DiMattina's Restaurant - Carlton

Good choice for family gathering or fds' gatheringThe linguine is really delicious w fresh all kinds of seafood.

I went here for my birthday with C and a couple of friends wanted to go somewhere a bit classy for my birthday and I love Italian food.

I went home last year with my husband and brother-in-law and Dimattina's was the last meal we had before flying back to the US.

We came here for dessert and coffee. The tiramisu was disappointing. Mascarpone was too sweet and the biscuits hadn't been soaked long enough or the coffee and liqueur had no flavour either way the tiramisu had no flavour. My hubbies apple crumble was a pre bought tart that wasn't any good. My latte was ok, but the short mac was burnt. Nearly everywhere on Lygon Street was packed, this place was empty for a reason.

Not having quite done my homework correctly, I booked through the DiMattinas website, thinking that was all good. We arrived to discover it wasn't DiMattinas at all but The Italian Cucina, having changed in the last twelve months. We considered leaving, but didn't. We should have. Menu had some similar things to that of DiMattinas. Service was good, but food uninspiring. Risotto was an awful gloop, spaghetti ok, pasta average. The are much better restaurants in this strip