Bar Surry Hills & Italian Kitchen28 Albion St
Surry Hills, Sydney
Bar Surry Hills and Italian Kitchen has recently opened underneath Rydges Sydney Central. It's a decent sized space too but nicely separated into front bar area, side and rear restaurant seating area and they even serve outside in the Sebel. The whole place has a modern warm feel to it with dark furniture, striking walls and chandeliers strategically hanging around the place. It's family friendly too but not in the noisy sense. The tables are covered in brown paper and there are crayons on request for the kids - and the big kids (Mlady left some (art?)).Executive Chef Rick Fowden has put a nice menu together based on quality authentic produce. David Thompson - a former Bulldogs Grand finalist - is a friendly Manager who keeps the whole place running very smoothly. Nothing is to much trouble here - just ask!
One of the most popular starters and a signature dish (or just something to share and nibble on) is the Salumi Misti Board. It has prosciutto, sopressa, mortadella, hand made grisini, Sicilian olives, grana and a pot of extra virgin olive oil. The machinery to shave the meats is just inside the front entrance and David can sometimes bee seen there at work. I paired this with a rum based dark and spicy cocktail which I loved and Mlady had a glass of soft Tuscan red.
Everyone knows we love to order arancini at most places that offer it.As this place is called Bar Surry Hills and Italian Restaurant it wasn't a surprise to find it on the menu.
This version was great - filled with porcini mushroom and butternut pumpkin and it came with a generous side serve of aioli. They all disappeared very quickly!
The pappardelle duck ragu was slow braised duck ragu served with pappardelle, porcini mushrooms and pecorino and a nice garnish. This was a lovely dish - duck and pasta are made for each other.
Staying with cocktails I had a strawberry sidecar which was also very tasty.
It's a rare day that Mlady chooses gnocchi - and it's even more unusual that she enjoys it this much. The hand made potato gnocchi Napolitana came served with pesto and a bolognaise sauce.
The gnocchi itself was very light and fluffy and the sauce was full flavoured - and it went so well together. Maybe this has converted her to gnocchi from now on!
Italian often brings to mind pizze for many - and they have some good choices here. All pizze here is made in the traditional Neapolitan method and with San Manzarno tomato and buffalo mozzarella then stone fired.We had a San Daniele made from tomato, mozzarella, roquette, San Daniele prosciutto and shaved Parmesan. The base was thin and crisp and the flavours certainly went very well together.
Dessert time and the nutella pizza was calling my name very loudly - and I was listening very clearly!This dessert pizza came with a nice sweet base and was topped with strawberries and sweet sugar.
It had a decent amount of nutella on it without going overboard which was nice and the fruit blended well.
Although we were very full we just had to try the canoli.These were nice and crisp and filled with hand piped Sicilian ricotta and chocolate and a touch of orange zest.
|They were really big too - we struggled to finish them after all the other food we'd had - but we still did our best and managed to finish most of them!
Bar Surry Hills and Italian Kitchen lives up to its intention to serve great food based around quality ingredients in a relaxed and friendly environment.
It certainly is a welcome addition to Surry Hills and the solid crowd shows this has all already been discovered.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Bar Surry Hills & Italian Kitchen. Special thanks to passionate Bulldogs supporter David Thompson for looking after us so well.
Thanks also to Jenny Farrell for taking the time to explain the direction and concept of the venue to us. Thanks also to Zoe Edema from The Drawing Book Studios for arranging our visit.
