Il Bacaro

Mietta's Eating & Drinking in Melbourne 2000

Contributors' Choice
Page 30

On Friday nights Il Bacaro is a very popular and buzzy place. But the feeling is good here at any time, it's always chic and cosy. The slick waiting staff have to squeeze between tables balancing large white plates which fill to overflowing the small tables. Chefs have come and gone here and the food quality has varied. Currently much in favour with our fussy Italian eater and with J. M-S who says she likes Il Bacaro (on quiet nights) "for the food which is always good, simple, carefully presented and unpretentious. Especially the salmon carpaccio, the pasta, the calamari on rocket entree and the delicious grilled asparagus salad with orange".

You pay quite high prices for the space you take here over a meal but then you also feel as if you've left Melbourne and been transported to Italy (even though the waiters are not all Italian), and that fantasy is priceless.

Shops 4 & 5
168-170 Little Collins Street
Melbourne
Italian Cuisine
Melways reference 1B:Q6
Phone: 9654 6778
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 12 noon-12 midnight, Bar Menu served 4-6pm
Licensed
Accept credit cards
Seating Inside: 54
Closed: Most publuc holidays
Features: Restricted smoking, kids encouraged
Favourites: Campari Marinated Atlantic Salmon Carpaccio with lemon Grissini $16.80, Roasted sweet potato and mustard fruits gnocchi in nut brown sage butter $ 13.80, Seafood soup with a selection of crabs, scampi, fish, calamari, mussels, and clams, with roasted pasta and fennel broth $25.80

An updated review can be found here