Gigi's Restaurant & Bar

Address: Suite 1/22 Market St,
Wollongong NSW

Cuisine: Modern Italian with a Mediterranean Twist   Seats: 210

Price: Average Price For Entree & Main - $35  

Phone: (02) 4229 4447  Fax: (02) 4229 4443

Chef: Dane Tobias  

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Gigi's Restaurant & Bar Overview

A modern Italian menu, an award-winning chef (who trained under Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver), and simple, unpretentious style... It’s little wonder that Wollongong diners have embraced Gigi’s Restaurant & Bar. The brainchild of the Gigliotti brothers, this smart and vibrant venue stays firmly faithful to Italian culinary tradition, yet keeps things contemporary with dashes of French, Spanish, Greek and Serbian influences. Service is adept and everything on the menu is prepared from scratch – notably the pasta, which the owners’ aunt makes fresh using a traditional family recipe. Among the options might be spinach and ricotta ravioli in sage butter sauce, or a rich tomato based Sicilian stew of black mussels, king prawns & grilled fish, served with marjoram aioli.

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There's plenty of reason to expect great modern Italian cuisine at Gigi's Restaurant and Bar in Corrimal St.

Co-owners, brothers Giuseppe and Roberto Gigliotti have been brought up on wholesome, authentic Italian fare and everything in the restaurant from the pasta to the tiramisu is made from scratch with the freshest of ingredients.

The team has brought on board award-winning chef Dane Tobias - who trained under celebrity English chefs Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein - to bring their vision to life. And diners are already streaming into the restaurant, which opened just last week.

"Our basic motto is great food, great service at an affordable price - we want people to feel like they're in a fine dining restaurant but without the high prices," Giuseppe Gigliotti says.

"It's modern Italian with a Mediterranean twist, so there's some Spanish, Greek, Serbian and French dishes on the menu too.

"The beauty of Italian and Mediterranean food is its simplicity and we've kept our menus simple and concise and we will produce daily specials depending on what fresh seafood, vegetables or other produce is available to us."

The restaurant is open from 7am till late, seven days a week.

There are separate menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a tapas menu for those after a quick snack over a glass or two of wine.

Enjoy brekkie before a walk on the beach - olive oil and wild honey-roasted muesli served with summer compote and natural honey is a healthy option, there's also pancakes, bacon and eggs and omelettes with a variety of fillings.

Breakfast options range from $3-14 so it's not going to break the bank.

There's some great pizza, pasta, fish and burger selections for lunch and the tapas menu - available from 10am-10pm - features dishes like calamari fritti, pomodoro baked chorizo, Italian meatballs and semi-dried olives.

Dinner is where the management team and the chefs really put their food philosophy into practice.

Tasmanian smoked salmon carpaccio is one of the entrees, pasta dishes include fettucine in a red wine, slowly braised beef ragu and orange gremolata with shaved parmesan.

One of the signature main dishes is the Sicilian seafood stew with mussels, king prawns and grilled fish of the day in a tomato and white wine sauce and marjoram aioli.

Chef Tobias brings his fabulous culinary pedigree to the mix. Brought up in Minnamurra he set off for London to realise his dream of working with Jamie Oliver.

After a stint at Stein's seafood restaurant in Cornwall he headed for London.

"I walked into Jamie's restaurant in central London, Fifteen, with my chef's apron and my knives and asked to work for the day," Tobias says.

"After a nine-hour shift with no breaks, he offered me a job. Working for Jamie is better than you could imagine - he listens to everything you say and he never accepts second-best."

Oliver's influence is evident at Gigi's - from the signed chef jacket which is framed and hanging on the wall, to the way Tobias has gone about selecting items for the menu, preparing and cooking his food, and training his own staff.

"It's a great team at Gigi's - the Italian style of food (the Gigliottis) have been brought up on is the style of food that I've been trained to cook under Jamie," Tobias says.

"It's about using fresh herbs, cheeses, seafood and other produce to create wholesome, vibrant and simple food. It's about simple handcrafting and not confusing dishes with too many ingredients."

Gigi's is situated on the Corrimal St eating strip. There's room for 150 diners inside and 50 or so outside. It's licensed, with BYO wine only, and Belaroma coffee is served.

Check out our Menu and come and enjoy our fabulous Mediterranean cuisine with a twist today.

Gigi's Restaurant & Bar Menu Sample

All Pasta is hand-made her at Gigi's. Try some favourites like our Mare e Monte ('Surf & Turf') - char grilled Australian king prawns served with 280g scotch fillet or our delicious platters for 2.

Gigi's Restaurant & Bar Map