Friendly service with authentic Italian staff! Great Food…read moreand Good Coffee! The owners of Sapori d'Abruzzo 861 have taken over the old Il Portobello restaurant site in Essendon. They have fully renovated the restaurant to make it more open & spacious. This does cause a bit of noise when there are a lot of patrons, but the friendly service & great food definitely make up for it! The menu has traditional Abruzzo meals to enjoy and a good wine selection for accompaniment. All in all it is definitely worth a try with a friend, partner or large group of friends. There is also a large function space upstairs to enjoy!

Sometimes when you have no options but one around you and you're hungry, thirsty and don't have a…read moresense of smell or taste due to a cold. ... you'd still rather eat dirt of the pavement than the only option open. This regrettably was not me. I choose the only option. Now I'm sitting here enjoying my delightful light Kenya blend coffee across at their rival writing a review about them on how their coffee is was too hot, to the point that it's carcinogen (W.H.O talked about extremely high temperatures influencing cancer growth, 2015, good read, talks about coffee too). Anyway, that's my rant about the coffee. And the food? I ordered the "something or other Italian" the name is as memorable as the taste, so don't bother. The eggs were pan fried which I'm fine with if they were nice and hot, room temp or even lukewarm. But no cold?! Cold!!?!? How?! All I had were four clearly pan fried cheery tomatoes and and some sort of zucchini mix. And that mix by the way, of zucchini, Italian sausage and ...Pork? Was more just zucchini, zucchini, oil, zucchini, maybe a little Italian sausage and I'm not even sure if I got the pork :( So I ate the cold eggs on my bread not incrusted with cheese, aye some of the zucchini zucchini. My coffee came late so had two, three sips and called it a day. Got up and did my grocery shopping and sat and wrote this wacky story about a s***t cafe. Here's the kicker. It's not worth one star and I've eaten paster there before (which was average, at best). Go there if you like the atmosphere as it is a nice layout and location. But don't expect anything. Like anything!

I have enjoyed many breakfasts and dinners here. A very nice part of the shopping centre that…read moreprovides a great environment to dine and enjoy the variety of dishes on offer. The pizza and pastas are very good and up to standard with the mediterranean style of the restaurant, the service is always good. Lately however I have been disappointed by the quality of food and coffees provided. Increasing profits by reducing portions and using cheap milk perhaps. Attention is starting to be lacking on the details of service and the quality and quantity of food.

We had a lovely dinner at this cozy white tablecloth Italian restaurant on a busy Friday. Our…read morereservation (absolutely a must) was for 5:30 when they opened and we were dining with some local Ozzie friends. The menu features traditional Italian dishes with interesting local twists. My wife and I enjoyed the caprese salad with luscious tomatoes and fresh burratta and even though we split it-the portions were still huge. Our friends enjoyed the sesame encrusted tuna tartare. We all got pastas as our mains-me the lobster/angel hair, my wife the ravioli and another guest the risotto feature. Delicious sourdough bread with olive oil was also a part of the meal. The extensive wine list has hundreds of selections including a wide range of Italian and Australian wines. Service is fast and efficient but don't plan to linger too long as this small restaurant is in high demand and they will likely be needing your table after 90 min. Recommended.

This is one of my fav places, the ambience is perfect for date nights…read more I especially loved the spaghetti vongole. Giorgio was so kind and helped settle us in. I highly recommend if you love italian!

What can I say about this place, such an fantastic meal !!…read more There were four of us dining, we thought we had booked ahead online, but somehow there was an issue and our booking was never registered. But they still managed to squeeze us in, although outside. Being a barmy Summer Saturday evening there were no issues from us, apart from not much space on the table. All four of us agreed what a wonderful meal we all had. The staff were very friendly and good humoured. We WILL return the next time we are in town !!!

Hands down the best Italian food I've had in Melbourne. A…read morecharming restaurant, run by the same family for 56 years.

