Pasta Al Dente

For over 30 years southern Italians Henri and Anna churned out fresh pasta and sauces made to her family recipe from their South Brisbane kitchen and attached caffe. Today Pasta Al Dente may have moved to Capalaba but it is still the place to come for old style Italian cooking and freshly made traditional sauces and pastas.

Once you've tried a batch of their daily pasta there's no returning to the packet stuff, especially when combined with the premise made traditional sauces such as pesto, macadamia, bolognese and matriciana. In the fridge there's a huge range of take-home pasta, with sand crab and prawn lasagne and sand crab ravioli big sellers, otherwise potato or roast pumpkin gnocchi, porcini ravioli and cannelloni are all on par. And no need to go elsewhere for dessert, with home-made tirimasu and cassata, tartufo, bacio and caffe gelati as tempters.

While it's only open by day, this would have to be the best kept Italian dining secret in town and the nearest thing to eating at an Italian mama's kitchen. A menu of just 3 or 4 freshly made dishes (such as meat lasagne, vegetarian cannelloni or salmon fettuccine) changes daily and is the best to be found for the price anywhere in town.