Cafe Paradiso

Opposite the Rivoli Theatre in Camberwell and a good place for a meal. Good pasta dishes & gourmet pizza, share plates and a straight forward that covers all the bases for Australian & relevant imported wines. I liked it!

Approaching 11pm in Camberwell, after a Friday night spent doing the Bourke Rd bar ‘crawl’ (of the two bars there: East of Everything and Bar None), we were looking for a late bite and walking down towards the junction were told ‘kitchen closed’ every place we stuck our heads into. Thinking we were going to have to settle for the stale $ 2 pizza slices at that take-​away place near Subway, we tried our luck one last time and asked if Café Paradiso was still service.
High-​fives all ’round — they were.
Located just across from the Rivoli (hence the later kitchen hours I suppose) we would have been happy with anything better than stale pizza, but instead were besotted by the quality of the pizza that came out. We shared five in a group and all were fantastic, with the small exception of the sausage pizza which was a little bland compared to the others. The eggplant chips were also fantastic, as were the friendly staff. A life saver, and a place we’ll long keep in mind for late night eats in this neck of the woods.

I’m getting into the habit of rocking up at places at odd times trying to have meals (damn you weekend sleep-​ins throwing off my whole routine!).
So to continue this tradition I turned up at Café Paradiso for lunch at 3.45 Saturday afternoon. The staff were really friendly and had no problem with our odd timing. Being a gorgeous day three of us tried to cram around one of the little tables out the front that is really designed for two. The staff rushed about grabbing extra stools to sit our bottle of wine and glasses of water on to ensure there was still room on the table for all our plates.
In the end we only ordered dips and breads to share. Dips were tasty but not blow your mind and the bread was replaced without having to ask which was a nice touch.
The pizzas are apparently great so will head back soon to try them out. Food and wine edging towards the more expensive side but we all deserve an occasional treat don’t we?! I can see this being an occasional ‘let’s meet for a quick drink’ spot more than a destination dining experience.