goodtaste

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

This is a fabulous restaurant. Not often do I read a menu and think every single entree and main sound delicious. What a choice. I settled on the special of crispy skin salmon served with tempura zucchini flowers stuffed with a seafood mouse. Beautifully cooked, wonderfully presented and the portion size was generous. My partner had the barramundi which was equally divine and generous in portion size.

A stand out for me was the attentive, unobtrusive and knowledgeable waitstaff. It was really refreshing to have a waiter explain the food with passion and integrity. The views across the water to the Melbourne skyline are an added bonus and the wine list is reasonable priced. I'm looking forward to returning.

May 06, 2010

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

We've been to L'uccellino a couple of times now and we've been very satisfied on both times. The pizza's are very traditional, much like you get in Italy. Unlike a lot of bad pizza we have, unfortunately, got used to, the pizza's here have fewer toppings, but quality is the key, not quantity. Staying true to the origins of Italian pizza, there is no oily, cheap cheddar cheese or rubbery mozzarella, just lovely buffalo milk mozzarella.

I can highly recommend the zucchini, mint and chilli pizza as well as the Genovese. The only pizza I’ve not been entirely satisfied with was the prawn. Whilst the flavours were lovely, it was just a little sparse on the prawns (only 4) and it didn’t quite leave me satisfied. My suggestion is to order one pizza each and then share so that you get an overall selection. If you’re a meat eater, don’t discount the vegetarian options as they are really tasty and satisfying.

The ambience is nice too. Not intimate, so not really a romantic destination, but a great place to enjoy with friends and a bottle or two of their Italian Pinot Grigio.

Sep 24, 2009

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  9      Value  8     

We've always enjoyed having lunch at Lime Bar. It's a cute cafe in a prime position on Bellair St. The food is consistently good and the service is prompt, friendly and laid back. I highly recommend the Pollo Foccacia and the Lime Burger for lunch.

Aug 08, 2009

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.8 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  4      Service  3      Value  2     

What a disappointment this place turned out to be. The food is bland, poor quality and certainly not prepared with love. As food lovers, we went to the Abyssinian hoping to discover the delights of Etheopian cuisine, but left wondering is this Flemington eatery touting bland as the new cool?

The first downfall of the restaurant is the waitstaff speak limited English and are incapable of explaining what the dishes actually consist of. When asked to recommend a few dishes that would give us an overall taste of the cuisine, we were met with an apathetic response of “all of them, maybe you should have the mixed platter”. So we took her advise.

Big mistake, the platter seems to be filled with the poorer of the menu’s dishes, which is most likely boils down to sheer economics. The platter had contained 3 meat options of chicken, lamb and goat. All of which were poorly cooked and bland. The goat was inedible due to the toughness. The platter was a huge disappointed.

We tried to pass on the feedback to the waitress in a very diplomatic and calm manner, but were then confronted by the kitchen staff who became rude and hostile to us simply because we didn’t like her food. The staff and senior staff seem to adopt this arrogant stance of blocking feedback by simply stating “if the food is not so good, then why are we busy”. You get a sense of the senior staffs defensiveness in his response Walter1 below.

To add insult to the poor food and dismal service, the restaurant slogs you $8 corkage per bottle, even through we opened the bottles and poured the wine ourselves. Lastly a good restaurant can always pride themselves on clean bathroom facilities. Unfortunately, the hygiene of the restrooms at the Abyssinian leave little to be desired.

Response from Management:
We do employ a delightful girl that might not be excellent in English, but that she has a great smile and try her best to give all assistance to all client every night.
She might not know how all dishes are cooked or what kind of spices are there, but she gives her best shot in giving suggestions that can make a client happy, and 99% of the times it works very well.
The suggestion of the platter is obvious as it is designed to give a first taste of our traditional food.
There are 9 different kind of samples in the platter including chicken, fish, lamb, goat, 2 different kind of lentils, cabbage and carrots, pumpkin and salad.
Each of this dishes have a different range of spices; each dish has a taste by itself, original and tasteful.
I would suggest to read a random comment on
http://www.tomatom.com/2009/06/the-abyssinian-freedom-fighter-food-in-kensington/
so to get a complete different prospective from another client (by the way, a food critic) about our food, or from Matt Preston's article on The Age last year, or from other hundreds of comments we get from all kind of people we do serve every day that do appreciate what we do here, despite we might speak good English or not

I do remember this table: three people, two gentlemen and a lady.
I do recall one of them complaining to the waitress about the goat, and only the goat.
The waitress passed the feedback onto the kitchen, prompting the chef, Rahel, to come out so to listen to the complain.
As`soon as she approached the clients, one of them in particular became very vulgar with his language and showed no respect for the chef that, although very busy, found time to come out so to listen to the clients.

