Ladro

Great pizza, great wine.
This is an awesome little spot off Chapel St. Perfect date night spot.

Wood fire pizza that is simple yet delicious. I like Ladro for several reasons. Its close to home, Great place to sit and enjoy one of the 15+ beers they have on tap and enjoy the Greville Street vibe.
It’s about being a sustainable Modern Italian eatery + bar. They recycle 100% of our organic waste from the kitchen and you can buy it for $ 2 a bag to take home and use in your garden. Where possible they use local and sustainable produce. They even keep their own bees!
Ladro also has a selection of wine (vino) and a spot on cocktail list. They do Gluten Free pizza and Take Away is available also

Great location for catchup drinks or simply to laze about… would return to sample some of their mains. I was eyeing off the table opposite they seem to have ordered endless amounts of bread, calamari looking dish and salad?
We ordered palenta fries fused with truffle oil. which I didn’t mind but got w bit too heavy for my liking.

Ladro make great pizza’s full stop. Situated in Prahran’s Greville street, it is the ideal place to fill up your tummy before a night out on the town.
It is also a fabulous venue for birthday’s or celebrations with a medium sized group as they have a room out the back that will cater for an occasion.
Staff are super attentive and did I mention the pizza’s will blow your mind?
Serving cocktails, beers or mixed drinks.
Perfect place to go in the best part of Melbourne.

This type of place pisses me off. It could’ve just been our experience, 8pm on a Friday night (with reservations mind you!), but this place seems like it is surfing on it’s reputation alone with its head so far up its ass it’s lost complete sight of reality in the darkness of its own self-​importance.
Anyway, we arrive, walk in, and we stand there for 20min while staff run past us half-​smirking, with or without food, about 10 times. A sort of «ha ha ha, you’ve come to LADROS. who do you think you are, you first timer fools!» 3 times I had to walk up to the bar/​manager (in black) to ask to be attended to/​our reservations. Eventually I said to the guy, look, «We had a reservation at 8, it’s 8:20 now, should we leave? Just tell me what the deal is cuz I feel ridiculous standing there with people running past me and now I’m late for your reservation because of you.» He says, «Okay. exhales. just, one minute.» Several minutes later he comes and says, «Two? Come with me.» We walk (run almost) behind him to a back room to be seated, and get seated on empty tables (no plates/​cutlery etc).
We sit there, and in 2 minutes, a lady who I’d like to call Super B, tossed one menu in front of my partner, and rudely pointed out, «You guys know there’s a $ 15 corkage fee for wine right?!» (which we’d brought, and we knew, and said no worries). She then storms off, no wine glasses given or anything. Later, another girl then passes by and says, «Hey, you guys have nothing? Sorry, I’ll get you a menu/​glasses etc.» Thank you! we said. Super B then returns, and goes, «What ya having?» I said just two minutes please, we JUST got my menu/​glasses. She exhales deeply, slight eye roll, and walks off. 90 seconds she’s back (we haven’t even poured wine yet). And says «Right, what is it?» I said, «Umm, we’re not ready yet it’s our first time and …» she cuts me off and says «YOU STILL NOT READY! HAHA (sarcastic laugh). My God, the menu is not that big, its pizzas, pastas, and salads, okay?! *chuckles to herself shaking her head and says* I’ll be back.» And storms off. What, the, fuck? Did that just happen, we thought? This woman was insufferable. $ 15 corkage/​reservations for this?
Then we get punished because she doesn’t return for about 25minutes, by which time, we are obviously ready. «NOW don’t tell me you’re not ready yet?» she says. «No, we have been for 20 minutes.» Anyway, we order meat balls/​calamari starters, pizza/​risotto, & a salad. She jots it down, grabs menus & walks off, w/​o a word.
We sip wine, & chat. Decent amount of time passes, and we get the starters. YUMMY. Loved the meat balls with thin bread. And calamari was excellent. We’re happy, although we asked the salad to come with the starters, we enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, 10min later, mains are shoved onto the already crammed table midway through starters, knocking stuff over, w/​o a word. When she passed later, after we’d finished starters, I asked if she could remove them, and she did, in a «This is NOT my job you know» sort of way. The table next to us was then laughing because they also had Super B, which we eventually discussed.
We ate risotto/​pizza. Yummy yums. Really nice. Although the risotto was a bit too hard even for Al Dente and the colour (a monochrome brown) is a little unappetising. But it was all yummy. We enjoyed them. Though the pizza is quite ordinary, not spectacular.
Then after a while, Super B comes and says, «Are you guys interested in dessert? Probably not right after all that food you’ve been eating.» (We actually were interested, but thought, fuck this, after that comment.) We just said check please. We wanted to get out of this abusive Italian boot camp afap.
Check came, about $ 95. Thankfully, Super B (and the other servers) had their heads so far up their asses that we actually had two bottles of wine, and they didn’t even notice that we did, so we paid the $ 15 for two bottles. Nice, a bit of good karma.
Maybe this place is different on nights. But I’d never return here. The food is not that great. Go to Svolta. Same deal, free corkage, WAY better pizza/​pasta, and the staff are actually young Italians, and they love you and treat you well. Ladro is a wannabe Aussie absurdity.
Note to Ladro: Expand. Get more staff. Don’t overbook. Watch your staff to make sure Super B sociopaths aren’t on staff. What you’re running here is a sham that I believe is riding on dated reputation. Also, FYI, Super B is a middle aged woman with shortish hair who was working back room on Friday night around 8−9pm. Attend to her, please. I (and table next to us too) will never return here.
Note to clients: Bring as many bottles of wine/​booze as you want, and just switch them. Staff wont notice.
Something else absurd about Ladro, Monday are $ 5 corkage, which apparently donates to charity. Why the hell is charity day only $ 5, while Ladro pockets $ 15 all week? Surely it should be other way around, or something? What a sham.

