Category: Italian

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Italian

Osteria di Russo & Russo – Enmore NSW Restaurant Review

I am becoming increasingly convinced that Jowoon Oh is incapable of cooking a bad meal. As silent followers of his career ever since we first ate at Casoni back in 2020, my partner and I have been salivating over the perfectly framed overhead shots of pasta and other goodies on his Instagram all year, finally finding the opportunity to consummate things last night.

We started with this free bread and cultured butter. I don’t always have a lot to say about free bread, but this bread was actually different. It had a nice sweetness and fruitiness, reminiscent of a mild raisin toast without the raisins. I think it was delicious on its own, and actually better without the slightly herbed cultured butter. This bread inspired us to buy some raisin toast at the local supermarket on the way home. It was that good. I wonder if we could’ve had more bread. I guess we could’ve asked.

The photos in this review aren’t really good, and as I told our dining partners EH and EC they’re really just here to provide proof that we actually attended, lest anyone complain that I’m slandering them for no good reason (not that that’s going to be a concern here – this is going to be a generally positive review). Despite the poor photo quality, I’m pretty sure this shade of pink was the actual colour of the wagyu tartare ($6 each, 4 pictured). This snack of wagyu and corn on bread was really quite good, with a good synergy between the charred corn, a little bit of fermented chilli, and the wagyu beef. It was served on a tiny quarter of grilled focaccia, which was served warm and oily – a delicious contrast to the cooler meat topping.

I didn’t love the bone marrow on garlic bread with ciauscolo and salsa macha ($26), which I didn’t feel was a particularly cohesive dish. I enjoyed the nice and toasty garlic bread, which had slight hint of the memory of Casoni’s black garlic bread, but didn’t really know how the bone marrow went with or added to the rest of the dish.

I also did not love the chargrilled kingfish collar with blood lime salsa ($26). I find that kingfish collar is often quite fishy, even as someone who does enjoy both fish and kingfish specifically. I didn’t have much of this, but I did enjoy the 11chargrilled lemon as a juice on top of the fish.

This casarecce with spanner crab, sweet corn, caviar, and kombu ($34) was really good. So umami and creamy, and though the spanner crab itself was a little difficult to identify, this didn’t really detract from the experience.

The linguini with Moreton Bay bug, scallop XO, and salmon roe ($38) was also very good. We had this one first, thought it was great, and were blown away by how good the other pasta was as well. We thought that both pastas were on the top tier of pastas that we’ve had in Sydney.

The grilled duck breast with burnt mandarin and freekeh ($39) was probably some of the best duck we’ve ever had. We’ve been known to mostly enjoy Cantonese roast duck, and not enjoy any of the other more Westernised ducks that we eat, but this one was actually very good. The meat was tender, with a crispy and flavourful skin and nice citrus jus. I had actually forgotten that we had ordered this dish, and it was a pleasant surprise when it came.

We finished with the hazelnut semifreddo cremino, nutella, nougat and popcorn ($16), which combined coldness with sweet and salty flavours in a manner similar to salted caramel popcorn.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
We had a really nice meal at Osteria di Russo & Russo, enjoying most of what we had, but in particular the pasta. The Korean chefs of Sydney are doing great things in the Italian and French domains, and we continue to follow their careers with interest.

Osteria di Russo & Russo
158 Enmore Rd, Enmore NSW 2042
(02) 8068 5202

Categories
Italian

La Favola – Newtown NSW Restaurant Review

We went with a group of friends and colleagues to La Favola, Newtown Italian restaurant and home to a RPA nurse who moonlights in greener pastures.

This is a piece of bread covered in some diced tomato and minimal greenery. Three of these bruschetta can be had for $15, making this a $5 plate. As far as breads go this was pretty pleasant, and as far as tomatoes go these definitely were some. It didn’t really sing out to me, though I guess not all entrees have to.

Moving into specialty entree territory, La Favola considers its calamari ($19) as a signature dish. These were pretty good, soft, and not too battered. Their pale colour implied that they did not swim in the oil for too long. There was nothing either good nor bad about the aioli.

We were offered but did not order the zucchini flowers ($25 for a plate, more than what is pictured), and yet they arrived. Our waitress assured us that we had ordered them when questioned, though none of our party owned believed we did. They were pretty tasty to be honest, filled to the brim with a soft mix of mozzarella and ricotta. But that’s not the point!

My pasta of the night was the seafood pasta (daily special – $35). It was a good pasta in a classic red sauce, loaded with mussels, prawn, and fish. The spaghetti was coated well in the umami, seafoody sauce, and though expensive I thought it was worth it. I probably didn’t need the additional bread on top of the bruschetta from earlier.

La Favola
170 King St, Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 8021 0002

Categories
Café Italian Middle Eastern

Bar Biscotti – North Strathfield NSW Restaurant Review

The main take-home message from this review is really that the food was good, but we spent 40 minutes waiting.

This mango smoothie ($9) was $9 expensive, but pretty good, and came soon after ordering, which was more than we could say about the rest of our meal.

The Mediterranean Potato & Eggs ($21) featuring spiced (mostly vinegary) potato, egg, and zaatar was pretty good. The potatoes were a bit more sour than my partner would’ve liked, and though she wasn’t particularly keen on them I felt the eggs were quite good, as was the surprise zaatar which I think was just mentioned in the menu as “coriander… and a side of pita bread”.

