IL LIDO

"Cant make Thursday night, have a lecture, wanna go tonight, we can go to Il Lido instead cos it's on your way home from work and we can pick P and A up on the way"

"Sure sounds good, cept I'm dressed like shit"

"Meh it's dark who will see?"

"Right on"

So that's how I ended up at Il Lido in Cottesloe for dinner tonight along with Karks, Perry and Annie. I love this place and it's most awesome when you're all toasty warm inside and the beach across the road is wracked with strong winds and rain.

I was really in the mood for some risotto tonight and they had 3 to choose from. I chose the risotto with grilled scallops. It was pretty good but just lacked something, lacked that final punch and thus it was a tad bland. We also made the mistake of not ordering a starter and the mains are a good size at Il Lido but not huge. With a starter they would have been perfect. The fish, sirloin and marinara pasta that everyone else ordered was beautiful.

The one thing that stands out for me at Il Lido is how helpful they are with choosing wines. They have a pretty extensive list and a huge selection of Italian wines. I've had some great Italian drops over the past year but I don't know a huge amount about them, still learning, so each time I've told them what sort of wine we were after and they recommended something from the list and not the most expensive either, they've suggested reasonable middle of the road priced wines. They've always been right and tonight's Sangiovese, Cab Sauv Toscano blend 2007 was no exception. Under $50.00 a bottle it was a great choice.

Highlight: The wine list and the wine recommendations
Lowlight: my risotto

Score: 8 stormy nights out of 10