osteria ilaria

the service is great very friendly staff but the food is under expectations. we have ordered the highly recommended small dishes paccheri pasta, mushroom croquette and zucchini flower they were just average. small place which is really noisy during weekends night and we had to yell to talk. this place is little over rated.

for a place that has such high ratings on zomato, i expected a little something more wow.

ordered:
🍝 paccheri pasta, crystal bay prawns, sorrel ($25.00)
🥔 ash baked potato, fontina cheese, pickled onion ($14.00)

review:
the crystal bay prawns were laughably small. cute, but no real substance compared to the thick tubes of pasta.
it was simply eating reaalllly al dente noodles in a decent sauce. kind of fun for the first few bites, but not a feeling that lasts.

the potato... i haven't met a potato i could not finish but i may have met my match. with really modern flavours, i'm not too sure what i was eating but my friend enjoyed it lol.

service was great, really friendly and the lighting made it a great place to catch up with friends i hadn't seen in 3 years!

unfortunately, don't think this modern italian place was for me.

amazing! definitely recommend the porcini mushrooms croquettes and the grilled/roasted cabbage - couldn’t fault my dining experience at all, and can’t wait to head back!
only minor comment is if your seated near the kitchen, and if they’re cooking fish, you’ll know it.

we visited osteria ilaria for a late lunch without a booking and we were seated upon arrival. being the sister restaurant of tipo 00, we had high hopes for this place, and it did not disappoint!

the venue is spacious, and the tables are quite large too. we were seated towards the back of the restaurant, which was a little more private and had a nice romantic ambience.

our waiter was extremely kind and walked us through the whole menu, explaining each dish and giving us recommendations.

we started off with the complimentary bread and butter. the bread was fluffy and the butter was incredibly soft. i only wish there was more of it!

our first dish was the porcini mushroom croquette, and it was delicious. it was crispy, creamy and flavourful. the mushroom flavour was there but it wasn’t too strong as one of us, who usually hates mushrooms, really enjoyed it.

we had one zucchini flower to share between the three of us as we didn’t want to fill up too quickly. the zucchini flower was light and crispy, whilst the inside was creamy and thick. a nice dish but not as wow-ed by it as some of the other dishes.

next was the burrata, as recommended by our waiter. i loved this dish - the pickled quince was sour and refreshing, and combined beautifully with the creaminess of the burrata.

our last starter was the octopus. another very impressive dish - the octopus was cooked very well with a nice char. i liked the spiciness of the sauce which worked well with the octopus.

after a great start to the meal, we were on to our pastas.

we had to try the paccheri pasta - the dish that they are known for - and it did not disappoint! the pasta was cooked perfectly al dente, and the shape of it was very unique too. i loved the flavours of the sauce and the crystal bay prawns were lovely.

we also had the saffron gramigna, which, although being our least favourite of the three pastas we tried, it was still very enjoyable. the dish was heavier, though i liked the textures from the duck sausage and artichoke.

but our favourite pasta was their special of the night - truffle tagliatelle. the truffle sauce was just so incredibly flavourful and delicious - i could eat two bowls of this! honestly, you don’t want to miss out on this dish.

as the portions of our mains were quite small, we still had room for dessert, so we decided to go for all three of them.

the chocolate semifreddo surprised me with its lightness - the texture was unlike anything i’ve had before. the chocolate is more on the bitter side, so the overall dish isn’t that sweet either. a very pleasant dessert!

the juniper meringue was also very light, and the sweetest dessert. although i enjoyed the texture of the meringue, i’m not quite sure how i felt about the juniper as it had a strange taste.

finally, my favourite dessert was the rhubarb and custard - the tartness of the rhubarb paired with the sweet and creamy custard was just divine!

overall, we had an incredible time at osteria ilaria. i would definitely recommend checking them out!

lovey atmosphere, good place to relax with good food and wine, i had prawns paccheri pasta was cooked perfectly and of course delicious.😋😋😋😋

been here twice, sat at the bar during dinner had amazing bar service and decided to go back for another visit. however, the second time was seated at a table and compared to my first experience the service just did not deliver. the food did make up for the lack of service and was delicious on both occasions.

i really enjoyed my meal at this restaurant. the ambience is lovely and the service is fantastic.

we had the mushroom croquettes to start, which were a touch on the salty side. the octopus with n’duja and anchovies however, was delicious and very well balanced.

for mains, we had the paccheri pasta with crystal bay prawns. this was very flavoursome and the prawn was not too overpowering. highly recommend!!

we had an amazing time at osteria - the staff were super friendly and the food was really good. i thought the flavours in their dishes really stayed true to the ingredient and concentrated on bringing all the flavour already in the food out. some of the dishes balanced the natural flavours really delicately, and i really like that. hurray for a wonderful night out.

we loved 😍
the staff here were really friendly. we enjoyed the gnocchi and duck here. the sauce in the gnocchi was pleasantly light. the duck was extra juicy.

we disliked 😖
the paprika sauce on the calamari was great but the calamari itself was a little too chewy.

overall i like the croquette and paccheri pasta with prawn. the paccheri pasta has a very tasty sauce and they also gave a generous portion of the prawn. i highly recommend those two. while the gnocchi and carpaccio taste just okay.

i heard so much about this restaurant and was pumped to try it out!

love the shop decor it feels very italian. we found the staff to be a bit over passionate. after we told her we were not that hungry so may order a few dishes to share, she was still keen to sell us all the dishes and didn't seem too happy as we turned her down. that wasn't very professional.

the gnocchi has to be my favourite. it melted in my mouth and super flavoursome. octopus was also great only hope the portion size is bigger.

next come to the big issue: the whiting fish has loads of small bones and i got choked. this is unacceptable as it wasn't written on the menu and the bones are super hard to tell. at least the staff should remind us of the bones! we ended up having to handpick lots of bones out of the fish.

the zucchini flower was crispy on the outside but not sure about the texture and taste on the inside. was a bit bland and not really enjoyed that one.

overpriced, limited selection and average food. sorry but won't be back.

nice cosy setting and just the start. staff are exactly what you expect in such an upmarket dine in restaurant. 

the food.. where do i start, we tried the grilled octopus absolutely a+. 
we also shared the salumi and it was the best prosciutto i've ever tasted. we also had the mushroom croquette and pork sausage which were both also exceptionally delicious.

for mains we tried both the saffron gramigna duck sausage and the prawn pasta. texture of the saffron was amazing. 

but nothing else compares to the prawn pasta sauce, flavour was complex and absolutely one of the best pasta sauces i've tasted.

definitely up there on my list for great italian in melbourne. polite staff and great space too. favourite is the chestnut gnocchi. nice italian wines.

hands down one of the best italian restaurants in cbd (if not the whole melbourne lol) everything we had was so so so delicious. the pasta was cooked to perfection, sauces were unbelievably good, entrees were served in timely manner and such generous portions (and again so damn tasty!)

i’m used to having only a few bites on a serve in ‘fancy’ places but we had good amount of food for each dishes and was so satisfied with everything at the end.

the stand outs for me were the croquettes, calamari, octopus and all of the pastas (we had 3 different ones and i can’t remember what we had hah!)

this place is worth the dollars you throw at them.

came here for lunch and decided to go with the 4 course shared menu.

found it hit and miss with the dishes or perhaps because i had very high expectations. the standout for me was definitely the fish which was delicately cooked.

for me the wine by glass list was disappointing as i didn’t really like any. the waiter brought some other opened bottles for me to try but again didn’t like any until he brought a german riesling from mosel which was pretty decent.

the atmosphere was relaxed and so was the service.

not sure if i will be back.