Stellini Bar

Stellini Bar

198 Little Collins St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9654 5074

☆☆☆

I was going to come here for brunch with J about 2 weeks ago but something came up and we cancelled our catch up - this week she had clinic in the morning so we were gonna go for lunch instead. Stellini bar had ☆☆☆ in the Cheap Eats Guide for breakfast, but in the caption, they were mentioning "big-flavoured southern Italian fare such as pork and fennel lasagne with home-made pasta and double-layers of bechamel". Even though I had lasagne only 2 days ago at Pelligrini's, I knew I had to try this one out =)

We sat at the long communal table 'cause all the little tables were taken at 1pm - but we didn't mind since the small tables wouldn't have fitted all our food very well and the long table was empty when we got there :)

We both wanted pastas 'cause it was such a cold wintry day and a nice pasta would definitely warm us up!

Pork and fennel lasagne with insalata mista

My lasagne was definitely worth ☆☆☆. Pork and fennel sounded like such a weird combination but after reading so much about it I had to try it! It came just the way the Cheap Eats Guide described it - big flavours =) They were such clashing yet complimentary flavours! And I absolutely love the bechamel sauce between the layers of pasta - I'm such a sucker for sauce as well (as you can probably tell from my previous post of Pelligrini's :P)

Gnocchi

J tried the Gnocchi with pomodoro and pecorino (I think it was - I forgot to take a photo of the menu again so tried to look for it online - don't think they've changed the menu, though when I tried to look up what 'pomodoro' was, no ingredient came up =P). Nonetheless, she dug in straight away - I could tell it was super delicious the way we both stopped talking for a few minutes and just ate and ate :P

Complimentary bread with REAL butter :)

I love receiving complimentary bread, especially with real butter! Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside - I'm such a sucker for bread! :P And it was perfect for dipping our pasta sauces with <3

We sat for at least an hour after our plates were taken away - I was waiting for my stomach to settle so I could try the Tiramisu but really could not fit it in after the bread and the lasagne! Customers started coming in for coffee instead of lunch and that was when we realised the time had passed so quickly :P The door to the cafe doesn't close by itself so you have to manually close it after you. So many customers didn't do that so we were frozen by the freezing Melbourne wind - that was a bit annoying. After a while we couldn't stand it anymore so we paid and left - and that was when we realised there was no handle to the door from the outside so it's no wonder people didn't close the door after themselves! That really needs fixing =P

The lasagne was $19.50 which I think was definitely worth it - but it had gone up from $15.50 since 2010 (which I found out from various blogs). Oh well, that's what happens when delicious foods becomes famous!

8/10

C.
xo

Pelligrini's

Pelligrini's

66 Bourke St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9662 1885

So it was after our first Tango lesson together and I had initially wanted to go Amaretto in Fitzroy but after getting off at the wrong tram stop and walking like 500m down Victoria Parade to the restaurant, we find out it's closed!! And I specifically checked that this place was open on Tuesdays :( There was a sign on the door saying it was closed for lunch but it didn't say anything about dinner - grr!

It was 8.20pm already and it was cold and raining - we were soo tempted to go have Maccas 'cause there was one just next door but we resisted and decided to go into the city to grab some food.

We really felt like Italian after expecting to eat at Amaretto so I took P to Pelligrini's on Bourke St which I went to a few years ago with a uni friend for lunch.

It was 8.40pm already but this place was still quite full! It's a small little place where you either sit against the bar or you sit facing the mirror on the other side - the atmosphere here is great! All the waiters speak Italian to each other - I think it's a family business carried down over generations.

Behind the bar there are posters and magazine articles on the history of this restaurant - it has such a genuine Italian feel to it all (not that I know what that feels like :P), but it's not like the Italian restaurants on Lygon St which I think are hyped up more than anything else.

The Menu

There is no proper menu at this place - all the pastas are on this board above us. They mainly serve pastas here with 1 pizza I think - I don't know what most of the pastas are actually - they're in their Italian names :P

I ordered the Beef Lasagne and P ordered the Spaghetti Bolognaise.

Complimentary bread :)

We were soo hungry by now thank goodness they gave us complimentary bread with real butter! :D

Spaghetti Bolognaise

P was saying how small his spaghetti looked and how he thought he wouldn't be full from it. But he dug in straight away and said it tasted very genuine and home-feel, despite it being steaming hot! We know it's cooked fresh for us haha :P

Beef Lasagne

I had the lasagne last time I came and I remember loving it - and this time it didn't disappoint me! It was delicious! It looks slightly messy but I love lasagne with more sauce and meat and cheese as opposed to those ones which are just in a block and no excess sauce. P said my pasta layers were a bit overcooked but I like it soft rather than slightly hard. Mmmm <3<3<3

Granita

We saw everyone around us ordering a Granita so we decided to try it - it was soo cold I was getting brain freeze! I don't know why P wanted one when it was so freezing cold that day. It tasted like watermelon, rockmelon and maybe some other melon... interesting. I think I would have liked it more on a cold day haha :P

The Dessert Bar

We sat at the bar infront of the desserts - when we first sat down we had decided to try one after we finished our pastas, but the little bowls were actually very filling! No room for dessert - next time :)

Delicious! :)

8.5/10

C.
xo