V Rating: VVV
Where: 126 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach
When: Tue-Thurs 3.00pm-11.30pm. Fri - Sun 11.00am-11.30pm.
Tel: (02) 9365 1233
Price: Pasta: $16.50 - $17.50. Pizza: $16.50 - $18.50.

OK, Pompei’s is not a vego restaurant. The many, many vego options suited my craving for variety but it bears mentioning that my wife ordered carpaccio, which she rated as ‘lovely’.

The reason I break with tradition by mentioning meat options in an otherwise vego food blog is to cover the contingency of dogged brothers-in-law. I have in mind a brother-in-law who takes every opportunity to whinge about how he is forced to eat rabbit food at his own table whenever a clutch of his wife’s gastronomically stunted mates drops over for dinner. For such Sydney-based brothers-in-law, Pompei’s presents the elegant compromise: The menu is wide-ranging and the food of a sufficiently high standard that the two of you can eat whatever you fancy with a minimum of broadsiding or muttering over entrees.

So, the food. Our table fairly groaned beneath the weight of bruschetta, ravioli (my wife observed it was actually agniolli) in either a tomato or butter and sage sauce, olive, goat’s cheese and basil pizza and Pompei’s justifiably renowned gelati (three scoops: Gianuia, Ferrero Rocher, and Pear - more endorphins per cubic millilitre than one can imagine). I tried a bit of everything and liked it all but my main was off the Specials board: Spaghetti alla puttanesca. I asked for it without anchovies (apparently this is the way the dish should be made) and can safely report that it was superb.

In fact I told the waiter at length how fab it was, how my wife and I had travelled through Italy and I never had puttanesca as good as this and would it be too much to get the chef out here and,.. then I noticed him shuffling nervously and his eyes moving in an agitated manner.

After years of working in mining camps and eating from field kitchens, I could not claim to be a true foodie and it’s a rare thing for me to do anything more after eating than look to see if any of my fellow diners has left stuff on their plates. So believe me when I say Pompei’s food was fab; those of you with a more sublime palate than mine would do well to make a beeline for Pompei’s.

Anon. 30/05/06.

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