Lucio’s Italian Restaurant

By Franz Scheurer

Lucio and Sally Galletto’s passion for great food and art is obvious in their eponymous restaurant. This delightful, very Italian, neighbourhood restaurant dazzles with its colours and shapes but also makes you immediately feel at home with its wonderful, wafting aromas and friendly, caring service.

Chef Logan Campbell doesn’t only bring a rare mastery to his kitchen; he also understands the flavours and textures of Italian food like few do. Combine this with Giorgio Brussolo’s talent for sourcing fabulous, regional wines, and you have all the ingredients for a very enjoyable culinary journey.

The menu is a great read and very approachable. Trouble is there are so many things to try and so little ‘tummy space’. The ‘PANNACOTTA AL PECORINO CON ASPARAGI E FIOR DI ZUCHINI’ is a creamy blancmange served in a Parmesan basket with wonderfully crisp-fried zucchini flowers and a sharp and tangy dressing. It’s subtle, yet full of lingering flavours. A serving of ‘PROSCIUTTO, MOZZARELLA E FICHI ALLA GRIGLIA’ is an unctuous symphony of sweet and salty flavours with an incredibly alluring texture. All pasta is made in-house and it’s terrific. The ‘STRACCI NERI AI FRUITTI DI MARE’ consists of large sheets of black pasta, perfectly silken with tiny pieces of soft cuttlefish, minute tasty mussels, a scattering of vongole and a perfect hint of chilli. If the Adams family were Italian I’m sure this would be their favourite dish. A daily special of ‘TESTAROLI E PESTO’, an ancient Ligurian pasta, captured our imagination and absolutely stole the show. Made just from flour and water and cooked almost like a pancake this thick, doughy, almost gelatinous pasta is a taste sensation and one of the best textural foods around. We also loved the ‘VITELLO ARROSTO CON COTECHINO’, beautifully rare, thinly sliced tender meat, resting on a couple of excellent slices of cotechino, an Italian pork-rind sausage.

We ordered a bottle of Rubrato Irpinia Aglianico Feudi di San Gregorio from Campania. Not only is the name a mouth-full, so is the wine. It’s full flavoured and medium bodied with lots of almost Nebbiolo-like tar and rose petal flavours. The wine list is truly excellent and appropriate. Value for money is good and the service is informed, old-world suave and ‘just right’ for the ambience.

The desserts sounded great, especially the ‘TORTA DI CIOCCOLATA, PINOLI E GRAPPA CON UVA COTTA’, a chocolate, pine nut and Grappa cake with slow poached grapes, but I can’t tell you how good it was as, much to the amazement of the waiter, I ordered another portion of the ‘Testaroli’ for dessert.

Score: 8.5/10

For more information or bookings:

Lucio’s

47 Windsor Street

Paddington

Tel.: 02 9380 5996