Restaurant Review: L’italy
L’italy, the charismatic younger sibling of Ruby Red Flamingo, Tony Tomatoes and Coccobello, offers big-hearted Italian food and a fix of la dolce vita.
Next up, carpaccio di tonno (tuna carpaccio) with pink, silky, slices of fresh tuna topped with spheres of crisp daikon and peppery red radish, tiny blobs of fresh orange, lemon dressing and splash of EVOO. It was hard to fault.
A must-try vegetable dish is cavolfiori fritti: gently fried cauliflower florets lightly coated in kefir. A chilli vinaigrette adds a nice spiky-sour backdrop.
The portion size of the small plates is generous – one more shared plate and we would have been more than satisfied – but the mains on offer were too tempting.
I spied the housemade potato gnocchi with four cheese (quattro formaggi) salsa at the next table and had a case of “ordering regret”, which worsened when I saw a delicious-looking Bistecca tagliata – grass fed hanger steak with a pepper crust and parsnip puree.
The regret faded with the arrival of my linguine mare mare, full of prawns, crab meat, scallops and blistered cherry tomatoes in red sauce spiked with chilli. A simple dish? Maybe, except rarely is pasta cooked properly al dente like this, and not many tomato-based sauces deliver this complexity and depth of flavour which would make any nonna proud.
My dining partner often orders risotto, believing it’s something of a litmus test for a restaurant kitchen. It may just be rice and liquid but there’s skill and attention needed to make a memorable risotto. L’italy’s risotto al funghi with porcini, oyster and pine mushrooms was superb, a wet-style risotto with a creamy, porridge-like texture but thankfully neither mushy nor starchy. It may not be the most visually striking dish but we loved the fleshy mushroom pieces folded through the fragrant risotto and the rich and earthy flavour with a slight caramel sweetness. Molto buono!
We enjoyed the relaxed service style from a bunch of personable front-of house staff who joked along when we guiltily ordered dessert while watching a pilates class happening in the building across the road. All those fit and flexible movements could have made us feel guilty about panna cotta, but when it arrived, we stopped worrying. Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable was next on the playlist and seemed a fitting tribute to this beautiful ivory-coloured dessert with the proper wobble and super-silky texture. Made with buttermilk, it had a nice tang and was oozing with dark berries in a jammy, luscious syrup with finely crumbled cookies on top.
While for most of us COVID-19 has ruled out the prospect of visiting Italy any time soon, joints like this are a reminder we can still enjoy many of the region’s flavours – and some of its spirit – a little closer to home.
L’italy
47 O’Connell St, North Adelaide
Italy in lockdown:
‘An old reality and its assumptions have slipped away from us’
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