Archive for the ‘Italian’ Category
V Rating: VV A couple of months ago trusty Canberra restaurant reviewer Grundnorm stayed with me in Sydney. As Andy and I didn’t have a car at that stage, the Sydney restaurants I’d reviewed had mostly been within a one kilometre radius of my home and my office. To counteract my embarrassingly small geographical circle, Grundnorm suggested that we use his car to go to a new part of Sydney - somewhere different, far off, exciting, noice, unusual… like the Italian Forum in Leichhardt. The Italian Forum is a huge apartment complex surrounding a piazza with restaurants and shops. On a Saturday night the restaurants fill with bon vivants whose laughter, voices and clinking plates and glasses make for a loud and joyful atmosphere. We headed for Cafe La Vigna because they had six veggie and three vegan choices for mains, which is more than the average Italian Frum restaurant. We shared a fried haloumi entree (that’s five slices of haloumi on a plate). I chose the penne Siciliana as a main (olive, eggplant and capsicum in a Napolitana sauce). It was OK, although the eggplant was not as softly cooked as I like it. We also had a run of the mill garden salad. One of the most fascinating parts of the evening was watching the waiting staff deliver huge trays of food to other diners. The trays were laden with either meats or seafood and reminded me of a medieval banquet. Reviewed 11/3/06. KP
Normally I’d only write up a restaurant once, but this weekend we happened to go to Dolcissimo for brunch so I thought it would be a good opportunity to add a postscript to my original review. As with most places, the brunch menu was a good deal more vegetarian friendly than the dinner menu. I’m not a big ice cream / gelato fan. In fact, it’s one of the few vices I can resist. But I couldn’t verily pass up such an opportunity. And actually, it was pretty tasty. The gelato was passionfruit, which was quite tart and worked well with the sweet taste of the muesli and fruit. Sadly, I was so busy ordering my gelato alla muesli that I forgot to take notes about prices, options etc… this may necessitate a return trip. For research purposes, obviously.
V Rating: VV With its unobtrusive glass shopfront, Made in Italy could almost be mistaken for a real estate agency or generic inner city retail shop. However, any confusion about the nature of the business is soon dispelled by the seductive pizza aromas that fill the restaurant and float out onto the street. Made in Italy is the real deal. The pizzas are thin crust and the toppings are fresh, original and flavourful. The spinaci (fresh spinach and tomato, cheese and garlic) and funghi francesci (champignons, parsley, cheese and garlic) are standouts, but vegetarians can take heart that there are eight veggie pizza options. Vegans are ignored entirely on the pizza front, although you can probably ask for the pizzas to come without cheese. There are a couple of veggie and vegan friendly pastas, and usually one veggie special. The catch with Made in Italy is the service. Generally it’s friendly, if not always efficient. Sometimes it’s neither. For example, recently some work pals and I dutifully booked a table for a Friday lunch. We were seated in the corner and had trouble attracting the attention of the staff when we were ready to order. Once we’d finished ordering we were treated to a Kremlin style lecture on the rules for eating at the restaurant. The cardinal rule, apparently, was that if we booked a table there was a minimum spend of $15 per person. Our order was below this mark. We listened to the lecture and then politely suggested that a good time to tell customers about this ‘rule’ might be when they made the booking, not after they’d been seated and ordered. This was not viewed favourably by the waitress, who gave us a severe look and reminded us that we were already bad customers because ‘you booked for five but only four came.’ Apparently this was also against the rules. Fortunately for us our bad behaviour was overlooked on this occasion and our steaming pizzas and huge salad soon arrived. They were worth the wait, and the rules.
V Rating: VV Dolcissimo is part of Haberfield’s ‘Little Italy’ quarter based around the intersection of Ramsay and Dalhousie streets. After a quick stroll to take in the local menus I began to fear that I’d entered a V-Ware zone - there were long lists of ‘carne’ and ‘pesce’ dishes but not a ‘verdura’ friendly one in sight. Fortunately Dolcissimo offers some choice for vegetarians, which pushed it into the VV category. There are six vegetarian pizzas to choose from (though none are vegan) and four vegetarian pastas (three of which are vegan.) Despite the choice, Andy I went for the same option - penne alla norma (eggplant, tomato and ricotta sauce). I was tempted by the penne arrabiata, but the waiter instructed me not to have it because the chilli would be too hot! He did offer to serve it to me as napoli sauce ‘with a bit of chilli’ but by this point, slightly affronted and afraid, I decided to go with an old favourite. In traditional Italian style, the alla norma comes with the ricotta served on top of the pasta and you swirl it in with your fork. This gives the sauce a soft and creamy texture. Combined with very soft squares of eggplant, the sauce virtually melts into your mouth. Tasty as the dish was, by the end of the meal it had become a little oily. The bruschetta we shared for entree was similarly a little oily, although the tomato was fresh and the flavour was strong. Dolcissimo is situated in old terrace shop front with its three rooms squashed around and above a steep staircase. The floor is unpolished dark wood and the two main restaurants have a tasteful yet subdued decor. I first went to Dolcissimo on a Saturday evening when it was absolutely packed. Even on a Wednesday evening it was doing a good trade, giving it a bustling, warm feel. A common criticism of Dolcissimo on Eatability seems to be that the service is poor or inattentive. I didn’t find that to be the case - within the first ten minutes we’d been visited four times by waiting staff and both the entree and mains came quickly. Perhaps this is different on Saturday nights whent the restaurant is very busy. Dolcissimo also serves breakfast, lunch and what looked like a tasty range of gelato and cakes. While there isn’t an abundance of vegetarian options, there is some choice and it seems to be one of more vegetarian friendly options in the Little Italy area.
