Pepe Cucina - OHalloran Hill

I'm not one to usually go out for breakfast, but the food here wasn't too bad. You can hardly go wrong with such a simple dish consisting of two fried eggs, Italian pancetta, and toast to be very honest. It wasn't WOW, and a bit overpriced in my opinion, but 4 stars for good quality good and friendly service!

This is my go to mid week Italian place; they have always delivered an excellent service and excellent food! I've tried the risotto dish and a lamb chops dish both of which were very wholesome and flavoursome. I've also tried the steak with a side of potatoes; the steak was done really well both succulent and meaty. The potatoes were delicious! I could eat a whole bowl of them on their own!! There is plenty of seating inside and outside all tables come with tablecloths for dinner which gives the place a very dainty atmosphere. They also have a good selection of wines and modest dessert menu great affogato :

I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to eat at Pepe Cucina, since I (Amanda am always shopping at Burnside Village. But during my summer holidays I finally had the opportunity to stop in for lunch mid Boxing Day sales (and purchases !. What I liked about the interior of Pepe's is that there was a lot of natural light from the floor to ceiling windows along one long side of the restaurant, overlooking the alfresco area. Inside the tables were generously spaced, so you were able to have a conversation without feeling like the table next to you could join in! Also, on this occasion my friend could comfortably pull up her baby in a pram next to our table without encroaching on nearby patrons' personal space (unlike Shanghai Tea House situated adjacent to Pepe's who could not accommodate us nor did they attempt to try but we will leave that critique for another time! .

Decided to head to Pepe’s for dinner after another one of Adelaide’s horrid uber scorcher days! Seriously? Who wants to cook when nothing can survive outside! I am going to be quite blunt and honest with this review, as the establishment is in Burnside, run by Salvatore Pepe, menu is limited and extremely simple. I believe it could be spectacular instead of just good, so here goes! Upon entering this gorgeous restaurant, we noticed it was deathly quiet and felt a little uneasy as we were waiting to be shown to a table. Please turn the music up! especially when you have a great Bose system and a large group right next to you. Music needs to be at a level where no one can hear your conversation on the next table and at the same time, you’re not yelling either. The music was not turned up during our dining time. We were quickly seated to a table, handed our menus and immediately, I asked if bread was served, I mean this is an Italian restaurant after all! Response for the young waiter, ‘yes if it is requested’, answer (me , okay I am requesting it! Thank you. Yummy bread served 5 minutes later. Had to ask for butter though as there was no oil or butter served with the bread. We were pressured into ordering quite quickly and I understand why, the large group next to us were due any minute, so of course the kitchen wants the smaller orders out before the large, totally understandable, here is my but! Our lovely young waiter, I believe, may have been a little inexperienced, he stood by our table as we were deciding, so we promptly ordered entrées and then asked him to come back for our mains order, as we just weren’t ready. He came back for the order 5 minutes later and waited at our table whilst we were deciding, this was uncomfortable, hence an experienced waiter, would not do that. This is an area that could be improved. Food I ordered the Veal Tonnato, one of my favourite dishes and it was delicious, the veal could have been just a little thicker to balance out the amount of sauce, then it would have been perfect. Foodie mate had zucchini flowers which are cooked to perfection in a really nice batter, but that’s it. They have no filling and no sauce, just batter, lucky I had tonnato sauce left and we used that to go with the flowers. Mains to follow was the Special of the day, Coorong mullet in a potato crust with salad. This is a very simple dish, but was just lovely, charred taste of fish and nice crisp potato on the outside. Although this was so uber yum, it’s a little difficult for me to justify $32 for this dish, when it is only served with a simple salad. I totally understand that this menu is mainly about showcasing good produce, but everything needs to be more than spot on and although it was certainly close, maybe a bit more work on the specials would justify this cost. I was, however, in a foodie dilemma! I wanted two dishes on the menu, the gnocci (which I love and the duck porcini ragu (which I also love! . Dare I asked these be combined? Yes, I so did! The fabulous waitress headed to the kitchen to check with the chefs and yes! Not a problem! Super uber happy! The gnocci was exactly as It should be, plenty of duck, but unfortunately no taste or hint of porcini, sad face………still it was really good and no extra charges for the Pain in A customer, Moi!! Good dish $26. We also requested extra bread at no charge. We were not shown a dessert menu or asked if we would have liked desserts, again, I put this down to the young and maybe inexperienced waiters that overlooked this. I will make mention that it was nice to see Salvatore Pepe out front picking some basil and being a part of his restaurant. Would I return? I am not too sure actually? But please give it a try for yourself, you won’t be disappointed. My personal reason for maybe not returning, is that I find it incredibly difficult to justify the cost of pasta dishes these days when it’s so easy to do at home, I prefer more challenging meals! But hey, that’s just me!! Thank you to the team at Pepe’s Cucina.

It has to be said the food here is really good. The kitchen staff are clearly passionate about the dishes they're putting together here, and because you can see the kitchen you can see the lovely environment where your foods being produced. Came here with a group and we started with Zucchini Flowers These defied the norm and weren't stuffed, but they didn't need to be. Crispy batter and well seasoned these felt like a vegos fish and chips. I didn't get the basil promised on the menu, but I'm not that disappointed Scallops Special Perfectly cooked, with the roe still attached which I don't mind at all, these had a kale crumb which was crispy and all round pretty delightful. Moving onto mains: I had the octopus which was an absolute treat. Served with lovely blanched potatoes and tomato that'd been seared for a second, a bit of dressed leafy matter underneath and some quality olive oil this was delish. Tried the chilli crab pasta which had generous amounts of crab meat a good little chilli punch. The steaks were cooked perfectly, the kind of perfect you just can't achieve at home, and roast potato side dish was great- soooo crispy. Mmmmm. So as a whole food was excellently executed, and if that's all you rated a place on, Pepe's Cucina would be right up there. Maitre d was very knowledgable and on the ball, but the rest of the waitstaff were maybe a little young? They chatted a lot behind the bar, and when we tried to get their attention were sometimes ignored. There were inconsistencies between tables- most tables got oil with their bread, we had to ask and then they brought out butter. I'm okay with staff not knowing stuff but it does make a difference to your experience. Will be back for the food because it's pretty flawless.