Dell'Ugo Southbank

Posted by: Ticcer | 5 July 2009, 12.28am

What happened? Valentines day, 2008, excellent food, excellent service, if a little on the pushy side; nonetheless, a highly recommendable restaurant.

July 2009. Wanting to showcase some of Brisbane's better dining experiences to some overseas visitors, we chose Del'Ugo based on previous experiences.

The evening started off well enough; we ordered wine for the table which arrived promptly. There were few diners in the restaurant as it was still very early evening. Once all of our party had arrived and the menus had been circulated it kind of went downhill from then on. As the restaurant filled up the acoustics of the room began to betray us and conversation quickly devolved into a series of, "Pardon?" and, "What did you say?" questions. I thought I might be going deaf except I could clearly hear the specials being bellowed over and over again by the maitre d' to the patrons at every satellite table around us, more so than I could hear the conversation of the person next to me. The atmosphere was akin to that of the food court at the local mall.

The highlight of my entire meal was the Composizione di burrata al vincotto di fichi; although the mild chilli filled w/ tuna mousse was more like a small tasteless red vegetable thing devoid of any capsaicin whatsoever, filled with some mashed up home brand tuna chunks in spring water. The rest of it was really nice.

For my main, I ordered the Filetto di manzo Aged grilled eye fillet with green peppercorn sauce. I like a medium rare or medium steak, but I usually order medium because more often than not, if I order medium rare, I end up with rare. This steak was no exception to that rule; I ordered Medium and received something somewhere between Medium rare to rare. I was thankful for the heavy artillery steak knife I was supplied because it was a rather tough piece of meat that oozed a lot of blood as I tried to make the first cut. I couldn't see any green peppercorn sauce, but my taste buds responded to something about the steak that was definitely on the spicy side. Presentation was lacklustre and in all honesty, I've had much better steaks for 1/2 the price elsewhere.

The staff do like to keep your glass filled which was a little annoying because I had to explain to 3 waitresses that I was driving and only wanted 1/2 a glass with my steak.

For desert I had the Tiramis?. An Italian cake in an Italian restaurant... what could possibly go wrong? As it turned out, everything can. It tasted like the savoiardi biscuits had been soaked in water rather than espresso; it was absolutely tasteless! Well, not totally tasteless as it did taste like a damp & watery sponge cake that you might find in the dessert section of the freezer isle at your local supermarket.

I also ordered a flat white espresso which arrived well before the ill fated Tiramisu. Ordering coffee was not a good decision on my part either. The blackened and burnt leftovers of the crema that clung like glue to the inner lip of the cup were a spot on indication of what my taste buds were about to experience upon first sip. Bitterly horrible; Luigi Bezzera would have turned in his grave. I asked for a replacement espresso which arrived very promptly but sadly, failed the taste test yet again, this time for being just utterly weak & tasteless.

By fine dining standards, the food was indeed terrible but the biggest question I have is, how can any Italian restaurant, let alone a fine dining restaurant, make such a hash job with two of Italy's most simple yet iconic culinary delights?

What happened to the good old days Del'Ugo??

Food:			Visit: Fri 3 July 2009 Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by: cherylc | 8 June 2009, 4.21pm

With my sister visiting from Melbourne we headed to South Bank for dinner. After enjoying seafood at Decks we decided to move somewhere warmer for dessert and coffee just after 8pm. Granted it was a busy night in southbank but Dell Ugo had quite a few free tables and no lines etc so we were seated. We ordered two $18 desserts (!) a $14 glass of port, and two coffees - over $60. The waitress took our order. A few minutes later a man (owner?) came over and told us they don't do dessert and coffee and asked us to leave. There were two empty tables beside us and other empty tables behind us but still we were asked to leave. I was horrified - but what can you do - so we left their overpriced desserts and port and went elsewhere! Boycott - obviously have tickets on themselves when the restaurant is half empty and reviews are bad anyway! :(

Food:			Visit: Sun 7 June 2009
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Posted by: SaladQueen | 13 November 2008, 3.55pm

