I don’t usually go out for Italian food, opting for cuisines that I don’t prepare at home myself, but on my recent catch up with a friend, I gave her three options to choose from on the same Glenferrie Rd strip (Italian, Mexican and Japanese) and she chose Italian. And so off to Anoia for dinner it was.

Dinner was on a Wednesday night, so when I got there, it was completely empty. This was a little bit unnerving, had a picked a place that served average food? I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to the early time and that fact that it was mid week. I took the opportunity to peruse the menu, and it read like a standard Italian menu – some entrees, breads, salads, pastas and pizzas.

My dinner date arrived fairly soon, and slowly the restaurant started to fill up. There was a group of four people having dinner together, as well as a large family group with a young child. It was with them that I started to notice cracks in the service and the temperament of the staff. The restaurant is quite small, and the waiter had brought out a high chair for the child. The child however was quite restless, and his parents struggled to manage him whilst the waiter set the chair up. This definitely tested the waiter’s patience. I don’t think the family were too bothered, but I felt the waiter was definitely exhibiting some passive aggressive behaviour.

We placed our orders for dinner. I chose a pizza, and my friend a pasta, typical Italian meals!

My pizza was called zucca. It started with an olive oil base, was topped with roasted pumpkin and pine nuts and served with rocket and goats cheese. The base was thin and crispy, and the toppings worked well together. It wasn’t outstanding, but it was good.

The pasta chosen was actually not officially on the menu. My friend had chosen a napoli sauce but requested that some cherry tomatoes, olives and chilli be added to the sauce. The waiter had expressed some uncertainty as to whether this would be possible, but when the dish arrived, it was clear they had found a way to make it work. Why it wouldn’t be possible was beyond us. Surely the sauce base was made up, and you could easily add things to it? She too said her pasta was good but nothing spectacular.

Overall this was pretty much the running theme of our dinner at Anoia. It was nothing special and as a result I probably wouldn’t go back again. Melbourne has so many good restaurants, that it’s not worth the effort visiting average places.

2016 has arrived, and I’m frantically trying to catch up on my blog posts from 2015! December involved a lot of eating (A LOT), and quite a bit of it was done at restaurants, so I have a fair bit to write about.

The month started with a trip to Pomodoro Sardo. Rarely does my mum agree to go to a non Indian restaurant, so when she agreed to be my date to an Italian restaurant, I was excited! I think it’s an older generation Indian thing, they prefer to eat at places where they are familiar with the food, and rarely venture out of their comfort zone, but I was proud of my mum for giving Italian a try, other than the usual takeaway pizza, which can barely be classified as Italian food.

Located in the heart of the Melbourne CBD, Pomodoro Sardo was a little piece of Italy that I was surprised to have not seen or heard of before. Nevertheless, I went in with an open mind, and an empty stomach, ready to be impressed on both accounts.

The interior of the restaurant is decorated with Italian essentials, red wine glasses, bottles of red wine, and even can of tomatoes! Very practical indeed!

We decided to indulge, and opted for a five course degustation meal, with the only requirements being that we vegetarian and that my mum wanted one of the courses to include a vegetarian pizza. The staff were more than happy to cater to our request, and so the meal commenced.

As with any Italian meal, it began with some complementary focaccia bread. Unfortunately the bread was a little tough, but the olive oil provide for dipping was of a beautiful flavour. Nevertheless, the bread was a mere starter, and we were more interested in the actual menu items!

We started with a couple of small dishes to share. First was the burrata cheese, served with crumbled pistachios, confit cherry tomato, rocket, and dressed with balsamic and olive oil. The first time I had burrata was at Tipo 00 and it was amazing. Unfortunately this has probably set my benchmark for burrata way too high, and Pomodoro Sardo struggled to reach the lofty heights that I had etched in my memory. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, after all, all cheese is good, it was probably even very good, but it wasn't the amazing that I hoped for. The cherry tomatoes were not great, and I would probably prefer them roasted, rather than confit, but you could leave them to the side, and the dish would still be acceptable.

Our next entrée was Pecorino Guttiau. This was amazingly rich, warm cheese sauce, served with crisp flat bread. The bread was dipped into the cheese and the result was amazing. If the burrata from the previous course didn’t meet my expectations, this second course more than made up for it. It did feel very rich and heavy, and I was possibly edging closer to a heart attack with the amount of fat content in the cheese, but it didn’t matter because it was far too delicious to stop eating.

We then moved on to the Melanzana al Forno, otherwise known as eggplant parmigiana. But beware, this is not the humble eggplant parma that you may be expecting, instead it is a delicate dish, with lots of flavours that all work wonderfully together. At the base of the dish as beautiful pieces of eggplant, that have been cooked perfectly so that they melt in your mouth. With this is a rich, sweet tomato sauce and to top the dish a mix of garlicky breadcrumbs and some more delicious cheese. The dish is cooked in a wood fired oven, and that probably made all the difference. It was our favourite dish for the night.

