FAZIO HAMPTON — Restaurant in Melbourne

We’ve been coming for years and usually have a lovely time but tonight was really disappointing. We ordered the new special, a burrata with prosciutto and polenta fingers. It was nice enough, a little bland and the cheese wasn’t a true burrata as it didn’t have cream inside, so was like aball of mozzarella. Our mains were the biggest disappointment though - carbonara tasted the exact same as what you’d expect at an Aussie pub, not the traditional Italian dish: ham instead of guanciale, cream instead of eggs. However, we know this is the preferred style for most Italian restaurants in Melbourne, so we would’ve been mostly happy with our meal if it hadn’t been the last dish.

The linguini de mare was truly inedible. We took two bites, and quickly realised that there was a layer of grit/sand over everything. We’ve eaten seafood before, and enjoyed mussels/clams a few times at Fazios so we know this isn’t the norm. However, when we asked our waitress to take it from our table it because it was unpleasant to eat, she didn’t respond and instead asked if we wanted a doggy bag to take it home. We declined and reiterated that we weren’t enjoying it, and she walked off with the bowl. Thinking maybe she hadn’t heard us property, at the end of the meal, when we were paying the bill, we mentioned it to another waitress and said we were disappointed to see it on the bill. This waitress listened and seemed genuinely disappointed for us but the linguini remained on the bill, so we ended up paying full-price.

Truthfully, we’d love to come back as we’ve had some wonderful times as a family visiting Fazios but we’re disappointed with both the food and service we had tonight.

June 2019: Amazing! The food is incredible, by far the best Italian food I've eaten in a long time. Try the gorgonzola gnocchi and any...

Update June 2015

A few visits since the review below. Overall, the consistency is very good. My previous two visits I had the steak which was just outstanding. Tonight I opted for a pizza – the Tivoi which was excellent. The entrée, garlic and cheese focaccia pizza was also outstanding.

My son’s spaghetti Bolognese did, however, lack flavor. The pasta was overcooked and the sauce was too pedestrian and lacked any seasonings or herbs, which made it quite bland.

My wife had the Linguine Di Mare. The seafood part of this dish was quite a letdown . The 3 muscles had 2 shells that were completely empty. The clams and calamari that typically also stood out in this dish, were less prevalent or quite small or missing. The sauce however, was very good and held the dish up. Still, it’s a very substandard dish compared to what we have been used to being served here.

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Big generous portions for the entrees. Mains were very nice. Great pasta and the rib eye steak was cooked to perfection and seasoned well. Only bugbear was they didn’t have chilled wine and admittedly said they had to run to the local bottle shop to stock up, so the wine provided was warm and took an excessive amount of time to come out. Silly mistake on their part and we expect more for such a well known establishment such as Fazio, hence the 4 stars. Will be back...

It’s been over a decade since we’d been to Fazio’s & thought we’d give it go. Well - it didn’t look like much had changed internally. The decor is awful, no music, maybe pop a print on the wall, wipe the texta off the wall, fix the roof, bring out clean water bottles & do something about that horrendous bathroom situation out the back? But more importantly the food. Firstly - why no kids menu, you’re a casual Italian restaurant in Hampton- a family area, makes no sense. So the staff said order anything & we can do a kids portion size. I ordered the lasagne- no that can’t be a child’s portion -they suggested I order a main & cut in half. Unfortunately the lasagne was SO SO sloppy -there was no structure to it, so ‘cutting in half’ was messy. But then my kids refused to eat it, I don’t blame them, it was the worst lasagne we’d ever had- overly rich & had a weird spice to it & my kids aren’t fussy- they love Italian food!!

To make up for this we ordered them 3 scoops of ice cream, no joke- $13 for what tasted like Neapolitan ice cream from Coles. You’ve got to be kidding me.

Sorry Fazio’s, not good enough -DO BETTER. With so many similar & loads better options in bayside you won’t...