Another new eatery to join Cinnabar, 7th and Bake, and Beef & Barley at the new end of the Kingston Foreshore, is Molto Italian. Headed by Carlo Tosolini, the same guy who owned the now closed Tosolini’s in Civic, I couldn’t help but go in with high expectations for decent portion sizes and lots of flavour. Molto is open and quite spacious with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating overlooking lakeside views. They have made good use of the space by keeping everything nice and square with a long bar on one end joining up to the long kitchen counter with a pizza oven at the back. There is a meat locker with plenty of cured meats to choose from as well as cheeses.
The menu has a range of starters ($6-28) including a cheese platter, wood fired pizzas ($20-26) made by pizzaioli, pastas ($27-32) as well as daily specials ($28). I had to order one of the cured meats on the menu which came in serves of 40g for $8. I chose the San Daniele prosciutto which came with a serve of small puffed up bread-like goodies. These were filled with air, with the bread being thin and covered with a bit of salt. So very very tasty. There was a decent portion of prosciutto and I was happy paying $8 for what we received.
We also ordered some polenta chips ($15) which came with gorgonzola sauce. I loved the outside texture of these chips which were super crunchy. The chips were made even more delicious with the accompanying thin cheesy sauce. Yum!
After seeing the This is Canberra post on Molto, I just had to order the Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe ($28) myself. The spaghetti is placed into a massive Pecorino cheese wheel and brought out to you while it is swirled amongst all the cheesy goodness.
A bit of theatrics at the table is always good. There is no meat or vegetables in this dish. It is purely spaghetti, cheese and pepper.
The spaghetti was perfectly al dente and completely covered in melted creamy delicious cheese. I was glad that the pepper wasn’t too dominant. The more I ate, the stronger the cheese became and I couldn’t finish the dish as it became overly strong for me. But I think hard core cheese lovers will love it! It would also be a good dish to share as there was a lot of it!
My friend ordered the housemade ravioli ($28) with spinach and buffalo milk ricotta in burnt butter and sage. This came in a serve of 3 large ravioli. We both thought the ravioli pasta was too thick which meant over-mastication but the filling was light and soft.
We decided to share dessert of a mascarpone trifle ($16) with summer fruits and passionfruit coulis. This was great to share between two as there was a lot of cream but I loved the fresh mango fruit between each layer. The passionfruit coulis provided a lovely balance to the sweet mango and cream, not to mention a splash of colour.
I found service to be really friendly and jovial. We were asked for drinks orders at the start of the meal but as neither of us drink, we stuck with tap water which was provided in small glass jugs. Orders were taken quickly and our starters arrived within 10 minutes. Our mains took a lot longer, about half an hour after we finished our starters. Tap water wasn’t topped up but then again we kept forgetting to ask for a refill. We had to seek attention for the dessert menu and the bill at the end of the night while staff were busily cleaning up. The restaurant was packed on a weeknight and noise levels were loud but there was such a great buzzing atmosphere. It’s good to see it so popular so soon after opening.
I would love to go back to try out more of the menu. The Bistecca alla Fiorentina (steak) comes in 600g or 1kg and looks amazing! Gluten free options are available for pizzas (extra $5 ouch) and pasta (extra $4). Molto Italian is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.
Foodgasm 7.5/10
Value for money 7.5/10
Service 7/10
FPJ score 22/30
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