Jamie's Italian and Gelato Messina!

first of all, had the most pointless lab ever. our whole table did it wrong, and the demonstrator kept us in for over half an hour, and didn't really explain the questions. i actually woke up and made it to the top of the campus before 9am, since if i stayed in my normal lab, then i would've ended at 2, and no good food): also, before i start talking about food, so glad i have a bank card (well i've had one for a few years, but with my bank, money only goes in...) stupid printing at uni, no cash. and accidentally printed double sided..and heaps of other problems...but i think i'm ok now.

yes, my first exam is next week, but i couldn't resist going out for food! it's quite rare for a relative to come over and for me to pick the restaurant. usually my cousin picks since she's been to almost every restaurant in the city, but i got to choose this time! obviously i couldn't choose fine dining, since that'd be a waste, but they wanted a nice restaurant (chefs gallery isn't super good, neither is chat thai, and according to my cousin, mamak isn't that great....).

if you didn't know, i have a thing with Masterchef guest chefs and judges, and also celebrity chefs, so i course i picked Jamie's Italian. it's decent pricing for a celebrity chef. also have been watching Jamie and Jimmy's Food Fight Club show, it's pretty funny and interesting. also, their cafe is another place on my list of places to go overseas to eat. at the end of one of the world's longest jetty is pretty awesome (: too bad it's a pop-up cafe ):

so glad we made a booking. arrived at around 1, and it was packed! it's a super long, narrow-ish restaurant, quite packed, and has a rustic feel (: we sat on the second level. the tables are quite small, and their plates are quite big, luckily the plates they gave us to eat from were small. don't have a picture, but when i first saw the small plate, i thought it was dirty, since it looked like it had tea stains, but that's part of the design.

and i could choose the dishes, since my cousin has tried almost everything in this restaurant as well. btw, it's pretty dim in there. luckily our table had a spotlight, but the light didn't reach the very edges of the table, since the light was angled.

FRIED THREE-CHEESE GNOCCHI $9.50 Delicious crunchy gnocchi with a fiery arrabbiata dip

AKED MUSHROOMS $14.50 Swiss browns with crispy “music bread” & smoked buffalo mozzarella

one gnocchi for the each of us. yum (: the dip had some chilli in it, but it was ok for me. i now understand why people say that chilli gives it a "kick". this balance of chilli actually made it go. (basically, for most of you out there, you won't think there's chilli, but there is, since it's not overly hot but has a nice intensity for me)

mushrooms were yum, but the bread was too burnt for my liking ): other people had the bread though.

CRAB & AVOCADO BRUSCHETTA $16.00 Grilled sourdough topped with blue swimmer crab & avocado, with apple matchsticks, chilli, mint, lemon & olive oil

good balance of flavours! quite refreshing, not overly seasoned at all. wasn't even spicy.

my cousin was right, the mains/pasta/risotta did take their time. waited over 20min. but we had to separate the entrees from the mains, since the table was quite small.

BLACK ANGEL SPAGHETTI-$24, WILD RABBIT TAGLIOLINI-$26, WILD TRUFFLE RISOTTO-$25

we started with the risotto first, i mean, who doesn't like truffle? it was quite an intense flavour, some of you may think it's salty, and it would be if you had it to yourself, but sharing a plate between 6 people, then the flavour is so good! 

all main sizes, and yes, the pastas are smaller than other places, but for these types of celebrity chef places, they are alright serving. the black angel had chilli in it as well, but it really gave the dish depth. the spaghetti had a hard-ish elasticity to it, and the scallops were so soft (:

rabbit was surprisingly tender. pasta was alright. i don't know why, rabbit reminds me of tuna.

ITALIAN FARM SAUSAGE $23.00 Grilled pork sausage flavoured with red wine & spices, served with sweet & sour capsicums, capers, chilli & garlic.

i liked how the sausage was served (: again, it was a good spiciness. there was also some fried bread which gave it a nice crunchiness (: it could have had more flavour.

PROSCIUTTO, PEAR & PECORINO $19.50 Salad of prosciutto, rocket, crisp pear, toasted pine nuts & pecorino with an olive oil & balsamic dressing

this side of the table had dim lighting. loved the plaiting of the dish! twas so gooood.

APPLE SLAW $7.50 Radishes, walnuts, candied beets, mint & lemon with yoghurt (behind). not as great as the other salad, but still refreshing.

the service was good, despite what other people have said. when the guy serving us was going to go on lunch break, he explained another person was going to take over. and yeah, they were pretty nice. like my uncle's friend wanted their wifi password...but they explained how their wifi was only for their hand held ordering machines. and pretty friendly (:

i was planning to get home after lunch, but they said they were going to get dessert, and my uncle shouted gelato messina! first time!

i got ginger and dragonfruit, salted caramel and white choc, panna cotta and fig amaretti

the cup wasn't branded since it was three scoops ): but 3 scoops was the cheapest. lighting was weird.

so we shared the flavours. only double upped on ginger and dragonfruit since it was that good (: my favourite so far. ok, not going to do full names (no time), other flavours were: elvis the fat years (peanut butter and other stuff), leaf leaf bang bang (mango, coconut + stuff), breakfast of champions, two stroke (hazelnut + stuff), come chocolate one, pear and rhubarb (pretty good as well), tiramisu, and another flavour. sorry, usually i remember everything i eat, but i need to save some brain space for exams. salted caramel was on the salty side, and even the white choc didn't balance it out much.

i think with three scoops, it's not good, since helato melts quickly, and the bottom two flavours melt a bit together, so some parts/bits of ice cream such as pandan jelly, brioche etc was hard to detect in the flvours. i think two scoops would be better, but sharing with people is the best! had over 12 flavours (:

also taste tested apple pie. i think i should've gotten that instead since the fig wasn't prominant enough. 

overall, messina is good. defs go again. i wanted to try their red velvet... and some other time...oh, and will defs try the yogurt ones (:

aaand, no study done ): really badly formatted post, but no time D=