Jamie's Italian Take 3 and 4

The first time I came here for lunch was way back in 2013. Came here again for dinner since they had the $10 pasta special. The wait is definitely long for a Saturday night since they only accept walk ins for the special, but managed to get in after 2ish hours. (Long overdue post, but really don't care haha).

 

Fresh crab spaghetti: Hand-picked Blue Swimmer crab with chilli, fennel, capers, white wine & garlic-$28.50

This dish was quite fragrant as you could smell the crab and sweetness of the sauce. There was also a decent amount of crab and relatively fresh. The sauce was a more thin sauce, but tasted quite healthy and flavourful at the same time. Pasta was cooked al dente.

pasta lift

Primavera ravioli: Buffalo ricotta & black pepper pasta parcels in a lemony butter sauce with peas, mint & pea shoots-$26.50

There were only 6 pieces of ravioli, and was hoping for more filling inside. The sauce had a nice acidity to cut through the richness of the butter and ricotta. Again, pasta was cooked al dente. 

Seafood risotto: Oozy risotto of saffron, garlic & shellfish sauce with squid, prawns, bronze fennel & crispy capers (entree)-$17.50

You could smell more seafood in the risotto, but I guess I would have liked the saffron to be more prominent (again, saffron is pretty much the same cost as gold…). The saffron is more subtle in flavour. Decent amount of seafood for a smaller size risotto, but it is pricier for the size.

Gnocchi genovese: Potato gnocchi, basil pesto, green beans & truffled potatoes, with ricotta & pine nuts-$28

The gnocchi was more on the chewier side, as I normally expect a more fluffy sort of gnocchi. Could have had more pesto flavour, since I love my pine nuts (why do I like expensive food?) I loved the fried bits for a nice crunch. 

Buffalo Dining Club

I've been wanting to come here ever since I saw the pasta in a cheese wheel, but this place isn't on the way to uni and outside of the city, so not super convenient to get to. Decided to come here to celebrate end of exams (since I had time to trek to food places outside the CBD). Most of the items on the menu are vegetarian, so this would make a good place for vegetarians who find there aren't many restaurants out there.

food spread

Cheese w/ 2 sides-$22

Sheep milk cheese, zucchini fritters, roast pumpkin w/ candied walnuts

The one time I forgot to take a photo of the menu but I need it...I forgot the technical name for the sheep's milk cheese since it was a special that week. It's a massive chunk of cheese, and if you do order a cheese I would suggest to only order one pasta. The cheese had a harder texture but still strong in flavour, like a cheddar cheese but not as 'sharp' tasting. I'm no cheese connoisseur, but this cheese was quite nice. The zucchini fritters were surprisingly good as well. They were fried well without being oily and inside was filled with a good balance of zucchini and stuffing. I was expecting the pumpkin to be a bit bigger, but the candied walnuts gave s nice crunch and added sweetness without being too sweet.

cheese wheel!

 

Cacio e Pepe: salt, pepper, olive oil and parsley in a pecorino cheese wheel-$20

Love how there's a whole cheese wheel where the pasta is swirled, so there's even more cheese from the cheese wheel in the pasta. It's got a nice cheesiness in it without being overly creamy. Pasta was cooked al dente and very simple to let the flavours of the cheese come through.

Gnocchi buffalo ricotta gnocchi with a napolitana sauce-$20

This gnocchi was more dense, I would've preferred it to be more fluffy. The ricotta helped give it a slight creaminess. The same wasn't too tomatoey or acidic. Again, clean and simple flavours. We couldn't finish the pasta or gnocchi since the dishes look small but the cheese fills you up really quickly.

 

downstairs looks small and crowded but there's more seating upstairs

LuMi Bar and Dining

Birthdays are really just an excuse to go out and eat. Every year I treat myself to some fine dining, because what is life if you don't enjoy the finer things in life? (Well every year I've worked...) Literally all my savings go into food. This year decided to go somewhere 'cheaper' (*cough under $200pp) since I've already gone around the world in both Europe and Asia, and have long well reached my food quota for the year. Decided to come here since the chef was on MasterChef as a celebrity chef (who lost but that doesn't really affect the quality of the restaurant since when was reality tv all that real...). This place is a fusion between Italian and Japanese (so many post-Jap feels...). Be prepared for a photo spam.

Different side of Sydney

The restaurant is actually quite quiet around this area, so it's nice to come this side of Sydney.

Cute tea set

menu

Went for the 8 course degustation for lunch $115pp. Normally they have the 5 course menu for lunch, so you have to call them up if you want the 8 course for lunch. I think price wise it's decent since you get a few snacks, and a petit four to finish. Even though the blinds were drawn it was still quite sunny.  The main problem was dealing with moving shadows when taking photos...

bar

Snack: snapper jelly with fish mousse and Neptune seaweed

inside

The flavours of this jelly reminded me of miso soup rather than a fishy taste. It was really flavourful and you have the slight creaminess from the fish mousse inside.

tapioca with seaweed

So crispy and love the way they used seaweed as a seasoning. Interesting how they placed it on top of the the raw veggies.

soft cheese- not too cheesy, and yes it was soft. 

