Da Noi, South Yarra

Where: 95 Toorak Road South Yarra

When: Tues-Saturday: Lunch and Dinner, Monday: Dinner, Sunday: Closed

Contact: (03) 9866 5975

Payment: CC and EFTPOS

Vego :)

 

Da Noi in South Yarra is intimate high-end dining. The petite front room is small and white with restrained flourishes of tasteful art and cheery yellow light shades. The menu arrives as a handwritten piece of paper on a glass clipboard. Not that you’ll need to read it; the staff are extremely proficient in reciting the menu for the day. If you’re here for lunch, you can take advantage of the $35 special (two courses and a glass of wine). While you can’t strictly order off the ala carte menu for this, the waiter was incredibly flexible with our order and organised a few swap-arounds to suit our tastes.

 

Antipasto Selection

The lunch special starts with an antipasto selection, and of course, fantastic bread too. We had a salmon risotto, pickled vegetables with tender pieces of ever-so-mild fried fish, marinated peppers and char-grilled eggplant. To wash it all down we used our wine credit to order a bitter-orange aperitif with prosecco and Campari. It is near impossible to flaw any of these items, unless you wanted something hot for lunch, in which case the lunch special isn’t for you.

 

Bitter Orange Aperitif

Next we were treated to barely-deep-fried zucchini flowers stuffed with roasted mozzarella. Crispy on the outside, the flowers came to pieces as we bit into them, their warm creamy filling escaping. Accompanying this were char-grilled pieces of zucchini lightly sprinkled with parmesan and roasted cherry tomatoes.

 

Mozzarella-stuffed zucchini flowers

For the main we had a gnocchi dish, in a sophisticated rabbit sauce. The gnocchi pieces were clearly handmade and so delicate they practically melted in the mouth. Amongst the sweetness of diced carrot lay soft pieces of rabbit shoulder in an olive oil sauce, granulated with fresh parmesan. It was both rich and mild, and very satisfying. By the end of the meal, we felt gooey and full, and that’s always a good sign. We finished off with a coffee; a lovely blend, although I forgot to check what it was.

Da Noi is a quality restaurant, where staff are absolutely committed to creating an enjoyable experience for you. It is best to arrive without knowing what you want, and allowing yourself to be suggestible to whatever is there on the day, relax and eat up.

 

Gnocchi in rabbit sauce

Food: 4.5/5

Service: 5/5

Ambiance: 4/5

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Cafe Bedda, Northcote

Location: 242 High St Northcote 

Contact: 9482 9420 (Make a booking for weekends as it gets busy)

Dine with take-away pizza available

Pricing: Entrees $6-$9, Pizzas $17-$19, Mains $16-$27

Hours: Tues-Sun 5:30-10pm

CC & EFTPOS

Licensed

Now I must admit that I’m not very courageous when it comes to unusual dishes, I prefer “tried and true” to “experimental”, but whenever I visit Café Bedda I’m open to trying something different. My past dining experiences at this sweet little Italian place have put my mind at ease. I have established a bond of trust with Café Bedda, because their produce is high quality and well, they seem to know what they’re doing. There are a multitude of places out there sporting the Italian label but few match my expectations of what Italy would really be like (if I ever fly over I’ll let you know for sure). So really, it takes more than just stocking San Pellegrino in the drinks fridge to convince me a restaurant is real Italian fare. For those who have visited Italian food and wine importer/restaurant Enoteca in North Carlton, you may notice the resemblance in Café Bedda. I don’t think the two are affiliated in any way but both have a commitment to excellent Italian wine, food and ye olde-style mahogany shelving.

So apart from the wooden shelving stocked with wine, what can you expect the interior of Café Bedda to offer? Well it certainly is a modest size; one room narrowed by the pizza oven at the entrance. Dark wooden panelling skirts around the bottom of the olive-coloured walls which house large, modern landscape paintings in earthy tones. The feel is warm and a little sombre, reflecting Bedda’s passion for fine-dining in a homely atmosphere. The staff will certainly make you feel at home, they’re delightfully friendly and excited about the food they serve. Expect a detailed description of the daily specials and don’t be afraid to ask for advice, you might need to as the specials are written in Italian.

We ordered the fennel and orange salad and a pork and caramelised onion pizza. When the salad arrived it looked quite amazing; a glossy mess of albino vegetable littered with bright orange segments. The taste was incredible, the first thing noted was the incredibly high quality olive oil dressing which was just so gorgeous, I could drink it out of the bottle. Then notes of salt and the crisp aniseed of the fennel just spark once you bite into the sweet orange pieces. This salad had me very excited and I had nearly filled up on it when our pizza arrived a few minutes later. Fortunately I was able to get through a few slices of this lovely pizza which although thin-crusted had pillowy soft edges and wasn’t hard to chew. The homemade tomato base was a concentrated flavour hit, balanced nicely by the pork and fennel sausage pieces and mild onion. If anything, the contents were a little sparse, but the quality of the ingredients meant that a little went a long way… and I wouldn’t want flavour overkill. 

Café Bedda will satisfy your hankering for some truly high quality Italian cuisine in a friendly atmosphere that is designed to make you feel looked after, not fussed over. 

Food: 5/5

Service: 5/5

Ambience: 4.5/5

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