Vizio Caffe e Cucina
1/52-58 William St
Wooloomooloo, Sydney
Vizio Caffe e Cucina oozes charm and is in a great location as its so accessible to those in the city. The Italian charm wraps around you the minute you walk in the door, from it’s decor through to its food and staff. It’s like being back there in Italy.
They have been here for about three and a half years and they cover the full day, serving breakfast lunch and dinner. Some places doing all three meals struggle with transitioning from a cafe by day to a restaurant by night. Not this place. It stacks up against any restaurant. The bar is incredible too. It’s a grappa bar with an impressive 90 different bottles! They use this delicious drop widely too - and not just in drinks. That said, they have plenty of grappa to just sip here too. If you haven’t tried it before, this is the place to come too. They know all there is to know about this grape based spirit.
During Covid lock-down they had Master Classes and Cocktail Classes via zoom which were hugely popular and are now looking at doing this again but in the venue on some Saturdays. Keep an eye out for these and get in early. You can make enquiries by clicking here.
Also, on 13th May an incredible pairing of cuisines is happening. This event of Italian/Greek food is a 6 course degustation with matching wines undertaken in conjunction with renowned Chef David Tsirekas (formerly from 1821 and now at Homer on Homer) pairing with the maestro from Vizio, Chef Salvatore D’Alterio. This will be a great night!
We were visiting for dinner and an Italian based drink seemed so appropriate to start the night. Sir chose a Grappa Spritz which was really nice and you could easily tell the difference from the traditional Aperol Spritz, even though it actually had a dash for colour. It had a unique flavour that he loved. It is a grappa venue after all!
Mlady steered the other way and had the more traditional Aperol Spritz. This bold orange drink with it’s bittersweet flavours is so popular these days. We love it and she thoroughly enjoyed it.
The food on the menu is taken from all around Italy and is traditional Italian with a playful modern twist and the pastas are all freshly made in house. We had complimentary mini arancino balls with basil sauce. These tasty morsels certainly whetted our appetites. The good news is everyone gets one of these, with the flavours varying from day to day.
We then moved on to a serving of five different breads which also included homemade focaccia. Mlady especially loved the focaccia and had several pieces. She especially loved dipping it into the balsamic and olive oil - very moreish.
Sir loves pork so no surprises we went with Porchetta - in this case thinly sliced cold cut in-house crispy skin pork belly served with apple sauce. The pork is cooked for three hours and starts off on a high heat and then the heat is lowered. This was a lovely light dish with the deliciously simple, sliced pork, cooked beautifully. The apple sauce, which we all know is pork’s partner in crime, went oh so well.
We both love seafood so we just had to try the Fritturina - deep fried calamari, seasonal vegetables and lemon mayo. Remembering to squeeze the lemon (sometimes we forget), this dish really was good. The calamari was perfectly cooked - nice and tender - and combined so well with the lovely vibrant lemon mayo. Even the crispy slivers of veggies were so tasty. Mlady especially loved the crispy onions.
Leading into our mains, each of us then ordered a glass of red. Sir had Montepulciano D’Abruzzo and Mlady Sangiovese. Both reds went really well with our meal. We do tend to have reds with almost everything. It’s a personal choice. There’s a good variety of wine on offer here, with most from Italy. It’s also nice to see so many available by the glass.
We decided to share our mains too. In keeping with the seafood theme, our first main was Scialatielli alla Marinara. This was King prawns, calamari, mussels, mantis shrimp, tomato, chilli and white wine served mixed with pasta. There was a lot going on with this tasty and colourful dish. The pasta was cooked perfectly and there was certainly plenty of seafood. The sauce was more a type of a broth that nicely coated the pasta - and it was a delicious dish.
Gnocchi was next. It was Gnocchi Al Ragu Di Maiale. It had slow cooked pork white ragu, parmigiano and crispy polenta. The gnocchi was cooked so well - nice and soft - and the ragu was delicately flavoursome. This was such a nice combination of flavours and textures - but then we love gnocchi.
We just managed to fit in dessert. One of the ‘twists’ we shared for dessert was the Limoncello Tiramisu. This was limoncello, mascarpone cheese, almond dacquoise and lemon. It was a light, subtle dessert with a lovely smooth consistency. We really loved this playful variation to a traditional tiramisu.
Mlady loves pear in a dessert so our other choice was a deconstructed pear and ricotta cheesecake. The pear was divine. We loved the taste and flavour of the cooked pear. Having it part of a deconstructed ricotta cheesecake - this makes for a great dessert that we’d have any and every day of the week!
Check out the big screen showing black and white Italian movies. This adds to the great atmosphere. It’s hard not to keep an eye on this and it adds such a cool touch. We’re both movie buffs but it’s safe to say we hadn’t seen these ones before!
The food at Vizio Caffe e Cucina is fresh and vibrant and it all tastes so good. There is so much to choose from here too from the wine through to the menu - and don’t forget that impressive grappa bar. You have to have a go at that!
The dynamic and charming owner of Vizio - Matia Vizio
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Vizio Caffe e Cucina. Special Big thank you to owner Matia for looking after us on the night as well as taking time from his busy schedule to chat with us. Thank you also to Chef Salvatore D’Altenio for taking time from his busy schedule to chat. Thanks also to Andrea and Manual for looking after us on the night. Special thanks to MJ Cervera from Paper Phoenix for arranging this tasty visit.
