Posts Tagged ‘Italian’
March 21, 2010 | 
Author Roman Block Party 2010
Giuseppe Arnaldo and Sons
Crown Casino
This is my second year in the Roman Block Party and I must say last years party was bigger and better. Yes, there were still fantastic food making their rounds, filling your belly till it protests. Yes, there are still hourly cocktails, making their rounds, unlimited sparkling and beer going around, or if you prefer, mineral water, but it just doesn’t feel the same.
Let’s talk about the food: The food is still good- there are a few “stations” lying around the restaurant. The token cured meat station is there, churning out beautifully sliced pieces of prosciutto and salamis. Last 
year’s cheese station became a “Roadside Pork roll” station, succulent pork served with their crispy skin with tomato pesto, basil pesto and chutney on a soft ciabatta roll. Yummmmmm
There are also freshly shucked oysters that’s so fresh that even I couldn’t resist having 4 (when normally I have half because I don’t like oysters). I think the oyster station packed up the fastest. God knows how many oysters those three guys shucked, but they packed up an hour and a half after they opened cos all the oysters are gone!
There were cheesy arancini balls, pork and veal balls from G.A.S, fresh tuna sashimi with freshly grated wasabi from Wasabi; dim sum, pork springrolls and spring onion pancake with crab meat from Flowerdrum; Wagyu beef burger, braised lamb w/ cauliflower and anchovies and a takeaway lamington dessert from Maze.
Maybe I was spoilt for choice last year, but I remembered having a lot more variety of food and more complicated food, the most memorable one last year being this taco thingy with Kingfish, tomato bits on top of this tomato consomme with liquid nitrate in it. Apparently you can drink it after the liquid nitrate dissolves- amazing, and certainly complicated; there were mushroom on mushroom foam, beef tartare with a tiny quail’s egg on top… looking at all the pics I had on last year’s Roman Block Party makes me drool- it was certainly the party of the year in 2009. This year, not so sure. 6/10
Della Nonna
QV Square,
Cnr Swanston and Lonsdale St
03 9654 4880
Della Nonna is fast becoming one of our favorite neighborhood joint- we’ve tried quite a number of their pizzas now and with their pasta, I just can’t get enough of the Tortelli di granceola: Home made pasta filled with fresh blue swimmer crab meat in a light crab bisque and chive sauce ($18/$25) , but really the Papparedelle di Castagne con ragu di anitra – home-made chestnut flour pappardelle with braised duck, porcini mushrooms and sage ($18/$26) could have been my favorite too. Actually, I am happy to try all pastas in their menu- nom nom nom.
This is one yummie pizza- Capo $20 with tender grass-fed porterhouse, awesome melted mozzarella pearls, fluffy thin crusted pizza *drools* I want I want I want!!!!!!
This Funghi misti e tartufo $19, is a miracle in itself. Hubby loathes, I mean, LOATHES cooked mushrooms. This, however, is not your average off-the-shelf canned mushie pizza. This is fresh mixed wild mushies, with truffle oil and an abundance of those yummie mozzarella. Hubby reluctantly tasted a bit when I offered, and then stole 2 more pieces off me and shoved it in his gob! HUMPHHHHHH!!!
Now if you think, fantastic, great pizza and pasta, cool! You ain’t heard nuthing yet- their dessert… oh their DESSERT!
Tiramisuuuuu $12- trust me, it’s worth every dollar. Savour every bite people, this is really really yumgasmic tiramisu. Good strong expresso, bittersweet chocolate dust and a huge generous serving. Nom nom nom…
9/10! Yum Yum Yum!
<a href=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1484781/restaurant/CBD/Della-Nonna-QV-Melbourne”><img alt=”Della Nonna QV on Urbanspoon” src=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1484781/minilink.gif” style=”border:none;width:130px;height:36px” /></a>
DOC
295 Drummond St, Carlton
(03) 9347 2998
Friends came down from Brissy for some tennis action and of course, I had to force them to experience the Melbourne food scene. Disappointingly the foodie tour was a near disaster, with ice cold chicken curry in Old Town Kopitan Mamak & crappy crepes in Dessert House, which almost ruined my reputation as a foodie.
