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 Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 15/20, One Hat "Constancy is a badge worn with pride at this perennially popular St Kilda haunt, which attracts an equal measure of loyal diners, bohemians and those in need of, well, constancy"

The Age Melbourne Magazine Best bars of 2009 Best stayer, "An enduring capsule of St Kilda cool combining classic bar moves (horseshoe booths, black upholstered stools, capillary-friendly lighting, scungy laneway entrance) and bartenders as brilliant with a wisecrack as they are with a cocktail"

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"

The Age Michael Harden, 9-06-2009 "the bar out the back of Cicciolina's is such a cool, old school, horseshoe-booth-and-black-vinyl-stool kind of place that you'd feel as if you were missing out if some vaguely Bukowski-ish streetlife didn't intrude into the mix. The Back Bar feels like a part of an older, edgier St Kilda, a survivor of the chain store tsunami that has washed away much of Acland Street's personality in recent years. It is a bar of low lights and well-used surfaces where alcohol is part of life rather than the root of all evil."

The Age Cheap Eats 2009 "Cicciolina's plan to have a holding area for its alwayspacked restaurant has backfired somewhat because the Back Bar, with its oldschool boothandbar stool stylings, smart wine and cocktail lists and tasty snacks has become a destination in itself"

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 15.5/20 "In an industry with no guarantees, Cicciolina comes with two near-certainties. First, you'll wait for a table, even on wintry Tuesdays (no evening bookings, but the bar's an institution in its own right)"

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, One Hat "The first thing to order at Cicciolina is champagne. The occasion? You got a table. Hopefully you haven't been waiting n the bar for hours, getting too drunk to enjoy very good food, accomplished service and the tight-knit room where diners sit elbow to elbow"

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."

The Age Cheap Eats Bars 2007 "It's getting so that 'Ciccies' could open a second bar for patrons to wait until there's a space in this gorgeous back room."

The Age Cheap Eats 2006 The classiest holding pen in town, this bar is always packed with folk waiting for a table in the restaurant next door. But it's also a good destination in itself

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 15/20 1 Hat "Decidedly Parisian in appearance and atmosphere. Cicciolina is both the favourite child of St Kilda's Acland Street, and perhaps its pet peeve how else to describe the 'no bookings' policy and regular delays of up to an hour for a table here? Despite the most impassioned pleas of the dining public, it seems unlikely the keep'em-waiting policy will change anytime soon. But look on the bright side: there's a cosy bar out back to take the edge off the wait"

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."

The Age Good Food Guide 2005 "best to expect a wait in the dimly lit back bar, with a Germanic brew and some tapas to tide you over. But take solace in the fact that expectations will be met in the audibly active dining room. Once a portion of the crowd has been squeezed back out on to Acland Street, swift yet charming staff will shoehorn you in behind a table and ferry your fare, selected from the never-changing menu."

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."

The Age Cheap Eats 2005 "SO much more than a waiting room for the restaurant proper, this dimly lit back bar is a place where lovers, dreamers and self-styled beatniks can slide into black leather booths for furtive assignations, or to nibble bites from the small, elegant menu."

The Age Cheap Eats 2004,Good bar,Somewhere really special,Cicciolina Back Bar,'Come early,before the crowds and smoke descend,and you can tuck into a parade of small dishes from the same hat-winning kitchen,plus a glass of something cheeky,without budging.'

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.'

The 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

The Age Good Food Guide 2003. Score 15/20.

The Sunday Age, The 2003 Rugby World Cup, Jane Faulkne

The Herald Sun, food&drink, 19/3/02

The Sunday Age, 18/03/01, John Hindle Score: three and a half stars

The Age, 05.09.00, John Lethlean Score: 15 out of 20

The Australian, 01.10.99, Stephen Downes