Universal Restaurant - Quick Lunch

Location: 141 Lygon Street
Link: www.universalrestaurant.com.au
Cuisine: Italian

Needing a quick lunch one day, we headed to Lygon Street for some good old Italian. We decided to order a pizza and a pasta to share...

Universal Pizza

The pizza came up surprisingly quickly and loaded with topping. The base was thin and crispy and the toppings (cheese, ham, mushrooms, olives and capsicum) very tasty. Like all good pizzas, the cheese was nice and stretchy when pulling the slices apart.

Pollo tortellini

Having previously had a bad experience with the tortellini at this place with the tortellini being too dry, we asked for extra sauce this time (which the waitress dubbed 'extra cream') and hoped that we would not end up with pieces of tortellini swimming in cream. The result was a perfect balance - just enough sauce to accompany the tortellini. The sauce wasn't too overly creamy either, and the chicken and bacon pieces weren't overcooked and worked well in the sauce. The tortellini itself was nice and al dente, and the filling inside was quite tasty.

Food: excellent
Service: minimal but reasonably friendly
Atmosphere: more casual that the general Italian restaurant
Price: pasta and pizza dishes (small) average around $10

Overall Impression: 9/10