Otto Ristorante, Woolloomooloo

I’m a regular user of Dimmi for booking restaurants and I recently got an email about a discounted dinner at Otto Ristorante located on the finger wharf at Woolloomooloo so we decided to visit to celebrate the end of our university semester and course. I’d heard many things about this restaurant and many people have told me how great the food is here for Italian influenced fine dining, the restaurant itself has consistently been awarded one chefs hat for the past few years which is quite an achievement.

I’m not sure if it was intentional but our entree, mains and sides arrived at the same time so the table was a bit cramped for the night though it’s not really something I care too much about. The main decided to go with was the Eye Fillet of Angus Beef with Jerusalem Artichoke Puree, Mushrooms, Beetroot Ravioli, Goat’s Curd, Pistachio, Asparagus, Capers, Veal Sauce. The image I took doesn’t really justify the size and presentation of the dish, possibly because of the odd lighting. I can’t fault the dish in any way because it was amazing with perfectly cooked beef and good accompaniments with the silky artichoke puree a standout.

Miss K hadn’t had any Italian pasta in ages but also wanted to try something we don’t normally have so she opted to go with the gnocchi dish that she liked the look of. We both loved the presentation of the dish which I thought had a lot of thought put into it, normally pasta dishes look fairly messy but the black plate with creamy sauce had a nice contrast and looked delicious. The gnocchi itself was very soft with a ‘superb’ garlic cream sauce as described by Miss K herself 🙂

Our entree was a pile of seared scallops to share, the server was a little difficult to communicate with but he ended up serving the scallops into smaller bunches for us to eat similar to a side. Despite the confusion we ended up really liking the scallops which were perfectly seared on the top, raw and tender in the middle and glazed with a very nice creamy parsnip sauce underneath.

It’s quite uncommon to find sauteed spinach on a western menu so the moment we saw this, especially with the garlic and chilli oil the side was a must order for us, it turned out to be very soft with a slightly burnt and spicy taste which we enjoyed. We definitely rate spinach as our favourite veggie side in Asian cuisine and having it work so well with Italian dishes was both a surprise and a bonus to our meal.

Since we were having dinner fairly early we decided to share a dessert in case we couldn’t finish it. I let Miss K pick the dessert and we ended up with the passionfruit brulee and coconut sorbet, the decision was made mostly with the latter in mind. The best parts of this dessert was definitely the coconut sorbet which was amazing and refreshing, the rest of the dish was also quite nice with an interesting twist of popping candy.

I would put Otto Ristorante up there as one of the best (if not the best) Italian restaurants in Sydney. The food is amazing in taste and presentation, the views are beautiful and the mood is relaxed but classy. The only gripe I have with the restaurant is that the service is a bit lacking in communication and the waiters a little bit pretentious. Despite the hurdles I would recommend this place for a special occasion as it’s quite pricey at $30+ each main but definitely worth the money for the amazing experience.