Sosta Cucina - North Melbourne - review

Name: Sosta Cucina

Address:
12 Errol St
North Melbourne 3051 VIC

Phone: (03) 9329 2882
Food: Italian
Average price: Entree: $3-$18,  Mains: $16-$29,  Dessert: $12-$18

Complimentary:  Bread with olive oil.

We ordered:
Starter: Antipasti platter.

Main: Capretto con zucchine $32
Slow cooked organic goat cooked in milk with white wine, lemon, oregano and whitezucchini

Mr.M: this dish was too salty, and I couldn't relax to eat it as it was filled with dozens of bones, large and small.

Corzetti con melenzane, pomodoro e ricotta - $27
Fresh pasta discs with roasted dwarf eggplant, Ligurian olives, fresh sugo,basil and buffalo ricotta

B said this was OK, although her pasta was a touch undercooked.

Linguine al granchio e bottarga - $29
Linguine with blue swimmer crab, E.V. olive oil, garlic, parsley, golden breadcrumbs and bottarga

This seemed to be the best dish of the night. A enjoyed it.

Pumpkin pasta in a sage and burnt butter sauce - $27

Imagine my surprise when this came out covered in diced glace fruits. I was dubious just by looking at it. Unfortunately it just got worse from there. The fruits, as I expected, were saccahrine sweet and absolutely revolting with the pasta. After scraping them off I was hoping for an improvement; there was none. The pasta itself was undercooked along the edges and the filling itself was sugar-sweet. There was not one ounce of 'savoury' about this dish. The flavours were so revolting that despite being pregnant AND starving, I couldn't eat more than two mouthfuls. I passed the dish around to the others, and they too, after one taste, declined to have any more.

Cost: $Around $130 for 1 starter platter and four mains.

Service: Bad. There was a misunderstanding.We ordered one antipasti plate to share as well as our mains. When the antipasti platter came it was set up on a stand above the table. We assumed that meant it could be left on the table whilst our mains came. Over an hour later, with only one scrap of prosciutto that had been left on the plate for the previous 30mins we enquired about our mains and how much longer they would take. The waitress then informed us that she was waiting for us to finish the antipasti before sending the mains away (she had not asked us once if we were finished the entire hour). This was rather irriating seeing as though none of us had even touched the platter for a good 30mins and that we weren't informed that they would be waiting for us to finish before sending our mains away. Aside from that our water wasn't topped up.

Atmosphere: Softly elegant. Muted neutral tones punctuated with luxurious chandeliers and patterned booths.

Parking: Good - there's a decent amount of street parking.

Website: http://www.sosta.com.au/

Hours: Tue-Sun noon-10pm

Would I return: No. It's disappointing since we enjoyed the desserts we had eaten here previously, but the food as well as the service were dismal enough that I would not chose to come again.