Spuntini Italian Restaurant
3/67 Frederick St
Concord, Sydney
Spuntini’s inspiration is taken from Italian bistro culture and dining. Their extensive menu certainly showcases this. This is a place in suburbia that is well worth visiting and matches the best around Sydney.
To drink, Sirs ‘go to’ at the moment is a Negroni, so he eagerly started with this. It was a lovely mix of Campari, gin and Cinzano Rosso with a huge ice cube garnished with an orange peel swirl taking centre stage in the glass. Mlady is partial to a Spritz’s and often heads for Aperol. Here she had the tangy Limoncello spritz that hit the spot nicely.
We decided to share all our dishes and started with a serving of their wood-fired house made focaccia that came with whipped mascarpone butter that had basil oil drizzled over it. The basil oil gave the light fluffy butter a wonderful flavour and spreading this over the fresh bread was a lovely taste sensation to start the meal.
Mlady loves her greens, especially peas, so the next starter we spotted we just had to try. The baby pea tartlet which had fresh baby peas, sugar snap, Meredith goats feta, pistachio and pea tendrils was an absolute work of art. It resembled a cute little garden in its own bowl. It was so vibrantly pretty and it tasted amazing. It had lots of different tastes with the crunchiness of the sugar snap and the very nice smooth Meredith goat’s feta combining beautifully.
Then we had rigatoni with quail ragu, porcini mushroom and pecorino. It had a perfectly al dente pasta with a rich ragu that had amazing flavours and textures that were oh so good. This was a comfort pasta dish at its best.
Casarecce was next. It had Yamba King prawn, pistachio and prawn chilli oil. We do love our seafood and pasta mixes and casarecce is a rarely used favourite. All pasta is made in house and this was again perfectly al dente. This dish had really lovely flavours that were all so well balanced.
Mlady is a fan of barramundi so we had to have the crispy skin barramundi with zucchini and bagna cauda - this is a hot sauce made from garlic and anchovies. This dish ticked all the boxes for Mlady. The barramundi was perfectly cooked and had a wonderfully crisp crispy skin. The accompanying zucchini and bagna cauda completed it.
Sir is very partial to good steak so we tried the Westholme Wagyu beef rump MBS5 +250gr with macadamia pesto. This was expertly cooked and beautifully medium rare and sliced which made it great for sharing. It was so tender and mouth-wateringly juicy. Good cuts done so well are such a delight to eat.
How good was the panzenella! This delicious rustic chunky salad was made up of heirloom tomato, charred croutons, mozzarella di bufala and aged balsamic. It has a lot going on with everything beautifully balanced in flavour. A very moreish salad that Mlady could not stop eating.
Who doesn’t love roast potatoes, Sir and Mlady certainly do! Scrumptiously delicious were the roasted Wagyu beef fat potatoes. The potatoes came with sour mascarpone, bottarga and chives. The roast potatoes had a divine crunch with a fluffy soft centre. This was a very good accompaniment to the crispy skin barramundi and the Westholme Wagyu beef steak.
Sir decided on a red and chose the very smooth and subtle 2018 Mani Del Sud Primitivo Di Manduria from Italy. It was a nice easy drop that went really well with the dishes.
We did manage dessert but only just. No surprises, Mlady had the Spuntini Affogato - house made vanilla bean gelato drowned in espresso and Frangelico liqueur. For Mlady, this was the perfect dessert after having such amazing flavoursome dishes.
Sir went with the Spuntini Signature. This dessert that had a lot of nice taste and texture dimensions with it’s mix of yuzu granita, wood fired grapes, brûlée custard, cream and caramelised white chocolate. It was a complex combination that worked so well.
Spuntini is nestled on a quiet street in Concord. It opens out to a small al fresco area that would be hugely popular for lunch and for dinner on warmer days. Inside it oozes charm and has a great atmosphere that lends itself to a great experience. Alex and Marco have a wonderful place here. You’ll find Alex in the kitchen and Marco out with the very content customers.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Spuntini Italian Restaurant. Special thank you to Alex for looking after us and chatting with us. Big thank you to Salvatore and Shannon for also taking such good care of us on the night.