Vialetto Ristorante: $30 Two Course Deal

Location: 75 Hardware Lane, Melbourne
Link: www.vialetto.com.au
Cuisine: Italian

I've been to this place a few times now, so there isn't much point in re-iterating the wonderful atmosphere and generally quite good service. Straight onto the food!!

Vialetto's currently have a deal on for dinner - $30 will buy you two courses (entree and main or main and dessert). And they do have free drinks - the tip is to appear hesitant about going in until they offer you a complimentary drink on them. The only thing is that if you book in advance, or appear to have already made up your mind to go in, they won't be offering you that drink.

Italian style dips - olive tapenade, smoked salmon & chive and sun dried tomato dips served with toasted bread and salad garnish

This was a bit of a let-down after the work girls raved a bit about how good it was. This time they mushed up the three dips in the one dish instead of giving us three individual dishes. My favourite was the smoked salmon - light but creamy and had a very nice, almost pate-like, taste. The sun-dried tomato dip was sweet, probably too sweet, and the olive tapenade was just a little too oversalted. More bread (maybe warmed turkish bread) would have solved most of the problems with this dish.

Chicken medallions - marinated chicken medallions, pan seared, served with seeded mustard mash, green beans, garnished with a rocket and semi dried tomato salad

Veal saltimbocca - pan cooked baby veal scallopine with Virginia ham and fresh sage, served atop confit potato, sauteed onion, wilted spinach and chive beurre blanc

The veal was a little undercooked which was disappointing, but the sauce was perfect. Creamy but not too heavy, and I could taste the lemon or lime juice through it. The potatoes were soft and creamy in texture. The onions were tasty but I would have preferred them caramelised rather than just sauteed. The spinach was soft and helped break up the meat and cream.

Bigne con cioccolata - profitteroles filled with crema pasticcera and served with warm chocolate sauce & vanilla bean ice-cream.

This was amazing. The profitteroles were filled with thick cold cream and the pastry outer shell was hardened but a little crunchy. The chocolate sauce and ice-cream matched it well. My only complaint is that there should have been more strawberries!

Service: excellent, albeit a little slow
Food: average
Value for money: excellent, especially with a free drink (includes basic alcohols)
Atmosphere: excellent

Overall Impression: 8.5/10