Jap steamed egg custard with shell fish oil and caviar

Loved the presentation of this in a scallop shell on top of the sea shells. The flavours were quite interesting and not too salty. I do prefer the crab steamed egg custard I had in Tokyo since it was more eggy/flavourful.

Brioche bread + breadsticks 

This is probably one of the best brioche breads I've ever had, probably even better than some French bakeries. From far away they looked like muffins. It was still nice and warm when it came on the table and super easy to pull apart. Super soft and flavourful, didn't even nee the extra butter on the side. Since it's not your normal complimentary sourdough, they do charge $4 for each additional bread, which is pretty cheap if you compare it to Asian bakeries where it's just all air inside. If only I could take one of these brioches home...Breadsticks were average, but I did notice you only get them if you have the 8 course tasting menu.

Veal, yoghurt, jerusalem artichoke

First time having raw red meat. I was too scared to have steak tartare in France just in case I got sick. I do love my steak pink inside, but having it completely raw is a new experience. It was surprisingly nice, and the flavour of it reminded me of a cross between salmon/tuna, texture wise sort of was similar to sashimi. The yoghurt added a lovely creaminess to it whilst still being light. Loved the crunch of the jerusalem artichoke, if only they were readily available in packets to buy off the shelf...

Miso-stone

A spin on the classic minostrone soup. The scoop mini balls from different veggies and other ingredients such as cucumbers, radish, pickled radish, potatoes, carrot, pumpkins, potato, macadamia nuts, and poured in a tomato soup, but unlike the normal red tomatoes in the original dish, this one had a clear green tomato soup base. Really an interesting concept. I saw that they do chop up the core of the veggies, for example, the cucumbers have the skin on, so I guess they use the middle for other stuff.

Agnolotti, parsnip, truffle (added more truffles-$15)

without truffles 

inside

It's almost the end of winter and I missed the beginning of my favourite season since I was overseas, which also means that the truffle season is almost over. I am a massive truffle fan, and if I could have truffle everyday, I would. So it made sense to pay the extra $15 for some shaved pieces of truffle. If you had the 5 course lunch, you could opt to add truffle in the pappardelle (below), but it was in fine strands, rather than seeing the fine grains of the truffle. I found the truffle they used here smelt good but it didn't taste as strong compared to other truffles I've had. The pasta itself had a parsnip sort of liquid cream inside which bursted with flavour. The sauce was supposed to have some truffle flavour already, but couldn't really taste that much.

Pappardelle, duck, hazelnut

I love when I see duck on the menu since it's my favourite protein. Although it is more in a ragu form, it really complemented the flavours of the pasta. It was super flavourful, probably because it was cooked in individual saucepans with a large slab of butter. The pasta was super silky and cooked al dente. Loved the crunch from the hazelnuts as well.

Lamb, celeriac, chilli kosho, carrot puree

Lamb was super soft and melt in your mouth. There was quite a bit of fat though since they used the shoulder. Loved the plating of the sheet of celeriac. The chilli kosho wasn't actually that chilli, and helped complement the spices in the lamb (slowly building my chilli tolerance). The puree was super sweet and tasted like pumpkin more than carrot, pretty sure they said it was a carrot puree. There was a rosemary (?) powder sprinkled on top as well.

Granny Smith Apple: green apple sorbet, liquorice mousse, finger lime

inside

My favourite dish was this apple, it's unlike anything I've seen or tasted before! It's a real apple with the top cut and stalk still intact, then they core it and hollow out the apple, before putting in a mousse, sponge and green apple sorbet on top. How do they manage to make the apple hollow inside whilst keeping the skin intact? I loved how it was presented on gum leaves, and they sprayed a food scent on it, so it smelt even more like a super fresh and sweet granny smith. I love a bit of theatre in food and it delivered. The sorbet was on of the bests ones I've had and really kept true to the flavour of the granny smith without being too acidic. Couldn't really taste the liquorice mousse, but loved the burst of the sour finger lime, making this dessert really refreshing and not sweet.

cute candle (which I slightly burnt my finger and left wax all over the table for them to figure out how to clean once it dried....)

Douglas Fir ice cream, rhubarb, extra virgin olive oil

Another refreshing and light dessert to finish. This is not your normal ice cream, since it was super light and texture reminded me of foam from a foam gun. It tasted sort of like pine, well the scent of the fresh Christmas trees. The olive oil helped to cut back the sweetness of the rhubarb, which I did find was just a tad bit too sweet.

Petit four: pear and rosemary friand

For once, the petit four wasn't chocolate. Although it does seem a bit stingy giving one petit four, for the price you pay it's ok. The friend was quite buttery inside with a crisp edge. It did have pieces of pear and rosemary sprinkled on top. Again, needed to go with 8 courses to have the petit fours.

open kitchen!

the chef!

If you're after something a bit different and not too pricey, I think LuMi does a pretty good job. I would even come back here just to have the apple and brioche bread again. Too bad there's no a la carte here...