Sat on one end of the Eastern Mangroves promenade, this branch of Carluccio’s (there are more than 100 worldwide) has a great setting. It lacks a little oomph – the white walls are sporadically decorated with stock photos of unidentifiable parts of Italy and everything else is a bit beige. Yet this kid-friendly, casual Italian is a good early dinner post-family day out sort of a restaurant.
The menu offers everything you’d expect from an Italian: pizza, pasta, risotto, and there are almost more desserts than everything else put together (17!). We enjoy the addition of roasted pumpkin to burrata as a slightly different take on this cheesy starter, and the buttery, garlicky sauce that comes with the prawn marinara is definitely worth mopping up with what’s left of the bread basket.
For mains we choose a seafood linguine, which is not perfectly executed although the flavours are there, and salmon pesto. The latter is a grilled fillet with roasted veg, which also lacks a little pizazz. The dish is fine, but the earthy flavours from both the veg and the fish could do with some zing to make them shine. It’s a summation of the restaurant as a whole, really – safe, no major complaints, but not necessarily one to get up on your Insta feed.
The bottom line
An average, but always reliable Italian chain.
