La Piccola Italy - Makassar — Restaurant in Makassar

As a foreigner living in Asia for more than 30 years, I experienced many disappointing meals in European style restaurants : you never get the real taste and it's especially true for Italian restaurants, as American chain restaurants, like Domino's or Pizza hut have corrupted local palate taste in making them believe an Italian pizza should have a thick crust and pineapple toppings. It's difficult for a foreign chef, to find the right balance between what he believes, his origin and what will please local tastes. There are many challenges as well with the materials he can find, that are more difficult to cook to produce something close to the original taste So La Piccola Italy, "the small Italy", has found a good balance, between an original Italian taste, and what locals will appreciate. We were invited , so no comment about the final bill. The three of us had simple dishes : I chose the risotto truffles. Usually made with Italian rice, semi round, it's a traditionnel meal that used to be made with leftover rice from the day before, and mixed with whatever things would be in the fridge. Of course the rice used for my risotto is a normal Indonesian rice, quite sticky, and the result is a kind of porridge, quite compact. A dispointing sight indeed, but the taste was very good, with a strong truffle flavour . My wife chose some spaghetti with shrimps, that were ok, a bit too sweet for me, and our friend a simple spaghetti with tuna flavor, that atstwd great. We had a good tiramisu, home made according to the waitress, that could feature honorably on a European restaurant table. We didn't drink wine (I didn't even check the wine list so I can't comment on it) my wife and our friend went for lemon tea. I was disappointed with the water choice : they offered just "club " brand, a super cheap local mineral, when I was hoping to have some sparkling water like equil or maybe a foreign brand. It's a good experience from a foreign POV. A local would have a different opinion,but the native Italian chef is offering his best with what he has in hands. Makassar is not Napoli, don't...

(The seating pictures were all from three years ago. Nothing wrong with the seatings. But the food pictures were all LESS than two-three week old, taken in June 2024).

REVIEW: After three years, revisit this place again. Unfortunately this time around, am very disappointed.

Maybe the concept is actually fusion Italian-Indonesian cuisine, but am not too sure.

Firstly, without warning, the pasta is very spicy, which makes it very hard to enjoy the dish.

The chicken roast we ordered hardly has any Italian-hint flavour in it. Instead, it was bland, tasted like it was pan-fried using locally sourced market tomatoes. The chicken itself was not that juicy, bordering on overcooked.

Pizza was okay, but not great.

The staff were friendly, but not knowledgeable.

The big downside is the place. It was stuffy, and very warm, and with them also stir-frying some sort of sambal/chillies, it was a torture. We were coughing and all, and could hardly tasted our food.

It was very hard to recommend this place, as much as we wanted to like it. I'd say, give it a pass. Makassar is probably not a place to visit if you fancy...

Really nice to stumble upon an Italian place after a few months of eating local Indonesian food. Authentic meals from an authentic crew. Owner/chef is Sardinian and runs it with his Indonesian wife. Verrrrry cheap (compared to Australian Italian restaurants haha), but the service is really what makes this place special. The chef likes to walk around and talk to guests, sometimes offering samples of off-menu dishes and desserts if you're lucky, really taking his time to get to know everyone. Makes the whole restaurant feels like a big dinner party full of warmth and laughter. Absolutely delightful.

Only negative comment, which I understand is perhaps out of the restaurant's hands, is the lack of non-halal items in the dishes. Small things like bacon in the carbonara and the wine/liquor in the tiramisu. Though this could totally be avoided by choosing a dish that is not originally pork-based. Would also really, really appreciate a wine list to match. But that's ok :)

Thanks guys. Had a lovely time. Will be sure to visit again if we ever find ourselves in...