A Tavola
348 Victoria St
Darlinghurst, Sydney
We were in Sydney one night and felt like having Italian - something not particularly unusual to be honest. We knew of A Tavola but hadn’t visited yet so it seemed like a good idea to drop by. It’s a quaint place that stretches back quite a way from its street frontage. Its popularity meant it was packed - which is generally a good sign that the food is good - and it was. Fortunately we’d booked before arriving so we were lucky!
To kick things off on a Friday evening we of course started with a drink - a glass of red each to be precise. Sadly we can't quite remember what we had - as it was a suggestion form our waiter - but it really was a lovely drop! Some house baked focaccia then arrived. This is almost a signature dish of A Tavola and so moreish. We could have had seconds and thirds but decided to save stomach space for the rest of the food.
We decided to share an entrée and chose the Featini di Pollo - chicken liver, eshallots, chicory and balsamic. It was kind of like a chicken liver bruschetta as it was on toasted bread slivers.
The presentation of this dish was elegant and the earthy taste was really lovely. When we had seen liver listed we had thought it might have been more of a "pate" type of dish - but we we wrong and also pleasantly surprised.
Sir chose the Pappardelle con Ragu di Maiale as his main course. He loves pappardelle. It was made with pappardelle, pork, white wine, tomato and parsley. Sir thoroughly enjoyed this deep and intensely flavoured dish. It was certainly big and hearty too. Pappardelle always seems to hold the sauce really well and the ragu certainly had big flavours.
Mlady who is quite partial to Gnocchi chose just that - Gnocchi con Calamari - and of course she IS a BIG seafood fan too so this was a perfect pairing. This delicious dish had squid, fennel seeds, tomato and parsley. The gnocchi was divine and there was plenty of seafood. This was another hearty dish.
A Tavola is a long thin place. Its front room has a large long share table in it. If this isn’t your thing though, hey have a room at the back with individual tables. This is where we were.
It’s easy to see why A Tavola has such a good reputation. It’s a lovely place with great service and great food to match.