Buon Ricordo – home sweet home

 There a reason that we do everything. Your camel even has a reason to see what happens when you put vegemite under avocado on sourdough toast (it works…sort of).

classic figs gorgonzola

Buon Ricordo is where serious foodies go to reminisce. A time where table cloths were an essential part of the dining experience; where you could hear what everybody at the table was saying; where the food was a combination of the familiar and the enlightening; methods that were accessible

(in)famous truffled tagliatelle

and impossible; ingredients were just “bloody great” without naming their longitude and latitude; and the staff have all worked in places you miss, and know a lot more about whatever you want to talk about.

This isn’t a cheap eat, but your host Armando knows whatever you want to know about anything (or anyone!) Italian. This is a great experience. http://www.buonricordo.com.au/page/home.html

Vini – a classic remains ?

There was a time that vini was a best kept secret. The boys have moved on to Berta and others, so how does it stack up now? http://www.vini.com.au/index.php

Berta – brave new world

 An Italian restaurant in Sydney?

*no pasta     *no pizza     *no bread     *no bruschetta     * no tomato sauces     *no cream sauces     *no calamari     *no prawns      *no tiramisu     *no pannacotta

 This is a sign, and a very good one…thanks to the crew from Vini

We’re all grown up now, and can let the waiter help us choose a great wine we’ve never heard of. We can eat and learn and taste and talk and be in a restaurant serving Italian food, rather than be in a place that wants to feel like an Italian cliché.

Go to Berta http://www.berta.com.au/ 

Pendolino – the original hidden treasure

Melbourne has a perfectly good reason for the hidden bar scene…there’s nowhere else to put a bar!

I mean what are you going to do? Have a bar with a view of….of…I dunno, yet another melbourne park?

How many dirty old men do they have down there, that they have to have all those parks?

So I’m guessing with nothing else to look at, Melbourne became the home of bars with million dollar fit outs that look like $2 shop fit outs, and people staring at the food, or each other…tres European, don’t you know?!

Long before the bar scene in Melbourne became the bar scene in Sydney, there was Pendolino.