~ Curious Charlie ~

Dinners @ Barolo on Main Street @ Thursday, November 02, 2017

Thursday 27th July
Menu has been updated since our last visit, they didn't have pizzas before,
and some dishes aren't on the menu anymore.

Barolo is one of the few Italian restaurants on main street, along with cheap family friend eats Sofia, neon blue lit Sauced and two fancy candlelit places that I don't know the name of. What sets it apart from the others is that it's a groupon and dimmi regular, making it more affordable than expected. Located next to Grill'd and opposite Camberwell Station if you visit in the evening park at the station.

There's an upstairs and downstairs area, upstairs is nicer, and also it's much brighter in my photos than real life. Dates-worthy lighting - depending on where you're seated.

Aranchini Ball $6

I think the perfect serving of rice is one big aranchini ball, mushroom and liquid cheese. How was it? Good but not amazing.

Beef Meatball $6

Tomato & Basil Passata (that's the sauce). How was it? Ordinary

Lamb Skewer $6

The lamb skewer wasn't marinated served with a yoghurt sauce, ordinary. There was so much potential for this one.

Round two for entrees at Barolo to the right of Grill'd. It as a quiet evening, though still early, the waitress was very friendly. The food was good but nothing amazing, we might be back.

Friday 4th August
And we're back!

Beef & Shiraz Ragu $30

On a winter evening we had the beef and shiraz ragu with mash. Warm and hearty I loved it! Just a touch salty but ok, melt in your mouth beef accompanied with mash, not the best one ever but still pretty good. I'd highly recommend this dish and would get it again.

Through dimmi we were offered 50% off the bill, and I do love Italian food though it tends to be over the budget (other than pizza).

Excellent service from my favourite waitress.

Thursday 17th August

Antipasto Board

Prosciutto, Salami, Bocconcini, Swiss Emmental, Marinated Olives,

Grilled Vegetables and House Baked Bread

And we're back again, I have to say this is one of the rare places where we're regulars. Though we never pay full price. Through groupon and dimmi deals is the way we like it. This offer was a three course meal (shared entree/dessert and a main each) for $20pp.

Fettuccini Duck

Slow Cooked Duck, Napoli, Red Wine

This is what jas had, I had a taste and it was good though being duck it was one of the more pricer dishes, and frankly not worth it. I felt that the duck would have been better in another dish.

Fettuccini Mushroom

Wild Mushrooms, Roasted Garlic Puree, Cream , Parmesan

It was a huge serving! Much bigger than you'd think, and quite filling too, so I actually only ate half and got the other half for lunch tomorrow. Rich and creamy it was exactly what I was after, though next time I'd add chicken too.

Lemon Tart

Raspberry Compote and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

The tart wasn't lemony enough, that's a really bad thing as resturant quality dictates you need to use real ingredients, whereas cafes have their desserts made in a warehouse. The raspberry also took too much attention away from the tart and had more flavour. For $15 this was a fail.

Super friendly service as always. We always gets the same girls.

Come for dinner, skip dessert.

Saturday 9th September

For Father's Day we booked a table for six at Barolo, grandpa still fears Italian food after our visit to Sofia a few years ago XD Sofia is down the street actually and still a thriving restaurant.

Unfortunately we got the table by the kitchen with kitchen lighting and no atmosphere. Light spilled over from the kitchen and sounds. Didn't get a picture, as I asked to move upstairs, to a dinning room under the stars. At least I think that's what they were going for. Needs more deco.

To share we ordered three entrees, the most suitable for sharing between six.

Antipasto Board

Prosciutto, Salami, Bocconcini, Swiss Emmental, Marinated Olives,

Grilled Vegetables and House Baked Bread

The cheeses were fairly mild, we need olives and some salty cheese.

Prawn Dumplings

The prawn ones, har gaw I think they're called. They were good, steamed and served with a sauce I don't recall... but odd at an Italian place. Pretty sure they're the freezer kind (I like Mr Chen brand).

Garlic Prawns = Garlic Confit, Parsley

This was the recommended entree, served with toasted bread, they were quite good. With a garlicky lemon liquid, though because the bread was toasted it wasn't ideal for dipping.

At first I was going to take a group shot, but the others weren't keen on waiting for all the mains to arrive before starting.

Beef and Shiraz Ragu with Creamy Mash

This is one of my favourite dishes, warm and comforting with plenty of hearty flavours.

Gnocchi Pumpkin w pumpkin, cream, parmesan

A couple bites were good, but I always find gnocchi a bit boring in terms of texture. So soft and doughy. It was good though.

Chicken Risotto

Chicken, mushrooms, spinach, parmesan

Dad's favourite, and I do love a good risotto, this one was perfect.

Spaghetti Marinara

Mussels, clams, prawns, calamari, white fish, chilli, garlic, napoli

We order two of these as mother likes to order the most expensive thing on the menu or seafood dishes to get the most of her money. This is a woman who's budget for dinner is $6 per person and hates eating out. In hindsight we should have got two of the ragu or risotto.

This dish is why I won't be back for a very very very long time. There was one mussel and it was off. I couldn't smell it unfortunately till it was in my mouth, but it tasted like urine. In my mouth! I haven't had mussel since, and feel queasy whenever I think of this place.

Chicken Maryland Cacciatore

capsicum, mushroom, onion, olive, rustic potatoes

Tastes as expected, the potatoes were nice and crispy. Needs more seasoning though.

Dessert was a bread and butter pudding, an affrogato and what appears to be chocolate pudding. Never assume the menu is online, because this menu changed before I wrote down what the dishes were.

Chocolate Pudding w Cream & Ice Cream

Bread & Butter Pudding

A large serving, one truly to share while the others aren't of sharing size. This one takes 20mins, so order when you order your mains. Rich and creamy it was delicious, now we just need an apple pie.

Affogato Grande

Double Espresso, Vanilla Ice Cream,Whipped Cream,+ Baileys

Andy's choice, which he regretted as it didn't taste as nice as expected - but the ingredients are all listed? This would be that coffee served with dessert I'd think.

You'd think/hope six mains shared between six would be filling right? Nope, we had McD on the way home. The meal felt more like an entree. Dessert choices I felt were limited, and tiramisu wasn't on the menu?

The team that was on tonight was completely different from the usual, and the guy asked my friend which part of china she's from. Cause a good experience starts with a bad table and making people feel uncomfortable doesn't it? My friend is japanese, and when she said this he decided to share some words he knew... Wow. We're here for the food not a language share class. If this had been our one and only visit I'd rate service as bad.

Food was good, I love the ragu and risotto, but wouldn't pay full price. For our group dinner we bought a deal through groupon, which was around $100 for dinner for 6, with 3 entrees/desserts to share, and a main each.

Dad forgot to bring the wine and regretted it.

Will we be back? Maybe in a few years. Don't order the seafood!!