Thank god there was DOC.
In desperate need of sugar hit, the five of us ordered the five desserts on the menu to share. Sweet goats cheese tiramisu $9.5 was a creamy and spongy with a subtle hint of coffee. I was a bit hesitant about the goats cheese bit but to be honest, I couldn’t actually taste it, which is fine with me. Would also love it to have a bit more of the coffee flavour but it was pretty good.
Coppa Gelato $9.5- huge scoops of lemon, pistachios and expresso gelato presented in a silver glass. It was SO SO yummie! If we had to choose the best flavour I would say the espresso gelato is the best, but the lemon came a close second. The best thing is these gelato are not overly sweet but full of flavour- I could probably eat all the lemon and espresso gelato by myself
.
By this time we are actually worried that we couldn’t finish the rest of the dessert-but next came the beautiful Nutella w/ calzoncino w/ vanilla bean icecream $9.5 and all our worries flew out of the window. Where do I even start with this? It’s just a beautiful, beautiful calzone oozing with Nutella. Enough said.
Then came the Panettone $11.5. We wouldn’t normally pick this dessert given that it’s mostly fruit (instead of chocolate) but we aim to try everything (for the readers, of course) so there it is. Oh, how wrong were we to be a bit hesistant on this! It tasted like a freshly baked sweet bread – simply dotted with raisins, the highlight of it was actually the Montepulciano jam in the middle, which gave it a subtle sour plumy flavour. That with the buffalo icecream was sublime.
The sweet pizza w/ Belgian white chocolate, strawberries & vanilla bean icecream $9.5 was least of my favourite. Belgian or not, white chocolate is not really chocolate and the sweetness overpowered the beautiful strawberries and icecream. Thank goodness the pizza base was slightly savoury to balance it out, but this dessert honestly pushed us over the edge into a sugar coma and we were eyeing enviously at the savoury pizzas instead.
I am now looking forward to our next visit to try out their savoury pizzas! 8/10
Church St Enoteca
527 Church St, Richmond
(03) 9428 7898
Italian Regional Dinner- Calabria
I’ve been to Church St Enoteca once and have been extremely impressed how passionate they are about their food and wine and have been itching to go back ever since. Finally, my opportunity came. Church St Enoteca decided to hold a series of Italian Regional Dinners, the second one featuring cuisine and wine from Calabria, in the South of Italy.
Our table of 6 was warmly greeted with a glass of sparkling wine Proseco Marca Oro Extra Dry, Valdo. The wine is not really dry and it has a very smooth taste to it which I love. They also serve us Raw Yellowfin Tuna, fennel and bottarga on arrival. The tuna is really fresh and the crunchy fennel and salty bottarga complements it well. I couldn’t help but grab seconds when they offered. This is what I like about Church St Enoteca also, their generosity means wine gets topped up and they make sure that you don’t ever leave feeling hungry.
![IMG_2632 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_2632-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2632 [640x480]")
Our first course is a selection of house prepared capocollo and Calabrian Salami. The chef actually came out and talk about the dish, because he’s actually air cured the capocollo himself, and it was the first time it’s ever been presented to guests (he did joked that we shouldn’t get food poisoning from that dish, maybe from other food but not that dish!). We all agreed the capocollo the best also, it has really nice, subtle flavours. I just wish that there’s more cos everyone love that dish so much. The salami are nicely spiced also.
The accompanying wine is the 2008 DOC Ippolito 1845 Greco Bianco, Calabria. A few of us thought that this wine is too subtle for a strong flavoured dish such as salami, but I quite like it on it’s own because it’s slightly sweet and it’s quite fragrant. Please note: I am not a wine drinker, but because Church St Enoteca is featuring wines especially from Calabria I thought it’s quite special.
