Il Gambero on the Park

Il Gambero on the Park

166 Lygon St, Carlton

(Ph) 9663 2246

All visitors to Melbourne always want to come to Lygon St for Italian food - personally I think it's way too overrated but since I had an Entertainment voucher for Il Gambero anyway and it's not bad there thought I'd take my other P there - he can be P2 =)

I had actually come here with some other Brisbane friends last year - see here for that post.

We got here at nearly 8pm on Sunday night - the street was still very full and lively as per usual. P2 had been having a lot of pizza lately so he said he wanted some pasta, while P1 wanted some pizza - so we decided to share 3 dishes.

Dimattina Fettucini - chicken, avocado, pesto, spring onions, dash of cream & napoli sauce with pine nuts $18.90 (large)

2 coloured fettucini with lots of chicken and avocado and sauce - just how I like it! Such an interesting combination of pesto and cream and napoli sauce but works well together! Gotta say was one of the best chicken pastas I've had =)

We decided to get the pasta special - Calamari & chorizo linguine tossed with olive oil, garlic, spanish onions, chilli puree with a touch of napoli sauce $23.50

The linguine looks pretty much the same as the fettucini except the fettucini had 2 colours - I thought linguine is meant to be thinner? We asked the waiter and he said they were what they're meant to be hmm. This was very delicious too, with a touch of spice - the chilli puree. P liked this pasta better but I found it lacked a bit in sauce - personal taste =)

We got one pizza to share. Mark's Special - garlic, herb, cheese, salami, bacon, caramelised onions and prawns $22 (large)

Man it was massive! Crusty base and lots of cheeeeeese =D I espeically liked the caramelised onion - gave the pizza a bit of sophistication =) Why is it that when you eat pizza out at restaurants they always give you so little toppings? I guess that's how pizza's are meant to be =P

Food~
8/10 - P2 who used to work at a pizza store and loves Italian food said the food here was good too =)

Service~
3/5 - waiters were very friendly here - P2 was especially interested in one of the waitresses =P though they were quite busy and at times took a while to get their attention =/

Atmosphere~
3/5 - nice ambient restaurant =)

C.
xo