Grossi Florentino

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

Recommended. I love the place. We have lived in Melbourne for 2 years now and tried a lot of restaurant, but this is excellent. My tortellini was fantastic.

Apr 25, 2012 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

My dad took me here to celebrate my birthday. It was a lovely night, food and service were excellent. Thank you.

Apr 19, 2012 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  8     

This place oozes that secret ingredient that money simply cannnot buy, character. The room feels like an event, it has age and that sense of "if only these walls could talk". The staff look professional and as though they belong in the grandness of the room. They are also extremely attentive and friendly and knowledgeable about the menu and the wines.

The menu is huge with 3 different degustation options, including a vegetarian and a big a la carte selection. No one could come to this place and complain they could not find something they liked.

We ate a la carte, I had the lobster tortellini followed by the pigeon. Both dishes were good. The lobster dish was very subtle but the flavor was extremely sophisticated. The pigeon was rich and gamey, just as you would expect. The other dishes that came to our table all looked great, in particular the blue spanner crab dish.

Big selection of wines, good food, great room, hard not to recommend this place. The only negative is that it is pricey with most mains around the $60 mark. But if you want a great Italian meal with a sense of occasion, this is the place to come to.

Mar 15, 2012 

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  7     

Yes it was a place I felt just needed to be ticked off. Service is great, while being modern and relaxed, not too over the top. Inside even though keeping it traditional it seems it could do with a bit of a modern update.

As for the food, it was good but did expect more. Entrees, mains and dessert were all pretty good. But the pasta dishes we had between entree and mains were average. I think they were the rabbit linguine and a lobster ravioli, just seemed bland and lacked something. All the food was very fresh.

Overall we can say we have been here and it was good, but at about $200 ea (included 1/2 botttle red) I would try elsewhere next time in Melbourne.

Jan 31, 2012 

7 Recommended

Food  6      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  6     

Been many times, but lately the food has been ordinary. The service is still fantastic, and sitting on bourke st having a coffee and people watching is also fantastic but sadly for me it seems that Florentino will now become just my coffee place on a nice afternnon.

Jan 10, 2012 

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

Oh... My... God! This was not dinner, it was a divine experience! Let's move away from the food for just a moment and mention the service etc. The staff were very attentive, without being overbearing or pretentious. It truly felt like we were regular customers of the restaurant.

Ok, back to the food, oh that glorious food! Have I said Oh My God yet? Yes? Well, I meant it! While the whole meal was simply beautiful, special mention goes to my first course, the Risotto Venere. Venere rice, cooked to perfection, a parmesan sabayon resting over half the dish with beautifully fresh moreton bay bug. I swear this dish gave me an experience that no dish has ever done in my life.

Sounds like an exaggeration doesn't it? The textures and flavours going on with each mouthful was incredible, from the subtle pop then creaminess of each rice grain, to the tang of the parmesan sabayon, and the meatiness of a very generous bug... nope.. describing it just doesn't do it justice. I would go there again for that dish alone.

The mains were impressive as well, with us going for the slow cooked pigs cheek and belly, and the rabbit agrodolce. The pigs cheek was so tender I was tempted to see if I could eat it with a straw, the belly was perfectly cooked. The rabbit was oh so tender, falling off the bone. The servings of all the courses was extremely generous. So much so, I actually had a moment where I questioned the need for dessert.

Dessert won. My partner had a delicious butterscotch semifreddo, very subtle, while I had the very punchy and tart Rhubarb canoli. Definitely a wow factor to end the night. Now there's a few people here that complain about the prices. I'm not sure why. We did our research before we booked here, so we knew what we were in for. We wanted to try a high end restaurant during our time in Melbourne and had no issue with paying a premium to do so.

And after that experience, I was pleasantly surprised to come out with more in my wallet than I expected. Sure it's expensive, but by God, it's so bloody good and so worth every penny!

Sep 21, 2011 

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  6     

It was abit expensive but the food was great, worth a trip.

Sep 14, 2011 

4.8 Average

Food  6      Ambience  4      Service  4      Value  5     

My partner and I recently went for a pre-theatre dinner at the Grossi Grill. Food was good, but it should be at these prices - if not a little overpriced we thought. The main issue I had with the place was the slightly bewildering manager who was on duty (small, erratic, unfriendly looking lady) who proceeded to prevent the waiting staff from doing their job by ordering them around throughout the service. As such, his resulted in a constant stream of waiters to our table, water and bread being topped up every few minutes and an overall panicky feeling about the place. A real shame - all the staff seemed perfectly competent. Food and wine nice, just spoilt by the over-attentiveness of the 'stressed out' manager.

Feb 19, 2011 

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  7     

Short review. Fantastic food, attentive service, wonderful atmosphere and an overall great experience. This is not a cheap restaurant, come here expecting to pay for quality.

Dec 14, 2010 

5 Average

Food  4      Ambience  9      Service  6      Value  1     

This restaurant is not good, but not for the reasons you would think. The dining room and atmosphere are terrific and the service is good, but a little cold and reserved. The big problem is the food. The veal dish I had was not remotely memorable and the fish I sampled from my sister's plate didn't seem to have much taste. Overall, the flavour combination, dash of obscurity and concept behind each dish is just plain wrong, even though the produce seems good and well cooked.

For dessert I had a camomile creme brulee. While I should have thought twice before ordering, I decided to give something 'different' a go. It was disgusting, mostly because camomile and cream don't mix. This dessert pretty much optimised the food we were served all-round. No one at our table seemed to really enjoy their meals very much in the end, and given the prices are obscene, it's poor value for money. Another disappointing overpriced restaurant with silly food, yet it's full and sustained by its reputation.

Oct 30, 2010