Geppetto’s

This place is a nice clean, swish looking Italian restaurant with friendly staff. The menu is a decent size but i personally don’t mind a small menu anyway. Our group ordered the pork belly, lamb shoulder, seafood spaghetti and i can’t remember the other dishes as well as the rosemary and salt bread and an antipasto plate to start. None of these dishes wowed any of us. The rosemary and salt bread was probably the most liked. The lamb shoulder was cooked well, was nice and tender but lacked flavour or sauce. The antipasto plate was boring, the olives were ok but i expected nicer cured meats, nothing wowed. The seafood spaghetti was a bit meh too, the prawns were nice and definetely fresh but there was no real sauce other than a little bit of garlicky oil right at the bottom of the bowl. Nowhere near enough salt and the chilli although welcome overpowered any garlic flavour. My dad had the same meal and agreed. The service was polite but they got a pot instead of a schooner for one of us then totally forgot about another drink ordered later. The beer we had was geppettos pale ale. I don’t know if they brew it on site but it wasn’t any better than any standard priced bottled one from dan murphy’s. The wine drinkers in the group thought the wines available were pretty average too and the one ordered was just OK. The wine ordered was a sauv blanc i think. There was nothing really bad about this joint but there’s lots of places in Melbourne where you can get better Italion food for the same price.

Was there for the Tuesday meal deal — $ 20 for a pizza and a glass of house wine. Decent deal considering the pizzas themselves are around $ 21-​$ 24 each.
Was pretty empty which I think caused the waitress to be a little too ‘hovery’, but she was nice. Large place too, good for groups or families (noted they kept the families downstairs and the couples upstairs which is a polite touch to those on dinner dates).
The Pollo Pizza was good but the Alla Renato was where it was at (San Marzano tomato, goats cheese, fior di latte salami cacciatore, spinach, roasted red capsicums). The salami came in chunks like sausage and was exceptionally tasty, really making that pizza. Bases /​crust were delicious too, which is always very telling.
House red was a decent Sangiovese, and my other choice of Pinot Noir was great for the price.

Large’ish place, but on a weeknight a bit stark/​empty.
Ordered pizza. Ok, but pretty pricey ($ 23). Service was ok, and food delivered in reasonable time.
Probably great for families or larger groups. A step above Colombos or Sofias, but similar feel.

I’ve been to many top restaurants around Australia and I have to say this Pork Belly is one of the very best! Presentation — Perfect, Execution — Perfect, The Food — Perfect, Pork Belly require very high skills to cook it well, this one is not oily at all, yet you can still feel the fat fusion with the mashed potato in your mouth, and the shredded apple on the side make it a perfect balance. Many restaurant charge a much higher price as yet can’t deliver as good as this. ¹⁰⁄₁₀!