Salt Pepper Nutmeg

To put it in a nutshell, this restaurant is charming. From the decor to the workers, the word that will always come to mind is charming. Set up as an intimate bookshop/dinning room, everything here yells 'homey'. They give you crayons and dominoes to play with, and the books are not just there for decoration, they can actually be read.

Now things on the menu are more on the costly side, but the food here is good, so it is worth paying a little bit more for good food. The slow cooked lamb is a clear winner! But they are also have a few seafood options. And just putting it out there that the wine here is great, so if you are a lover of good wine you will not be disappointed.

Also, even though it could be considered pretentious - this place is not at all! The workers here are nice, and you get a very 'down to earth' feel. So if you are looking for a good place in the suburbs this is a good option.

I'd love to have a big old hairy moustached uncle who could cook big old dishes like beef cheeks and 8 hour lamb and French/Italian things like bruschetta and gnocchi and spatchcock but who loaded up the plate like it was your last meal.
Who liked great music, books and who did things without any care whatsoever about what was on trend or the latest design - who just threw away the rule book and did exactly what he wanted.
It occurs to me that whereas some new restaurants strive for a minimalist atmosphere this place is the exact reverse. Nothing about it is minimalist. There is clutter - which is good. Our table is huge, absolutely gigantic with so much room for everything. The glasses are big, the servings are ginormous, the chef is a man mountain. He probably doesn't want a new nephew, which is a pity, because I would adopt him as an uncle in a heartbeat.
What a fantastic honest place this is! BYO ...everything.
Everything! Champagne, Pinot, Sauternes you name it.
And I'm thinking to myself how fantastic the sound system is and what brilliant classical guitar music is being played and I look over and it's a bloke playing live! But not really loud and drawing no attention to himself - as if he's just part of the room at my new uncle's place.
I asked the the lady running the place if she would please pass my compliments to the chef on the beef cheeks but she said she would rather not because he is her husband it would just go to his head. That would make her my new Aunty!
The food is really great. Honest generous and beautifully executed. My family had the special spaghetti with clams, the spatchcock, the beef cheeks with gnocchi and the 8 hour lamb. We had some lovely starters and the deserts were delicious. All the classics are there and everyone loved their deserts.
I would write a great review of the wines except that I brought them. Did I mention that uncle Nutmeg doesn't mind if you BYO anything?
It's so great to find a welcoming place with great food at real value. Packed with obvious locals, the white pants, boat shoes, white hair, and blue striped polo shirts a dead giveaway. They are lucky to have such a great local!

Delicious food, great restaurant, friendly staff!
What more could you want? Will be back to sample more of their enticing menu!

A letdown today. I've eaten here before and had better meals, but today was bad for both my companion and me.
Watery, light main courses, sauces that were badly executed, and my greens were poorly prepared, and each close to $30. So we had room for a desert. Again, the tiramisu was watery, and lacked body.
Combined with the "brisk", if not abrupt service this lunch was poor value today.
This cafe is well patronized with the cinema next door, so they have no excuse for serving up shoddy and expensive meals.
Two stars as service was quick and the coffee was fine.

Great little place with a lot of character. We walked in thinking it may have been a book shop/cafe but the waiter showed us otherwise presenting the menu and a friendly smile. The walls were lined with book shelves stacked high with random novels and texts. On some tables there were collections of crayons and paper which must be heavily utilized given the density of hanging drawings and for some unknown reason a suit of armour.

They serve predominantly Italian foods - pasta and risotto but they also provide an array of meal sized salads.

The dishes are full of flavour and well seasoned I had a slow roasted lamb pasta which was delicious.