Belluci's Woden

4 Irving Street
Woden ACT 2606
P: 02 6282 1700

I remember, back in 1999-2000 when I worked up in Watson on the Federal Highway Duplication, the boss would send me out to get pizza's for the team every now and then. And I'd go to Belluci's in Dickson for them. They always did do damned nice pizza.

When you go to somewhere like Belluci's for dinner you expect a good dining experience. When the total bill is nearly $90 for two mains, two desserts, a glass of house white and a soft drink, you expect something (excuse me) FKN good. Well, I do. As it was handy to N's place we went to the Belluci's in Woden.


N has always loved this pizza: the Belluci Special. I can't for the life of me remember what's on it, but yes, you do spy avocado. We had planned for me to try a piece, but she cleared the lot herself (we're both still amazed). This was a pretty decent sized pizza too! Imagine a "large" Dominoes kind of size. Check out the base - looks good.


In my quest to fully embrace seafood I decided on the cod with a Russian salad of potatoes and peas with herbs in an anchovy mayonnaise. Shame it was on the specials board and I didn't see the cost. I have no complaints about the serving size. And it was quite tasty. I especially loved the salad (mmm potatoes). Sadly the cod was a little overdone in one place, and a trifle underdone in another. How is that possible?! The bits that were perfectly cooked were nice, but... Unfortunately it cemented the opinion, in my mind, that you can not get decent seafood in Canberra. Even at $30 for a small/mid-sized fillet. Hope the boss will sign off that particular expense...


As we'd quite deliberately avoided entrées hoping to leave room for desserts, we figured we should follow through on the idea. Can you believe N has never had crème brulée?! No, I couldn't believe it either. Thankfully she ordered this one, which came out with chips of almond biscotti. I heard the satisfying CRACK when she broke through the toffee surface, and it was apparently great. Glad to hear it :-)


Since the brulée was taken care of I thought I'd branch out and ordered the apple and rhubarb crumble. It came out with vanilla bean ice cream. This was seriously fabulous, although I burnt my tongue :-(

The service was great. The food was very good... except for the disappointing fish. Even so, I'm not sure I'd go back again. Unless it was a special occasion. And I'd probably steer clear of seafood... Or have I just been spoilt by the superior dining experiences I've had here in Melbourne? An intersting point to ponder...