Mordeo Bistro & Bar126 Phillip St
Sydney CBD
Mordeo is a large place that sprawls along a very spacious foyer inside the Deutsche Bank building on the corner of Phillip and Hunter Streets in the southern Sydney CBD area.The place has a modern feel to it and its foyer location makes it very airy and open. You certainly won't feel crowded or claustrophobic here! The outlook is also actually quite pleasant with a large water display in the foyer as a lovely bonus attraction.
Mordeo is well set out with a bar on one side and restaurant on the other.
The menu is Southern European influenced - think Spain, Italy, Greece and France. This creates a great range with something for everyone - even in a fussy group. There are even some traditional recipes - the taramasalata is the owners grandmothers recipe!
Mordeo seats 80 to 90 people very comfortably plus they can handle many more standing in the bar area. They are open five days a week - on weekdays.
We of course started with a few drinks - it had been a busy day! Mlady had an old school French style cocktail made just for her - even though it wasn't on the menu. It's worth remembering that they're happy to create drinks here based on your preferences! I started with a glass of 2012 Bellanda San Fermo prosecco from Veneto in Italy. I do like a nice glass of prosecco!
We do love our croquettes and the Atlantic salmon croquettes with saffron mayonnaise were a must. It's a slightly different filling to many pl;aces and these beauties tasted great. The seafood and mayonnaise combined nicely and they were crisp and delicious.
The scallops came served with a Spanish onion salsa and individually in spoons.
The salsa was tasty and was enough to add flavour without overpowering the delicate scallops - which were lightly cooked as they should be.
Our next starter was the smoked pork hock terrine. The terrine came with a fennel and apple salad, fig chutney and grilled brioche.
We don't often find - or order - terrine even though it is something we certainly like. We were glad we had this version though.
This was a lovely terrine that was surprisingly light with all the ingredients working really well together to create a great combination of flavours.
The fruity apple based salad went well with the pork based terrine as well and the sweet brioche made the whole dish extremely substantial.
A few glasses of red are of course always a necessity at this stage of a meal. Mlady had a nice Pinot Noir and I had a lovely Sardinian red.
We have to confess that whilst we've had a number of squid ink dishes this was the first time we'd tried sauteed squid ink gnocchi. This was made fresh with broad beans, truffle salumi and grana padano.
The whole dish looked spectacular.
It was also very flavoursome with everything combining so well to create a lovely dish that was so memorable.
The slow cooked octopus carpaccio was a very colourful dish. Think picture postcard kind of picturesque with the bold red and green toppings standing out so vibrantly.
It had a great variety and mix of flavours and textures that combined well.
The octopus was extremely thin and very tender and the whole dish tasted so nice.
It's hard to visit an Italian restaurant and not have a pizza, isn't it? Whether it's as a starter, a main or even a dessert it just seems to fit so well. The fungi pizza we tried was made with mushroom and truffle and grana padano.
The earthy truffle flavour clearly cut through the other flavours giving the whole dish a great lift.
We really enjoyed this.
Dessert is a must do at Mordeo. There are any number of great choices - and we had quite a few of them. We started with the loukoumades - Greek donuts with hazelnut gelato and a honey cinnamon syrup.
These are such a winner, and not just for donut lovers. The sweet syrup went so well with the light donuts and the hazelnut gelato was tasty as well.
The creme Catalana (basically without trying to offend anyone it's the Spanish version of creme brulee) was delicious. It came served with orange zest and a pastry crisp resting across the top. Nothing was overpowering in this dish.We then had a wonderful wood fire individual pan baked apple tart with vanilla bean gelato. This was cutely and impressively presented and also tasted delicious.
Mordeo is a bar and a restaurant and it combines both these important functions very well. It was certainly popular on the night we visited yet everything was moving smoothly. Many seemed to drop in for a drink and a nibble and just stayed on for dinner.
The food is certainly worth staying for! The impressive lighting to the front reminds you of giant lamp shades or even huge fez hats. Either way they look great.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Mordeo. Special thanks to Pascal - the manager there, Mark - their head chef and Vivian who looked after us so well on our visit. Thanks also to Olivia Warne of Pendulum Communications for arranging our visit.
