Itali.Co

Nutella pizza where have you been all my life? Of course I've seen dessert pizzas on menus around town but I had never been tempted to try one until I was invited along to a dinner for bloggers and journalists at newly opened Itali.Co in St Kilda.  All those nutella pizzas I haven't eaten over the years? Big mistake by me.  Huge mistake.

Nutella pizza at Itali Co 

Melbourne's newest openings: Circa Yaktiroi Bar, Rosa's Kitchen and Etto

Melbourne is hard to keep up with sometimes.  There's always new restaurants opening and closing and there has been a rash of them lately.  I've been invited along to a few of the newest places and have also gone under my own steam to check some out.  So here's my take on three of them: the pop up yakitori bar at Circa, Rosa's Kitchen and Etto.

Carbonara pasta at Etto 

Baby Cafe and Pizzeria

Oh Baby! You've become a bit of a regular thing for me.  I do live close by and I've come to appreciate eating on your terrace in the sunshine as the Church street traffic hums past or sitting perched up at your bar and watching the chefs at work.  I even enjoy using your toilets just to laugh at the learning Italian tape that plays on permanent repeat and which my sister thought was your staff nattering away in Italian.

Prosciutto pizza at Baby 

Ladro

Most Thursday nights I spend collapsed on the couch with a glass of wine watching reruns of Modern Family.  But last night I had a very active Thursday and spent my evening at Ladro checking out their new menu by new chef Niko Pizzimenti before heading off to see Mumford and Sons' Melbourne gig.

The entrance to Ladro in Greville Street

Meatball and Wine Bar

Do one thing and do it well is the philosophy behind the newly opened Meatball and Wine Bar in Flinders Lane.  I was invited to check the place out with a heap of other bloggers and journalists which is interesting in light of yesterdays Twitter storm about restaurant freebies.  If you missed it there was a raging debate about the potential conflict of bloggers who work for restaurant groups and also bloggers accepting freebies (like this dinner at Meatball and Wine Bar).  Have a look at the Twitter feeds of @Tomatom, @PaulMathisMelb and @Sharking4ChipDrink if you want to catch up.

Window gazing at the Meatball and Wine Bar

Cafe di Stasio

I don't want the restaurant reviews here on Gourmet Chick just to be about what's brand new and shiny in Melbourne.  Of course I'm still keen to check out places like Nama Nama as soon as they open but I also think there's room on here to write about some of Melbourne's classic restaurants that have been favourites for years.  One of those places is Cafe di Stasio, a genuine St Kilda icon.

Crumbed scallops

La Spaghettata

To be honest I tend to think of the Italian restaurants along Lygon street as a bit of a tourist trap.  With the exception of Tiamo's, at which I have consumed many a delicious bowl of pasta, the strip of Italian restaurants with touts out the front is a part of Carlton that I avoid.

Casa Ciuccio

My friend Anna visiting from Sydney for the weekend gave me the perfect excuse to book into Casa Ciuccio in Fitzroy for dinner.  She used to live in Melbourne so I wanted to show her what she is missing out on.  Admittedly, I had been wanting to check out the latest venture from Chef Matt McConnell and the team behind Bar Lourinha since it opened in April.  I reasoned that a pre dinner drink at Gertrude Street Enoteca then a post dinner drink at Southpaw bar made it a pretty perfect Melbourne night.

Char grilled octopus 

Rita's Cafeteria

Over a summer spent at the beach in Lorne I discovered the excellent Bottle of Milk cafe, a new addition to the town.  Serving up great coffee and even better burgers it quickly became my favourite place to eat so I was excited to hear that the boys from Bottle of Milk and Pizza Pizza in Lorne have just opened a place in Melbourne, Rita's Cafeteria, a pizza place in Abbotsford.

Peeping through the window to Rita's

Firechief Pizzeria

Is there any good pizza to be found in the burbs?  This was the question I put to Twitter as my go to places for pizza in Melbourne, Ladro, Mr Wolf and I Carusi, are all inner Melbourne.  A newly opened pizza place called Firechief Pizzeria replied straight away and said they were serving up the real deal in suburban surrounds of Hawthorn East.  Quick as a whip, the lovely people behind Firechief invited me to visit and try the pizza out. (Note to self: ask questions like this on Twitter more often).

