CicciolinaPh: 9525 3333 ; 130 Acland St, ST KILDA 3182 www.cicciolinastkilda.com.auCocktail/Wine Bar, $$ -, * for Food & Ambience Open mon-sat 4.30pm-1am sun 4.30-11pm, Closed Xmas Day; Licensed; AE DC MC V Chef Virginia Redmond (10-1-10) Owner Barbara Dight, Lisa Carrodus & Virginia Redmond (10-1-10) |
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Mietta's Review
When maximum loving is sought, head to Cicciolina, a St Kilda institution that attracts a devoted band of regular clientele (and their children) who are as passionate about it as the women who own and run it. There's lots of energy in this room, the ambience is informal and the service is brisk, yet even amongst the throng, you feel completely cosseted. This is due, in part, to the food. Chef Virginia Redmond has a genuine feeling for fresh produce and the resultant dishes encompass balanced flavours that are clean and true to their source. However there is one impediment to sharing in the love here, due to a no booking policy there can be a wait for a table. Hence the introduction of the back bar, where booth seats are prized, the antipasto platter generous and the wine list extensive, the cocktails list is great too. So come, have a pre-dinner drink and tasty treat to stimulate your appetite whilst waiting for your table, if indeed you still want it. This place is the package, and is as sexy as an Italian porn star, but a little more difficult to get into.
Other published opinions
Age Cheap Eats 2010
Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 15/20
Age Melbourne Magazine Best bars of 2009
Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide "This ever-popular tiny restaurant is like a little black dress - it never goes out of style. With its dim lighting, cheek-by-jowl seating arrangements and no-bookings policy. Cicciolina continues to nourish the eclectic mix of diners who frequent it"
Age Michael Harden, 9-06-2009
Age Cheap Eats 2009
Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 15.5/20
Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide "it's a flirty old place, as you'd expect from a restaurant that shares a name with a porn starturned-politician. From the nude studies to the close-set tables, the red banquettes and the no-bookings policy (you'll have a drink in the cosy bar before your table is called), it's an oasis of bohemia in gentrified Acland Street"
Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "Its popularity and no-bookings policy mean that this isn't the place to dine on a tight schedule, but if you're after a seriously fun night, then relax and indulge at Cicciolina"
Herald Sun Dining Out, Simon Plant, 10-07-07 Score: 16/20 "Hot spots come and go. Cicciolina stays put and Cicciolina just gets better with Age. A small miracle, really, considering the nightly crush to get in the door. The floor staff take it all in their stride, rarely missing a beat, while the kitchen brigade pumps out Italianinfluenced food that has nothing to do with fashionable trends. Just flavour. Cicciolina's cellar brims with Australasian favourites and some intriguing European drops, including seven varieties of grappa."
Age Cheap Eats Bars 2007
Age Cheap Eats 2006
Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide "This is what home cooking would be like if we could all be bothered all the time. Simple, robust food that leaves you begging for seconds."
Age Good Food Guide 2005
Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide "No St Kilda real estate is held more tightly than tables at this clubby bistro. The no-bookings policy means the back bar's always full of people nibbling on olives or meatballs, willing the lucky diners not to stick around for dessert."
Age Cheap Eats 2005
Age Cheap Eats 2004
The Foodies' Guide 2004,Allan Campion & Michele Curtis,'Bars with Great Food-What started as a bar for diners to have a drink while waiting for a table has taken on a life of it's own.The wine, and martini,lists are fan-dabby-dozy,while the food is an eclectic selection of antipasto tastes.'
SMH GFG 2004,'It's real dark.It's real noisy.You can't book.And you know what?One visit and you'll be hooked-willing to wait for a table at St Kilda's lovable Mediterranean street-front bistro.'
Age Good Food Guide 2004 Awards-1 hat, score 15/20
Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004,'Many would argue that Cicc' isn't all about the food anyway:some keep coming back for the noisy,clubby,elbows-in,eyes-up feel of the place...Such folk may even turn up at a busy time, just to have an excuse to wait in the cosy back bar with a cocktail and a snack while others savour the restaurant's charms.'
Vogue Entertaining & Traveller, March April 2003
Age Good Food Guide 2003. Score 15/20
Sunday Age, The 2003
The Herald Sun, food&drink, 19/3/02
Sunday Age, 18/03/01
Age, 05.09.00, John Lethlean Score: 15 out of 20
The Australian, 01.10.99, Stephen Downes
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