La Contadina Restaurant

Overall 9 - Food 9, Ambience 9, Value 9, Service 9

La Contadina - Great family - great restaurant - amazing food

I’ve booked at la Contadina for 6 Friday evening, simply because my family loves true Mediterranean food with a twist

Well!!! What an experience...What an experience, we had. My family comes from sardegna an island of Italy

Where food has to be good, traditional and very much local produce, …well the fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, Persian fetta,

Chilli, basil and garlic bruschetta made my Dad stand up and take note

The sautéed risotto of duck, porcini mushrooms and goat Cheese with truffle oil pecorino made all of us proud to be Italian

The main was served on the table as a banquet by our request a combination of potato gnocchi with gorgonzola,

Spinach and pine nocciolini - 2 large amazing pizzas with san Daniele prosciutto, fresh tomato and caramelized buffalo mozzarella

Cipollata, it was truly out of this world –

We also had a combination of caponata di casa and a combination of grilled seafood of the day platter

Unbelievably Fantastic …so fresh we clinched, my father was totally blown away by the experience,

We didn’t like some of the local wine on the list… But the sangiovese and Chianti went down quite nicely

Dessert was a chocolate caramel swan lake shoe-pastry with honey Galliano custard and – chocolate soufflé’ flamed with sambuca

Served with vaniglia ice cream of the house …. Hey you gays out there … if you haven’t had a soufflé’ any where,

Try this amazing delight … you’ll be speechless at the size and the light smooth taste of cioccolata.

We loved every thing about this incredible place its authentic, its rustic it’s what true Italian trattoria should be like

My family were amazed at all and ended up stying till very late singing with Giovanni the chef and his family many Italian greats

By the looks of things other patrons were also enjoying the evening and joined in the singing as well

My recommendation for this place stands at most high level ever, we shoal return my good friends…..

Grazie!!! Grazie!!! Grazie mille!!!

Mauro Iacopino & family   (December, 2011)

Overall 10 - Food 10, Ambience 10, Value 10, Service 10

You don’t need to go to Rome, it’s all here (La Contadina)

Six of us musicians took a break from a gig and headed to La Contadina. We have been there many times before with family and friends, and the food here is a truly authentic and home-style. Some dishes that the family cooks are as authentic as the country itself…..FANTASTIC!! The reason why we dine there , is not only for the amazing food but for the chef who is also an amazing singer. When asked to sing, he makes you feel like you’re in Rome. WE just love this place for all the great reasons, after 30 years they have served 1000’s of people ands still have a smile and huge respect for the industry. We love you all at La Contadina…..Thank you for your service to Melbourne. Don’t ever leave the industry!!!!

The 9th musica oggi

Jeff, Sam, Greg, Evan, Mark, Burt.   (Jeff - December, 2011)

Overall 10 - Food 10, Ambience 10, Value 10, Service 10

Great Pizza’s of a different kind....

We were to go to Lygon Street last Saturday evening when we got there at about 7.30pm we couldn’t find parking and we were heading back home to Brunswick with my wife and two children.. As we were driving down Rathdowne street, we noticed the restaurant La Contadina and found a spot to park.. It was a beautiful evening and the restaurant reminded us of a place in south of Italy when we were there two years ago with family and friends. When greeted by the friendly waitress, we were told that a table would be ready in 5 minutes and were offered a complimentary drink. Once seated we were very impressed by the large selection of dishes but were overly impressed by the gourmet pizza that were on offer, especially the (special) formaggio with buffalo, bazil, mozzarella and sundried tomatoes and drizzled with truffle oil dressing……Fantastic !!!! we will definitely be back.

J.R Simpson and family (Brunswick)   (JR - December, 2011)

Overall 9 - Food 9, Ambience 9, Value 9, Service 9

After a few friends from work that highly recommended this place, we made a booking for 12 for our Christmas function break-up party let me tell you most of us travel the world

And dine in every continent, we were mesmerised at this little wonderful restaurant with an ambience that took us back with wonderful memories of the older Melbourne, but beautifully set out

It was extremely a full house that evening... But as soon as we arrived we were greeted as if we were members of their own family,

The attention and service was incredibly attentive, the food …. Oh my God it was out of this world

The baked bread and the bruschetta with the garlic and herb bread mixed basket was as if mamma specially made it to start an incredible culinary evening experience,

The grilled calamari was tender as butter, the sauce was amazing, the white veal saltimbocca was so tender I, gave the chef

A huge embrace, the sweet was grilled pudding with brandy-marsala cream sauce on a spugna Galliano flamed … it was something that I will never forget. The coffee was so smooth I had 3 short blacks

The rest of the party were asking ….. Why haven’t we been here before??? They kept enjoying the evening as if they were some where in the Mediterranean

For any one that honestly wants a true authentic Italian fare with wonderful home authentic / modern tasty, fresh food with wonderful service? This is the place… there aren’t many left.

We also enjoyed the chef’s gesture coming out of the kitchen of great songs sang by our request to our 2 Party members (paraplegics)

The staff, was amazing and very helpful, we will recommend this place to universe if possible

(Don’t expect a big menu … but do expect an incredible experience in total)

May God bless this house for many more years…………   (raaz - December, 2011)

Overall 0.3 - Food 0, Ambience 1, Value 0, Service 0

I recently redeemed an offer at La Contadina Restaurant Bistro Cafe & Bar. The service was very ordinary. The customer service was awful and they were turning groups of people away who had booked but there was no record of them having mentioned the offer when they booked. They also had a separate menu for “offer” customers and the food wasn't edible.   (azara1 - November, 2011)