Thirty Eight Chairs

Fantastic atmosphere, food and service as always. Every time I've dined here over the years it's been thoroughly enjoyable! Thanks again!

Firstly there should only be 24 chairs as the restaurant is very cramped.
The tables are only 150mm (6”) apart.

It is also extremely loud, making it very hard to have a conversation with your companions.

The food is mediocre to be honest.

The Bruschetta bread was burnt quite badly. The Tomatos weren’t seasoned and really lacked flavour.

The scallop dish was extremely good.

One of our table had the Pasta with the pecorino cream sauce with pancetta. The sauce was over reduced and was extremely claggy and clawing.

Another guest had the porterhouse steak. The steak was of ok quality, but wasn’t seasoned at all. If you are looking for steak there are a lot better places to go then here. The spinach wasn’t rested properly and lost a lot of water into the plate.

I ordered a mid priced glass of red wine at the price of $25.00. This was served colder than it is supposed to be which spoilt the wine.

The meal wasn’t a disaster, but it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Just a little more attention to detail would help.

Food is amazing. Gnocchi is great. Only small complaint was that one of the waiters when serving beer would pour out the beer into the glass and take whatever was left away, despite there being up to a third left in the bottle. Obviously only a small issue but have never really seen that before.

Restaurant is too packed and sitting is too close to other patrons. Hence frequently getting knocked few times by walking people. Too noisy for me. Food is ok

Booking at 2: 15. Made us wait outside 15 minutes for a table, then waitress tells us we have to purchase the 2-course set menu when 2 of us (were not that hungry) were happy to split it. Really rude waitress, manager was lovely. A little too rowdy and not very spacious, which kind of ruins the decor and food experience.

A brilliant night all round!
The morning after, our group have all been raving about how great our experience was at 38 Chairs last night - brilliant service, funky decor, and amazingly delicious meals that were compared and shared amongst us.
Will be remembered for a long, long time:)

I left 38 chairs last Saturday night feeling very stressed.

We paid $350 for the privilege of being yelled at all night by an extremely loud man seated one metre away from us on the next table. (the place is extremely cramped). On top of this the proprietors were playing loud techno. (though they did turn the music down a decibel or ten upon my request

the service was efficient, but all cancelled out because i could not hear my dining partner, nor have a conversation over all the noise.

From my perspective, I hate being forced to yell, and it was a most unpleasant and stressful night. I left with fractured nerves and a racing heart.

Excellent! Second time here this month and really enjoy the atmosphere, food and very knowledgeable wait staff. Great place for a winter meal in South Yarra.

Great food family style setting. There is good wine selection and the knowledgeable is very helpful

Good dining experience. First impressions are good for Italian restaurant. Specially when it's so competitive.

Had bruschetta linguine and pork schnitzel and 2 desserts.

Bruschetta was just perfect.
Linguine was slightly overcooked not al dente and the bean puree sauce wasnt taste like 30 or 40 dollars worth but definitely balanced.
(taste made me feel I was eating healthy vegan food)
Porkchop schnitzel.pretty normal.
And the 2 desserts, apple crumbed cream, tiramisu are tasty but not visually pretty.

But main point is that they use damn fresh ingredients and all dishes are damn balanced well. I will definitely visit here again to try another menus.

Absolutely beautiful cuisine in a fantastic setting. The venue is tastefully decorated and intimate. The menu is enough that you know they're making it fresh to order. The wine selection is amazing and the staff are more than willing to pair a wine to your meal, or suggest a wine based on your preferences.

We enjoyed the excellent service & nice ambiance. We highly recommend the baby calamari for starter and the lobster tortellini was good but the duck and turkey rage sauce dish was too salty. For desserts we’d Crema Catalana & Viennetta.

We have been here for dinner. What to say? This place is amazing, the quality of food is as good as italy. And the service is outstanding.

Good food and atmosphere but all of three minutes between entree and mains - felt like the kitchen was trying to get through everything as quick as possible.

Best steak Ive had in Melbourne. Fantastic staff and service. Sabrina really looks after you! An absolute must

The stand out dish was the duck ragu. Delicious and cooked to perfection. We want to thank Luca for his exceptional service. Also thanks for the grappa recommendation. Can't wait to return.

Loved this place. The ambience and service was excellent. The food was also great. We didn't get a chance to try the dessert as we were in a hurry but the nonna biscuits were fantastic - I want more.

Highly recommended - it's a gorgeous intimate restaurant. Love their consistency when it comes to fresh and authentic Italian food and the impeccable service. It's the very reason I keep coming back for more - also for specifically for the duck and turkey ragout with gluten free pasta! Amazing every time!

Food quality was amazing but what stood out most was how considerate the waiting staffs were. We decided to share all dished and they served each of our shared pastas in two separate plates. Perfecto!