Molto bene: Osteria Vista at Stefano Lubiana Wines

 

Not far from our house, heading towards the Bridgewater Bridge is a turnoff up a dirt road. You wouldn't know it unless you looked for it. Today we were looking for it as we had a lunch booked at the recently opened Osteria Vista located at Stefano Lubiana Winery.
I had been following their opening on social media and was very keen to try one of their set lunches. Joined by my beautiful friend Dee, we were overdue for a gossip and had arranged a ride so we could partake in matching wines.

We are greeted by our lovely waitress, Sarah, and sat at a table with a spectacular view over the Derwent.

It just feels so very Italy here. I am transported back to Tuscany and the aesthetics and mood just screams Buongiorno!

We are brought the set menu as well as the matching wines listing and it all sounds delightful.

To begin, we are brought a bubbling glass of Brut Rose which is a delightful start to the meal, It is beautiful and fresh, dry and slightly fruity.

To accompany this is our first course which consists of  Focaccia bread and ricotta, prosciutto and olives, soft cheese with tomatoes and olive oil and arancini balls.

Firstly, I have to say how stunning the olive oil was. I could have drunk it by the glass. Good olive oil is so different to supermarket olive oil, it's not even fair to compare them and I was dunking the beautiful focaccia into it with every mouthful of this smashing first course. The prosciutto (imported from Italy) and olives were a delight and the arancini as good as any you've ever tried. But for me the creamy, soft mozzarella style cheese with the spectacular olive oil and those gorgeous gems of perfectly in-season tomatoes really did it for me.

Next up, served with one of the most memorable Rieslings I've ever tried is our pasta dish. Dee mentions she is taken back by the squid-ink black. I have to admit, it is confronting. I found some interesting quotes on the psychology of colour and food.

“Colour is the single most important (...) sensory cue when it comes to setting people’s expectations regarding the likely taste and flavour of food and drink.”Charles Spence

‘Colour creates a psychological expectation for a certain flavour that is often impossible to dislodge.’

Harris G. in “Colorless food? We blanch.”
The New York Times 2011.https://forty8creates.com/colour-psychology-of-food-drink/

I have had squid ink pasta before, so fortunately I have very positive connotations of black pasta. The first thing we notice is the al-dente nature of the macaroni style pasta, something that I think can be a slight shock as I know I constantly overcook pasta as soft pasta is something I have become accustomed to. However I find the texture to be outstanding once I had gotten used to it. The next thing we notice is the wonderful savoury sausage flavour, it's delicious and an umami dream. The sauce is creamy from the cheese and I found this to just be heavenly. My only qualm was the little stab of fennel I got in one mouthful, but that's only because I have never gotten used to aniseed in savoury cooking, especially when I'm not expecting it.

PORK BELLY! Delicious twinning of wonderful salty pork flesh and porky fat topped with crispy, crunchy crackling. What's not to love? Served here with salsa verde and a wonderful vegetable with the flavour of broccoli in a leafy green. Baby, herbed potatoes and a simple green salad of lettuce and cucumber to cut through the heaviness. Something I discovered this season, the first that I have had a successful veg garden, is that lettuce has incredible flavour when freshy picked, it's really quite amazing.

By our last course, we are jovial, flushed rosy with delicious wine and have befriended Sarah who was really quite a spectacular server. Food and atmosphere are not the only things that make a meal memorable, the staff are an integral part and can make or break a meal.The dessert, of zabaglione a custard is served with a dense, moist cake crumble, poached pear and summer berries and the Iced Sauvignon Blanc, a sweet dessert wine is not only a beautiful paring, but is an exceptional wine full stop.As our meal concludes, Sarah invites us to try a wine tasting next door or feel free to wander about the grounds. As I feel we'd had just about the right amount of wine already we take a quick look around the restaurant grounds before being collected to go home.

This was a truly memorable meal and a fantastic addition to Southern Tasmania. I look forward to visiting seasonally to see how the menu changes and to witness such a pleasurable lunch again.