![IMG_2636 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_2636-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2636 [640x480]")
Next course- Sagne Chine which happens to be Hubby’s favourite- LASAGNE (somehow I think I should call my Hubby Mr Garfield instead…). Oh my god, although everyone can make lasagne, this lasagne is SERIOUSLY GOOD. This lasagne is layered with pork, articoke, mozzarella and peas and I think secretly, the six of us could happily chow our way through another platter of this ( I actually did ask but I think the guy thought I was joking 
)
Accompanying wine: 2006 IGT Ippolito 1845, Gaglioppo & Cabernet, Sauvignon, Calabria. I wonder whether Hubby will be forcing me to go to Calabria for our honeymoon, as he loved this wine. It was really good with lasagne.
![IMG_2639 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_2639-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2639 [640x480]")
Our third course was Swordfish braised with potatoes, capers, anchovies, tomatoes and peppers. I like this dish least, but that’s only because I like a firmer type of fish, but otherwise the fish is really fresh and everyone enjoyed digging into this hearty dish.
![IMG_2645 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_2645-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2645 [640x480]")
Dolci is Chinulille- fried sweet ravioli filled with chocolate, chestnuts, candied fruit and nougat. When I saw “ravioli” and “dessert” in one sentence I had the nightmarish flashback of the night in Society, where we had this awful chocolate ravioli dessert. But this, this thing is SENSATIONAL. This ravioli pasta is very thin and cripsy, I really love the candied fruit which gives an extra zing to it. The chocolate dipping sauce is luxurious and silky, but not too sweet. It was a great end to the dinner but to take it right over the edge they served us this Bergamino, a Bergamont liqueur. Just one sip burns your throat and sent my eyeballs to the back of my head and back in 0.003 secs. Phwaor it was strong. Apparently it’s a very very rare liqueur, so we gingerly drank a few more sips before surrendering.
The verdict? 4 course dinner with wine for $75, with this quality type of food is certainly value for money, so I booked us to the next one- Liguria. Nom Nom Nom!
Journal Canteen (Rosa’s Kitchen)
253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne (inside the city library)
Mon-Fri 12-3:45pm, Fri 6pm
![IMG_2531 [640x480]](../wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_2531-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2531 [640x480]")
Hubby is not an Italian cuisine person, but I really really want to go to Journal Canteen, so I dragged him there. Of course, there’s a condition: If Journal is not up to scratch, I will be paying for the next foodie event we are going to. The stakes are high, as the next foodie function is not cheap at all, so I was pretty nervous whether Rosa’s home-cooking would change Hubby’s mindset.
We chose the 4-course degustation menu $39- Hubby was a bit skeptical of our first course, antipasto. ![IMG_2522 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_2522-640x4801-300x225.jpg "IMG_2522 [640x480]")
He never liked antipasto with bits of olives, salami and breadsticks, he told me that I would probably have to
eat most of it. But this antipasto is different: bits of pan fried fetta, potato cakes, eggplant, zucchini, sauteed fennel, olives, salami & pearl barley salad. Hubby took one look at the antipasto dish and started scoffing down the potato cake, I had to virtually snatch half of it back. Potato I understand, but Hubby despise eggplants, and he still ate most of it. The most amazing thing with this antipasto is that there’s a combination of different flavours- zucchini is quite minty, whereas eggplants has sage, pearl barley salad has parsley it’s just beautiful. First challenge- passed!
![IMG_2523 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_2523-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2523 [640x480]")
Second course is the Orrcheiette w/broccoli & anchovies. Whilst Hubby is not very impressed with this, because there is no meat (typical male), he finished it none the less! This is actually one of my favourite dish, I tried replicating it before, but it never worked. The anchovies are quite subtle, which added a bit of salty flavour into the pasta. Beautiful! Since Hubby ate it all, the second challenge- passed!
![IMG_2528 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_2528-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2528 [640x480]")
We get to choose our mains, so my third course is Sicilian Chicken and while Hubby’s got Lamb w/ artichoke.
