Casa Di Tutti, 160 Victoria Street, Seddon. Phone: 9687 4582

We head for the big, brash new Italian eatery on Victoria Street.

Like lots of folks, we are curious – especially after friends who know about these things have raved about it after a recent birthday meal.

But we wonder, given the buzz surrounding the place, whether there’ll be room for a couple of blow-ins like us – even this early on Friday evening.

We wonder, too, about what sort of impact its arrival is having on the other Italian joint on the street and right across the road.

As it turns out, the new place does have no room for us, so we rather happily head to the other, sensing it may be more our go anyway.

We’re right about that.

We love how Casa Di Tutti is warm, cozy and elegant, all at the same time.

We love the attentive staff in their long black aprons and crisp, white monogrammed shirts.

We love that even with the competition across the road, there’s a steady flow of takeaway customers coming and going.

Casa Di Tutti provides a concise menu of mostly classic Italian dishes.

Mains are in the upper $20 range, pizzas clock in at about $20 give or take a few bucks, pasta the same, while starters go for $10 to $15.

 

 

Bennie cherry-picks the menu for the bestest, sexiest pizza he can find – the Casa Pizza of Napoli sauce, basil, buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomato and pork and fennel sausage ($18) .

If his pie doesn’t quite do the charisma overkill for which he is hoping, Bennie gleefully gobbles it up anyway – save for a nice mini-slice he allows his dad to consume.

It tastes just fine to me, in a way of charming homeliness.

 

 

My linguine alla pescatora of seafood, “touch” of chilli, garlic, cherry tomato and extra virgin olive oil ($22) displays similarly homespun appeal.

The pasta, house-made as they all are here, is odd in a rather squiggly sort of way – kind of like the of egg noodles you’d get in a big bowl of wonton soup noodles.

And the “touch” of chilli is very, very fleeting indeed.

But the seafood is fresh-as and plentiful, and I enjoy my dish – especially the mopping up of the last remnants of oily broth.

 

 

If our savoury choices have been a matter of satisfaction rather than sensation, our dessert heads helter-skelter in the opposite direction.

Calzone di Nutella e fragola of nutella, mascarpone and strawberries IS a sensation – and an outright bargain for $14 when shared between two.

Wowee! The casing is by turns crisp and chewy, and the chocolately filling hot and oozy.

I detect minimal strawberry content, though Bennie begs to differ.

The vanilla gelati is brought-in but nevertheless superb.

We’ll be returning for a return bout of this, for sure … as for our other choices: Maybe we eat way too much spicy food?

Check out the Casa Di Tutti website, including full menu, here.

(NB: The blogger wrote this post while wearing Spongebob pyjamas.)