After hearing many wonderful things about dell Ugo I dedcided to take a good friend out for a meal and a catch up.
Service was little invasive and I got the feeling that the staff were trying to get me drunk and if it was not wine it was constant offerings of bread and side orders. When I queried menu items I found that the waitperson knew very little about the items on offer and was generally dissmissive.
When the meals arrived they looked like my mothers home cooking and tasted same. I think that after paying $38 for a main meal I was expecting something a little different, something that I could not cook at home or get from a local hotel roast of the day. Dessert was also uniformed and thus I ended up with a course that left me befuddled as to where the meringue was actually located on my plate, Subsequently I did not find it.
It was supposed to be a special occasion but I left annoyed and dissapointed. I felt pressured into a lavish expensive dinner when all I wanted was a nice 2 course meal a glass of wine and a peaceful catch up with a good friend.

Food:			Visit: Wed 12 November 2008 Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by: Registered user - name withheld | 17 April 2008, 11.08am

I recently went to Dell' Ugo for dinner for a friend's birthday. The restaurant is BYO so my husband and I brought a bottle of wine to share but without asking the waitress proceeded to offer every arrival at the table a glass of our wine! It seemed inappropriate for me to say "no they can't have any, that's ours" so with only one glass each from our bottle it was empty. The meals were delicious but at $35-$42 each they were poor value. They were no more special than any other good Italian restaurant charging $16-18 per meal. While we were ordering the waiter kept trying to up sell us salads, steamed veggies etc. After dinner we decided we wanted dessert, we waited a half hour before flagging down the waitress to ask for the desert menu. 40 minutes later we flagged her down again to take our order. She stood at one end of the long table asking us all what we wanted (group of 10) and we had to call out our orders. My husband and I ordered the "selection" at $30. Deserts were $15 each and there were about 6 choices on the menu so the selection seemed like a good idea to share. When it arrived there were 3 items in our selection, all adding up to the size of 1 of the single $15 deserts. The cheesecake was great, the tiramisu was flavorless and the creme brulee was in a little ceramic butter bowl, seriously 2 teaspoons worth. A friend at the table ordered the $15 creme brulee, took a spoonful and decided it wasn't very nice. From my own teaspoonful I agreed. The desert was a 100% disappointment and rip off. By the end of the night we left feeling overcharged and under serviced. It is the most expensive restaurant I have ever been to, the food and the service nowhere near warrant those prices.

Food:			Visit: Sun 13 April 2008 Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by: paulrankin | 23 June 2007, 7.28pm

I found this restaurant after wandering up Little Stanley St looking for a quiet place for a meal by myself. Not having a reservation I had to sit outside on this cold, rainy night, but kindly enough a waiter turned on the gas heater and moved it closer to my table. I mistakenly took this as a good sign. Following this I was served by a waitress who seemed to despise me, for no apparent reason -- it was nothing overt, but the sneer she wore on her face truly intimidated me and made me feel like simply ordering a meal was an imposition to her. I ordered the sirloin steak, medium (I said this twice, "medium") with rocket, parmesan, potato and seasonal vegetables. I'm no vegetable farmer, but I'm sure there are plenty of vegetables in season during winter -- my dry, over-cooked steak was served accompanied by a single slice of tomato. Even if one is to disregard that tomato is now commonly not considered a vegetable, surely "vegetables" should mean more than a single piece of a single type of vegetable. After finishing my scotch I spent most of my meal staring at the waitresses in attempt to make some sort of contact to order another, but this proved futile. Even raising my hand resulted in nothing more than a dismissive glance. I really started to think I had wronged my waitress some years ago but forgot about it. When trying to pay the bill and leave this place I encountered similarly subtle disdain from the rest of the staff. I couldn't understand it, it was like I was wearing a racist T-shirt or something (when in fact I was dressed in a neat suit and tie). Never returning.

Food:			Visit: Sat 23 June 2007 Mealtime: dinner
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