Miss Spam’s birthday was approaching and how else do you celebrate your birthday, find a nice place for DINNER! She picked an Italian restaurant in Little Collins street – Il Bacaro. We got the 6PM session since it was booked out. Mr D, Mr Burberry and myself got there at the same time and Miss Spam and Miss Mori were already there. The interior was quite dark and the lights were so dim (turn up the lighting please guys!) and it had a lovely ambiance. We seated ourselves and the waiter handed us the menus to take a looksie. After skimming through, the waiter came back to take our order. There was olive oil on each table and look how cutie patootie it is!
While we chatted away, our pastas came out. I got a small rabbit tortellini with cabbage, parma ham brouth and micro radish. When this came out, I was a bit stunned at the four tortellini’s on the plate. That means it was $7 per tortellini. Now, for this price I would be expecting quality food and when I bit into it, the pasta and rabbit ratio was great with the pasta being a touch thin and not rubbery at all. However, the broth itself was quite salty which was disappointing. Honestly, these tortellinis were very pricey.
Tortellini (small) – $28
Mr D got the signature pasta dish, the spaghettini with Morton bay bugs. Again, the portion of the dish was oh so tiny that Mr D was still hungry afterwards. As this was their signature dish and has been on the menu for 20 years, we were expecting big things. Boy were we disappointed. It was quite bland and we had to season it with more salt. It wasn’t creamy at all and even the bugs itself didn’t ‘wow’ us which was a shame.
Spaghettini (large) – $39
We also got sides to have with our meal. We got the potatoes with marjoram, pecorino and garlic. The potatoes were quite dry on the inside.
Potato – $11
We also got the cos lettuce and radicchio salad with ricotta, walnut and pear. This was so good and the dressing was so subtle but full of flavour. Nice break from all the pastas and carbs and very refreshing.
Cos lettuce and radicchio salad – $14
It was dessert time and I couldn’t figure out what I wanted. The whole table except for me got the agave nectar cheesecake with crystallised violet, creme fraiche, pop rocks, blueberry sorbet and fairy floss. This sounded super duper sweet but when it came it, it was so beautiful (I was totes jelly!). Luckily my friends are into sharing and I got to try it and it was MAGNIFICENT! Hands down, an AMAZEBALL dessert. The sorbet had such a strong blueberry flavour and the cheesecake was more like a continental one and not baked. Everything was perfect with this dessert. Totally a recommended dish.
Cheesecake – $21
I’m a sucker for panna cottas and could not pass up the opportunity to have the lavender panna cotta with raspberries and honeycomb. Since I was jealous of the beautiful cheesecake, the staff stuck a candle in my dessert as they brought it out to cheer me up and boy was I cheery after that. This dessert was quite disappointing. The lavender was super strong and the panna cotta was way too soft and jiggly. Once you took a piece of the panna cotta, it was unable to hold itself up and collapsed onto itself. The honeycomb was AMAZEBALL though which was the highlight of the dish which was a shame since the hero of the dish was suppose to be the panna cotta.
Lavender Panna Cotta – $20
The staff at Il Bacaro were so attentive and friendly. The food was disappointing. For the price, I would have expected more quality and if you couldn’t provide that, increase the quantity. The only thing that I’ll come back for would be the cheesecake and that’s about it which is a shame.
168 – 170 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9654 6778
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