The $8.00 corkage per bottle is written into the menu and if the gentleman did not want to pay the fee he should have not opened the bottle.
We do leave the choice to open the bottles and pour the wine by the clients themselves as we did discover thought time that is something the clients appreciate: opening their favorite wines.
The fee is not for the actual act of opening the bottle, but for allowing the client to bring in and enjoy their own favorite wines.
Our establishment is fully licensed, and BYO wine only is an addition so to please the clients.

Our bathroom is usually very clean and we are proud of it; we might, on a very busy night, sometimes be late onto keeping it very spotless, but we do go to out utmost to keep it as clean as possible.

I do remember the tables near by listening to the conversation and actually looking at him in a very surprised way.

To our dismay, one person in particular was very rude and vulgar and also racist towards our culture by saying repetitively "in what kind of country people eat this s...food" , something we do not accept in our restaurant, whatever comments you might have about the food.

I would like to reiterate that out of the three sitting at the table, only one person was continuously speaking and complaining while the other two keep to themselves.

We do understand that the all point was not to give a feedback, but to gain some kind of discount of even not to pay the bill, which he did not obtain and that is way everything now about our restaurant is not up to his standard.

And to his statement just before leaving the restaurant: "Don't you know that the client is always right? " i did reply, and i am absolutely convinced about this: " The client is always right when he is really right"

We do not need this kind of clients in our restaurant.
We do appreciate feedback if they are real and honest, but mainly told in a polite manner which was not the case this time.
And . as a sign in our door strongly states : Racism is not accepted here.
Thanks for not coming back

Jun 19, 2009

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  7     

Great food, served fast and good value. The pizza's are very tasty and perfect for sharing. Nice views over Docklands. Would recommend for lunch or a quick dinner. Looking forward to returning.

Jun 19, 2009

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

This is a fabulous restaurant. Not often do I read a menu and think every single entree and main sound delicious. What a choice. I settled on the special of crispy skin salmon served with tempura zucchini flowers stuffed with a seafood mouse. Beautifully cooked, wonderfully presented and the portion size was generous. My partner had the barramundi which was equally divine and generous in portion size.

A stand out for me was the attentive, unobtrusive and knowledgeable waitstaff. It was really refreshing to have a waiter explain the food with passion and integrity. The views across the water to the Melbourne skyline are an added bonus and the wine list is reasonable priced. I'm looking forward to returning.

May 06, 2010

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

We've been to L'uccellino a couple of times now and we've been very satisfied on both times. The pizza's are very traditional, much like you get in Italy. Unlike a lot of bad pizza we have, unfortunately, got used to, the pizza's here have fewer toppings, but quality is the key, not quantity. Staying true to the origins of Italian pizza, there is no oily, cheap cheddar cheese or rubbery mozzarella, just lovely buffalo milk mozzarella.

I can highly recommend the zucchini, mint and chilli pizza as well as the Genovese. The only pizza I’ve not been entirely satisfied with was the prawn. Whilst the flavours were lovely, it was just a little sparse on the prawns (only 4) and it didn’t quite leave me satisfied. My suggestion is to order one pizza each and then share so that you get an overall selection. If you’re a meat eater, don’t discount the vegetarian options as they are really tasty and satisfying.

The ambience is nice too. Not intimate, so not really a romantic destination, but a great place to enjoy with friends and a bottle or two of their Italian Pinot Grigio.

Sep 24, 2009

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  9      Value  8     

We've always enjoyed having lunch at Lime Bar. It's a cute cafe in a prime position on Bellair St. The food is consistently good and the service is prompt, friendly and laid back. I highly recommend the Pollo Foccacia and the Lime Burger for lunch.

Aug 08, 2009

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.8 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  4      Service  3      Value  2     

What a disappointment this place turned out to be. The food is bland, poor quality and certainly not prepared with love. As food lovers, we went to the Abyssinian hoping to discover the delights of Etheopian cuisine, but left wondering is this Flemington eatery touting bland as the new cool?

The first downfall of the restaurant is the waitstaff speak limited English and are incapable of explaining what the dishes actually consist of. When asked to recommend a few dishes that would give us an overall taste of the cuisine, we were met with an apathetic response of “all of them, maybe you should have the mixed platter”. So we took her advise.

Big mistake, the platter seems to be filled with the poorer of the menu’s dishes, which is most likely boils down to sheer economics. The platter had contained 3 meat options of chicken, lamb and goat. All of which were poorly cooked and bland. The goat was inedible due to the toughness. The platter was a huge disappointed.

