Gigi's Restaurant & Bar

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  10     

Wow, I must have eaten at a different restaurant to the other two reviewers because my experience was excellent.

Having been a fan of Dane Tobias's cooking since his days at Mt Kembla pub, I was excited when I learnt that he was now on the pans at Gigis. We arrived 15 minutes early for our booking and were briskly taken to our table, set up with menus and given ample time to make our selections.

We started out with the Arancini balls, which were crisp on the outside and oozy in the middle, and a greek salad which was tasty, however, I found the addition of rocket a little odd.

For main course I had the delightful Sicilian seafood stew which I am told is an original recipe of Gennaro Contaldo (Jamie Olivers mentor) whom Dane worked under. Fresh tasty prawns, fat mussels and fillets of fish brought together with a beautiful tomato based sauce on a bed of freshly made tagliatelle and a side of crusty grilled sourdough ideal for mopping up any remaining sauce.

My partner had the Gnocchi in meat ragu, which was also delicious. The most surprising aspect of the night was the bill which came to $93 for 2 entrees, 2 mains, 2 glasses of wine and 1 coffees. Its so refreshing to see a restaurant in Wollongong doing honest wholesome Italian food without the exorbitant price tag (Take note Lorenzo's Diner) and we will definitely be back for another helping.

May 24, 2012 

1.3 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

Took over an hour to get a very average bowl of pasta and we left hungry at 9.45pm having received entree 20 minutes after the main.

Mar 10, 2012 

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  1      Value  2     

Started off bad from the get go. Called to make a reservation for 8, person taking down the reservation asked for no name or contact number, had to ask if she wanted to take down a name to put against the reservation. Courtesy called on the day to tell them we would be 1/2 hour early if table was available, told we didn’t have a booking, so we made a now one for 7.30. Arrived 7.35 greeted by an unfriendly manager scolding us for being 40 mins late, threatening they were just about to use the table, apparently the booking was taken down as 7.00, should have walked out then.

Our waitress changed midway, both were nice, took down our orders, told they had run out of specials that night at 7.45?

Food was not fantastic by any standard, waited well over an hour between entree's and mains. Manager came out to tell us kitchen has told him our meals will be out in a minute and a half, waited another 10 to receive 3 out of 4 mains. When we asked why there was a delay on the pizza (the easiest meal of the 3) told unless we want to be served uncooked pizza there was nothing he could do about it. 2 out of the three mains we received were cold, and 2 contained chilli when not specified on the menu.

We opted not to have dessert. Needless to say I will not be returning.

Feb 18, 2012