il centro

it’s been on the menu for 25 years, a recipe developed to combine two of brisbane’s great loves – italian cuisine and seafood – using our exquisite local sand crabs to create sand crab lasagne.

worst dinning experience ever!!!. were to begin? firstly the food is below par at a price that is above what is served. secondly the experience could have gone alot better if there was not this raving lunatic in the kitchen sreeching and swearing at the top of her lungs, causing the restaurant to go quiet and the diners feeling uncomfortable. thirdly the service was lacking and the restaurant manager was rude and unhelpful.
all in all after this experience i, along with those i dined with shall never eat at this establishment again, and i strongly recommend to those that are looking at this restaurant to reconsider.

best steak i've ever had. i recently went here with my girlfriend for our anniversary. she had a beef cheek risotto and i had an eye fillet steak. both meals were brilliant. the service was great and the bar tender made some great espresso martinis

my fav dish here is the crab lasagne. they have an amazing wine list too! been around for years!

very disappointing il centro. worst service i have experienced in a very long time and food was rather lucklustre also. the arrogance and lack of interest/engagement of the wait staff was disappointing to say the least. to then receive a condecending lesson in how to use your eftpos machine (to provide a tip for what??) was laughable. certainly not what i remember and will not be bringing clients back here. dont rely on your past reputation il centro, you have a lot more competition these days.

beautiful food. amazing food and service as you would expect from a fine dining establishment. fantastic location and a great spot for friends

a pleasant surprise. il centro is one of many white table cloth restaurants on eagle street pier. it is well lit and welcoming, bustling with activity on a friday night. since there are many other restaurants in proximity and with similar price, our expections were tempered. most of these are expensive and not much value for money, which makes diners feel cheated.
il centro was an exception. both shawn and simone (the somm, and the wait person) were helpful, courteous and very knowledgeable. we were seated promptly and given menus and the specials of the evening. the wine list was well thought out with divisions being in the italian or australian category, staying true to the italian varietals.
the surprise came when we ordered our wine, then were commenting on how the wine was a bit tight, and needed a decanter. the wait person picked up on this, and she offered to have the somm help with another bottle, and also offered to take the cost of the bottle off our bill, since we hadn't been really happy with it.
shawn was great, he came over, inquired about our mains and then set about informing us about choices and letting us taste. we ended up with a perfect bottle to match with our food. the dishes which were stand outs were the angel hair and crab, the baramundi (both the special and the on menu version) and the carpacio. the fish dishes all came with sides, including chips and a salad. they also accomodated for substitutions which was appeciated. to finish we sampled a wonderful raspberry souffle which needed to be ordered ahead, and a buttered banana bread pudding which were show stoppers. il centro exceeded our expectations with service, value and a wonderful experience.
we will be back!

fine wine & food friends. went with regular friends to il centro last night. a disappointing evening considering it's reputation and pricing. initial service was slow but did improve and wait staff were efficient. entries, mains and desserts were a let down. there was no "love" in these dishes. they were assembled and delivered. not good enough when you are paying $40 for a main course. would not recommend and with so many great restaurants in
brisbane.....would not go back.

il centro offered a wonderfully pleasant dining experience. it's nice to see how different a restaurant feels during the day versus at night. our table was quite large so it was a complicated mess of orders but our waiter tolerated us and there were no stuff ups. i really enjoyed my entrée and main but the dessert was less remarkable.

this is fine dining!. i attended a work function at il centro and loved the beautiful view from the beautiful restaurant. the food was delicious even though the steak for main that was alternate drop was quite rare so even though i like my steak this way a few people at our table could not eat it. the sand crab lasagne was really good and i had it for entree which was a very genorous size even though i would struggle with a main size of this dish as it is quite rich. the staff were very attentive although i don't think they liked our humour when we tried to have a joke with them. but this restaurant is fine dining so i suppose the wait staff have to act a certain way???? all in all i enjoyed my dining experience here.

sand crab lasanga. i love this dish - sand crab lasagna!!! full of flavor!!! u can literally see the chunks of the sand crab flesh! since last visit, i couldn't stop thinking about going back :d must try

excellent dining experience. make sure you book a table on the terrace so you can lap up the river views! service was outstanding, attentive without being intrusive. salt and pepper calamari special was melt in your mouth, carpaccio was excellent. for mains, the gnocchi was really tasty. the sand crab lasagne, however, was overhyped! serving size was generous but the sauce was excessively sweet. i'd opt for other items on the menu!

excellent. great service, excellent food, and very relaxed atmosphere. i will be back.

il centro's 2 course lunch special including their signature sand crab lasagne and a trio of chocolate dessert couldn't come any sooner. it was just as delicious as when i first tasted this amazing dish. i remember saying how generous they were with the crabmeat and they still continued to be so. the bechamel was absolutely divine. it was so creamy and the flavours were all in balance. by the end, it did get a little bit heavy but i still wouldn't get sick of this. i believe this is the entree portion that is available on the normal menu but this was a perfect portion for lunch.

service was poor-mediocre, food was ghastly. went here for a 21st birthday for a friend and the service was terrible. for a group of 9-10, our waiter basically ignored us half the time. our orders came late and when we finished our meals, our empty plates sat on our table for half an hour before i spoke up to get it cleared so we could have our dessert menu. the tuna i had was extremely overseasoned and whilst it looked great, the taste wasn't there.
sadly to say, the fig gelato was a definite miss. with the poor quality service and very mediocre food, they have lost 10 patrons.