Uccello

A restaurant review by Franz Scheurer

Eugenio Riva originally comes from Como near the Swiss/Italian border and many will remember his food from Ristorante Riva in Darlinghurst. He’s a capable and gifted chef and cooks the regional food of Lombardy.

Uccello is a great looking space; it’s inviting, buzzing and reasonably spacious and the acoustics are first rate; you can hear yourself think and holding a conversation is easy. Alas, that’s where the comfortable part ends. The chairs must be the most uncomfortable I have encountered. They are true 20-minute chairs and the spiky protrusions on the front corners and the backrest cut into your arms or legs. You have no alternative than either being thin (I know, it’s the fashion these days) or sit at an angle across the chairs. Table feet are bulky and cumbersome on some of the larger tables and again make it hard to feel at home.

Interestingly Massimo Bianchi was a terrific chef and his food never rocked at Uccello and the same seems to have happened to Eugenio Riva. The food is ok, but nothing stands out and at the prices they charge at this restaurant I want the food to be memorable… It is not.

A serving of ‘Vitello Tonnato, baby cos and caper berries’ ($ 27) is competent and appealingly plated, yet it fails to excite with the exception of the amazingly dense and fresh cos lettuce. A special of ‘Raw artichoke and baby broadbeans’ ($32) is probably the dish of the night, beautifully light and superb produce; but is a simple salad worth $32? Next we share a ‘Mozzarella salad with green and yellow beans, fennel, tomatoes, rocket, herb oil’ ($ 22) and again, it’s a good dish, but not a great dish. For mains we try the ‘Grilled duck breast, caramelized endive, green olive and almond tapenade, marsala reduction’ ($ 41) showcasing excellent duck meat, perfectly cooked and rested and ‘Ravioli of ricotta, zucchini flowers, anchovy and Parmesan’ ($ 28). The pasta is really good and the whole dish is appetizingly presented and well seasoned. Apart from the duck, all dishes are quite small. A bottle of Haas Pinot Grigio ($90) from Alto Adige is a good choice and works well with the food. We try the panna cotta and the marinated strawberries for dessert and both dishes are solid and well executed. I like the fact that the strawberries are not sweet and work perfectly as a final dish. As I said earlier on, the food is good, but not great.

Service was friendly, a little overzealous but knowledgeable.

Value for money: not good

Noise: 76 db

Would I go again: probably not

Score: 6.5/10

For more information or bookings:

Uccello

Level 4

320 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Tel.: 02 9240 3000

Web: http://www.merivale.com/#/ivy/uccello