By Franz Scheurer
It seems that for every restaurant that closes in Sydney another one opens up. Fratelli Paradiso in Potts Point, a bakery / bistro is one of the many newcomers. Run by the ex Mama Du crew of Melbourne’s Southgate and Andrea Mantese, ex Caffe e Cucina, this small, noisy and lively bistro serves Italian food with attitude and excels in the service stakes.
The restaurant holds about 30 people and there are a couple of tables on the footpath for the smokers. You can’t book and unless you’re there by 6.30pm you will have to queue.
They are licensed and twelve out of twenty wines on the wine list are available by the glass. On the night we were there, another six wines, all available by the glass, were to be found on the blackboard. The list is predominately Italian with a few good Australians thrown in and all wines are very affordable.
The menu is entirely made up of blackboard specials and you’ll typically find three entrees, three pastas, three mains and three desserts. The food is simple, very fresh, well presented and although reasonably heavy handed with the salt, mainly excellent.
The homemade lasagne superb and the shallow fried calamari excellent. The lamb tasty and perfectly cooked and the sirloin with Balsamic glazed shallots full of flavour and cooked to order. The one great let-down was the risotto, chalky, undercooked and obviously not made a-la-minute and the carpaccio was served ice cold. It is one thing to part-freeze the beef to be able to slice it wafer thin, another, however, to serve it half frozen. The desserts were good and the grappa excellent.
Service is knowledgeable, quick, efficient and friendly. Atmosphere is lively, noisy and you can easily imagine eating somewhere in Italy. Value for money is outstanding and I suggest you should go and check it out!
Score 6/10
For more information:
Fratelli Paradiso
12 – 16 Challis
Ave
Potts Point
Tel.: 02 9357 1744