The amazing margherita at Firechief Pizza

Mama Baba

You heard it here first, there is no Sunday surcharge at George Calombrais' new restaurant Mama Baba.  The pasta restaurant opened on Friday and I was eagerly there on Sunday for lunch with my friend Joyce who writes the excellent Melbourne Hot or Not, along with Tim, Joyce and Tim's adorable baby and MTV.

It's Italian and Greek fare at Mama Baba - this is the "Parma" 

Calombrais has been hitting the headlines lately for complaining about paying Sunday rates to staff without charging diners a Sunday surcharge.  One of his arguments against paying the rates was the cost of the $45,000 pasta extruder he bought for Mama Baba.  Funnily enough, as soon as you walk in to the restaurant, tucked away in a South Yarra back street, the gleaming pasta extruder is front and centre.  I was glad to see Calombrais does still have chefs, they were all there working in full view in the large open kitchen that runs along one side of the entire space.  I didn't ask them what they were getting paid for their Sunday efforts.

The infamous pasta extruder

Mama Baba is housed in a warehouse style basement with soaring ceilings, polished concrete floors and long communal wooden tables.  The space is sparse and minimalist.  Paper placemats also serve as menus and ceramic beakers as water glasses.  

Mama Baba has a warehouse feel

The menu at Mama Baba is divided into a Greek and Italian section which draw on the influences of Calombrais's Greek Mother and part Italian Father.  It's very much a family affair listing dishes like salicce made by "Mr Tricarico" who is apparently Calombrais' Father in law.  Whether Greek or Italian, the main affair is the pasta.  It is made fresh each day from 00 flour in the pasta extruder which cost the same as a full time Nonna on Sunday rates.

Scallops

To start there are "snacks" which are easy to share.  Arancini filled with bolognese and mashed potato ($7.50) were deep fried nuggets of comfort food.  Plump scallops ($3.50 each) grilled and served on the shell were topped with creamy garlic skordalia and golden crisp fried breadcrumbs.  The parma ($7.50) was a bite sized version of the classic pub fare - a tiny panini filled with chicken and jamon and laced with tomato sauce.

Mama Baba's version of spaghetti carbonara 

It has to be said the pasta is excellent, of the soft, silky egg-yellow type.   The best we tried was the tortellini ($23) which was stuffed with saganaki and served with prawns, slow roasted tomatoes and feta.  I also liked Mama Baba's take on a carbonara ($27) which was constructed at the table from egg, slithers of crispy maple pork, pumpkin parmesan and a saffron broth.

Prawn and saganaki tortellini

However gnudi ($24) was dull despite the "sounds good on paper" accompaniments of burnt butter, walnuts and honey and the huge ravioli ($27) filled with beef and bone marrow were overwhelming.  The wasabi which accompanied the ravioli was not quite the weird addition we expected and was actually too tame to add much kick.

"Chopped" salad ($7.50) 

Desserts were a nostalgic treat in the form of reworked childhood favourites.  The Mama Baba interpretation of a Ferrero Rocher ($9.50) was a hazelnut confection filled with dark oozing chocolate while Calombrais' take on a rum baba, called a "Mum Baba" ($9.50) featured boozy slices of sponge.

The Mum Baba

My tip though is to ignore the dessert trolley and instead go straight for the homemade ice-cream ($8 for two scoops) the vanilla splice was rich and flecked with vanilla bean seeds while the milo and milk and the crunchy peanut butter and salt flavour were both dude food delights.  The cones were filled with chocolate at the bottom Cornetto style.

Home made ice-cream

Mama Baba serves up Italian and Greek food but not as you know it.  It offers a very modern take on  some comfort food classics.  Despite a few exceptions it mostly works and the desserts in particular offer good old fashioned eating pleasure.  At the moment eating them on a Sunday comes at no extra cost.  

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Essentials
Details:  Mama Baba, 21 Daly St, South Yarra 3141(Ph +61 3 9207 7421) Mon - Thurs and Sat 5pm - Late, Fri and Sun 12pm - Late.
Damage: Reasonable.  Our bill for four came to $205 with one beer each.
7/10

Barbagallo Trattoria e Pizzeria

Restaurant now closed.

