The Italian

20th September 2011

On a Tuesday night i managed to finish off number 39 on my list as me and Oli went to The Italian for dinner. A vast, expansive three tiered dining room showed some surprisingly warm touches in a space often dedicated to business lunches and dinners.

Oli having already arrived first had been presented with the wine menu and had already ordered a beer. I selected a beer from the decent selection but decided to bypass the wine. We were then presented with the menus whilst the waiter explained the wide selection of specials for the day. An extensive menu broken down into various sections (antipasti, primi, pasta, fish, meat and sides) offering a wide variety of choice and several good options to choose from.

However for entree i choose the special of pheasant ravioli. Three giant disks of pasta cooked perfectly al dente with a rich gamey, meaty filling and a delicious jus to accompany provided bold Italian flavours with some slightly uncommon and exotic ingredients.

For main course i went with the twice cooked half duck with savoy cabbage and orange sauce. The slightly caramelised orange sauce was delicious although there was not enough of it and the half duck was well cooked and fell apart from the bones easily. The rich duck was completed well by the lighter cabbage and it was a great dish.

Finally i went with the profiteroles. Two large beautiful chioux pastry cases was sliced in half and filled with a praline ice cream and then covered with a decadent dark chocolate sauce with crisp crunchy praline pieces. The dish was excellently constructed and the matching of flavours was great. The praline ice cream filling instead of cream was an interesting and well appreciated take on the classic.

Hearty Italian flavours that are not going to revolutionise cooking but were perfectly done. For three courses and drinks for $100 each, it was decent value as well.