Sicilian chicken drumstick is pipping hot, full of flavour and the meat is cooked till tender, till it falls off the bone. Yum! Sitting underneath is a pile of hearty vegetables, with potato, olives, carrots and tomato. Thank goodness there’s a basket of crusty bread available, so scoop all the yummie leftover sauce. Hubby loves this too, and ate most of it when I offered it to him.
![IMG_2530 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_2530-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2530 [640x480]")
Hubby’s main of lamb artichoke is less impressive. The dish came out lukewarm, and although the meat is very tender and full of lamb flavour, lukewarm just wasn’t acceptable. Hubby did still clean the plate and only gave me a teeny tiny bit to try.
We also had a side salad of fennel and lettuce- dressed simply with olive oil and salt- yum!
![IMG_2534 [640x480]](https://www.bellygood.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_2534-640x480-300x225.jpg "IMG_2534 [640x480]")
For dessert, we were craving for the sour cherry & custard tart. Sadly they ran out of that, but we saw this gorgeous chocolate & hazelnut torte drifting around during our meal- we wanted that too, but sadly by the time we have finished, it’s sold out also! 
We’d had to make do with cannoli. Hubby didn’t mind cannoli, but his cannoli turned out less flavoursome than
mine for some reason. My had a subtle citrusy flavour to it, and his was just plain and flavourless. I was beginning to wonder whether I would have to pay for the next foodie event so I tentatively asked Hubby what his overall impression was. The man of a few words said, “It nice” “I am glad that I came here.” and “I will come back again.” YES! I have won the challenge and he will gladly pay for our next foodie event (which happens to be Italian also at Church St Enoteca- watch this space!)
I just love Journal Canteen, I really don’t know why. Maybe it’s because of its quirky location, the buzzing atmosphere where no one is too precious about getting immaculate service, or perfect food. Because this is what home-style cooking is about, yes, there will always be some variation food-wise, but in here they welcome you with open arms and serve you simple, comfort food when you are hungry and tired. That’s why I keep coming back. 7/10
Society
23-29 Bourke St, Melbourne
(03) 9639 2544
It’s been a while since I last visited Society, where the horrors of the bar manager left little to be desired. This time, Hubby and I went on a quiet Tuesday night.
For entree Hubby had Ostriche Natural w/ cucumber and mint sorbet $20 for 6. Hubby said the oyster smelled a bit too fishy but it tasted OK. The cucumber and mint sorbet is a bit too sweet for their liking.
I had Quaglia in Padella $19-a quail served with figs with a fried quail egg on top . It is really tender and it tasted nice. I just wish that they have deboned it wholly as it is extremely hard to eat. The fried egg makes a yummy, quirky touch to the dish.
Sides included Caprese $10- extremely small for $10 to be honest. They also skimp on the basil!! Everything is fresh and all, but the sizes are just not good enough.
Roasted potato with herb $9- This is small but it’s really nice. Soft pillows of hot potatoes are accented with rosemary. I can’t help but pop one after another into my mouth. Awesome! I guess although I did say it’s quite small, it’s really the right size for two people, you probably don’t want any more than that for a side dish. But the caprese, they can give me double of that!
Hubby had a Misto di Agnello al Forno $37- oven baked lamb saddle & braised lamb shank w/ garlic mash potato & red wine & shallot sauce. Hubby only offered me a tiny tiny piece, but it’s really flavoursome and tender- Hubby said it was much much much better than my braised lamb shank- he rarely said that so it must be good!
I had an entree sized Paccheri alla Luciana $21. I am not entirely sure how big the main is, but this is quite large for an entree. Large tube pasta served with squid, baby octopus, capers and black olives in tomato sugo. The seafood was very fresh and the squid and baby octopus is very tender. The sauce is really flavoursome, although slightly salty. It’s definitely not just tomato sugo, the sauce is infused with yummie fresh seafoody taste. YUM!
We were debating whether to have dessert when dessert was served to the table next to us. Of course when we saw other people’s dessert we wanted some too!
