Jun 18 2008
Florentinos The Cellar Bar Review
Tuesday lunchtime saw me catch up with an old friend for lunch. As he now lives out of the Melbourne CBD he wanted to go to one of his favourite old city centre spots that he used to haunt - Florentinos Cellar Bar. Who am I to refuse a chance to catch up and to review a new spot at the same time? So I went along to, as they say ‘kill two birds with one stone’, a ludicrous saying that surely would require a very large stone flattening two very small birds, but I digress…on with the review! 
Service Quality - 6/10
Let’s be honest up front – at lunch pretty much every weekday Florentinos is packed. Fortunately my friend had already managed to fight the throngs and get a table which he guarded with his mortal life, so the usual custom of waiting propped up by the bar or in the doorway was skipped this time round. But as a result of a crowded full-to-the-rafters bar the service is sometimes stretched in the time to wait to get served. When I did finally get the menu I went for a cheese potato gnocchi whilst my friend took the seafood spaghetti.
Service Speed 5/10
The waiting time to then get the food delivered is pretty arduous at times so let me give you a general rule of thumb for lunch at Florentinos. If you want to get lunch and back to the office in one hour, stick to one course only. This will take pretty much take out your whole lunch hour. If you have time to take for a longer – or liquid! - lunch then by all means go for more courses. It’s simply a fact of life that the food takes a while here – ours was about 30 minutes in the making…
Food Quality 7/10
…But the food is worth that wait! I had a superb gnocchi with a well balanced cheese sauce. Its pretty easy to make a top heavy sauce that drowns the gnocchi or pasta, however mine was just right. The seafood spaghetti was, according to reports, even better – with baby octopus and other suspects of assorted crustaceans. It got good two thumbs up from my friend!
Ambiance 7.5/10
It’s busy, it’s loud, it’s a touch chaotic. In a word it’s vibrant! But if you don’t like squeezing past people to get to the other end (where the rest rooms are) in a long and narrow bar, then maybe it’s not for you. But I love it!!!
Value for Money 7 / 10
It’s certainly reasonable for the price. We paid about $20 dollars a head for our meal with one drink. Overall ‘The Cellar Bar’ represents the bistro value section of the larger adjoining Florentinos restaurant empire. If you want your money to not go as far and have a more formal reserved fine dining experience, may I suggest Florentinos bigger restaurant next door?