Attimo, Northbridge

I’ve often written about my love of garlic prawns and I have to tell you, I had probably the best garlic prawns I’ve had in a long time at Attimo, an Italian restaurant in Northbridge. The garlic and chilli infused olive oil was still bubbling when the iron dish was placed in front of me and the balance of flavours was incredible. Many restaurants either have too much oil or not enough garlic, but Attimo’s was the perfect blend of smooth, garlicky, spicy goodness and I ended up mopping up every last drop of the lovely sauce with the provided bread. The prawns themselves were juicy and tender and my only complaint was that there were not enough!

Garlic Prawns – Sizzling prawns cooked with garlic, chilli, shallots and parsley

La Capannina, Milsons Point

The family behind La Capannina previously ran a fantastic Italian restaurant in North Sydney before they set up at Milsons Point, round the corner from the train station and with gorgeous views overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge. My family will follow good food anywhere, so once we found out where they had moved to, we were quick to visit and have since returned a number of times. On this particular Saturday evening, I began with the entree special of tuna carpaccio.

Yellow fin tuna carpaccio with pink salt and coriander

Via Alta, Willoughby

As mentioned previously on this blog, High St Bistro in Willoughby was taken over by Alessandro Pavoni’s team and has recently been re-branded as Via Alta with the menu being largely ‘Italianised’. It seems that the people of the North Shore have been quick to welcome this updated edition, as it is almost impossible to get a booking on a Saturday evening without calling days ahead and when we did eventually manage a late table on a Sunday night, the place was packed. Having checked out the menu prior to turning up, I had already picked out the crostini with lardo and truffle honey to start.

Crostini – lardo – truffle honey

Café Sopra, Sydney CBD

“You’ve NEVER tried Fratelli before?”

My friend was incredulous and with five Fratelli Fresh cafés and restaurants dotted around Sydney, it is somewhat surprising that I hadn’t yet visited one of them, especially as most of my friends are big fans. To be honest, the main reason I’ve not been is because I hate lining up for restaurants. With that in mind, my more experienced friend instructed me to arrive at Café Sopra on Bridge St before 6pm to be certain of snagging a table without a wait. I dutifully turned up at 5:58pm to a half full restaurant, and as predicted, was immediately ushered to a table.

As my friend was running late, I had plenty of time to peruse the extensive menu. I have written in previous posts of my love of garlic prawns, so I was immediately drawn to the prawn spaghetti with garlic, chilli and pangrattato.

Spaghetti with Prawns, chilli, garlic and pangrattato

Giovanni’s Table, Rhapsody of the Seas

As mentioned in my review of my South Pacific cruise on the Rhapsody of the Seas, my boyfriend and I took advantage of a pre-paid dining package which allowed us to eat at all of the specialty restaurants on board for USD55. A couple of days after dining at Chops Grille, we went slightly more casual at Giovanni’s Table, an Italian trattoria.

There were a few items that I had in mind for my appetiser, but I eventually went for the almond crusted scallops which I may say, proved to be a good choice despite the dull presentation. The scallops were cooked perfectly and the pesto almond topping was well seasoned and delicious. My only complaint was that there were only two of them – I wanted more!

Capesante al Forno –
Oven baked, almond crusted scallops with red bell pepper pesto