed on a chalkboard that surrounds the kitchen hutch. From the thirty-strong list that ranges across Italy and Australia’s southernmost states, most are unfamiliar, so I take a stab in the dark at a pinot Rosé. The 2016 Patrick Sullivan Pink Pound Rosé ($60/bottle) is soon presented by one half of the gentle, softly-spoken floor team. It turns out to be a dry, pale pink blend of pinot noir, sauvignon blanc and Gippsland gewürztraminer, wrapped up in a camp label that positions it as a summertime quaffer for aquatically inclined boys and their blue-footed friends.

It’s just the ticket with Carrots Green Garlic ($16), the first of our three dishes to arrive. True to the cucina povera (cooking of the poor) aesthetic of co-owner and chef Matt Breen, it’s a simple dish that showcases stumpy, blackened carrots against a green garlic base and hordes of pepitas.

Handmade daily, the Tagliatelle Guanciale ($25), is the staff pick of the two offered pastas. Even ordered as al a carte, it’s a modestly sized bowl of toothsome pasta ribbons with lemon rind, slivered zucchini, olive oil and shavings of house-cured pig jowl. It’s impressive in simplicity, if not in generosity. Last up were some juicy pink Beetroot Ricotta ($16). Here the root vegetables were charred briefly then bound in blackened whole shallots under a handful of crunchy almonds.

Watching plates land across the intimate dining room, I realise that I probably should have ordered the Chef’s Menu ($70/head) like (almost) everyone else in the packed restaurant's first sitting. It delivers a tasting portion of almost all the menu items. My stumbling block was doubting my ability to stay the long meal course perched on a high stool in a doorway. Our tiny table already required us to share each course from the same bowl, because side plates and wine couldn’t both fit. And while I can certainly see the charm of Templo, I felt like I understood its narrow appeal after a relatively...

We were excited to dine here and booked well ahead based on the reviews. I confess that I had hoped for more at $95/pp. Sadly, our final night of dining in Hobart at Templo fell significantly below expectations. I really don't like leaving bad reviews.

The venue is small and cosy, but it was so loud that I couldn't even hold a conversation with my wife or hear the waitress. And it got worse the drunker the other table got. Waitresses need to have the confidence to control people who are affecting the dining experience of their other guests. The couples sitting to our left and right made the same observations. So atmosphere was an instant killer.

Food portions were very small, and really nothing special. Tomatoes and some cheese with breadcrumbs, beans and chilli, a pastry with a slice of prosciutto... We've eaten fancy minimalist meals before, but they need to be well executed and artistically presented. Waiting times between meals were a little long. Wine list is scant for by-the-glass offerings of simple reds and whites - they could have paired the dishes with a wine to give the meal some dimension, but there was so little food that it probably wouldn't have worked. I admire what they're trying to do, but they're missing the mark (at least for me. Plenty of other reviewers seem satisfied with over-priced home-cooking style bites).

Staff were friendly and attentive. Hard to give Templow any more than 1 star, but the wagyu was cooked properly and the desert brought it up (lucky we didn't have to share the desert). For an extra $20 we could have an incredible meal at Landscape. For $200+ we should be leaving satisfied, but we left hungry, disappointed and eager to leave the noise behind. For that kind of money I won't be risking another...

My wife and I received a gift voucher to templo for our wedding present. We both love Italian food and after waiting nearly two months to get in we were excited to say the least. Upon arrival we were told we would be at a share table, we didn’t want this option and were not given an option to change to a private table as it is a “first in best dressed” for private tables. I said this wasn’t a comfortable option for us and were told if we didn’t dine we would have to pay 140 dollars as a cancellation fee. Now I understand why cancellation fees are there..... I explained to Alice via email that we both suffer from social anxiety and were not told about the share table option when booking and if there was an option to wait longer to have a private table we would have taken it.I also mentioned we rarely go out to dinner for this reason and it was a wedding gift. She responded by saying that she was unable to charge my card the cancellation fee and it wasn’t goodwill on my behalf, insensitive would be an understatement.

There is no option when booking to say if u prefer to sit alone or on a share table. Let alone a mention of a share table. If there was i would have opted to wait longer for a private table. Alice also insinuated that I should have put that in my booking notes, not sure how to do this when I wasn’t Aware there was a share table when booking?

I’ve asked Alice to get an owner to contact me in response to lack of communication when booking about share tables and attacking my character “goodwill” when she tried to charge a since cancelled card I used to book with. Haven’t heard back since. My wedding present voucher will now not be used as we have been left feeling unwanted and disrespected by this venue. Templo as a business...