V Rating: V-Ware Marinetti is a charming little restaurant in the O’Connor shops in North Canberra. There are many things to like about it: the loud and busy (but not overbearing) atmosphere, the fact that there is no charge for corkage, the friendly waitstaff, and the warm and unpretentious touches that make it homely (eg. menus are simply printed on plain A4 paper, stapled together). Sadly, for vegetarians, the choice of dishes is somewhat limited. For entree there is a choice between mushrooms in a creamy white wine sauce served on toasted crusty Italian bread, minestrone soup, and a cold eggplant platter. I chose the mushrooms (as did both the friends I was dining with) - they were divine. I don’t know how they manage to get such an amount of flavour from such a simple dish. Perhaps the trick is to use a variety of mushrooms - there were some types I just couldn’t recognise. For mains, the choice is more limited: in fact, there is no choice. There is only one dish available as a main for vegetarians - crepes filled with spinach and ricotta. (The crepes are also available as an entree size - $9.50 - and given how rich they are, that size would probably be enough for most people). If you don’t like cheese, you’re in trouble: the crepes are filled with ricotta and covered in melted cheese. It is, I have to say, a pretty unrewarding dish, lacking in depth of flavour. (If I were to have the meal again, I would have the eggplant platter as entree and ask for the mushrooms to be served as a main.) You would think an Italian restaurant could do some other vegetarian options: a basic vegetarian pasta, for instance. It may be the case that if you asked they would adjust one of the pasta dishes on their menu to make it vegetarian. But I did not ask if this was possible - I don’t think vegetarians should be obliged to seek special changes to be made to menu items. Marinetti does some great dishes for meat-eaters, so I am told. The kidneys, liver, snails and lamb shanks are all well-recommended by my carnivorous friends. For vegetarians it is just not so good. - AC
V Rating: VV A few footsteps away from the ginormous Noah’s backpacker hostel, Millenium happily caters to international backpackers as well as locals looking for a cheap and cheerful meal. The menu is low fuss. There are standard and gourmet pizzas, ranging in price from $10 - $18 for a medium and $13.50 - $23.00 for a large. There a four standard vegetarian pizzas, and a whopping six gourmet veggie pizzas. Unfortunately none come without cheese - although a few might be adaptable. You can also choose from three vegetarian past a sauces (two are vegan) and your standard assortment of breads and salad. I had a penne arrabiata (napoli sauce, chilli and ‘basil’ - really a garnish). This was a large, unpretenitous dish, with the chilli adding a little bite to an otherwise nondescript sauce. For dessert Millenium offers gelati (not all vegan). Wine is available, but at close to $30 a bottle I recommend you exercise some temperance or stick with the $5 a glass house shiraz. Millenium’s best feature is it’s atmosphere. A new restaurant, Millenium has taken full advantage of the Campbell parade aspect. Folding windows let the sea breeze float through the rooms. Dark wooden tables, candles and the diners’ mix of languages give the restaurant a friendly, warm feel.
V Rating: VVV Perched on the southern end of Campbell Parade, the renovated Bondi Trattoria has a panoramic view of Bondi Beach and the diverse gaggle of people that frequent it. The menu has a decent vegetarian selection, and more limited vegan choices. There were three veggie light snacks, 1 veggie entree, 3 vegetarian pasta or risotto choices, 2 veggie pizzas, but no veggie ‘mains’. Both the risotto and a pizza were vegan. The 5 yummy dessert options are all vegetarian, and two are vegan. All seven side dishes were vegetarian. Choices included a strong, salty risotto strewn with zucchini flower and mushrooms, spinach and ricotta canelloni, gnocchi with white asparagus, sage, burnt butter and parmesan and a light bordering on tasteless potato, garlic and rosemary pizza with olive oil. We went a bit crazy and also ordered the creamy mashed potato (a meal highlight), the sweet roasted chilli and parsley mushrooms (very spicy) and grissini with eggplant and garlic dip (tasty) in addition to two mains. This was more than enough food and left no room for dessert. Before being renovated Bondi Tratt filled a unique niche in the Campbell parade scene. It was many cuts above a cheap and cheerful backpacker option, but never a styled, expensive hang-out for the Eastern Suburbs in crowd. With its swish new revamp Bondi Tratt has taken a few more steps towards the latter camp. However, despite the oversized light shades, polished brown wood fittings, and tiled toilets, I got the feeling that Bondi Tratt still had it’s heart in the right place and wasn’t just for the beautiful people. Update: I initially gave Bondi Tratt a VV, but having been back numerous times and always being impressed with its great atmosphere and more than decent veggie selection, I’ve upgraded it to VVV. |
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