We tried to pass on the feedback to the waitress in a very diplomatic and calm manner, but were then confronted by the kitchen staff who became rude and hostile to us simply because we didn’t like her food. The staff and senior staff seem to adopt this arrogant stance of blocking feedback by simply stating “if the food is not so good, then why are we busy”. You get a sense of the senior staffs defensiveness in his response Walter1 below.

To add insult to the poor food and dismal service, the restaurant slogs you $8 corkage per bottle, even through we opened the bottles and poured the wine ourselves. Lastly a good restaurant can always pride themselves on clean bathroom facilities. Unfortunately, the hygiene of the restrooms at the Abyssinian leave little to be desired.

Response from Management:
We do employ a delightful girl that might not be excellent in English, but that she has a great smile and try her best to give all assistance to all client every night.
She might not know how all dishes are cooked or what kind of spices are there, but she gives her best shot in giving suggestions that can make a client happy, and 99% of the times it works very well.
The suggestion of the platter is obvious as it is designed to give a first taste of our traditional food.
There are 9 different kind of samples in the platter including chicken, fish, lamb, goat, 2 different kind of lentils, cabbage and carrots, pumpkin and salad.
Each of this dishes have a different range of spices; each dish has a taste by itself, original and tasteful.
I would suggest to read a random comment on
http://www.tomatom.com/2009/06/the-abyssinian-freedom-fighter-food-in-kensington/
so to get a complete different prospective from another client (by the way, a food critic) about our food, or from Matt Preston's article on The Age last year, or from other hundreds of comments we get from all kind of people we do serve every day that do appreciate what we do here, despite we might speak good English or not

I do remember this table: three people, two gentlemen and a lady.
I do recall one of them complaining to the waitress about the goat, and only the goat.
The waitress passed the feedback onto the kitchen, prompting the chef, Rahel, to come out so to listen to the complain.
As`soon as she approached the clients, one of them in particular became very vulgar with his language and showed no respect for the chef that, although very busy, found time to come out so to listen to the clients.

The $8.00 corkage per bottle is written into the menu and if the gentleman did not want to pay the fee he should have not opened the bottle.
We do leave the choice to open the bottles and pour the wine by the clients themselves as we did discover thought time that is something the clients appreciate: opening their favorite wines.
The fee is not for the actual act of opening the bottle, but for allowing the client to bring in and enjoy their own favorite wines.
Our establishment is fully licensed, and BYO wine only is an addition so to please the clients.

Our bathroom is usually very clean and we are proud of it; we might, on a very busy night, sometimes be late onto keeping it very spotless, but we do go to out utmost to keep it as clean as possible.

I do remember the tables near by listening to the conversation and actually looking at him in a very surprised way.

To our dismay, one person in particular was very rude and vulgar and also racist towards our culture by saying repetitively "in what kind of country people eat this s...food" , something we do not accept in our restaurant, whatever comments you might have about the food.

I would like to reiterate that out of the three sitting at the table, only one person was continuously speaking and complaining while the other two keep to themselves.

We do understand that the all point was not to give a feedback, but to gain some kind of discount of even not to pay the bill, which he did not obtain and that is way everything now about our restaurant is not up to his standard.

And to his statement just before leaving the restaurant: "Don't you know that the client is always right? " i did reply, and i am absolutely convinced about this: " The client is always right when he is really right"

We do not need this kind of clients in our restaurant.
We do appreciate feedback if they are real and honest, but mainly told in a polite manner which was not the case this time.
And . as a sign in our door strongly states : Racism is not accepted here.
Thanks for not coming back

Jun 19, 2009

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  7     

Great food, served fast and good value. The pizza's are very tasty and perfect for sharing. Nice views over Docklands. Would recommend for lunch or a quick dinner. Looking forward to returning.

Jun 19, 2009

3.8 Below Average

Food  2      Ambience  4      Service  5      Value  4     

We dined at Bangkok Spice on Friday night, hoping to enjoy a relatively cheap and tasty Thai meal. We certainly got the cheap but without the taste. The food would have to be the worst Thai food we've ever had. Boring and tasteless is the best way to describe the meal. The meal looked like it was prepared by a child following a recipe found in a 1970's edition of Family Circle.

Sep 04, 2007

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  9     

I've eaten at this restaurant about 6 times now and it just keeps getting better. It's definitely the best Lebanese in Sydney and without a doubt the best I've ever had anywhere in the world. Service is polite and the bellydancer is an added bonus. Great value!

Feb 19, 2006