Italian

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No Mafia – Northbridge – Thursday 19 May 2016 – Dinner

IMG_5217 People eat early in Perth. This means that if you are able to defy the norm, you can easily get into popular restaurants simply by arriving after 8.30pm.

Earlier tonight a couple of mates and I had a few beers and wines at Shadow Wine Bar. The Austrian Veltliner I tried was impeccable, but the initial greeting left much to be desired. That alone left me very open to moving to another venue for dinner, though I must say for the rest of the evening the staff were actually quite good.

No Mafia is only a short walk further down William Street towards the Perth CBD. Having heard great reports about this place I had no hesitation in being guided by Haaron’s suggestion. When we got there it dawned on me that a lot of tables must have finished a good time before we had ordered our last drinks at Shadow.

Continuing on a wine sandwiched with beer theme we began with a terrific bottle of Montepulciano (which incidentally ruined the poor waitperson’s corkscrew), before finishing with a delicious cleansing Bassendean Stout by Nail Brewery. We needed a wine with some versatility and this worked well with a number of the chef’s selected dishes.

The service here is certainly suited to informal dining. We had a waitperson with the right amount of attentiveness and humour, without going too far. She even allowed us to have the $35 chef’s selection even though it is supposed to be for four or more.IMG_5218

We started with some fried baccalau that was excellent and some zucchini fritters that were passable, but I wouldn’t order them again. Then things started to get serious with some Napoli squid, capers, fried leeks, and lemon, which for the most part stayed tender, and had a good flavour profile.

The heavy hitters were my favourite dishes though with the comforting triple cooked potatoes bathed in garlic, chilli & aioli, something to go back for, and the Black-pig prosciutto, red-wine poached pear, ricotta, and almonds, being a dish that was delicate and glorious, even if styled on some classic combinations.

In between the pan-fried gnocchi was well executed with the semi-dried tomato pesto and rocket an aside on how good the gnocchi really was. Finally, the braised lamb leg with baked ricotta, peperonata, and green olives worked classic ingredients in another dish that is spot on.

I know my review sounds like everything was good to very good, but I will say I wasn’t sure about the ordering of the dishes, and also the overall decision on the menu. It felt a little disjointed put together and next time I would order a la carte. In isolation however, almost everything worked, and the menu is more than reasonable being this close to the city. No Mafia provides an interesting modern take on Italian near the arts precinct of Northbridge that is getting better and better.

No Mafia Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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South Yarra Trattoria – South Yarra – Saturday 7 May 2016 – Dinner

IMG_5180Cheap and cheerful is often used as a description for somewhere that just actually is not very good. It has become a clique rather than maintaining what it should mean, which is a place that is informal, friendly, and doesn’t break the bank.

To be transparent, I was not planning on writing a blog on South Yarra Trattoria. My friend had organised dinner for a group, and this was a safe option from her significant South Yarra experience, describing the restaurant as “cheap and cheerful”. Organising a group dinner is always a challenge, and luckily tonight was properly cheap and cheerful.

The reason I decided to do a short review is that South Yarra Trattoria is worth knowing about. The menu is a novel of everything fitting into the description of informal Italian with the exception of pizza. Within each grouping of pasta, veal, gnocchi and other staples there is around six or more options. Mathematicians would have difficulty in coming up with the number of possible combinations for entrée, main and dessert.

Seated at a large table at the back of the restaurant was genius by the floorstaff as we long outstayed our welcome, even for a Saturday night. BYO wine will do that to you. But the staff didn’t do any packing up immediately around us, making all aspects of the service experience great. In fact, the tempo, and attentiveness of our waitperson was excellent.
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The food is incredibly well priced, but given the pricing you get the formula you would expect. It is tasty food, but there is nothing surprising, with ingredients that the average shopper would be using from a supermarket chain. Our entrée calamari was lightly cooked, but still had some toughness to it, suggesting either lack of quality, or lack of tenderising.

On the flip side, my gnocchi Calabrese was delicious with a sauce not holding back on chilli spice, and a serve not holding back at all. The gnocchi in this case is a nice quality and comparable to more expensive versions. Catherine’s lasagne was decent, without that higher level of love that you can taste when execution is more fluent, and ingredients are higher in quality.

The desserts were the same. Tried and true sweet treats, like our tartufo (Italian ice cream dessert, rolled in chocolate in this case), tasted nice, and for $8 that is a very reasonable dessert. But this place isn’t purely just about food, it is about sharing a meal with friends, in an environment made particularly convivial by the waitstaff.

There are ways to do cheap well, and a completely full restaurant here, in an area with some Italian powerhouses (Da Noi, E’Cucina, 38 Chairs) shows that South Yarra Trattoria is doing a good job.

South Yarra Trattoria Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato