Last week D&L, friends of ours from Canberra came up to Sydney and we met to have dinner. After wanting to visit Spiedo, and having dessert here a week ago, we made a booking for the four of us.
Other friends of ours, TFP, Juji and Jay came here a few weeks ago when they were in Sydney, and loved it. TFP’s report is here and Juji’s is here.
We’d enjoyed our desserts the last time, and eagerly anticipated the chance to have some of their main courses.
We were seated, handed the menus and a drinks order was taken. Of course when friends from afar are visiting you tend to start talking instead of looking at the menu, and in no time the waiter was back to take our order. We had to send him away for a few more minutes while we decided.
In the mean time we were served some bread. A sourdough, and a tomato and olive foccacia. I unfortunately forgot to take photos of these but you can see them on TFP’s site.
We ordered polenta sticks ($12) as a starter, which came with a gorgonzola sauce. I’m not mad on blue cheeses, but this was actually quite nice. The polenta sticks that reminded me of fish fingers were lovely and crisp on the outside, and light and fluffy inside.
Caroline ordered the bigoli gamberi di flume e piselli ($31). Bigoli pasta with yabbies. (Yabbies are a type of Australian crustacean). Very nice from the taste that I had, although I prefer sweeter prawns to yabbies.
I had the tenderloin ($38), which was excellent despite the fact that I ordered it medium-well, and what I got was well-done.
In my past I had a severe aversion to bloody meat, and so I used to order my steak well-done. In South Africa I would find that if I ordered my steak medium-well I would get medium, and if I ordered well-done I would either get medium-well or charcoal. Steaks are cooked more consistently in Australia, and I generally order medium-well so that I get pink meat with no red juices. This one was a little more done than that, but since I used to have well-done steak I don’t mind. I’d rather have overcooked meat than bloody juices running all over the plate.
D had the Agnello ($35). Slow cooked lamb rump on a bed of cavalo nero (kale, Tuscan cabbage) and served with a few thin purple potato chips.
L had the Gnocchi ($22 – entree portion), with asparagus, pine nuts and buffalo ricotta.
I also ordered a side order of polenta ($9), which was shared with the table. It was nice, but I was expecting a much smoother texture which I would have preferred. It’s a huge portion for one person so it’s good that the others were willing to take some!
Looking right. Caroline said that she thought the mosaic reminded her of a cow!
Looking back. D wondered how far back the restaurant goes. Alas we forgot to look on the way out!
Looking up! The Sydney tower.
For dessert, Caroline and L ordered the deconstructed pannacotta ($14). Very nice.
I ordered the zuppa inglese ($14) which is what Caroline had last time and I’ve been waiting patiently to have for a week. I loved it.
The Zuppa Inglese is a meringue/Pavlova/trifle type dish that also contains a custard and small pieces of chocolate with a spongy syrupy/liquery base. Hard to describe, wonderful to eat!
D had what I had last week, the Spiedo dessert plate ($18). On the left is Amedei chocolate barbajada which was a dark chocolate with a milk gelato on top. In the middle a deconstructed tiramisu, and a strawberry gelato which was a top slithers of real strawberry.
I think we’ll certainly be back to Spiedo in the future. We had a great meal and a lovely chat.
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