Agostino - Carlton

We had an excellent waiter, and the food was enjoyable, though perhaps we had set our expectations a bit too high. The atmosphere was nice, but the seating felt a bit cramped. The wine list was impressive. Overall, the value leaned towards the higher end. It was good, but not extraordinary.

I ordered the prawn pasta, tomato vodka pasta, and lamb pasta. The highlight was definitely the prawn pasta, which was excellent, while the tomato vodka pasta was also quite good. However, we found the lamb pasta to be just average.

Agostino feels like what I imagine a classy cocktail bar in New York would be like. It has a sleek and chic ambiance—dimly lit with green tones and wooden accents, soft leather seating, and a boutique bottle shop to explore after your meal. As a self-proclaimed cheese enthusiast, I ordered the cheese of the day: aged parmigiano drizzled generously with honey. The combination of salty and sweet is simply divine; it’s both crumbly and rich. Next, I had the cacio e pepe ravioli with truffle pecorino: perfectly al dente handmade pasta swimming in a luxurious pool of cultured butter. With a full belly threatening to burst my jeans, I thought I could stop there, but then I spotted the dessert menu. There it was, my all-time favorite dessert: the irresistible tiramisu with dark chocolate, cherries, and grappa. With each bite, a warm, boozy cherry burst delightfully in my mouth, making my heart swell with joy.

Beautiful, delicious Italian dinner for my birthday. Loved every dish <br/ <br/ Friendly staff<br/ <br/ Starters:<br/ Complimentary bread and butter<br/ Roasted bullhorn peppers (smokey flavour which my husband loved with squacquerone and basil<br/ Prosciutto with pear and gnocchi fritto topped with shredded pecorino(? <br/ Bellini to drink<br/ <br/ Primo:<br/ Ravioli split over two plates <br/ Aranciata wine for drinking <br/ <br/ Secondo:<br/ Wagyu rump cap topped with gorgeous bone marrow, asparagus and pesto <br/ Side of French fries <br/ Spanish mencia wine for drinking<br/ <br/ We preferred to go next door to Pidapipo for our gelati dessert!

Agostino is an extension to King Godfree and when we arrived we were lead downstairs into an impressive basement wine cellar where there were quite a few tables and a bar. As it is part wine shop, you can shop around for a bottle and have it corked for $20 to have with your dinner, no judgement on the value of this approach but we enjoyed having a browse through their collection.<br/ <br/ Complimentary sourdough and butter hit the table, firm and airy. We started off with some roasted bullhorn peppers with squacquerone and drizzled with basil oil. This is just natural produce at its best, the peppers were sweet and the cheese was very creamy and soft, one to look out for in the future.<br/ <br/ The crudo del giorno was lean slices of bluefin tuna, anchovy mayonnaise, blood orange and witlof. It was very nice but quite pricey for the portioning, we ended up with a slice of tuna each (3 diners) and barely any blood orange to pair with it. At $24 it barely touched the walls of our stomachs.<br/ <br/ The culatello was a beautiful cured meat with a nice layer of glistening fat. The pear made a nice contrast to the saltiness. They also had prosciutto with figs as one of their special menu items which has the same concept. It also came with some gnocco fritto which tasted super fresh, fluffy and chewy.<br/ <br/ We also shared some grilled octopus, new potato, calabrese salami and salsa verde. Another excellent dish, I could taste the slight char on the octopus and it was really soft. Wish they threw in some more salami, again we had to do some awkward splits so everyone can try out all the elements on the plate.<br/ <br/ Pasta time! If there is cacio e pepe on the menu, that's an auto-include. This was in ravioli format with cultured butter and truffle pecorino. Simply, we felt the flavours to be quite mild. They need to be more liberal with the pecorino romano and pepper. We did however thoroughly enjoy their mafadine with milk braised pork and veal ragu. The pasta was perfectly cooked with a good amount of bite and the ragu was juicy and salty.<br/ <br/ We ended with a few desserts. My friend ordered the panforte which is a Tuscan fruit and nut cake. I didn't care for this, it's just a dense cake that your grandma would eat with their cup of tea. We shared their chestnut honey crema with rosemary and pinenut croccante. This was quite generous and was a little more dense than a custard. The caramelised sugar on top gave it a nice crunchy textural element and overall it had a unique chestnut and yolk flavour. I polished off with an affogato, shot of espresso and scoop of vanilla ice cream, predictable and enjoyable. It came with a couple of biscuits which I enjoyed more than the cake aforementioned.<br/ <br/ Not having been open a year and it's already snagged a chef's hat. Having been to similar restaurants such as Agostino I felt that a few of the dishes here were quite difficult to share given the portioning. I am sure that most items are designed for sharing, some refinement is needed here and outlined in the review. Price-wise it is also a notch higher in most categories. In saying that we really liked the moody cellar space as well as the option of being able to select our own wine from the store. Keen to see what else King Godfree has to offer.