Went for dinner tonight with my girlfriend, and honestly, as someone who’s lived in Freo for the last few years, I really regret not coming sooner.
Service was absolutely on point, really friendly and personable without being overly familiar and interrupting the meal or the...conversation. Absolutely loved the waitress and the barman who served us, you were both amazing, thank you so much.
Food was up there with the best Italian I’ve had in Perth. The pumpkin and pecorino entree is probably the best vegetarian dish I’ve eaten in Australia, pumpkin was perfectly cooked, just tender without being mush, every element on the plate sang together like a choir, one of those meat free dishes where you don’t care that there’s no animal protein on the plate and it would t make it any better if there was.
House made sausage was gorgeous. Rich and fatty without being unpleasantly greasy, some pickled red cabbage balanced it out beautifully, really stunning entree.
Mains were spot on too. I had the pappardelle with lamb ragu, beautifully cooked lamb, just soft enough to be a sauce without being over cooked to a paste, pasta was great, that perfect sweet spot between rustic and refined, legitimately al dente and with a flavour and texture of its own, not just a background element to a sauce.
My partner had the pasta of the day, which was a pork and mustard ravioli, with a simple butter, sage and Parmesan sauce. I won’t go into detail too much because it was a special, so it’s not like you’ll be able to try it, but suffice to say, it was beautiful.
Cocktails were great as well, and some of the unusual beers and wines were a great touch.
I’ll be perfectly honest, desserts were not in the same class as the savoury dishes. Not to say they were awful, they were perfectly okay, just not “wow” like the starters and mains.
All in all, best Italian in Freo, and the price was comparable to the terrible tourist trap joints on the strip.
So do yourself a favour and go here immediately.More
