They have pizza, pasta, salad and other meals here. The food is fabulous and the staff are fantastic. They can get busy especially in the warmer months so you could be waiting awhile. The staff are pleasant and polite to their customers and they all do a great job!

La Porchetta in Mornington has a lot to be desired when it comes to their meals. The meals are huge but the food itself is not fresh and no taste - very generic and bland. We dined here in March this year and ordered the chicken parmagiana and brushetta and both meals were very basic. Definately not worth the money that was paid. Staff were disinterested in our feedback. I wouldnt visit this restaurant again or recommend to friends or family.

Approximate cost: $20

OK, "La Porchetta" I hear you say? Well firstly, let's give kudo's to success of this pizzeria. The original Rathdowne Street La Porchetta in Carlton is just as popular as ever. They have been franchising for several years and some are quite frankly better than others.

The benchmark is always the original La Porchetta in Carlton and to be fair, it is very hard for any franchise to compete with that quality. The Carlton restaurant just has flavour to it that's hard to emulate.

And so this is why I am giving the Jack Moon thumbs up to the Mornington restaurant. Apart from its great location at the bottom end of Main Street, the food is very close to its Carlton namesake. It probably helps that we are regular customers but generally the service is very good and most importantly, very friendly.

Our favourites include most of the pizzas. If you like a pasta with a little kick in it, ask for the 'Putanesca without the capers' and have it with Rigatoni pasta. Now there's nothing wrong with capers, but their flavour works against the natural kick of this very tasty pasta.

There are a wide variety of chicken and other meat meals, salads and sweets for the kids. Coffees are good and there's a good range of wines and drinks. The french windows add a nice touch when opened on warmer days and there's plenty of seating inside or outdoors on the widened and extended pavement under umbrellas.

So ok, it's not the top end of restaurants but neither are their prices. you can feed the family a good meal and come home with change. Your snooty friends won't eat there but who cares? La Porchetta is about real people so just go on in and enjoy the experience.

Cheers, Jack.

Approximate cost: $15.00