Just had lunch at that Canberra institution, Santa Lucia. I didn’t have high expectations, as the only strong memory of the place is many years ago, our hockey group got a conga line going through the restaurant and got all the other punters involved, but when the line went out the front door, the owner locked the door behind us! (He let us back in though).
They were half empty, despite it being APS pay week. And they had a lot of staff wandering around, but we still had to attract their attention to get more wine and the bill.
Friend had the carbonara, it looked bright and fresh and he said it was great.
I, of course, tried the pizza. They have real dough! It was a proper, actual, crunchy/puffy pizza crust! And they’d evidently pre-cooked it so it was all puffed up and cooked. However, it was totally let down by the topping, which hadn’t even been cooked enough to melt the cheese. The tomato sauce had too much onion in it, so it had that flavour like the sausage sizzle outside Bunnings. The pepperoni on top was very generous, but needed to be thinner sliced, and, er, cooked. Olives were those pre-sliced oily ones. And the cheese was quite salty and oily, cheddar probably.
I ate the crust from around the edge, and left the middle. They’ve got the hard bit, the crust, spot-on. Now they just have to get the topping right and they’re on a winner.
Their lunch deal is $13.80 for wine, bread and food, which is good. However, adding an extra glass of wine is another $3.50 (nice though). The service initially is prompt, but if you stray from the script, some arm-waving is required.
I really hope they adjust their pizza, because the crust was great. I’d go it with a slop of oil, a wipe of garlic and some salt. And the pasta apparently was top-notch. Promising.
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