Hubby chose Ravioli di cioccolato con crema pasticcera $18- BAD CHOICE. This dish is like a chocolate ravioli, uncooked, hard, doughy lumps of stuff. It felt like it should be a savoury dish but it’s weirdly chocolatey. I shudder at the thought of that chocolate ravoili urrrgghhhhh
I chose the dessert special-lemon curd tart with vanilla bean icecream $18. It’s really tangy and just what I needed after quite a heavy meal.
Overall, Society is not too bad, there are some hits and misses and the food service was quite slow for a quiet late night. 5.5/10
T’Gallant
1385 Mornington Flinders Rd
Main Ridge Victoria 3928
03 5989 6565
T’Gallant is one of the popular wineries in Mornington Peninsula, they have nice food and wine, no wonder bookings are essential if you wanted to dine in the La Baracca Trattoria- apparently unless you have a booking, stop letting cars in at around lunch time because there are just so many people!
For entree I had a mushroom and mozzarella puff with tarragon and persillade dressing $16-this is not their best dish- the puffs were fried to crisp, too brown for my liking. It doesn’t really have any mushroom or mozzarella flavour- funnily enough, this reminds me of the taro puffs I have in Yum Cha!
Gnocchi Fritti $26 is a spinach and ricotta gnocchi w. braised duck & mustard fruit. I have never tasted a spinach and ricotta gnocchi before, but I quite like it. The gnocchi is quite firm and has a lovely texture. It goes really well with the braised duck which is quite tender and has a slight sticky sweetness to it. Yummo!
Here are some of the other food I sampled: Chicken pie $31 – slow braised chicken pie with pinot gris, champignon, bacon and broccolini. I only tried a bit of it and I honestly only remembered the pastry cos it was just so good. The pastry is nicely cooked, beautifully flakey and buttery… yummmm
I also couldn’t resist having a bit of the Patate Arrosto $9- roasted crash-hot potatos w/crisp rosemary & lemon- mmmmmm- if only Froggy was here, she would be salivating over this dish! We left it for at least 10 mins before digging in because we were concentrating on our mains, but when we eat it it’s still crash hot and still extremely yummy! Pillows of crispy skinned potatoes, inside is soft, hot and infused with rosemary and salty goodness.
I was EXTREMELY full by this stage but dessert is calling. Once again I rationalised that I have 2 tummies- a savoury one and a sweet one, so surely I would be able to fit in some dessert! Tiramisu and I decided to share a yummie dessert, although I felt like chocolate, I knew in my heart I just can’t fit it in, with or without sharing. So it’s good that Tiramisu decided on a tart tartin- I’ve never heard of one before until Masterchef and was extremely keen to try it 
We ordered a Quince and honey Tart Tartin w/ cinnamon icecream $12- Mmmmm…great choice- when we cut into our Tart Tartin made a crispy noise, and then we saw a river of golden honey drizzling down the plate. It was THE highlight of the meal- the tart was not too sweet, the pastry was perfect and the quince balances the richness of the tart. Very Very nice- I would love to try and make tart tartin one day- Mmmmmmm
Overall the service is fantastic, the food was great, the only bad thing is that the food is slightly expensive- but to finish on a high note it’s well worth it. 8.5/10
Negroni
477 Collins St, Melbourne
03 9614 1319
Negroni seemed to be quite a popular lunch spots with the suits, it has a very nice and cosy environment, with a wine cellar, cosy, classic chairs and chandeliers.
Service, however, was quite abrupt- perhaps we are not the typical businessmen making our deals, no one seemed to pay much attention to us.
Food-wise, the basket of bread was fairly stale- it IS complimentary but I’ve had better. The food service was quite slow, once again, perhaps the standard “businessmen” may have 3 hour lunches but we are in for an express lunch and we want it- pronto.
