Since joining council last fall, Joe Magliocca has often said he wants to find savings and “trim the fat” at City Hall.

He has also billed taxpayers $350 for espresso-making equipment and expensed several meals at upscale restaurants, including one lunch that was more expensive than his new office Nespresso machine.

At Kensington’s Osteria de Medici, Magliocca laid down his corporate MasterCard in January for a $398 chef’s special off-the-menu lunch shared by five people, including himself. The table was never shown prices for the antipasti, angel hair pasta, veal parmigiana and more.

It’s by far the priciest meal that any of Calgary’s 14 city councillors expensed in the first half of 2014, according to expense disclosures.

The Herald’s questions around this bill have the first-term councillor saying he’ll think twice next time, and has startled some colleagues.

“Was I there, on the $398 bill? Phew. Thank God for that,” said Coun. Andre Chabot, when told he had not been in attendance. Chabot has his own $100 meal he regrets expensing and may pay back.

Fellow first-termer Coun. Sean Chu led all councillors by expensing 62 hospitality outings in the year’s first half, many of them coffee meetings for as little as $3.

His most expensive meal was a $157 dinner at Golden Inn restaurant, with Magliocca and Maurizio Terrigno, an owner of Osteria de Medici.

Chu recalls the trio discussed Terrigno’s plans to redevelop the Kensington eatery site into a taller mixed-use project — something that goes to council for approval in coming months.

Chu, who also prides himself on being fiscally conservative, said residents likely won’t mind a $50-per-person restaurant expense.

“Any place you go to, $157 for three people isn’t that expensive, really,” he said. The April bill included a $28 bottle of red Australian wine and a filet mignon.

Chu expensed another meal with Terrigno and Magliocca this year for $68, at the same Chinatown eatery.

Chabot twice treated his two council aides to lunch this year — in January for $101, and in spring for $151. He may reimburse the public for the first one, once he gets clarity on campaign finance laws for this term.

“I’m surprised I put that through my ward account because that was more or less a thank-you for the work they did on the campaign and for having stuck with me in this term,” Chabot said.

His top bill was a $181 dinner at Villa Firenze with colleagues Ward Sutherland and Magliocca.

“There was one thing on the menu that Joe really liked, and he gave Ward Sutherland a little piece of it so Ward ordered one himself,” Chabot said.

“It was portobello mushroom with something, and I don’t think it was cheap. We were talking work, believe it or not.”

At the Magliocca meal that cost almost $400 last January, Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown was one of the guests.

“I can tell you the food was awesome. But I can tell you we don’t talk about the price,” recalled Brown, who sat at the table with Magliocca, an executive from suburban builder Shane Homes, another guest whose name the city councillor said he can’t recall and, for part of the afternoon, the restaurant owner’s son.

But when Brown learned later about the price, he offered $100 to cover his share.