Friday night and the search of perfect pizza and great wine beckoned us to Il Posto. Il Posto is located in the Paddington Central precinct on Latrobe Tce. We arrived to a pumping restaurant a contrast to the rather dead shopping precinct.
The ambience at Il Posto leaves a lot to be desired. It is surrounded by day trading cafes and shops lending a somewhat spartan desolate vibe.
Within the walls of Il Posto this is not the case as we arrive at 8pm to a very busy restaurant. We are advised that there is a 30-minute wait on tables and we are shown to the bar.
Bookings are not taken at Il Posto, so if you are heading out there on Friday/Saturday night, be prepared for a wait. We bide our time with drinks. My "eat me Brisbane" dining team chose beers and tried a ciccolina - a cocktail based on aperol and grapefruit, this was really well mixed - a perfect start.
We were gladly shown to our table, after about a 20-minute wait. The pace at this place is frenetic, the waiters and front of house are flat out and the stress of their urgency isn't disguised, leaving the diner with a great sense of urgency.
It was suggested to us to start with the calamari and a pizza. As there were four of us, we agreed. The calamari - fried baby calamari served with rocket and lemon arrived instantly. We wondered whether another table had mistakenly been given it and it was sent back. However the pace here is fast, and the service is almost too efficient.
Both the flavour and texture of the calamari was perfect, a generous coating of salt and pepper crust, however not so powerful as to overwhelm the flavour of the calamari. I do prefer crumbed calamari to have a crunch to the batter though. This crumbing was more of a damp coating, perhaps due to overegging? Despite this it was moorish, tasty and somewhat satisfying.
Next, arrived the Pizza. We shared the Salame Pizza (salami,
tomato, mozzarella, asiago cheese, salami & roasted red capsicum). This was to die for. The base was everything I want in a pizza, rustic, not too thick not to thin, well crisped yet chewy in the right way! The topping was so well balanced with flavour the earthy salt of the salami being perfectly counterbalanced by the roasted capsicum.
We were all so hungry that we decided to have our own main instead of sharing 3. The menu reads so well at Il Posto, that it is not a place for the indecisive. We all decided on pasta dishes, leaving the traditional Italian contorini for another time (involtini, scaloppini etc).
We decided on the following
linguine allo scoglio
fresh mixed seafood, EVO, garlic, chilli $22.5
tortiglioni con salsiccia
tubular pasta w/ pork and fennel sausage, tomato, smoked mozzarella $19.5
pappardelle all’ anatra
duck & porcini mushroom ragu, fresh parsley, thyme $22.5
Pasta of the Day spinach and ricotta gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce.
The ricotta gnocchi was the standout, sauce was perfectly decadent, however the gnocchi were too doughy. The two other pastas lacked a sense of balance and genuine flavour. For example the duck in the pappardelle, had a five-spice flavour through it which didn't suit the sauce (Mr Eat me Brisbane suspects this is because they used a Chinese BBQ Duck)
In summary Il Posto is a must go to for Pizza. It is the perfect place to catch up with friends for a quick and casual outing over beer and pizza. You wont be disappointed. However Il Posto was not e Italian all rounder we hoped it to be.
Il Posto
107 Latrobe Terrace, Paddington, Brisbane, Queensland, 4064.
(07) 3367 3111