The Italian Meatballs ($22) were pretty good. The Turkish bread was probably the best part – light and airy, a bit oily, a bit crispy, and nice and warm. The beef meatball was a bit weird, a brown exterior with an unexpectedly pink interior displaying a gobstopper like quality that the waiter PROMISED was normal and intentional (but why?) We did eat it and did not get sick. The Napoletana sauce was fine, and the rocket was plenty, but I do feel like a bit of extra bread to soak up all that extra sauce wouldn’t have gone astray. I don’t know why there’s a separate option on the menu for a meatball sub which seems essentially the same dish with different bread and cheese but vaguely the same deal. It was a difficult choice, but I think with this delicious Turkish bread we probably made the right one.

OTHER THOUGHTS We didn’t really complain about our meal taking an extremely long time to come, but the couple next to us who ordered after us and got their food fractionally before us did, and I think they were offered something free out of it. The food was reasonably good, but I’m just glad we had nowhere else to be that morning, because 40 minutes is too much.

Bar Biscotti
24 George St, North Strathfield NSW 2137
0424 195 732

Categories
Italian

Ragazzi – Sydney NSW Restaurant Review

My ragazza and I went for a quick walk-in Sunday afternoon meal at CBD Italian restaurant Ragazzi. That it was a walk-in at 3PM in the afternoon is an important detail to mention, as though the website didn’t list any tables available for reservations, they had plenty of walk-in availability for outdoors seating at the time.

We started with this trevally crudo ($20) with buttermilk, jalapeno, curry leaf, and nigella seed. While the fish used changes seasonally, looking at previous menus I think that there is generally always a form of fish crudo on their menu. This was a great mixture of tangy, fresh and creamy, on some pretty crispy pieces of cracker. Very enjoyable.

A little less convincing was the smoked duck and mozarella croquette ($6), which was good in its fried-ness and creaminess but less forthcoming in its duckiness.

The raw beef, corn and black bean miso with almond ($9) was seriously good. We love a bit of raw beef handled in a safe and appropriate manner, and this particular raw beef was juicy and umami, with good texture and mouthfeel. The mixture of corn and miso was an unexpectedly strong pairing, and the cracker was crispy and delicious also. Our only regret was that we didn’t get two of these, but that did mean that we get to try more different dishes.

The trottole with duck sausage and purple kale ($32) was a decidedly more successful showing of duck than the duck croquette. This was a very tasty, buttery pasta dish with a huge amount of tasty duck sausage, interspersed with crispy and unusually delicious purple kale. The sauce coated and stuck to the pasta remarkably well, making each mouthful a consistent textural and taste experience. This is one of our best pastas in recent times.

Our meal probably should’ve ended there with the great duck sausage pasta, but my partner was keen on the burrata with roasted grapes, pine nuts, thyme and fried shallot ($21) for a bit of dessert. While this was fine, and in fact pretty good, with its mixture of sweetness from the grapes (I think there was some honey as well) and saltiness from the burrata, it wasn’t particularly $21 extra-ordinary. The day I discovered you can buy a pretty good burrata for $6.50 at the local supermarket was the day expensive restaurant burrata was ruined for me.

OVERALL this was a pretty good dining experience. Plenty of The White Lotus chat at the table next to us too. I’d go back.

Ragazzi Wine and Pasta
1 Angel Pl, Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 8964 3062

Categories
Italian

The Imperial Hotel UP – Erskineville NSW Restaurant Review

Navigating and parking in the tiny Inner West streets is one of my least favourite things to do in Sydney, but an unavoidable experience if one wishes to drive to Erskineville’s Imperial Hotel’s weekly drag bingo night. While I could attempt to write about the activities and entertainment of the night, I fear that I would be underqualified to do so and must therefore refrain. I will tell you about the food instead, paid for by one of my senior colleagues.

My boss was pretty sad about these heirloom tomatoes with preserved lemon ($12). They are exactly as pictured – about one or maybe two tomatoes cut up into slices topped with little slivers of lemon. In their defence, they were extremely healthy.

The Parmigiano-reggiano ($10) also made my boss sad. It is also exactly as imagined. Also fit my macros so no complaints from me.

I thought that the Prawn pizza ($26) with san marzano tomato, garlic, chili and parsley was a bit light on flavour, but overall not bad. The ratio of prawn to pizza was quite reasonable though not above and beyond, and the flavours were enjoyable if a little mild for my taste.

The Salumi pizza ($26) with San marzano tomato, salami, ‘nduja, italian sausage, fior di latte was really good. I think I probably have a bit of bias for pizzas with salami or ‘nduja, as it’s rare for me to meet such a meaty and spicy pizza and not like it. Each bite of this pizza was an explosion of taste, owing to the good distribution of toppings throughout the pie. The italian sausage was moist and juicy, and the ‘nduja great for that extra kick of spice. This was a pizza done well.

This is a woodfired bread ($10) with extra virgin olive oil that I didn’t eat.

This is a margherita pizza ($18) that was on the wrong side of the table for me to eat. I could not reach it, but I was very happy with the salumi pizza right in front of me.

COMMENTS
Some of the pizza was quite good, but I suspect it’s not their top attraction.

Imperial UP – The Imperial Hotel Erskineville
35 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville NSW 2043
(02) 9516 1766