Cecconi's Flinders Lane — Restaurant in Melbourne

A solid 3.5 stars rounded up I would say. Staff were absolute gems, service was wonderful but up until the end when we were ordering desserts and waiting for the Cheque, we were a bit forgotten.

Food wise, wouldn’t say it was anything amazing, I loved the scallops, but the beef carpaccio was very lacking, the calamari rings were rather standard, oysters were fresh, but the oyster was rather tough and over cooked, my friend described it as tasting like chewy chicken. We got 3 entree sized pastas on top, I loved the gnocchi, it was honestly to die for and it was such a redeeming dish. The rabbit pasta (special) was a bit too Al dente for my liking but the rabbit was delicious, same goes for the duck risotto, was not a fan of the cook on it but that’s probably down to personal preference.

Mains we had a lovely rib eye, already pre plated and split for sharing which was wonderful eye for detail from the chef. Thank you! The veal on the other hand was tender but oh so under seasoned. The salt and pepper shakers were very well utilized with both the veal and the mashed potato. We ended up adding a salad to offer some acidity because it was a HEAVY meal, lots of carbs, lots of protein, but the salad was sufficient to cut through a bit.

We got the tiramisu and chocolate pudding at the end to share between 4, it was sufficient, tiramisu was very normal, loved the softness though. But the detail on the chocolate pudding was second to none, the chocolate covered popping rock candies were a delight and and melt in your mouth hot chocolate pudding paired with vanilla ice cream is never a combo you can go wrong with.

Overall, for the price point I was expecting a fair bit more as Cecconis isn’t a cheap restaurant. It’s a nice dinner out but expectations weren’t entirely...

Cecconi is located in Flinders Lane in the basement of a unique old building. As we walked down the stairs, we were greeted with a staff member who opened the door and welcomed us into the restaurant.

We visited this restaurant with another couple and you will see their meals in the pictures, but no associated comment.

The cocktails were a delight, flavoursome and without the potent alcohol taste and had us having more than one.

For entrees we had the scallops and also the trout. You cannot fault the presentation, they looked exquisite. Actually all the dishes were presented like a 5-star restaurant. The trout was nice, without a ‘punch’ and the scallop’s taste was covered by the corn in the dish.

For mains we had the seafood linguine and brisket. The brisket had the perfect blend of fat and meat and just melted in your mouth. The sauce and vegetables were ok, but this allowed the brisket to be the star of the dish. The linguine was way too salty and to the extent the dish was not finished. I tried it and I like salty dishes and it was too salty for me. My wife was thankful that we ordered a side of chips, which I thought were pretty ordinary chips, but gave her a bit more food. We explained this to the waitress, but no further conversation or discussion, basically ignored the comment.

For dessert, we shared the pavlova dish. I had one mouthful and it was ok. My wife liked it, but maybe that was because she was hungry!

The atmosphere was a highlight, along with our company and the presentation of the dishes. It came to just short of $600 for 4 of us, which is pretty expensive, but questioning whether the dishes were worth it,...

I have wanted to try Cecconi’s for such a long long time, but was also scared of the prices here! It’s so expensive 🙈

We got escorted to our seats by our matrie’d and he was so snotty! Throughout the meal, whenever he serves us it’s like he just wanted us to get out of here cos we are not ladies who lunch or wealthy businessmen in suits. When he gave us the bill he basically gave us a curt thank you and that’s it, didn’t even look us in the eyes or smile.

We got a basket of bread, for two people we got 3 pieces of bread?! Are we supposed to fight over the last piece? We ordered a scallop entree to share. The scallops were beautifully cooked and plump, really delish, although my friend felt the accompaniment of smashed peas and mint was a bit meh.

My friend had the salmon and prawn ravioli with sea urchin sauce. The sea urchin wasn’t very pronounced but my friend thoroughly enjoyed the dish.

My squid ink seafood linguine is a bit of a hit and miss. The flavours are so beautiful and the pasta was cooked perfectly, however some of the seafood like the scallops and mussels, whilst fresh, were over cooked, shrunk and tough.

We shared a mushroom side dish which was generously portioned and had such deliciously earthy flavours I couldn’t help but kept shoveling more mushrooms into my mouth even though I was quite full by this stage.

All in all, I felt like it’s extremely expensive to go to a restaurant that looks down at you, with food that isn’t cooked to near perfection. $67/pp...