You cannot visit Melbourne and not hear about Lygon Street. Located in the Carlton area, Lygon Street presents itself as Melbourne's Italian District. Chic boutiques, delicatessens, and designer shops dot this street in between the numerous pizzerias, bakeries and restaurants. It's impossible to take it all in with just one visit, the options are just endless!

I really wanted to try the pizzerias - Tiamo and Papa Gino's seem to be the most popular. Unfortunately, there were just too many people that night. The volume of patrons outside these two places have really gotten me curious. It was such a busy night, so we made our way further down the street and consulted the iphone app - Uraban Spoon which led us to a little place called La Spaghettata. As we made our way, we passed numerous people trying to reel us into their own restaurants - that gets a little too in your face at times but it gives this street its character, I suppose.

Upon arriving to the restaurant, you find a generous al fresco area leading up to the street front.
The clientelle were mostly couples and families having a nice dinner together. The way they decorated the place is quite rustic, and felt like stepping into someone's home. We decided to go for pasta that night - Mart with his usual spaghetti with meatballs and me with my Tortellini with cream sauce. I usually order the stuffed fresh pastas, since I would probably never make these at home.

As we waited for our dishes we entertain ourselves by checking out the many plates hanging on the wall. Each plate has recipes of the pasta dishes they serve in the menu. We started off our dinner with bruschetta with prociutto and boconccini. The dish was pleasant, using fresh and well dressed ingredients. We were hoping for homemade bread though (we're getting spoiled!). The pasta dishes came soon after, and are quite generous in portion size. Mart's dish had lots of meatballs and that certainly made him happy with his choice. My tortellini was good, cooked well but I was expecting a bit more with the cream sauce.

La Spaghettata is a good place for a quiet dinner, but it did not really wow me over. I suppose the hype about Lygon street did not help this cause because I had terribly high expectations. But I'm all for second chances and look forward to coming back and exploring more of what they have to offer!

'Til the next post!

Sharlyn