We then moved onto the mains but unfortunately these started off a little lack lustre. Our first main was the Culurgiones. These were little Sardinian pasta parcels, in the same vain as ravioli, but shaped more like dumplings. They were filled with creamed potato and (more) cheese, and served with mint pesto and caramelised walnuts. Unfortunately the pasta was very dense and chewy and nothing like the pasta I would expect from an Italian restaurant. Both my mum and I are also not big fans of mint, and having the mint in the form of a pesto was just too strong. It also didn’t really work with the flavours of the caramelised walnuts. Overall the dish was very heavy and not very tasty, which was disappointing given I thought that pasta would have been one of their fortes.

We also had another pasta dish, this time made from a semolina pasta, the Malloreddus Caccio e Pepe. The dish was served with a plain sauce of pecorino cheese, egg yolk and pepper. Again, this dish was also very dense, and whilst I often appreciate a light sauce to bring out the best qualities of the pasta, if the pasta isn’t up to scratch, a plain sauce is really not going to work. Again, this was another disappointment.

We received our specially requested vegetarian pizza. The pizza was cooked in the wood fired oven, and it was a definite highlight! There was a thin crispy base, and the toppings were fresh and flavourful. We were glad that we had asked for this dish, because it boosted an otherwise substandard main course.

Next we were onto dessert. We were so full, but forced ourselves to activate our dessert stomachs, and indulge in some sweet treats.  Our first desert was a tiramisu. This tiramisu was amazing. Layers of chocolate, cream, coffee flavours and soft sponge cake filled each bite, and I was in heaven. The balance of flavours was perfect, and unlike other tiramisus that I have tasted, the coffee flavours didn’t overpower the palate.

We also had a selection of Sardinian sweets served with ice cream. The sweets were little parcels of pastry, filled with a variety or nuts or custards and they were all delicious. It was the perfect end to the meal.

The staff at Pomodoro Sardo were extremely attentive. I’m not sure if it was the big camera I was wielding, or whether that is just their normal practice, but I felt like I was getting special treatment! They always refilled our water glasses, came out to check that everything was OK, offered more bread on multiple occasions, and even came to apologise if a dish was slightly delayed. It definitely made us feel welcome, and we appreciated the attention.

Overall the food was a bit hit and miss. I think next time, I would order a selection of entrées and pizzas, and share them, rather than order any pasta dishes. And make sure you leave room for dessert, because that tiramisu is a necessity for any diner!

Disclaimer: I dined at Pomodoro Sardo as a guest of Zomato and Pomodoro Sardo, however all opinions are my own.

At the recent Age Good Food awards, Tipo 00 received the accolade for Best New Restaurant and also was awarded one hat. Given our recent dining experience, I can confidently say that the awards were deserved. Named after the traditional flour used to make fresh pasta, Tipo 00 prides themselves on their housemade pasta, but to be honest I think they do a pretty good job with everything else on the menu too.

We went there for dinner, and not wanting to have to decide what to order from the menu, we decided to indulge in the Chef’s Table option. $55 for a selection of entrées, two pastas and a dessert sounded fabulous, and the waiter told us that he could easily accommodate my vegetarian requirements, so we were all in!

The meal started with a series of small plates to share. Our first dish of the night was a mushroom and truffle arancini. These were delicious bites of a crisp and crunchy shell, full flavoured risotto and delicious gooey cheese in the centre. Mushrooms are one of my favourite flavours so, for me, this was the perfect start to the meal.

Our next entrée was a complimentary serve of bread, but in true Tipo 00 style, they took it one step further than a usual restaurant.   The bread was a freshly baked focaccia, and served with it was some fresh ricotta drizzled in basil oil. The flavour of the basil, the creaminess of the ricotta and the soft bread, made this dish amazing.

Our third entrée was my favourite. We received some beautifully dressed heirloom tomatoes, croutons of sour dough and the shining star of the dish, a big hunk of burrata. For those of you who haven’t had burrata before, do yourself a favour and try it. It is AH-MAZING. I don’t think anything I could write about this cheese would convey how good it was. You’re just going to have to trust me when I say that you need this in your life.

We thought this was the end of our entrées, but suddenly there was another dish placed on our table. Our last small dish was braised globe artichoke hearts, served with almonds and parmesan. This dish was definitely not as good as the burrata, but it was still good. It was served piping hot, and the contrasting textures of the artichokes and the almonds made it an interesting dish.

