James went for the lamb, which looked very good on a diner’s plate next to us, while I went out on a limb and tried the sandcrab lasagna. It sounded mildly odd, but it said it was the restaurant’s specialty, so I figured why not?

The waiter asked me whether I wanted an entrée (appetizer) or main portion when I ordered it, and warned me that if I got the main, I would be eating it for breakfast. When the meal was served, both James and I thought he had been pulling our legs. Compared to James’ heaping plate of an entire lamb shoulder, I had a tiny square, floating in orange-ish goo in my bowl. This didn’t matter though, because after the first bite, I was in heaven. I don’t know what made the concoction so brilliantly delicious, but it most definitely was. It wasn’t lasagna in the normal sense—there were no tomatoes or cheese or beef, but rather, an amazing sauce coating lots and lots of crabmeat, somehow layered and shaped into a stack. There is no way I can really describe it, other than absolutely delicious. It was worth every penny. The waiter was right—I had to give up a little more than halfway through and watch James, who had already eaten a great, large meal of his own, devour the rest of the lasagna. There was no point taking it home and wasting such a good meal in the microwave!

Even ignoring the food, the restaurant was still great. It was buzzing with the Friday night crowd, yet it was one of the more romantic places I’ve dined in. However, that could be attributed to the occasion as well. Contributing to this was the Pier itself—afterwards, we took a stroll along it, and found a couple of perfect places for pictures in front of the lit-up Story Bridge. The pictures aren’t quite as perfect—mainly because we were attempting to take them on our own and couldn’t agree on who could hold the camera better—but hey, that just added to the fun. I recommend Il Centro as a great treat—although more than one visit here might break the bank!

Two days before my departure for the first time from Australia’s fair shores, James told me we were going out for a nice dinner. The only problem was, he didn’t have a clue where. We asked around and finally decided to head into the city to Eagle Street Pier.

I had been to Eagle Street Pier once or twice before, when my friend and I got off at the Riverside ferry stop and wandered through town. However, that was during the day—the place is completely different at night. Bars and fancy restaurants abound, all of them packed and full of life. We wandered around the Pier, picking one restaurant after another only to find that they, too, require reservations on Friday nights—well, at least, if you want to stand a chance at eating. We arrived at Il Centro to find that there was quite a substantial wait, but after investigating our choices further, we decided that the hour or so wait wasn’t so bad.

We got a couple beers at the bar and eventually got a seat in the bar area, squished up with others waiting for a table. Our table didn’t take quite as long as they said—probably because there were only two of us. We had a nice, small table near the walkway into the restaurant, but I surprisingly didn’t get jostled by people walking on it nearly as much as I thought I would. Even though we weren’t near a window, I could still look straight out at the lit up Story Bridge, the iconic bridge of Brisbane that appears on nearly all postcards of the city. It’s not quite the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but its as close as you’ll get 1100 kilometers north of Sydney!

The menu boasted some of the higher prices I had ever seen for restaurant food (at least on my student budget). For a full main, the average price seemed to be around $35. The choices weren’t all limited to Italian—there was also a selection of steaks and chops, especially on the specials menu.