I been going here for almost five years! the food was amazing.. I had a chicken and mushroom…read morerisotto! best thing ever..!! service is excellent

If I could leave no stars for Pacinos I would. Using the…read morePacinos website I placed an order for $325.00 to be delivered to my home on a Wednesday night (for a birthday dinner). The order was placed at 3.30pm for delivery between 6.25pm-6.45pm. At 6.50pm I called Pacinos to check in as to whether the food was far away (we had kids waiting for food). I was told the food was waiting to be collected and had been ready at 6.30pm. I explained that I had ordered the food earlier in the day and was waiting for delivery. The manager, said that they don't do delivery. I explained that I had ordered from THEIR website where they offer free delivery for orders over $100. The manager said that the website had nothing to do with them and that I needed to come and get the food. Again I explained that I had used the Pacinos website - not a third party for the order, and they were responsible for delivering the food, as per their website. The manager asked if I wanted him to come to my house, hold a candle above his head and sing Happy Birthday to me. I asked to speak to the owner. The manger said the owner was overseas and 'good luck' trying to contact them. My husband and I decided to go to the store to get the food and show him the confirmation email screen shots confirming the delivery. On our way we received a call from an Uber driver saying the food was on its way. The food arrived at 7.25pm and was stone cold. Overall, a terrible, rude experience from Pacinos.

Enjoyed a lovely 80th lunch today (July 2025). Thank you Riverside for helping to make my…read morehusband's day so special. Food and service was fabulous and of course the lovely green views outside. Thank you again. L.F.

Good breakfast. As a gluten free eater had very good service and very nice poached eggsread more

I expected mediocrity at high prices and I was still disappointed. Prosciutto, calamari and…read morefocaccia were quite nice, however the anchovies had 6 small fillets, no different to store bought anchovies, while the olives had an unprocessed and still bitter olive within. Pizza Diavola was nice, but the Pizza Rustica was bland and heavy, and the veal scallopine had split by the time it had arrived to the table.

They could serve me a plate of plain pizza dough here and I'd be in heaven!…read more We booked for 6:30 on a Tuesday night and to my surprise it was actually quite busy. We were tucked away in a windowed corner, worrying me that we would never been seen by staff. I clearly had nothing to worry about - everyone was attentive, fast and funnily enough, Italian! It took us about 2 seconds to choose our meals. I'm used to going to 90 secondi which has an identical menu. Margherita and gnocchi with 2 glasses of Sangiovese rosé. It couldn't of been more than 10 minutes before everyone was on the table in front of us! Absolutely delicious and the perfect share meal. Once we'd scoffed down the food we opted for the Nutella calzone. GET IT! Don't worry about the rest of the menu. Just get the calzone! It was almost more satisfying than the meal itself! So much chocolate, so so much chocolate and delicious pizza dough and perfect ice cream. It's very big though and can easily be shared with 2-4. It's nice to know there's an authentic pizza place less than 10 minutes from home for something a little different to the takeaway joint around the corner. It's made the regular list.

My wood fired pizza Calzone Piccante was all I expected and more. Spicy Pizza with great taste; the…read morespice was well balanced with the fine tastes of the rest of the pizza, yum. The Affogato can be developed further in presentation but the port and port glasses blew me away, long stemmed tulips.

I loved the Pappardelle Bolognese. What isn't there to love about soft ribbons of pasta topped…read morewith beef and melt in your mouth mozzarella? The cod croquettes to start we're also flavoursome. The accompanying bread warm and fresh, served with ample house butter. A special, Italian cuccina that won't disappoint. Authentic service, a menu ample with excellent dishes to choose from and a hearty cocktail list too. Ingredients for a perfect eve.

Lively new lunch & dinner restaurant with fresh in-house made pasta, fine ingredients, and…read moreoutstanding service at a reasonable price. Bookings are recommended, but I often eat at the bar and watch the chefs perform their magic. Highly recommended!

We picked this restaurant because it was close to our hotel so when it turned out to be truly…read moreSPECTACULAR we were stunned. Even though Melbourne is filled with great restaurants this one was worth coming back twice in the week that we were here. It shone in every dimension. Memorable food ( absolutely excellent and innovative combinations but not crazy) lovely service, helpful and aware, and a cozy space. Excellent wine list and a delightful ambience. We recommend this most highly!!!

A wonderful restaurant in the heart of the city. The chefs choice meal was perfectly out together!…read moreThe service was perfect and the food delectable.