Tipo 00 — Restaurant in Melbourne

ORDERED (MARCH 2024): 👅 Lingua: ox tongue, balsamic & pink peppercorn ($18.00) 🍝 Gnocchi: porcini mushroom, black garlic, and pecorino sardo ($38.00) 🍝 Pappardelle: braised duck, sage & pecorino ($42.00) 🍰 Tipomiso: chocolate, coffee & mascarpone ($16.00)

I paid $57.72pp between my partner and myself.

REVIEW: Almost 2 years later, I've come back, and the Tipo 00 service is disappointingly worse. I've dropped my review from 4 to 3 stars overall. Mid.

When there were sauce stains on the table, the staff ignored it and kept piling the next course of dishes on 😢. Didn't feel like a classy establishment that it used to be cared or noticed about the details.

♥ In saying that, the quality of their pastas is outstanding. Perfectly cooked pappardelle that has a bite of bite, with a light sauce that allowed to really savour the magic of the noodle. The kitchen team very kindly split the portion into two, so my partner and I could comfortably eat our own share without fighting over the last noodle! In addition, Gnocchi was pillow soft. This was accompanied really well by the mushroom. Seems like they can do no wrong with mushroom based dishes! #teammushroom 🍄

Complimentary focaccia and burrata was awesome. Ox tongue is worth getting if you like crispy chargilled moments The tipomiso is still overwhelmingly strong. At least there's less chocolate sauce this time around 😆. I wouldn't recommend this if you prefer ending on a lighter note.

ORDERED (AUG 2022): ENTREES 🦪​ Ostriche: freshly shucked oyster, red wine & shallot vinegar ($6.00 each) 🐙​ Polpo: chargrilled octopus, blood orange & horseradish ($22.00) MAINS 🍚 (SPECIAL) Truffle risotto ($48.00) 🍝 Tagliolini al nero: squid ink tagliolini, squid & bottarga ($32.00) DESSERT ​🎂 Tipomisu: chocolate, coffee & marcapone ($15.00) 🍩​ ​Bombolini: ricotta doughnuts, burnt vanilla & rhubarb ($15.00)

We spent just under $90.00pp at Tipo 00, which includes a glass of wine each for us!

REVIEW: Tipo 00 is a small restaurant, maybe seating 40 guests. There's still limited spaces at the bar if you're feeling lucky enough to walk in! That's probably why they only open bookings 6 weeks in advance... I did stay up till midnight to make this booking.

Entrees are worth getting. A review below mentioned bypassing the entrees to get 3 mains - which is honestly so big brain - but my friend and I were definitely happier in getting entress to share. More dishes to try out!

For the mains, it's almost the end of black truffle season in Australia (early June - end august), the truffle risotto was a must get. It ended up being our favourite, too! Their medium grain rice was well cooked. Fluffy yet held its own in an intriguing al dente form. This created a satisfying sensation in your mouth. Add on the earthy umami flavour, and it leaves a warm hug in your belly. Tagliolini al Nero paled in comparison. It was nice and light, which is perfect for a seafood based dish, but the risotto just ended up being favoured with its punchier flavour.

The dessert was okay, but not my favourite. The flavours weren't as sweet as I wanted, and they felt like they were more savoury. Would've been happy wrapping up with ice cream (something refreshing) after a heavier flavoured mains!

We got a super friendly waiter as well, who was excellent with his recommendations. Love love love!! Great...

After many failed attempts to book a table, I was finally able to visit the very famous Tipo00. In my honest opinion, my expectations were very high coming into this as i’ve heard great things about the food here, and those expectations unfortunately were not met. My partner and I both favour Osteria Ilaria (their sister restaurant just next door) over Tipo00, there are a couple reasons why.

(1) The food isn’t as sophisticated, flavour and creativity wise - hear me out. The pasta is great, definitely the perfect al dente. But we were expecting so much more depth in the flavour that wasn’t achieved. The rabbit pappardelle was overall pretty average although the rabbit itself was phenomenal, i just wasn’t blown away by the pasta. Also could’ve used a little more olives (it was so good but i think we only got 4 slices in total!)

(2) Bookings are so limited, times are a little odd too it is either you have dinner at 6/6:15pm or 8:15/8:30pm… both slots are a little odd timing wise PLUS there is a $75 minimum spend for these seatings (which is hard to meet unless a drink, an entree, a main and a dessert is ordered per person). This minimum spend does not apply to earlier times (5:30/5:45pm) and later (8:45/9pm).

(3) Portion sizes are quite small for the prices (especially the ox tongue and squid ink pasta)

Aside from that, we thoroughly enjoyed the Ox Tongue, very nice smokey flavour and super fatty, almost melts on your tongue. The squid ink tagliolini had a great spicy kick, the squid was cooked to perfection but i did wish there was more bottarga (roe) to go with the pasta.

The mozzarella was nice. creamy and salted just right, i loved that the texture was softer than the regular mozzarella but not as soft as a burrata - it’s the perfect in between! I do think we could’ve used more peach slices. The heirloom tomatoes were beautiful.

Ricotta doughnuts with fig leaf cream was the highlight i must say! Perfectly crispy on the outside, soft and pillowy inside and paired so well with the cream.

The complimentary bread was definitely better at Osteria Ilaria, the cottage cheese was very plain. The grapefruit aperitivo was slightly more on the bitter side..

Service was great, the waitress that served us was very lovely. But Tipo00 is more fast paced than Osteria, more loud too.

📸 Aperitivo Leggero 🍹, House made focaccia and cottage cheese (on the house), Mozzarella, Lingua, Squid Ink Tagliolini, Rabbit Pappardelle, Bomboloni 🍩

** Do note that menus...

For a Melbourne institution and the expectation it generates, this was quite a subpar experience.

My twin sister and I decided to celebrate our 37th anniversary here with high hopes that the buzz would be worth it. Unfortunately, our experience left much to wish for and based on tonight, I doubt we’d be back.

For starters, we booked over a month in advance and specifically mentioned it was our birthday, but service was slow, subpar, and they did not do anything even remotely close to saying at the very least “welcome, happy birthday!” Nothing. Zero charisma. Zero charm.

The overbearingly loud music and crowded tables didn’t help the atmosphere. Granted, it was a busy night, so we thought, fine we’ll let it fly. But here’s why we thought it was no better than 2 stars. The food. The core of it all. So meh. So bland. So much more that could’ve been done. For context, we ordered the truffle set menu which was a complete flop in my opinion. Locally sourced Australian truffles were overused on every dish, as if the sole use of truffles bears the right to overcharge. Tiny portions, poorly seasoned, and nasty tasting truffles - I mean, honestly, put toothpaste as garnish and it would have been a more exciting meal. We started the whole progression with a jerk of a waiter who dropped 2 pieces of old focaccia on our table. Terrible way to set the tone for the whole evening. Nothing more uninviting than a restaurant who skimps on bread. But the audacity to serve old bland, rock-hard focaccia was already hard to recover from.

Oh but wait, there’s more. Not only was the whole evening an orchestra of bland curd cheese after bland curd cheese, but unfortunately we chose the wine pairing, which is a total gouge of the eyes. Absolutely not worth it. Out of 5 wines, only one was decent to come back to.

I have to be fair. This wine was paired with a duck pappardelle that must have been made in a different kitchen because it was the only saving grace of the evening and why I am giving 2 stars and not 1.

Ah yes, but the finishing touch, wait for it - the audacity to set the POS to tip 20%-25% of the whole meal! What a joke!

We ended spending over $500 for the best lesson of our life. Never go with the flow, it may just might drown you!

I’d likely never come back here. What a...