Sometimes a new restaurant springs up that looks and feels like it has been there forever. Barbagallo opened in Melbourne while I have been living in London but it already seems to be a bit of an institution. It has that particular sleek Euro-Melbourne style which is so typical of my home town. The large space which houses the restaurant is elegant with good bones, a marble counter bisects the high ceilinged dining room. If you walk past the high round tables where people sit eating and drinking at bar stools and the open kitchen with its flaring grills you reach the big dining room at the back. Here you can have 15 people or so easily all around the same huge table which is perfect for a party or just communal style eating.

Fennel and sausage pizza

Perhaps the reason Barbagallo seems so entrenched in the Melbourne dining scene already is because the man behind it has been for years. Pietro Barbagallo is famous in Melbourne as the man behind the stalwart pizza restaurant i Carusi and now he has re-emerged with his own self named restaurant. The classic Italian menu reads beautifully in its simplicity. To start, bowls of warmed black olives slick with oil ($9) and perfectly rounded spheres of arancini ($13) oozing cheesy rice beneath their crisp breadcrumbed coating. I could complain and say the batter on the calamari ($16) was a bit tough but the calamari itself had the perfect amount of bounce and spring.

Arancini balls

The main event though is the pizza, Barbagallo spent years honing his magic touch with pizza i Carusi and now with his name above the door, it is all about the dough at Barbagallo. It is thin based but with a bit of weight to it and cooked on stone in an electric oven to a smoky crisp. The iconic pizza on the menu is the slow roasted pumpkin which almost melts into the toasted pine nuts and rocket that are layered on top ($19). However, as is often the case the best topping we tried was the simplest with concentric layers of thin potato with onion caramelised to a point of sweetness draped over it ($19).

In fact, we had so much pizza that we had no room for dessert save for coffee or tea. While there may be a lot of contenders for the crown of Melbourne's pizza king, Barbagello's has certainly got a claim on the title. At Barbagello's it is the classic Italian cooking which makes you feel that you are in safe, expert hands.

Essentials

Details: Barbagello Trattoria e Pizzeria, 103 Lonsdale street, Melbourne 3000, Australia (Ph +61 3 9639 6222)

Damage: Reasonable

7/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my top ten Melbourne restaurants or for great pizza in London try Pizza East.

The Royal Saxon

I must be back in London. Queues out the door on a Friday and Saturday night for a bar/restaurant? No, I'm still in Melbourne but I'm eating at Royal Saxon the oh so cool venture from the people who brought Melbourne The Public House and the Albert Park Hotel. My friend Sophie works around the corner from Royal Saxon and is already a big fan even if it is painful to get in on a weekend. The place looks amazing, no money has been spared by architects Six Degrees to create a multi levelled space with a lofty warehouse vibe. Inside and outisde is cleverly mixed with the bar area opening out into a paved courtyard where the focus is a beautiful old Moreton bay fig which was apparently transplanted at great cost to Royal Saxon.

The menus serve as placemats as well and are packed with exactly the type of things that you want to eat once you have had a few drinks. The food is Italian and features antipasti made for nibbling at and more substantial fare such as pizzas, risottos and pastas almost designed for soaking up alcohol. Napkins are cheery red and white striped tea towels all the better for trying to remove pasta sauce from your shirt.

From the antipasti section of the menu, crispy zucchini flowers ($14) are served dipped in a light tempura like batter alongside crisp sage leaves and slices of lemon. Doused in lemon juice it is light, refreshing bar food with a twist. The proscuitto pizza ($16) is thin based with a rectangular shape and arrives on a serving board. The dough is slightly charred and elastic and the pizza topped with silky folds of prosciutto, mushrooms, sprigs of thyme and fontina cheese.

Royal Saxon is a more of a bar than a restaurant so there are extensive beer, wine and cocktail menus with over ten beers on tap including boutique offerings such as White Rabbit and Pipsqueak cider. Good food, good drinks, a "we are so busy that we don't take bookings policy" and lots of beautiful people, I'm starting to see why this place is so popular.

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Essentials

Details: 545 Church Street, Richmond 3121 (+61 3 9429 5277) Australia

Damage: Pricey

8/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my review of another new opening in Melbourne, Three Bags Full, for new openings in London check out my review of Yalla Yalla.