Santa Lucia Wednesday 10 October

Santa Lucia Trattoria at Swinger Hill is a home style Italian restaurant which is particularly popular with older groups and families.  As a result, it can get crowded and noisy as we found out when we arrived for dinner on a cold Wednesday night.  Despite this, the service was reasonable and the staff friendly and helpful.

We decided to order a range of salads and pastas to share which was a good way of tasting a variety of dishes on the menu.  Surprisingly, it was the simple salads that were the biggest hit.  We ordered the Insalata di Arugala and the Insalata con funghi.   The first was a rocket salad with shaved parmesan and the second was a grilled mushroom salad with mixed lettuce.  Both were served with a beautiful caramelised balsamic vinegar dressing(yum!).  There were also heaps of mushrooms in the Insalata con funghi.  They were freshly grilled and served warm and just soaked up that lovely dressing –we were in heaven. 

We ordered mixed breads (Garlic, herb and anchovy) to arrive with the salads.  They were very basic but filling and good to have as an appetiser as the mains took some time to arrive.  For mains, we ordered 5 dishes - the PolopettiallaGriglia (chargrilled octopus), Spaghetti marina, Risotto con pollo, Gnocchi allaromagnola and Fusilli al Biondatevere.  The serves were large so the 5 dishes wereplenty enough for six.

The only main dish that was really disappointing was the chargrilled octopus which was both burnt and rubbery – a shame as the other salad dishes had been so nice.  The other pasta dishes were reasonable without being spectacular.  The two favourite dishes were the Fusilli al Biondatevere which had veal and prosciutto in a white wine and cream sauce and the Gnocchi alla romagnola which was homemade gnocchi in a napoletana sauce.

After all the mains, some of us still had room for dessert.   The dessert menu isn’t extensive and by the time we ordered dessert, the more popularchoices had already sold out.  In the end, we tried three dishes – a simple chocolate gelato, a baked custard and chilled pears in wine.  The best of these was easily the baked custard which was divine – well worth ordering again. 

We enjoyed our meal and there was plenty of it.  The cost also worked out as a fairly reasonable $32 each.  It isn’t the best Italian food in Canberra and it isn’t the place for a romantic dinner for 2.  But for families and small groups wanting a tasty home style (plain) Italian meal, it was not bad value and a nice night out.