I ordered a meatball penne- it came almost 35mins later, penne still swimming in some of the pasta water. The dish is quite bland, and while I love bocconcini, it seemed a bit weird to be appearing in this dish, but bocconcini is the only thing that has some sort of flavour in it. The pasta is soft, bordering mushy.
The more I ate, the more I don’t understand exactly what the attraction is here. 3/10
Grappino
Cuisine: Italian
226 Given Tce
Paddington
We spotted this restaurant on our visit to that French restaurant and made a mental note to come back and check it out. We were quite lucky to be able to get a table, booking very last minute (spontaneous desire to eat out) – prompted from a conversation with MinWye who touted Grappino as a favourite Italian restaurant.
We didn’t realise it was a game night at a nearby stadium which meant a 15 minute limit on street parking. Luckily we were dining quite early and there were spots in the car park behind the restaurant. When we entered the restaurant we were greeted cheerfully by Deanna Roduner one of the owners, letting us know that there was a set menu ($60 per person) because of the game. Not deterred by any means we took a table by the window. Later Deanna returned for a lively conversation about Singaporean food and family. This just set up the whole evening of attentive and friendly service.
First up was our antipasto platter. I will try to recall each morsel as best I can here.
From the left to right, I believe the first item was some very tasty meatballs. Then some chillies topped with herbed cheese (I managed to eat the first one feeling only a bit of a kick then with some bravado tried to take down a second only to be defeated. Luckily I had wine and water at hand.) and the third item was a fish or seafood fritter (like fish cakes) which were very flavoursome.
From left to right again, we had some fried risotto balls (very nice with perfectly cooked rice), at the background, prawns topped with tuna, below that little anchovy and caramelised onion tarts and at the front chorizo with dates. I loved every one of these (even though I’m not a huge fan of anchovies) and ESPECIALLY loved the chorizo with dates. Very tasty chorizo mixed with the sweet date.. mmm perfect flavour combination.
And lastly from our antipasto platter, little frittatas topped with sundried tomato.
All of these served with a bread basket, including garlic and olive oil thin toasted bread slices.
I think I could have just eaten antipasto all night.. but our mains were up next.
There were three on offer that night as part of the set menu and we had all three at our table.
Mum had the seafood marinara, which I ended up stealing a lot of. It was a beautifully cooked pasta dish, with very fresh seafood, fish, scallops in the shell, mussels and prawns all soaked in an amazing lobster cream sauce. Piggy would have loved this dish and I savoured as much of it as I could on her behalf.
Next was my partner’s veal scallopine with potatoes, greens and honeyed carrots. The sauce was rich and tasty and I especially loved the carrots. How do they get them to taste like that I don’t know.
My main next, the duck leg with mushroom and pasta. The sauce for this dish was quite sweet. I was happy to eat it all but it was a bit too sweet for my sister who had the same dish. The duck leg was very tender and topped with what I think were crispy potato shavings.
Though we were very full and satisfied from dinner, I couldn’t pass up the dessert menu. Dessert was not part of the set menu, but how can you pass up things such as:
One of the best tiramisu’s I have ever eaten. Creamy, with delicious sponge and coffee flavour…
Or the Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, silky smooth and accompanied with seasonal berries (strawberries this time!).
I had the Crespelle Di Arancia – Orange Pancakes “Dolce Vita”. A very thin crepe topped with mandarin liqueur, valencia orange pieces and a scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream. The sauce was quite strong for me as I don’t usually enjoy syrupy citrus sauces, but the ice-cream helps to balance this out and you can let a lot of the sauce drip off before devouring it.
And then there was the Affogato. A scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream with a shot of espresso coffee and liquer of your choice (this time Frangelico for its hazelnut flavour) to be poured over and then eaten/drunk. It was like a very luxurious iced coffee.
I really enjoyed the night, the service and of course the food. I would love to go again to try their ala carte menu and I will probably be forced to take Piggy there for the marinara the next time she’s in town. I can only hope.
