Lollo — Restaurant in Melbourne

ORDERED: 🐟​ Gin Cured King Fish: tempered yoghurt, rainbow beets, and sesame wafer ($34.00) 🥯​ Adam's Steak Tartare: baby caper, quail egg yolk and melba toasts ($22.00)

​🥬​ Grilled Cosberg: "cacio e pepe" style caesar, sourdough crumbs ($18.00) 🌭 Lollo's Duck Lasagna: freshly baked to order (52.00)

​🥧 Citrus Tart: poached meringue, yuzu mint jus ($24.00)

🍹 Inflation: What goes up, must come down: White rum, bergamot, lemongrass, apple, lemon ($25.00)

REVIEW: Read that the Lollo duck was enough for four on another review... NO. NOT TRUE. Definitely enough for 2, and can squeeze a 3 in. Wasn't particularly impressed by the food, but the friendly service at Lollo definitely kept its head above water.

Dislikes: Tempered yoghurt with king fish sashimi really drowns out the freshness. It's too much cream; way too overpowering for this dish. Cacio e pepe style pepper overwhelmed the taste buds when it's on a simple water-based carrier like cosberg lettuce. All I could taste was cream and pepper which became a bit sickening. Construction of Lollo's lasagna was super messy once you divvy it up between friends. Sloppy on your plate and didn't look appetising. However, apart from appearance, the bolognese sauce was great. Definitely better than "last light's lasanga" at Tippy-Tay.

Saving graces: The steak tartare was amazing. The melba toast was incredibly crunchy, and a perfect partner to the steak tartare. Would recommend this dish! Service was extremely friendly, and attentive. Easy to talk to, they were happy to recommend food to the best of their ability.

Overall had a decent experience but was a let down overall. I guess the reputation about "hotel restaurants" not being as a good as outside restaurants is backed up by this very average...

Overrated. I have been wanting to check this one for sometime, their reviews look great and the venue looks posh. Came here with some friends on a Friday night, it took us a while to find the restaurant, which is actually located within the W Hotel. This is not actually clear from their website and my heart sank when I realized it as hotel restaurants don’t tend to be great, and this was no exception. The place looked fairly high-end and staff were friendly, but overall it wasn’t a great experience. We ordered a bottle of sparkling wine for celebration, the waitress poured us the first glass, but spilled some wine on the table during the process. 10 minutes later another waitress came over to top our glasses up, but instead of distributing it, she poured all the remaining sparkling wine into only one person’s glass and then asked us if we would like another bottle. We didn’t. As to starters, the flatbread was delicious and plentiful but the aperol cured ocean trout was unremarkable. Mains were very large with the duck lasagna being enough for two and quite tasty but again, not memorable. One of us ordered flounder and it arrived undercooked, still partly frozen. That’s shocking and shouldn’t happen. We sent it back and the second attempt was excellent. At just over $100 per person we certainly had enough to eat but we didn’t feel that the food was interesting or creative, and we...

Lollo is under the creative culinary direction of local chef, Adam D'Sylva (Tonka & Coda) - drawing inspiration from his mixed heritage, creating a menu that highlights Australia’s local fresh produce.

For starters we had the cured kingfish, tartare and octopus. The cured kingfish was a let down. The tempered yoghurt completely drowned out the freshness of the kingfish. Steak tartare was amazing. The melba toast that came with it was crunchy and paired perfectly with the tartare. Octopus was cooked to perfection but perhaps the ratio was a little off. There were only a few pieces of octopus but a mountain of papaya.

For mains (or the main event) we got their baked to order duck lasagna. Apparently this dish could feed 3-4 people but there were 2 of us and we were able to inhale it. Overall, I was quite disappointed in this lasagna. For $52 there was no duck flavour at all. The barramundi was cooked to perfection. But the sauce carried the dish. Without the sauce, it would’ve been an ordinary baked fish dish.

Overall, it was a decent experience but there was no wow factor and for that price, it was a let down. The service was great most of the time. There was one staff member who would try and push the new dish against the old plates on the table without clearing or manoeuvring dishes first. Mind you, they had a free hand. So we had to move the dishes for them to place the...