Pacinos Italian Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

The service was nice but I felt the quality of food was lacking. At the prices they have I expected a more impactful experience.

The lasagna: I ordered a lasagna which I personally felt tasted no different to a frozen lasagna. It lacked any Bechamel and tasted more akin to a multi layered sandwich of bolognaise sauce. The bolognaise sauce didn't have much if any depth to it, it felt like Basil, tinned tomatoes and salt. This isn't an issue when done correctly but I feel the cooking did nothing to highlight these ingredients and perhaps the ingredients used simply weren't up to par to pull off such a sauce. Minimalism can be wonderful but it must be perfect, without anything to hide behind your base ingredients need to all be perfect.

The arinchini: was nice, fluffy, well seasoned. Basil pesto drizzle was tasty . Not much else to say about this.

The two pizzas: both had a nice crust, the bases were soggy by the time we got them due to the sauce levels on the pizza. The dough itself was nice, moist and chewy. It had a depth of flavour to each bite which I'm assuming was thanks to a long cold fermentation. The sauce on the pizza was the same one they used for the lasagna, which isn't a bad thing to do but the sauce needs to be killer if you're spreading it across multiple dishes. Overall the pizzas were nice both just needed mild tweaks to their construction. Maybe a slightly thicker base if you're using a lot of sauce or less sauce, And possibly a slightly hotter pizza stone to firm up the base and give it more structure but this could be boiled down to personal preference, the pizzas at a base level were nice.

The salad: More or less a standard salad. Grilled Chicken was basic but refreshing, dressing was nice. Feta was creamy but it's feta so what do you expect.

Overall I really wanted to love this place, I have such a soft spot for Italian food but I felt this place played nothing but safe. They made their food with the least offensive flavour profile in mind. Which is fine, if you like that sorta of stuff but I personally like to taste a bit of risk, a bit of love and...

Purchased two takeaway parmigiana Saturday evening. Travelled 15 klm 40 minute round trip from Niddrie to pick up. On arriving back to friends place, one was looking fresh, other was overcooked and dry and came in two pieces. Mine was very overcooked or had been sitting for sometime before being sold and half of it was chicken thigh not breast which was thin dry and stringy and difficult to cut. Rang restaurant and was asked to send photos and bank details for refund however, I couldn’t get them to send. Rang restaurant and advised I would return as I live 60klm return trip away and didn’t want to wait if there was an issue. Returned and received a refund customer with manager agreeing it was definitely chicken thigh and not sure how it had happened, service was pleasant. However, I believe the whole order of two parmas should have been refunded for the inconvenience, my friend ate alone, I travelled 80 minutes there and back twice and our night was definitely spoiled. I have been there several times and due to this I will not be returning. I don’t believe enough was done to rectify the situation at all. In response I was definitely advised that the piece added to the breast was a thigh piece and Matt wasn’t sure how it had happened but that if the Parma isn’t large enough another piece is often added. The fact that you are now saying I’m lying makes my experience even worse. You can clearly see in the photo the extra piece meat supplied is BROWN meat and NOT white meat as was the larger and I WAS advised in store that it was in fact a thigh piece of chicken. My dog didn’t care though and he enjoyed...

Found this place on my Facebook feed and it looked really good. $25 steak nights every Wednesday. Hey, who doesn't love a good, cheap steak, right? Anyhoos, we wandered down there tonight (Wednesday) and took advantage of their offer.

First of all, the place smelt beautiful as soon as we walked in. Cooked garlic and herbs scented the air and the kitchen was a hive of activity. The whole place looked inviting and the décor was very welcoming with LOTS of seating available. At a guess I'd say there was seating for roughly 100 people? And, the waitress who promptly seated us was lovely.

We started off with a traditional garlic bread for entrees and of course their $25 steak with mash and beans for mains. The garlic bread was beautiful. Hot, crunchy and drenched in garlic butter. It was a bit sad when the last piece was gone. The steak was absolutely PERFECT. Soft and buttery and melted in your mouth. I was shocked to be honest. I thought "how good can a $25 steak be?". My expectations weren't that high to be honest. 10/10 for the steak guys!

We finished off with some deserts - Chocolate mousse, Trio of Gelato and, my favourite, Afrocado with Frangelico liquor. This really was the crowning glory to an almost perfect meal. We took off one star as the mash and beans were cold when the meal arrive. The steaks were hot, just their veggies let them down on this occasion. At a guess I'd say they had been served up earlier and sat on the plates waiting for the meat to cook.

All in all a great experience. We've booked to go back next Monday to try their $13 Chicken Parmigiana special. I...