crudo Archives - PEGFeeds - Sydney Food Blog

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

Our recently dog-positive Redfern based friend took us to one of Redfern’s many dog-positive night time venues. We had the $65 per person feed me tasting menu, with the addition of a round of raw beef toast for the table.

I’m not very well versed in olive culture, but these green Sicilian olives were pleasantly crisp and only lightly salted. Not bad, but not something I’d willingly order from the a la carte menu for $5.

The ricotta, potato & leek fritter with smoked tomato sago and aioli was the first non-olive dish of the night, and also the start of what was essentially an abuse of shaved pecorino. Whilst I’m usually quite anti-fritter, these frittery balls were coated in a nice tomato sauce, with good internal texture and flavour. Not bad.

This visually interesting dish is Bart Jr’s kingfish & scallop crudo with yuzu kosho, buttermilk, cucumber, poppy seeds, and dill. I’m pretty sure there’s some salmon and pomegranate snuck in as well. This was a fresh tasting sashimi based dish, and whilst many of the ingredients – for example buttermilk and poppy seed didn’t make a huge difference in flavour, the dill really shone through. Dill generally pairs quite well with seafood, and this was no exception. Well liked around the table. Pretty good.

The raw beef toast with duck dripping, chives, pecorino di fossa, and crispy onion atop grilled garlicky sourdough ($9 supplement each) was not included in our tasting menu but probably the best morsel of the night, and a must get. Each bite of these juicy, thickly topped slices of sourdough was extremely decadent, with the cheeses, sauces, and raw meat all melting together in the mouth. A nice hit of umami that I wish there were more of. A really elevated snack.

The sheep’s halloumi in rosemary butter with burnt honey, verjuice, currants and hazelnuts is the rare sweet halloumi dish. Despite the multiple sources of sweetness and the contrasting innate saltiness of the halloumi this dish was able to avoid being over-flavoured. It was pretty nice, but I think a bit of bread served with it would’ve gone a long way.

Speaking of bread, the next dish on the menu was the rosemary and garlic focaccia with fermented chilli butter and olive oil. My feelings towards this bread dish are not as fond as some of our friends. I think that the fermented chilli butter, whilst good, was wasted on the focaccia which was already quite adequately flavoured and salted on its own. I would’ve preferred to have the chilli butter (as well as the preceding halloumi) with some more plain bread so that it could’ve been enjoyed more on its own merit. The combination of bread and chilli butter was, in my opinion, the combination of two strong and non-complimentary flavours.

The pasta formosa with lamb shoulder ragu, green peas, pecorino and pangrattato was the third appearance of Bart Jr’s overreliance on pecorino. The pasta was quite al dente, moreso than I normally like, but still pretty good. The serving of beef was generous, and while the ragu flavours were good, they were no more special than any other ragu at any other restaurant we’ve been to recently.

The salad dish was made of baby gem leaves, eschallot vinaigrette, pecorino, and fennel seed pangrattato. Are you starting to see a trend? Maybe pecorino was on sale at the supplier.

Whilst I didn’t really enjoy the roasted hasselback potatoes with creme fraiche and aleppo pepper, thinking to be a bit too dry even with the sauce, my potato-positive partner thought that it was “a fine potato”

The charred ocean trout skewer with caramelised fennel, harissa, yoghurt, and mint was NYL’s least favourite dish, and in my opinion probably the weaker of the two options for mains. It is a 200 gram skewer of trout cooked in a Middle Eastern style. The fish is well cooked, to a safe degree whilst still retaining a semi-rare moist inside. I wasn’t a big fan of the fennel, however, and I thought the harrisa-heavy flavour, though not bad on its own, was a bit incongruous with the tone set by the rest of the meal.

I get highly anxious about driving after any quantity of alcohol, so this Heiwa Shuzo ‘Tsuruume’ Yuzushu was perfect as an inclusion on Bart Jr’s tasting menu. It was pretty tasty and refreshing (tart, not too sweet), but takes this somewhat disordered journey from Italy, to the Middle East, and now Japan.

VERDICT
Bart Jr’s was generally pretty good, with the major standout being the raw beef toast. They have a minimum spend of $60 per head, so you might have to get some other food and drinks unless you want 7 pieces.

Bart Jr.
92 Pitt St, Redfern NSW 2016
0401 899 845

Dog tax, mid-corkscrew vs giraffe toy

Diners: JW, PX, NYL and dog, LH