Un Lupo Italiano in citta [On The Road: Melbourne]

©Lupino

I was really disappointed with the pizza offers in Melbourne so I got to this place Lupino, modern Italian bistro, dark dim lights, strange music selection including Bob Marley, an extensive menu, kitchen under the command of chef Marco Lori, same mastermind after Australian Good Food Guide one hat award winning Becco. 

The place

After checking the menu decided not to go for the pizza, many good options to try instead. First the arancini quattro formaggi and peas, really nice, perfectly fried, great flavour from the mix of cheeses and peas. Then move to the double baked goat cheese sformata, awesome, discovered a revelation, the puffy moussy sformata is awesome blending with the goat cheese, superb. 

Goat cheese sformata

Arancini

My next dish the baked polpetti in sugo, nice tomato sauce, good combination with the octopus, the remaining sauce was liquidated with bread at the best Italian style. Finally gnocchi gorgonzola, great seasoning, surprisingly the cheese wasn’t as overpowering as I thought, it came with peppers in a side dish to add, and it elevated the dish, it was grande, gustoso, bello, bellissimo, the crunchiness and spicy of the peppers was spot on. 

Gnocchi

Peppers

Octopus

Great meal, full of flavour, rustic style, nice service, and decent pricing.

All these cheeses remind me the Seinfeld episode “The Foundation” 

George: I tell you, Jerry, I'm feeling something. Something I haven't felt in a long time 

Jerry: Pride? 

George: No, autonomy, complete and total autonomy 

Jerry: Well, you're your own boss now 

George: I want to go to a tractor pull 

Jerry: Go ahead 

George: I am staying out all night! 

Jerry: Who's stopping you? 

George: I want to bite into a big hunk of cheese, just bite into it like it's an apple 

Jerry: Whatever

Lupino

T: +61 3 9639 0333

Italian Cuisine

Approx Damage: AU$50pp

Area: CBD

Melbourne

---

View Larger Map Get Directions View Bird's Eye

---

It’s a Trunk world Bar and Diner [On The Road/BurgeReview: Melbourne]

Literally beside my hotel was this place that at noon they sell a good reviewed burger. The place has two menus one at nights under Trunk and the other one at daylight under Trunk Diner. So if the burger is good how bad can be the rest of the menu right? 

Trunk Town

The bar place

The diner place

My first visit was for dinner to the bar, the open air terrace or garden patio was full same as the dining room, loud music, modern warehouse, Italian menu, British style go to the bar order your drinks, food, and pay your bill. 

The bar

Trunk dinner

Ordered a local lager Cricketers Arms, an Arancini and a pizza pescatore, first bad sign food was ready in less than 10 minutes, seriously that’s not even enough time to reheat! Arancini had a nice flavour, weird texture though, overall ok. The pizza a train wreck, let me see where do I start? Some of the seafood on top was cold, freezing cold, the blue swimmer crab meat, the calamari, the prawns, most of them cold and chewy. Then zucchini didn’t went good at all, and chilli was inexistent. At least the crust was nice, also the beer. 

Arancini

Pizza

Second visit, yes I don’t believe I went for a second round after that experience but the burger according to bloggers is in the top of the lists. The diner is pretty industrial and irreverent, metal structure, no walls, instead a plastic cover, and a retractable roof to give a sort of al fresco experience, again you can use the beer garden/terrace if you want, I will recommend to do that on a sunny day. 

Trunk diner

World famous burger

Inside diner

As quite few of other places they are open only for breakfast and lunch, so a pretty narrow window to get the burger, 175 grams of fresh ground Wagyu beef comes in a grilled brioche bun, baby cos lettuce, tomato, and house pickles, you can add a couple tweaks I went for caramelised onions, sautéed mushrooms, crispy bacon, and gruyere, as a side small fries. 

Burger time

Size is small or should we call it again petite, all burgers are cooked medium rare, loved that quote from the menu, took a bit to arrive, not as ridiculous fast as their next door bar. The burger was great, not as small as it looks like, loved the patty, the flavour, perfectly cooked, the add ins were all nice, but a bit too much, I know my fault just add the smoky crispy bacon the next time. The cheese a bit disappointing, not completely melted or covering fully the patty, but overall a great burger, fries were superb, what they missed was a dipping sauce that would have been heavenly but they were top notch. 

Close up

In conclusion Trunk Town is a quite nice to go and have a couple beers in the bar or in the patio, go for the burger I would recommend to pass on the pizza. 

Trunk reminds me The Seinfeld episode “The Susie” when a colleague at Elaine’s office starts to call her Susie 

Jerry: Oh, the trunk's broken, it's rattling 

Elaine: Jerry, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. They're starting to give Susie assignments now 

Jerry: Well, there's only one thing to do, eliminate her 

Elaine: What? 

Jerry: Get rid of Susie, make her disappear 

Elaine: I kind of like her 

Jerry: She's Gone 

Elaine: Jerry… 

Jerry: Gone! That bumper sticker

Trunk / Trunk Diner

T: +61 3 9663 7994

Italian / American

Approx Damage: AUS$ 25pp

Neighbourhood: CBD

Melbourne

Twitter: Trunktown275

---

View Larger Map Get Directions View Bird's Eye

---

Polpo: andar a cicheti

A Venetian tradition is the Bacaro or Osteria, a small cozy restaurant that serves small bites called cicheti, but you won’t need to go to Venice to try them as in London thanks to Russell Norman we got a place to find it quite conveniently in Soho. The place Polpo, equally famous as its siblings (Polpetto, da Polpo, Spuntino, and Mishkins), similar atmosphere, rustic, cool and relax yet fast pace, same concept, and same formula. 

Il Luogo

Polpo

Opened the lunch with mozzarella bocconcini, rocket and walnut pesto, light, nice flavour, walnut gives a nice crunchy texture. Then chopped liver crostini, quite good, strong and punchy flavours. Third dish Arancini nice crunchy crust and soft rice filling. Then for main a chicken cotoletta and baby gem, nice battered, excellent traditional flavour, it remind me my mother’s one which was brilliant, baby gem was nicely seasoned, and perfect, home mayo good but not needed you can eat the cotoletta without it. 

Fegato

Bocconcini

Arancini

Cotoletta

To end the day a chocolate salami, nice, sweet with a good level of bitterness. 

Cioccolato

Bacaro

They say the house was home of the Venetian painter Canaletto, he would be happy eating there everyday. 

Barra

Rustico

Polpo reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Marine Biologist” 

George: Then of course with evolution the octopus lost the nostrils and took on the more familiar look that we know today. But if you look really closely you can still see a bump where the nose use to be 

Diane: Really? 

George: Yeah, but enough about fish I can talk about other things like, architecture

Polpo

T: 020 7734 4479

Italian Cuisine

Approx Damage: £22pp

Area: Soho

Borough: City of Westminster

Twitter: PolpoSoho

---

View Larger Map Get Directions View Bird's Eye

---