Giuseppe Arnaldo and Sons

Crown Complex, Southbank.
Ph: 9694 7400

WITH many Italian restaurants, there is so much good food on the menu, it's all so hard to choose.

Do you have the seafood risotto or the spaghetti bolognaise?

A great example of this is Giuseppe Arnaldo and Sons at Crown Casino.

So we went there for lunch one Saturday and when we got there we were welcomed by our friendly waiter and were given the menu. We didn't book because you can't here.

The menu had so much good-sounding food on it, but in the end we ordered Veal, Pork and Mortadella Meatballs with Lemon and Celery salad, and Oregano Dusted Shrimp with Lemon Aioli for the entrees.

For the mains we ordered Mezzi Rigatoni which is rigatoni with pork sausages, sage tomato, garlic and chilli. We also had the Coral Trout Risotto and the Grass-fed Sirloin.

Not long after we'd ordered, the entrees arrived. I first tried the Oregano Shrimp _ little prawns still in their shells which you eat whole. It was good but if I came back I don't think I'd order it again.

Next I tried the meatballs: they were the best meatballs ever. They melted in your mouth and the flavours were all so good.

After a good wait the mains arrived. I tried the risotto first. It was so good. I think risotto is now starting to become my favourite Italian food.

Next I tried the steak. It was cooked perfectly and was very good, probably tied with Rockpool for best steak in Melbourne in my opinion.

The pasta was also very good and you could tell it was homemade. Though it wasn't the best main, it still beat anything you get in a cafe by a long shot.
We were offered dessert by our friendly waiter, but we'd had enough.

Instead, we went to see the movie Julie and Julia. It's a pity that the movie was nowhere near as good as the food we had just experienced.

9/10

- James, 11 years old

Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons (GAS)

Crown Casino
8 Whiteman St, Southbank
Ph: (03) 9694 7400
Open: daily, noon until midnight

It's had a lot of rave reviews so when I was invited to lunch at GAS by a friend, I admit I was excited. The restaurant's "no booking" policy saw us do a midday lunch. I got there 10 minutes early just in case. Missing out was not an option. On a Wednesday there was nothing to worry about with plenty of seats on offer.

I relinquished a seat on the stylish banquette seat to enjoy the view out the windows to the Yarra and city beyond.
Like Rockpool, GAS has its menu on paper which also double as placemats. Pastas, antipastos, meats, including an extensive selection of salamis, featured amongst the comprehensive and original list.

We sought assistance from the waiter. What did he recommend?

For starters: the baby beetroot, goat's curd, young black cabbage and beet juice salad ($18); raw ox "Alba" style, finely diced, pickled Swiss brown mushrooms and grilled bruschetta ($16); raw hand-dived wild Hervey Bay scallops with dwarf peaches, lemon and young Rocket ($15) .

We went with two out of three with the baby beetroot and raw ox, as we needed to save room for the main. A superb choice.

The beetroot salad was a stunning mix of texture and flavor. It could easily be eaten as a main, it was so good. The raw ox was similarly fabulous with its unusual mix of ingredients.

I was keen on pasta and our very friendly helper suggested the Lumarche (a shell pasta) with broccoli, anchovy, garlic ($21).

My lunch date ordered the "Coteletta" crumbed milk-fed veal cutlet ($29).

For sides we had potatoes with rosemary, garlic ($8) and a pea, shallot, mint, basil and air-dried ricotta salad ($9).

It was all accompanied by a lovely pinot noir from the Bellarine Peninsula, again a recommendation from the attentive and charming waiter.

From the word go, everything was delicious. The bread basket offered the most divine mix of breads dipped in stunningly fresh, vibrant Australian olive oil.

We were given a fair break between our delicious starters and main, so we probably could have squeezed in the scallops. Next time.

My pasta was a surprise. It was covered in a green sauce – a puree of the anchovy, garlic and broccoli, looking completely different to what I expected. But it delivered big time with beautiful flavor and a smooth texture.

The veal cutlet was the mother of all cutlets, filling the entire plate. My lunch date devoured it, giving it the tick of approval.

No room or time for dessert unfortunately. But let me tempt you with some options:

The baked chocolate pot with chocolate pearls, served chilled ($14), fresh raspberries, rose-flavored grappa with a vanilla mascarpone tart ($18); the "Canolli", three ways with sweetened ricotta, mocha zabaglione and vanilla custard ($15); strawberry chianti and yoghurt gelato with pistachios ($15); gelati affogato with organic egg vanilla ice cream, hot coffee and chocolate sauce ($17) or Italian chocolate including Manjani flaky coffee chocolate ($12). Yum!

Melbourne is lucky to boast yet another top notch restaurant. GAS is fabulous. I’ll be back to try more of its interesting menu and lap up the great vibe and service.

9.5/10

- kate

Nobu

Ground Floor, Crown Casino
8 Whiteman St, Southbank
Ph: 9696 6566
Dinner: Mon-Thurs 6-10.30pm, Fri-Sat 6-11pm, Sun 6pm-9.45pm
Lunch: noon -3pm


NOBU equals celebrity. Boris Becker's love child was conceived in the broom closet of the London Nobu. Robert De Niro is a part owner. Posh and Becks have donned matching outfits to dine there.

It's a favourite of Kate Moss, Madonna and Gwyneth. Bill and Hilary have held dinner parties in Nobu's private dining room. And so it goes.

Everyone knows Melbourne has its own Nobu. The 15th in the global empire of Nobu Matsuhisa.
Launched to fanfare with De Niro trekking 15,000kms from New York for the opening in July last year, Nobu has been a hot ticket.

The dust has settled and we easily got a mid-week lunch booking.

No celebrities in sight on this day. But there was that delicious sense of possibility that someone worth perving at might show up.

They don't. Instead we focus on designing a menu with the waitress. No attitude here. She's so relaxed and down to earth, she seems more suited to a cafe than the swanky Nobu.

Together we "create" a lunch featuring exquisitely described fusion dishes including: scallop new style sashimi ($17), whitefish new style sashimi ($14), wagyu rib eye new style sashimi ($26), spicy tuna salad ($28), black cod with miso ($42), beef tenderloin with wasabi salsa ($43) and a couple of other dishes we can't recall.

It all happened so fast and the menu was so overwhelming it was difficult to remember what we ordered and what we didn't. This was a bad sign.

Whitefish sashimi was sublime. As was Nobu's signature dish black cod with miso. The tuna spicy salad was crisp and good. The beef tenderloin was delicious.

Each dish was small and exquisite. We sipped Paretai sauvignon blanc from NZ and Blackwood Ridge Traminer Riesling from Central Vic.

All too soon it was over. We summoned our waitress. Where is the wagyu? oh haven't you had that? Perhaps we had. Had we mistaken the Wagyu for the tenderloin? And what else was missing?

The wagyu was delivered with apologies. Delicious and melt-in-your-mouth.


What about the scallops? and the other dishes we ordered?

Too late. The bill came and shock horror, the missing dishes appeared along with their expensive price tag. We were paying for food we didn't actually receive.

The oh so relaxed waitress explained there was a technical problem with the computer in the kitchen. It never received our orders.

We braved a weak smile and said not to worry. A new bill was issued. I profusely thanked my host who had forked out more than $250 for our lunch, seething inside at the missed opportunity to try more dishes.


What a disaster. A dash to the food court mid afternoon was needed to supplement lunch.

Perhaps it was just a horribly off day. whatever it was, it was a complete balls up.

The food we actually received was divine. But for a cock up that bad it's impossible for me to recommend it.

3/10

Kate