Sette Bello, Glen Waverley MELB

"Where would you like to go for Valentine's day?", WL asked out of the blue. I starred at him in utter disbelief, allowing myself a few minutes to gather my thoughts. I responded with a casual burger outlet that we frequented last year but after giving a bit more thought into it, I suggested Sette Bello, a restaurant that is close enough for the both of us and a place where we could unwind.

Bookings are necessary here and WL had arranged for it in advance, a feat that he is pretty good at hehe.  Service is friendly and efficient, orders came within a reasonable time frame.

Not sure if WL liked the idea of bread dipped in butter but I did find it amusing how he could down it quickly regardless.

Salt and pepper calamari, crisp fennel, cucumber, iceberg salad, basil aioli - salt and pepper is quite a simple method of prepping a dish but I personally felt Setto Bello did right by cooking the calamari at the right temperature and obtaining a pleasant balance between crunch and dry. Salad lent the dish some acidity, a good contrast to the fried pieces of calamari.

"Involtino di qualglia" quail, mushroom and foie gras wrapped in filo - I do like quail and this was prepared well from the crisp layer of filo to perfectly removing the fine quail bones to the fine mesh of fruit infused jam/pickles. Highly recommended to give this guy a try;)

Spicy Italian pork sausage and smoked eggplant - I have a good tolerance towards spicy food and found this a little spicy in my books. Not something for the faint hearted but worth a try if you don't mind a little kick of it.

Chargrilled eye fillet steak, potato gratin, crushed greens and brandy peppercorn sauce. Another simple dish done right, bonus points for serving it with potato gratin (a favourite of mine!).

Fries - because WL loves fries as much as I do and he almost finished the entire bowl by himself.

Confit duck leg, pan fried duck breast, cannellini bean scordalia, grilled peach and duck glaze. I love meat served with fruit and this was no exception. Scordalia toned down the robust flavours from the duck and fruit by a notch and somehow bridged those two ingredients together well. I thought the serving portion for this was a lot more generous compared to other establishments:)

Italian fried doughnuts, honeycomb, nutella, cracked chocolate and double cream - at this stage both of us probably did not need dessert but we still went ahead and ordered one. Doughnuts were delicious although I found the combination of ingredients a little too rich to my liking. Still a satisfying way to end our meal tho:)