As we waited for our mains to arrive (I might add that the service here is super quick, so we didn’t wait long at all!), we took the opportunity to watch the chefs work at the semi open kitchen. Working at a large marble benchtop, it was special to watch them at their craft, whether it be shelling prawns, shaving prosciutto off a leg of ham or kneading dough.

Our first pasta dishes arrived. I received a cauliflower tortellini in a burnt butter sauce. Tipo 00 weren’t lying when they said that they prided themselves on their pasta. I am lucky enough to have some pretty amazing homemade pasta on a regular basis courtesy of some pretty amazing Italians in my life, and this Tipo 00 pasta was right up there. It was soft and melted in my mouth. The cauliflower filling was also beautifully flavoured and the rich butter sauce complimented it perfectly.

The other half received his first non vegetarian course of the night. It was a squid ink tagliolini with squid and botarga, which is a cured fish roe. This dish looked so pretty, and was deemed to be very tasty too.

My second dish was a stinging nettles and saltbush risotto served with pink peppercorns. Vibrant green in colour, and garnished with little pink droplets, the texture of the risotto was perfectly creamy. As expected, it was also full of flavour, and whilst I was a little disappointed and not being able to experience the amazing pasta again, the risotto was still appreciated.

The other half received what he declared as his favourite dish so far. It was a potato gnocchi served with braised duck, porcini mushroom and pecorino cheese. The gnocchi was described as soft and fluffy, but the highlight was the sauce. Rich in flavour, with tender pieces of duck, he said it was possibly one of the best sauces he had tasted. Big call for an Italian.

We also received a salad to have with our mains. It was a rocket, radicchio and pear salad dressed with lots of delicious, sweet balsamic.  The bitterness of the radicchio contrasted the sweetness of the pear and made it work. I hadn’t tried this combination before, but I think I may make it myself.

And then it was time for dessert. Tipo 00 had possibly saved the best for last. We had been eyeing off the desserts on the other table and suffering from a little bit of food envy, but to our excitement, we received two mini dishes of the infamous tipomisu, the Tipo 00 take on tiramisu.

There were little cakes of rich chocolate and coffee, and dollops of creamy mascarpone. Then the waiter poured hot, thick salted caramel over the dish. Oh boy. It was special.  I’m not usually a big fan of chocolate desserts but somehow this hit the spot. I think it was the salted caramel sauce that really made this dish, I could have drunk that by the cup.

We also received a second dessert to share. It was a lemon myrtle panna cotta served with toasted almonds, dehydrated mandarin and mandarin coulis. Panna cotta is one of my favourite desserts and this one was good. The flavours were delicate and fresh, making it the perfect ending to the meal.

Our experience at Tipo 00 was a special one. This is definitely a restaurant worthy of its accolades. Just make sure you book. It was busy on the night we went, and given all the recent publicity, I can only imagine that it will get busier.

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to win a voucher to dinner at 400 Gradi from Sweet Cherrie Pie. At the time, 400 Gradi had just been crowned as having the world's best margherita pizza, and as a result bookings were scarce, so it took us this long to use our prize.  Even months down the track, I had to make a reservation 3 weeks in advance for a Tuesday night, and the only slot they could give me was 8:15pm! I decided this was a good sign to indicate that the food should be good (because being deemed as having the world's best margherita is obviously not enough).

We arrived at 8:15pm on the dot, and the restaurant was packed! We hadn't anticipated this at all! We were quickly shown to our table, handed menus, offered drinks and we set out to make decisions on what we should order.

The menu offered all the standard Italian options, starting with antipasti, pizza, pasta, risotto, the more substantial meaty mains, and desserts. We settled on a couple of pizzas to share. The margherita was obviously the first choice, and for the second pizza, we decided on a pumpkin and rocket pizza.

The pizzas arrived in about 20 minutes, piping hot and with oozy cheese. We wasted no time in digging in, starting with the famous margherita.

Now I know I've already mentioned the margherita half a dozen times already, but let me assure you, it is worth every mention. I'm lucky enough to regularly have homemade woodfired pizzas which I thought were the best in the world, but the 400 Gradi pizza was even better than what I'm used to (let's hope there aren't any Russo's reading this!).

Let's start with the dough; it was bready without being too chewy, thin enough without being too crisp and it had the beautiful smokiness that the woodfired cooking process imparts. All a margherita has is sauce, basil and mozarella, so you'd think that there can't be much variation, but 400 Gradi had perfected each of these elements to create the perfect combination. The sauce was full of flavour, the basil was fresh and imparted a beautiful aroma and the fresh mozarella was soft and oozy, just the way I like it. I really can't express how delicious this pizza was, no amount of flowery language will do it justice.

After the margherita I wasn't sure if it was worth trying another pizza, after all, I had already hit the jackpot, but since when have I ever said no to food?!

