Il Lido Overview
Il Lido is Jimmy Shu’s (Hanamun owner) new Italian restaurant located at the Darwin Waterfront. Il Lido, meaning ‘the beach’ in Italian, is surrounded by the sea on three sides with stunning views of the convention centre, the wave pool and recreation lagoon, and the Darwin Harbour. Il Lido offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, a salumi bar (the one and only in Darwin) and a sommelier. If you love Italian food, stunning views and good service, you must try Il Lido.
Darwin Hub Review of Il Lido
Ambiance
With outdoor seating on the water’s edge, indoor seating with floor to ceiling windows and an intimate tapas lounge, Il Lido’s design and concept is innovative and something that you will not find anywhere else in Darwin. With over 350 seats, this Darwin restaurant has dim lighting and is sleek, modern and contemporary with a tropical feel. I sat inside the main dining area for dinner and my only complaint (if I have one at all) is that it was a bit noisy and hard to have a conversation with everyone at the table. I cannot speak for the dining experience outside or in the tapas lounge, but we had trouble hearing out waiter or hearing what others at the end of the table were saying. Another great feature of the restaurant is the glass wine room that has all of the amazing wines on display as well as the open kitchen so you can see the chefs working their magic!
Service
The service at Il Lido was the best service I have ever had in Darwin. Within five minutes of getting to our table, we had our water, our drinks and a complimentary starter platter of green olives, whitebait and prosciutto wrapped breadsticks from the chef. As we had someone who was running late, the waiter was very attentive to wait for her and ask if she were coming and heard us say she was coming for drinks so made sure to leave a drink menu and wine glass on the table for her. Our food was served so quickly and efficiently which was a pleasant surprise as the restaurant was very busy.
Food
Oh my gosh this food was amazing! Italian food is my favourite type of cuisine and I can be quite picky, so I was very pleased that the food lived up to the hype of fine Italian food. The dishes that we got were the pig lovers pizza, pizza blanca, bruschetta, gnudi and linguini with tiger prawns. We all raved about our meals and we cleaned our plates. There were so many great options it was hard to decide what to order and I am already trying to figure out the next time I can go and try some other dishes.
Vegetarian’s Note
From just browsing through the menu you could see there were a few options that were vegetarian friendly. There is a starter, salad, pizza, cheese platters and a pasta option for the non meat lovers. Someone in our group (meat lover) had the gnudi and she said it was delicious and very filling, despite not having meat in it.
Update
We have now been to Il Lido for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have now eaten the bianchetti, crispy arancini, rocket salad and the chocolate giandijua semifreddo with drunken cherries for dessert. In my opinion, the best meal I have had at Il Lido for lunch or dinner was the Bucatini all’amatriciana-pasta with Italian style bacon, tomato, chili and extra virgin olive oil. It had the perfect amount of spice to eat and every flavour meshed so well together.
I was pleasantly surprised at how amazing the breakfast was, which in a way I think was my favourite overall meal at Il Lido. From the ricotta pancakes, to the bacon, sausage and fresh juice, this meal was so delicious and at such a great price. This will definitely be my new go to place for a lovely breakfast on the weekends.
Il Lido – probably the best restaurant Darwin now has to offer – food, service, ambience, setting – all perfect. If I was to criticise one thing it is that the toilets are out the back of teh restaurant some way from it – at night this can seem a little disturbing depending upon who is also out there!
All in all great place to go with both family and friends.
hi, im laetitia and i would like contact you
can you email me your email adress please
thanks
Il Lido has great food, exceptional service and probably one of the best locations in Darwin.
My only criticism is that if you sit inside, the acoustics are horrible! Very hard to have a conversation. Outside is lovely though.
I find it a tad bit pricey but happy to pay the price for a great night out.
A great location ,but there are many disappointments inside acoustics ,the walk to the toilets are to far and to dark ,the food how ever was the biggest diappointment I had the Duck salad couldnt find the duck ,service was OK expected more Il Lido
Very disappointing, it has a great location, reasonable staff but the food was very ordinary. The pure fat on my friends pizza was appalling, prawn pasta had 3 prawns average flavour. When we asked where the bathrooms were, received a hand twitch and told that way.