This place personifies one trend I’ve noticed in successful small businesses in Australia that I love. It’s related to a quality that can’t be quantified, nor fostered by the larger corporations responsible for belt feeding rubbish food down your food holes and engorging your middle sections. GOOD SERVICE! This is directly proportionate to staff loyalty. I’ve worked a number of hospitality jobs and there’s nothing worse than a job you hate. Try as you might, you’ll pass on this bad vibe and before you know it you’re openly scowling at the customer, eagerly anticipating the next (seemingly) ridiculous requests that they are about to spew forth. Moral of the story kids — treat your staff with respect and make it a fun place to work! Then you’ll reap the benefits of their genuinely enthusiastic and effervescent* customer service.
Food/​beer was out quickly and tasted so fucken awesome!
*note: effervescent was a product of my mate Bruce’s vocab. Good job Bruce.

Had a meal there with my team last night. It was a big hit with the guys. I had the San Dannielle pizza. It was a white sauce base that I normally wouldn’t prefer, but to my surprise it was excellent.
I complemented it with some great italian reds by the glass. Excellent night!
Service was very slow, but they were busy. Worth a visit if you’re in the area.

This is quite a decent place.
The polenta chips were a tad salty, but quite savory
The pizza dough is on the toasted bread side rather than chewy. But thin enough. Good cheese, sauce a bit tangy (not bad, but acidity is right).
The gnocchi were just meh, did not offer anything but felt rather like a bowl of pasta goo with tomato sauce.
In all, come for the pizzas, a good glass of wine and enjoy the scene, which seems a bit pretentious. Prices are ok. Enjoyable but not memorable

So, unfortunately this Italian restaurant isn’t as good as what it used to be.
From 6−8pm kids rule the roost. Although the staff were very friendly, the service was incredibly poor. Our menus sat in front of us for 35 minutes before the same waiter who gave us our menus came back to take our order. Our entrees arrived promptly, but our mains lagged behind. The food was incredibly disappointing and absolutely not worth the $ 50 per head for a couple of pizzas, spinach salad and polenta fries. The pizzas were really disappointing for $ 25 each. And at the end of the evening, they asked if we wanted to split the bill down the middle on our credit cards, which we replied, «yes, please.» When they handed me the eftpos machine, the amount keyed in wasn’t half of the bill. It was $ 12 more. When I asked why it was $ 12 more, the waiter replied, «oh sometimes the machine won’t allow us to split it down the middle. Is that, ok?» Uummmmm NO! That is not ok! And if this is the case, which seems pretty stupid in this day and age of technology, why wasn’t it brought to my attention before I went to key in my pin number?!
Won’t be rushing back in a hurry, unfortunately.

Being a glutard can often mean while others devour delicious pizza, you’re left either suffering through a ‘gluten-​free base’ that tastes like the bottom of a take-​away pizza box or you’re inspired to eat like a rabbit and nibble away on a salad. Neither of which, when your friends are as mentioned noshing away on a delicious and flavoursome pizza, are an enjoyable experience. Thank god for Ladro who not only had a gluten-​free option, but having made a deal with the glutard gods to eat one normal slice of pizza, couldn’t taste or detect any noticeable difference between the two bases. Right on!
Flavour reigns supreme at Ladro and their pizzas rely on simple but well-​partnered flavours to let each pizza speak for itself without being laden in oil or unnecessary toppings. My gluten-​free base was topped with potato, truffle oil, rosemary and my mouth sang. Top notch.
The casual atmosphere makes the best thing about Ladro being a group dining experience. Share a few pizzas between friends, and make the most of BYO Monday.

A few big ol’ wins right off the bat:
BYO Mondays, where you get to slug in your own booze and the donation you make to do so goes straight to cha-​charity. Solid gold. They even gots these stickers on their house wine bottles to promote it during the week. That’s commitment yo.
Another win: the pizzas. Naples-​style, thin-​based and sparse-​toppinged, with the big winners being the Potato, my fave the puttanesca and the J-​LO, which is just a giant ass on a plate. Ha, nah, it has bacon and such, tasty as.
Minor gripe (and note, it is minor): the salads and entrees are kiddy-​size.
4 stars ain’t nought to spit at though. In fact, 4 stars is summat you can hang your hat on. Well played sirrah, well played.

Great pizzas + atmosphere (and cheap too).
Got a meal for 4 people (including a glass of wine) for $ 75. Bargain!

I don’t want to get any glutards out there too excited, but I received word over the weekend that from the 16^th of November onwards, Ladro will be doing gluten free pizzas. Oh yes, boys and girls… the day has arrived. Hallelujah, etc.

When some friends of mine told me about a new pizza joint in Prahran that claimed to sell gourmet wood fired pizzas with a difference, I was slightly sceptical at first. Arriving at Ladro, the stark, modern interior, hip but unpretentious clientele made me wonder if the design would supersede the taste.
However, I have to admit that I was completely wrong about this ingenious pizza restaurant which has redefined pizza for me. If you’ve stayed away from pizza because you’re watching your diet, you can now breathe a sigh of relief because the thin, crisp based artisan pizzas are not greasy, flavours are deliciously inventive and ingredients are super fresh.
Besides dishing out seriously uncomplicated, urban pizzas, Ladro is also the first restaurant in Melbourne to incorporate a bee hive on its roof. A tradition that originates in Paris, some 250 years ago, provides Ladro with rooftop honey which is used in its kitchen. No wonder this place is creating such a buzz!