Carluccio’s Kitchen

Shop 1, 23-25 Princes Highway
Fairy Meadow, NSW 2519
+61 2 4283 4300

Today was my Mother’s birthday and she wanted us to go down to Wollongong for dinner, as soon as Casey knew that she wanted to go to Carluccios he wanted, no, had to go. This modest restaurant with a simple interior has the best Italian food I have ever had. I know, huge right? This restaurant could be considered to be in an unusal location, but I am sure that the location makes it easier to park and holds the rent down which would inturnhelp keep the food prices so reasonable. Not that Fairymeadow is bad, it just isn’t the dining district of Wollongong. It is definately a testament to the restaurant that on a Wednesday night it is packed, which makes it noisy but in a fun exuberant kind of way. The waiters are really friendly, will discuss the food and know the menu backwards and aren’t just poor uni students which is a nice change. I am sure that if this restuarant was in Sydney it would lose it’s soul and be 3 times the price… but you never know. So on to the food.

When you go to a restaurant there is always one meal that is declared the best of the night, well here we all argued who held this top position, we were unable to decided at the end as all of the meals excelled but generally for different reasons.

I did use my position as reviewer and photographer to ensure I tasted evermeal hehehe I have to get some perks!

My Mum had the veal escalopes with a white wine sauce and ricotta stuffed snowpeas. The veal was meltingly tender the sauce was just bright enough to bring out the flavour and the snowpeas where a fresh compliment to the meal. My Mother is still sure that this was the best meal of the night

Oliver my sister’s boyfriend ordered the quail fillets with parmesan and risotto arancini. When I saw this on the menu, I thought quail fillets LOL! they must be TINY, they were small, but much bigger than I expected. The parmesan flavour really shined in the arancini. This was a great dish but it was quite rich.

Next we move to Casey, like he needed another rich dish LOL. He had the roasted spatchcock with 3 mushroom risoto and black truffle oil. I think Casey had the Quote of the Night ™” It taste’s like KFC only edible”. Hmmm well I don’t know… but it was funny. The spatchcock was tender and well flavoured and not at all dry, the mushroom risotto was fantastic, so smooth and tasty.

My Father had something like pork on mashed potato… only better. Perhaps my father will delurk and explain alittle more.

My sister had the gnocchi, this was only an appetizer sized meal. It was huge, she ordered this becuase she loves gnocchi and thouht it would be smaller than the veal, LOL. Well she was wrong there but the gnocchi were perfect, the sauce was rich andshe was very satisfied.

I had the Spaghetti Marinara, after last night there was no way I could have a creamy meal. But the Rabbhiti in a cream sauce with fettucini or the Prawns and scallops in a light cream sauce both called my name very, very loudly. There was alot of seafood in this pasta, fish, calamari, prawns as well as the obvious Mussels and Morten Bay Bug. The tomato sauce was so thick and rounded in flavour I was swooning with every bite. I have to comment on the Mussels, they were huge, fresh and tasted like the sea. Wow. I have never had them like that in a restaurnat before. I mean it.
*note in Oz a Marinara sauce has seafood… cause you know we are right see*

These are a little nibble of candied almonds that you get with your coffee, Yum!

Ok, Dessert!
My dad had a trio of gelato, my sister and her boyfriend also shared one. These are quite large, but very delcious.

My mum and I shared the Strawberries with zabiglone gelato. This too was a very generous serve, just right to share. The strawberries were lovely and fresh and layered between layers of the gelato. YUM!
The lovely waitress even brought it out with a candle so we could sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! and even relit the candle for us so I could take a photo.

Casey had the lemon and lime tart, he wanted to share, but I wanted the gelato! How could I not? This tart was really good though and the balance between the sour and sweet, lemon and lime was just right.

This was a great night, the only embarassing thing was my Father. Who just couldn’t keep his pride in me (surely not) quiet long enough to not tell the waiter to check out Eatstuff. Very mortifing. But if you are the lovely waiter HI!! Thanks for a fabulous meal. See you again, soon.

If you live in Sydney it is definately worth the drive to check out the Illawarra and if you are in the ‘gong for the evening I recommend Carluccios, but please book!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Food Reviews, Country/ Australiana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.