Posted in Brisbane, Dessert, Italian | 
Tags: Brisbane, Dessert, Italian, Paddington, pasta, Seafood | 
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Il Solito Posto
Basement, 113 Collins St, Melbourne
03 9654 4466
Antipasto platters waiting to be served 
Pannacotta has been raving about this place ever since she met me, so I have decided to drag Hubby to the Il Solito Posto bistro. In case you might get confused, Il Solito Posto has two dining rooms, the bistro is the more casual of the two, it’s cozy welcoming atmosphere made me instantly felt at home.
A big cheery Hello from a Johnny Depp lookalike ushered us to the bar when no seats are available, two glasses of water instantly put in front of us- this kind of welcome made me think of Gill Diner- same kind of restaurant serving rustic meals with not-so-cheap prices, why is Gill’s Diner so rude to us?
We didn’t have to wait too long before being ushered to a cozy booth, although it was next to the toilet, it wasn’t too bad. My cocktail arrived, something with citrus that I’ve challenged the bar staff to conjure up for me. It was delightfully citrusy, with fat pulps of passionfruit resting below a martini glass. YUM.
Hubby ordered the herb bread- whilst the bread is fresh, I felt that the herbs are quite unevenly distributed, and therefore the bread is not as flavoursome as I had hoped.
I couldn’t resist the antipasto ($16.90) that was tempting me next to the bar when I waited, and hence I ordered antipasto for entree. It was fantastic- each vegetable had such distinctly unique flavour- the mushrooms were marinated to enhance the earthiness, the eggplant has a subtle minty taste, the capsicum was smokey and the tomato is bursting with flavours- it was just so fresh! I don’t really care for the salami and cured meat, but the cured meat is very unique in flavour and I really like it. The little bready thing is really yum too, although sadly I don’t know what’s in it except olives. The disappointing bit is the bocchini. It tasted like nothing, very much like the ones I buy in the supermarket. Even with slithers of basil and chunks of the fresh tomato couldn’t save it.
Hubby ordered oyster al naturale ($4 each). Hubby seldom have high praises for food, nor vocabulary to praise it, so when he told me that this oyster is good, it must be really really good.
For mains, I ordered Rigatoni Caponata ($26.50). For those who have seen my Gill’s Diner blog, Caponata is a sauce made with tomato, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, pinenuts etc. With this dish, they have also stirred in some currants, making this dish slightly sweeter than the one in Gill’s. Whilst I do like it because it’s a bit different, the vegies are so fresh and the pasta is cooked to al dente, I am a savoury person and the sweetness of the currant didn’t make it as desirable as it could have been. I should have ordered the pasta w/ ragu or marinara, but today I just felt like being a tad more healthy and eat more vegies for some reason.
Hubby ordered a Cassereccia with Chicken, mushroom and cream ($28.50). I tried some and a really really like it. It took all my willpower not to just grab forkful after forkful of his pasta and shove it into my mouth. Hubby found it a bit too salty, but perhaps it was the sweetness of my dish, I really loved his. It was just the right balance of cheese and cream. YUMMMM
Dessert- how could I possibly eat dessert after all these food never ceases to amaze me. Okay, so Pannacotta had a theory about having an extra dessert stomach, but surely after having that sweetish pasta it’ll satiate my sweet tooth (or stomach)? Nope, obviously not, because we ordered a dessert each, instead of sharing like usual.
This beautiful dish is a coffee mousse with chocolate triangle ($16). OMG, the coffee mousse was sooooo strong but yummie. The chocolate is not too sweet either, it was a dark chocolate, which is fantastic. The nuts on the side is soooo yummie too, so fresh and crunchy and sweet and nutty at the same time. I want more!!
Hubby ordered a trio of sorbetto ($12)- green apple, raspberry and pineapple. I love the green apple and raspberry sorbet, it was so refreshing and I actually stole a lot of of raspberry sorbet from Hubby, which he wasn’t too impressed.
To be honest, I had to close my eyes and swoon everytime I ate a bite of both dessert. It was just so perfect. I would definitely give this bistro a 8/10- good recommendation Pannacotta!