Osteria Vista

Stefano Lubiana Wines
60 Rowbottoms Road, Granton
03 62637457
hello@osteriavista.com.au

Cutty Sark Teneriffe

Six months B and I have been seeing each other and we decided to celebrate this with a lovely dinner.

photo courtesy of dimmi.com.au

In case you weren't aware, I love boats and I love water. Everything nautical really. I can't remember how I stumbled on reviews for Cutty Sark restaurant, but they were sterling. So with the name of a ship, river views, and excellent reviews, we made a booking for Friday night.

We arrive just as the sun is setting and are shown to the best table: in the corner of the restaurant facing the river. The sliding door are open and the wafting breezes are divine on the balmy Brisbane evening. Fairy lights drape from the ceiling and it has a lovely casual but tasteful ambience.

The menu is a Spanish inspired modern Australian affair and offers almost too many excellent options

We peruse the menu while sipping on one of the best red sangias I've ever tried and take in the view.

Cutty Sark offers a 'chefs selection' as well as full a la carte, the chefs selection offers a starter, entree, main and dessert for $79 and seems like great value, however on this particular night did not offer a couple of the things we were really wanting to try.

I order the Crispy Pork Belly ($17) to start, B orders the Croquettes ($12).

My last post I wrote about my love affair with pork belly, and quite often when you love something as much as I love pork belly, expectations can be set too high, which leads to disappointment. Fortunately, Cutty Sark absolutely smashed it out of the park. This was one of the best pork bellies I had ever tried. Perfectly cooked, perfect crackling, perfect accompaniments of pickled cabbage and celeriac puree, I was so impressed, I posted pictures all over social media and have told just about every person who will listen.

B's croquettes were also really really lovely. Texturally they were perfect, so light and fluffy inside and crisp and golden on the outside with such incredible depth of flavour. The pimenton aioli is also really fantastic.

For mains I was tossing up between the market fish, which was Barramundi that night or the eye fillet. I opted for the Barra as it is one of my favourites. B orders the Ricotta and Spinach Gnudi.

My Barramundi comes to the table with cauliflower puree, grilled asparagus, spinach, and citrus vierge. I have found with fish dishes, fish is either incredible or fine. There was nothing wrong with this main, it was fine, it just didn't blow me away. The fish was cooked really nicely with crispy skin and veggies were wonderful. Maybe I was just too blown away with my starter.

B's gnudi, which is like a gnocci/dumpling hybrid, arrives with forest mushroom, blistered tomato, steamed greens, truffled cream, and THIS was a great dish, everything that was served added a really desirable element to the dish and it was lovely to try different things together.

With our mains we order a side of patatas bravas which are served with tomato salsa, pepper dressing and the beautiful pimenton aioli again. These were so addictive. B and I say we'd both me happy with a table or these, croquettes and pork bellies!

I had to steal this pic from Cutty Sark's website as I didn't get a snap, and they deserve to be seen by all!

I think apart from how perfectly cooked and crispy the potatoes are, the tomato cubes really bring an amazing fresh dimension to this dish, the aioli is also just stunning with a smoky, savoury, garlicky loveliness.

Throughout the evening the hostess and waitress are really lovely and easy to get along with, attentive but never in-our-faces.

We had decided earlier in the evening that we'd like dessert, hoping we'd have room, and fortunately, we did.

I have the Kaffir Lime Pannacotta with pineapple salsa, ginger crisp and coconut ice cream, B goes for the Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie which comes with vanilla ice cream, rhubarb and mixed berries, and chocolate sauce. The desserts were outstanding, up there with the incredible starters. My pannacotta is light, refreshing and a beautiful creamy consistency and nice lime tang. The coconut ice cream is divine and everything on the plate worked perfectly.

B's brownies were rich and delicious, his ice cream also was really really good.

I really really enjoyed this restaurant. The food was fine dining in an unpretentious but beautiful setting. Lovely staff and beautiful menu and outlook. Really cannot recommend enough and I look forward to returning.

Cutty Sark Riverside Bar and Restaurant is located at Goldsborough Place on Vernon Terrace. We are 200m away from the Teneriffe City Cat terminal and Route 60 City Glider bus stop.

39 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe, QLD 4005.

Tel: (07) 3257 2266

email: hello@cuttysark.com.au