Jamie's Italian (Sydney, Australia)

It's been a long wait to have the opportunity to dine at Jamie Oliver's restaurant in Sydney. Jamie's Italian has been open for quite a while and luckily my friend invited me to have dinner there two weeks ago. 

We arrived early so we got a good table. The place is darkly-lit in the evenings and even becomes darker as the night progresses. The ambiance is perfect for intimate dinners with loved ones. 

We started with the complimentary selection of Italian bread: house-made focaccia, sourdough, ciabatta, tortano and wafer thin carta di musica. The bread is drizzled with basil olive oil and it came with an EVOO and balsamic vinegar for extra dipping. I enjoyed this bit as I do like munching on good bread. 

For our antipasti, we chose to have the Stuffed Risotto Balls made of smoked mozarella and porcini arancini. Arancini is the Italian equivalent of fried rice. In Italian homes, they turn their leftover risotto into balls coated in flour (and sometimes in egg too) before going into the deep fryer. Our Risotto Balls came well-coated and hot, with smokes oozing out as we cut the ball in half.  The risotto is smooth and glides easily on the mouth. However, I find this dish a bit bland even if I dipped it on the fresh tomato sauce that came with it. 

The wait for our pasta dishes took a long time to arrive. So long that I wish I ordered wine so I can savour it while catching up with my friend.

For my pasta dish, I chose the normal serve of Spaghetti Vongole. I commend the al dente pasta and the fresh cockles of this dish. However, the flavours were a bit lacking that I had to put salt and pepper twice. The flavour of white wine and chili underwhelmed my tastebuds.  The Husband wasn't supposed to join us but since the pasta dish took awhile to arrive, he was able to catch up with us and eat half of my pasta.

The highlights of our meal were the desserts. I enjoyed their Poached Winter Fruits which came with Vanilla ice cream and honeycomb. So fresh! It was a mixture of sweet and tangy inside my mouth. I loved this!

Jamie Italian's Warm Brownie was another hit for us especially to my Husband. It's rich in chocolate flavour and the sweetness was just right. 

While I wasn't totally blown-away with our dining experience, it wasn't also a let down. I did enjoy dinner because I was with great company. The quality of food was good and staff were accommodating to us. There were just a few misses that had to be noted. Will we come back? Yes. I wouldn't mind trying out their other offerings in the future. But maybe not too soon.

Jamie's Italian
107 Pitt Street, Sydney
Phone: 02 8240 9000
Booking a table is highly recommended