Wednesday, April 23, 2008

La Camera

Location: Southgate
Cuisine: Italian, Modern Australian
Company: Stace, Mel, Mandy, YC, Anna, Alex, Ed, Peter

~Food~
Having overlooked the fact that all the restaurants would be full due to Valentine's Day, we spent over an hour searching for a place that would give us a table without having to wait for an hour. Strolled along Southbank, then finally managed to get a table of 9 at La Camera in Southgate. The table was so coolly shaped!!!

Ordered the Pollo Prezemolo which was essentially a piece of chicken stuffed with cheese and sundried tomatoes, wrapped in prosciutto and served with some white wine sauce and mashed sweet potatoes. The chicken was nice, not too dry and the stuffing inside was awesome. The sauce was surprisingly nice for wine [I don't like wine]. The two downfalls were the mash and the serving size. The sweet potato mash tasted more like mashed pumpkin, and the serving was quite tiny... as in, the food would have covered maybe a third of the plate!! However, by the end of it, I was sufficiently full and the dessert filled up that last remaining bit. Mel and Stace ordered tiramisu, which was quite good... Then Anna chose a dark chocolate calzone... oozing with chocolate and served with fresh strawberries...mmmm.... I want more now...

~Atmosphere and Service~
The service went from high to low. When we first inquired about a table, they made one up for us in 10 minutes [compared to these one hour waits at other places] and the waiter was very friendly. Once the food arrived though, the service dropped. Everyone's food all came out at once except for Mel's. And when we asked about it, one waitress said that it was "on it's way", however, another few minutes later, we asked another waitress who went out the back and finally brought it out. When we asked for more water, the waiter took the jug away, and forgot to bring it back. Alhough in comparison to other places we've been, I guess the service was still pretty decent.

~Price~
Mains were around $20-$25

~Overall Impression: 9/10~
Given that they were able to immediately set up a table for us on a night where we hadn't found any, the place deserves some brownie points. Will recommend this place for a nice dinner.

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