The second pizza was lined with a white sauce, thinly sliced roast pumpkin, soft goats cheese, pine nuts, and dressed with rocket. I'm a big fan of fresh greens on a pizza post cooking, and the rocket worked beautifully with all the other ingredients. It made for a delicious pizza, but alas, for me, it didn't compare the the margherita.

After the pizzas we decided to indulge in some dessert. The menu was full of scrumptious options, so we did what any indecisive people would do, and ordered a tasting platter. The platter came with three different desserts, a honey pannacotta, a lemon tart and a nutella crepe.

The honey pannacotta was perfect, full of honey flavour and the right amount of wobble. The lemon curd in the lemon tart was also delicious, but the pastry was not the greatest. And the nutella crepe was great, but seemed a little less refined in comparison to the other two desserts.

The meal at 400 Gradi was definitely on the steep side, especially for pizza, but it was delicious. If you could ever imagine a fine dining pizza experience, 400 Gradi is it. And if you can't imagine it, get yourself to 400 Gradi, because it is an experience everyone should undergo.

Special occasions call for special dinners, and I was waiting for such an occasion to visit Franco Choo’s. This was again a recommendation, spotted via social media, and I was keen to try it out. Luckily a birthday was happening, which was the perfect excuse to indulge in a fancy restaurant experience.

Franco Choo’s is located on High St, in Prahran, just near the Chapel St intersection, and is a tiny ‘hole in the wall’ place that barely seats about 20 diners at a time. They have a great Prezzo Fisso deal if you book online, where you can have 2 courses for $42 or 3 courses for $52, both with a glass of wine. The only catch is that you need to be there by 6pm and vacate by 7:45pm, but this worked fine for us, because we had nothing else planned for the day.

We arrived at 5:55pm, wanting to make the most of our booking, and found that we were the first ones to arrive. We were greeted by a lovely waiter with an Italian accent, and I immediately felt that we were in for a treat. He explained the deal to us – Franco Choo’s doesn’t have a menu, instead they have seasonally changing dishes that are written up on a blackboard, meaning that they always cook with seasonal produce. It was already sounding delicious to me, especially when the menu was explained to me in an Italian accent!

We nominated our 3 dishes each, I obviously chose the vegetarian options which were a vegetable stew and a pea risotto, and the other half chose an Italian sausage and lentil entrée and a roast beef dish. For dessert we chose one of each option so we could share; a pana cotta and a ricotta crostata.
We started with some bread to prepare our palates for the meal ahead. We were served some fresh ciabatta bread, with a dipping oil of EVOO and sweet balsamic vinegar. Both of these were of the highest quality, and we could immediately tell that this was a restaurant that took pride in its ingredients.

Soon after the entrées arrived. I was expecting a traditional tomato based stew, but instead I was pleasantly surprised. I was greeted with a Roman spring vegetable stew filled with peas and broad beans in a creamy white sauce. With both peas and broad beans being in season, they were both sweet and full of flavour.

The other half received a poached cotechino sausage served with braised puy lentils, mustard fruit and amaretti. When the non vegetarian comments on how good the lentils are, rather than focus on the sausage, you know the dish must be good! He also said the amaretti tasted like something his Nonna used to make, which is probably one of the highest compliments he's given to a chef!

Mains arrived promptly after we finished the entrées and we were again served some traditional, hearty Italian fare. I received a creamy pea risotto which was filled with rich flavours of butter and parmesan. I dared not think of the cholesterol content of this dish and instead focused on how delicious it tasted.  The skill required to perfect the texture of a risotto is one that I strive for, and the chef at Franco Choo’s had mastered it to a tee.

Our carnivorous main was roasted beef short ribs, served with cauliflower purée and Borettane onions. The verdict was that the beef was cooked so well that it was falling off the bone, and the vegetables were full of flavour, making it another hearty dish.

We had also ordered a side of green beans with truffled pecorino, and these were delicious. It is a hallmark of the produce when something so simple, and made with so few ingredients, tastes so good.

With entrées and mains out of the way, it was time for dessert. We had half a dessert each, so I got to try both options. First there was the ricotta, pine nut and chocolate crostata. I had no idea what a crostata was, but it turned out to be a tart. It was served with a berry sauce and pistachios, and all the flavours combined to be a great dessert. It was not overly sweet and the variety of textures gave it the right level of complexity.

The second dessert however, was the real winner. The vanilla panna cotta, served with poached rhubarb and lemon cake crumble was amazing! I am a big fan of panna cotta, and this one was no exception. The lemon cake was also the right level of tart, and contrasted the sweetness of the panna cotta.

The entire experience at Franco Choos was very special. We received amazing service, amazing food, and went home very happy patrons.