Baldovino

826 High St, Thornbury.

Ph: 9416 8373

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I’ve made an amazing discovery. It’s great, it’s not too expensive and it’s not too complicated. When I walked into the restaurant it reminded me straight away of some of the restaurants I went to in Italy, everything from the friendly service to the Italian mum in the kitchen.

We ordered Ravioli al Borolo (Duck Ravioli in a red wine sauce) for the entrée, Roast Goat with Potatoes, and Seafood Platter which had prawns, flathead, calamari, sardines and crab cakes for the mains. We wanted to order more but we were assured by the friendly restaurant owner that we had ordered enough.

We were served some bread with garlic-infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I don’t usually dip my bread in oil but since it had garlic in it I just had to. It tasted great and it’s a pity there wasn’t more bread to mop up the rest of the oil. We got more bread later though.

The duck ravioli arrived next. It tasted great. The red wine sauce wasn’t too strong and the pasta was perfectly cooked and was homemade which made it even better.

The mains came next. I tried the goat first. It was some of the best meat I’ve ever tasted. It was really good and fell of the bone. The goat had a really tasty jus and it didn’t overpower the flavour of the goat.

Next I tried the seafood platter … everything was good. The calamari was well cooked, as were the prawns and the flathead. I’d never tried crab cake before so I was curious to see what it tasted like. I enjoyed the taste. I tried the sardines next _ but their flavour was a little bit too strong for me.

We were told about some of the desserts including Raspberry Pannacotta and Chocolate Mousse by the owner’s wife but unfortunately I was too full to eat anything else.

It was one of the best Italian meals I’ve had in Melbourne, in fact I preferred it to Tutto Bene. It was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time. And the bill was a modest $80.50!

- James, 11-years-old