This is one of my favourite fine dinning restaurant in Sydney. Before this year August, I came here twice, which is unusual for me. I normally would like to try something new if I have some special occasion and have to pay decent amount of money for food.
But here we are, this is my third and forth time here during August, for a friend’s farewell and also to celebrate a special occasion. The best things is we got 50% off food discount from Dimmi. So we pretty much tried half of the menu back then.
Now OTTO’s menu has changed to spring/summer menu, and I am pretty sad to see some of my favourite dishes were gone. Maybe thats due to season change, but I certainly hope those dish can come back in the future.
Here is the menu with my red nails:
Started from some drinks:
And we ordered we ordered:
Wagyu
Rangers Valley Wagyu Chuck tail flap MB 5+, smoked potato, spring onion, olives – $48
For some reason, nowadays restaurants love to serve Wagyu steak and cut like that. I tried in other place but it didn’t really taste that outstanding. Can’t really tell it is a good quality wagyu to my point of view. This dish is still on the current menu.
Anatra
Confit duck leg, parsnip, cherries, pistachio -$43
I love this duck leg. It confit to super tender and with just right amount of seasoning. This dish has been removed from the current new menu but there is a new duck breast dish.
Guancia di Manzo
Braised beef cheek in Marsala, Jerusalem Artichoke, Broccolini, grapes, hazelnuts
The best best beef cheek I tried! I always wonder how long it took to cook a hard beef cheek to this level of tenderness. I saw OTTO website used to have this dish’s recipe but was a packed 2 page long. oh well..
Spalla D’Agnello (Serve 2-3) – $89
Braised 1kg lamb shoulder, carrot, Reggiano, Tarragon, Parsley
one of the seasonal menu. You can see how juicy and tender it is from the second photo. the lamb was really well braised and surprisingly lean for a shoulder part. I would love to see this dish in the future.
Tagliolini – Entry size $30
Black and white long pasta, Moreton Bay Bugs, Cherry tomatos, chilli, garlic and basil
one of the most amazing pasta I had. I can taste that the pasta was freshly made and was cooked to prefect. also the Moreton Bay Bug meat were firm and sweet. definitely the highlight of the dinner. I ordered twice in my two visits here.
Too disappointed that this dish is no longer on the menu.
Risotto
aged acquerello rice, mushrooms, garlic
We ordered this risotto mainly because we were worrying that we won’t get full from those fine dinning dish. But this risotto is certainly more than just a rice. so fragrant and rice sucked full amount of soup. Awesome.
We also tried the dessert plate, a bit of everything from this place:
All those desserts were pretty amazing and I love the cream brûlée the best. But hey they are desserts, so they are all good, right?
Service wise, it was pretty slow although good quality. I think the restaurant was trying to let the guest talk for couple of minutes first then come to serve you. But I feel a bit irritating that I can’t really find waiter during the dinner. The bill had small mistake which mixed my entry size pasta to the main size. So make sure you check the bill before paying.
Food overall was above average, and I am always happy after eating here.
OTTO ristorante
Address: 8/6 Cowper Wharf Rd, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011
Visit 22 August and 29 August 2016.
Tasting The Cloud 