Otto Ristorante x TASTE menu showcase

We were invited by Zomato and Taste Sydney to have the opportunity to sample Otto Ristorante’s exclusive TASTE menu, ahead of this week’s Taste of Sydney event! Taste of Sydney is a great way to enjoy upper end restaurants at a fraction of the price.. talk about a foodie heaven, we are absolutely thrilled and have been ‘studying’ the menu card all week!. This year we are going to make sure that we are prepared to brave the 4 elements, the crowd, seat location, food selection and the weather of course! We have heard there will be a grass mound overlooking the festivities, so will bring a rug and let Matt do all the running around to grab food. Then follow it up with some shopping afterwards! Gosh, it must sound like a one sided relationship. You must be wondering, how am I contributing? Well…I’m bringing the emotional support.. 

Located in Woolloomooloo, Otto Ristorante offers their diners a spectacular view of the harbour, boasting plenty of natural light which brightens up the restaurant and offers ideal lighting for photos!

The Lemon Lime and Bitters was super sweet and the house white wine was more than enjoyable. Matt easily downed a few of these glasses, and it had people asking the waitress what label wine they were serving!

We had a big feast ahead of us, we thought initially it was either share plates or two entree's and a main. To our surprise each person was given quite a generous serving. It proved to be quite a unique, intimate and one of the most enjoyable blogging experiences we had. The first dish we have to revisit is the amazing cocco panna cotta. It was simply delish, divine and heavenly. Honestly, it is the best dessert I have ever had, period. Before we jump into dessert, let’s rewind and start from the beginning.

Prosciutto, Stracciatella, Finchi e Aceto Balsamico

We are a big fan of the whole sweet and salty balance, especially when fruit is married with cold meats. To date one of our favourite snacks is grilled haloumi and watermelon. Hence, you can tell our eyes widened when we saw this. The stracciatella cheese can sometimes be referred to as the soft creamy centre of the burrata cheese. It was plated generously, wrapped in a bed of cold, salty prosciutto and served with sweet figs, This dish really has to be eaten with all elements on your fork, otherwise you don't get to embrace the balance of flavours. It was a great start to the meal, our taste buds were wanting more.

Spaghetti all’Aragosta
This is Otto Ristorante’s ICON dish at TASTE. 
If you don't mind forking out 69 crowns for this, then I highly recommend it.

A photo says a thousand words and if taken correctly, no amount of words will sum up the experience better. When the crayfish was served from the kitchen, there was a moment where everyone at the table said in unity "wow".  This dish was personally served up by each of the lovely waitresses and waiters. Even Matt who disregards all type of seafood, completely finished his serving. The spaghetti was cooked al dente and the crayfish was soft in texture. The cherry tomatoes severed as a bag of flavours, as it captured all the flavours from the chilli, garlic, brandy, napolitana sauce and basil. 

Gnoccehetti Sardi "Osso Buco"

By this point, we were all full and looking to try and free up some room for dessert. Almost everyone on the table had to take this dish away in a doggy bag as they hit their foodie limits. Matt on the other hand was one of two to demolish his plate. We thoroughly enjoyed this dish, the flavours were subtle yet when you taste the braised rangers valley beef shin, it changed the game. The general consensus around the table was that this was a bit of a miss. It seems the lack of beef shin heavily impacted everyone's judgement because the meat is what holds all the flavour and when you are lacking meat, you are basically served a plate of pasta with grated ricotta. Fortunately for us, we both had a generous serving of beef so we had a great time trying to stuff this down our throats.i

Cocco panna cotta

I think we can all agree at the table that the dessert was the clear winner of the night. The title of the dish does not do it any justice whatsoever…it consisted of layers, starting from the bottom a coconut panna cotta base, then you are given a zing with the zesty passionfruit flavour. Above that layer is a mountain of coconut crumbles which were roasted or "activated" as Pete Evans might say (sorry-not sorry Pete!). Finally you finish it up with an egg like shaped dollop of coconut gelato. If you think this sounds amazing, then you bet yourself and what is even better is that it is available for only 6 crowns at Taste of Sydney. You definitely know we will be lining up to buy 2 servings, because something this good cannot be shared... no matter how much you love them.

Thank you Zomato and Taste Sydney for having us sample Otto Ristorante’s exclusive TASTE menu 
As you can tell, we had an absolute blast and it was a pleasure to meet you both. We would also like to give a special thanks to Reika who was our dedicated waitress for the night. Her hospitality was amazing and she was ever so polite, courteous and thoughtful. Her service was outstanding throughout the entire night, Matt's wine glass was never empty for too long, and each time we left our seat Reika would be there to pull the seat back for us. Christine also didn't make it easy when she asked for "something sweet" when asked for coffee/tea. However Reika said she would look into what they could offer, and ended up bringing out a latte with a shot of honey to sweeten it! Absolutely amazing service.

***GIVEAWAY***

Thanks to Taste of Sydney, we also have 2 x double pass tickets to give away for the Taste of Sydney 2016 event. For your chance to win, simply follow us on Instagram or like us on Facebook before March 10th at 8PM. The winners will be selected at random. 
Click here to enter on Instagram and here for Facebook. 
We will be drawing a random winner from Instagram and Facebook.

Good Luck!