When we were having our babymoon in Melbourne, our tendency was to eat at cafés for brunch and Italian places for dinner. Hence, I would say we ate our fair share of Italian restaurants throughout the entire trip.
There were plenty of hits & misses, thankfully with the former being more frequent.
However, the most memorable of all the Italian places we had been to was definitely The Moat.
The restaurant was actually very well-concealed save for an easily-overlooked sign on the main street. It’s pretty discrete and well-hidden in the same building as the State Library Victoria, but it seemed to be very popular with the locals.
What to order and eat at The Moat
The Moat has kept their menus rather small. It suited me pretty well as I don’t enjoy choice paralysis that comes with overly extensive menus.
I ordered the Ravioli of mushroom & ricotta with a porcini foam sauce (AUD 39) and my husband ordered the Puttanesca (AUD 40).
Both of us got mocktails, or placebo cocktails, as they call it. One Sensible Lonsdale (AUD 12) for me, and a No-Groni (AUD 16) for him.
The menu didn’t feature photos of the food so we were really ordering blind, but we were so surprised by how aesthetic the food looked.
I was a bit confused as to what porcini foam sauce and had to do a quick Google search. Turns out it was mushroom!
Rather than tasting too overwhelming, the mushrooms and ricotta paired together nicely for a burst of umami in the mouth. I was very impressed that pasta could taste so flavourful! I feel like all the other pasta I’ve had in other places paled a lot in comparison.
The Puttanesca contains tagliatelle, tomato, capers, olives, chilli & anchovies. The combination of ingredients were not quite up my alley, but my husband said it was pretty delicious!
Our placebo cocktails were also very refreshing and delicious. I personally preferred my Sensible Lonsdale (lavender syrup, cucumber, lemon, soda) to my husband’s order of No-Groni (Lyres Italian Orange, Seedlip 0%, Lyres Aperitif Rosso, orange twist). It made me feel much better about not being to order one of their alcoholic options, which I felt would have been a great match with the pastas we ordered.
Is it worth eating at The Moat?
I’m not sure how the restaurant looks like in the day time, but at night it’s not very well-lit – I guess to set the atmosphere? The tables are also generally very cramped with rather uncomfortable seating, especially for pregnant ladies (like me).
While I didn’t enjoy the overall vibes (honestly too dark and cramped for me), the food was undeniably one of the best we had in Melbourne. It was the best Italian restaurant we patronised during our trip, and I would even say it beat some of the cafés and Asian eateries by a whole mile.
Prices here are certainly nowhere near cheap, but for the quality of food I dare say it’s worth the one-time splurge.
Tip: Be sure to make reservations if you can! We didn’t book in advance and almost couldn’t get a table even on weekday nights!
DIRECTIONS
Address: 176 Little Lonsdale St Melbourne 3000 (Underneath The Wheeler Centre entrance)
Hours:
- Wednesday to Friday 12pm – late
- Tuesday and Saturday 4pm – late
- Happy Hour 4pm – 6pm Tuesday to Saturday
- The Moat is closed on public holidays.
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