5 /5
Reseña
★
★
★
★
★
I ate here almost weekly for several years when I was still working and loved everything about the place. My last visit was for my retirement lunch six years ago so, I was delighted when friends suggested that we meet there for a Thursday lunch. We decided to make a bigger visit of it with an overnight stay at the Adina just down the street and a night at the theatre later that day to see "Kinky Boots".Three of us arrived half an hour early at noon but two tables of diners were already seated and the place was very busy by 12.30 when the other three arrived. We early birds had started with an excellent martini for me and margaritas for them and the one of our party who hadn't been here before had the opportunity to have a look around at the decor. There is a very old world feel about this basement room and I was again reminded of the delightful Ristorante Paoli in Florence.When the others arrived, they opted for a bottle of Quealy pinot grigio so we had another round of cocktails. I didn't know any of the staff but they were all friendly, welcoming and efficient and there was a great welcome from Caterina who returned twice during the lunch for a chat. She really is the most gracious host and seemed to visit every table during the lunch service. As always, the food was wonderful with each of us very happy with our choices. The standouts for me were the Vitello Tonnato (which I always used to have here) and the great Costoletta which was an enormous crumbed pork cutlet (absolutely beautiful). The servings are large so, predictably, the sides of spinach and roast potatoes which the other two guys insisted on ordering were largely untouched. A bottle of Dorigati pinot grigio was particularly good but one of the party preferred the Quealy so we got another bottle of that too. Two bottles of the excellent Farr Rising shiraz also evaporated as did six bottles of sparkling water (poured somewhat overgenerously by the staff).We finished with an Affogato each and were then presented with a complimentary tipple of Cat's special grappa rocket fuel. It was a wonderful lunch and we finally staggered back into the sunlight just before 4pm. The bill was frightening at $1083 but that included $592 for drinks. Still my favourite restaurant in the city.