Ormeggio At The Spit

On Sunday’s, Ormeggio offers the «Stressless Sunday dinner» which consist of five courses plus bread for $ 69 — you can’t get any better than that.
This is one of the best Italian restaurants I have ever eaten at in Australia. The food was exceptional and the service was great.

This is a review of the Ormeggio Kiosk that opened up on the opposite side of the docks within this past year. It is what the Boatshed at Balmoral should be. Great tapas style dining. Huge ice buckets near every table to keep your BYO cool. Fun and friendly staff. Hit of the night were the oysters which have a vinaigrette that is so delicious we asked for a dozen more. Frito Misto and lamb all were great as well. The only disappointment of the night was the stuffed zucchini flowers which someone clearly didn’t get the concept because there were baby zucchini attached to a small flower that had just a squirt of cheese. If you are looking for a casual place to hang out with some friends this is the place to go.

Best risotto I have ever had， and I love the fish entrée， the dressing is great. Professional and friendly staff. Wonderful experience.

This restaurant is strangely located in what seems to be a boat store. But after you get past all that, it’s a pretty good modern Italian restaurant that aspires to be a great one. Certainly it’s priced as one. Menu is interesting and innovative. It’s a choose 2 or 3 or 4 dishes type approach, of which I’m a fan. I was disappointed with the wine menu in that I struggled to find a good wine that wasn’t hugely overpriced. Is sum, a very good restaurant but not a good value.

The best meal of my life.
That’s the opening to this review and I’ll explain why. I have only been to a handful of Sydney’s «fine dining establishments» but Ormeggio quite simply has blown them all out of the water.
Walking in it is a relaxed yet classy experience. The staff are friendly, helpful and best of all not pretentious. I was lucky enough to meet Alessandro, who was friendly and obviously loved his work. I thought that perhaps he may have only come out to meet one of the people I was dining with, but then noticed that he stopped and talked to other patrons and even sat and chatted to some. I’m not sure if that is a usual experience, but it was very nice to see him take an interest in his patrons (unlike some other famous chef’s in their own establishments who found more interest in their iPhones).
The meal itself was an abundance of culinary excellence. We had the degustation menu and asked that the chef decide on what items we would have rather than specifying.
I was going to review each dish in detail, but I feel I would be doing the dishes and restaurant a disservice by attempting to. I can merely comment on some of the things that I loved.
— The unique and inventive way in which dishes have been carefully and meticulously arranged. The complementary flavours and professional presentation. Each different dish was different, amazing and perfect. I’ve often been slightly off put by the concept that fine dining means «lots of little dishes of weird food». This is definitely not the case, in fact I was excited for each new dish to appear.
— «Liquid nitrogen tomato ice», I have never eaten something so unique nor so flavourful. A staff member hurried over with a container filled with something in sub-​zero temperature and he explained that it was tomato ice. Carefully placed as a side dish, the rich tomato flavour was… amazing. How someone makes ice taste rich I don’t know.
— Basil & Watermelon palate cleanser. This second last course was intended to be just a palate cleanser, but in my opinion was one of the stars. Frozen basil gelato served on top of 5 mm cubes of ripe watermelon. In addition, crystalised white balsamic vinegar. This dish reminded me of a modern and fresh bruschetta. If that was intended to be the last meal before the dessert… it was a great finale.
Now, if I was forced to come up with some criticisms I would only have two;
1. I am not sure I could afford to eat here as often as I would like. Whilst I don’t think the prices are as astronomical as other venues in Sydney… I do know that I couldn’t come on a monthly basis. If I had the opportunity I would dine here frequently!
2. I found the «confit egg yolk — puffed grains — pecorino» to be oddly timed and slightly too rich for my tastes. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good dish, but it came out prior to our Lamb and the staff referred to the puffed grains as being akin to cereal. The richness of the Pecorino cheese and the egg yolk meant that those last few spoonfuls were a challenge.
SUMMARY:
I would highly HIGHLY recommend treating yourself (or a loved one) to a meal here and just sit back, let them serve their dishes and I promise you’ll walk away amazed. Compliments to the chef, and staff, and my tongue is still singing your praises.

I expected to have a wonderful evening but alas the service was awkward and mid range as was the food, I had the beef carpaccio as a starter and the organic lamb as a main. Starter was nice but the lamb was not. I know good lamb, sadly Ormeggio does not, at least not this night. Ridiculously chewy and an overall feeling that no love was taken in preparing the dish. I believe if the chef had tasted the lamb he would have removed it from the menu.
Perhaps the biggest issue I had was the way they dealt with one of my friends finding a 2.5cm shard of plastic in his dessert… He very politely informed them of his discovery and all they could so was say, oh. Thank you, ill inform the chef… and that was the last we heard of it!
Apology much?!!
Bottom line. They are charging too much and delivering too little, very disappointing.

I have been wanting to eat here since it opened and I was not disappointed. My gf and I selected the 4 course deg with the additional cheese platter (if you are a cheese fan ensure you get this).
The food was light and very well presented in particular the coconut egg for dessert which was made to resemble a split soft boiled egg with mango as the yolk.
My gf is gluten intolerant and unlike a lot of classy resteraunts they were more than happy to switch the linguine for the crab risotto which was probably the best course of the four — I do often find risotto underrated but this deserved its place on the menu. Furthermore without any further prompting the chef amended another dish to be gluten free also what a champion, the amount of times chefs change one course and forget the rest I’m surprised they aren’t goldfish — but not here.
What makes this place so good, the thing it has that no one else claiming fine dining does — real genuine and friendly staff. From the waitress to the manager and all in between this was somewhere that made you feel at home with friends — highly knowledgable food and wine friends.
Lastly the wine was wonderful and I recommend picking something Italian as they specialize in the Northern Region of Italy — little pricey per bottle $ 98 was one of the cheaper Nibbolio’s which is a grape variety you can read about in the front of the wine list referred to as a Pinot noir on steroids.
Overall what a great place with atmosphere — it is rare that something lives up to high expectations but Ormeggio really did exceed mine.
Thanks again guys.

Alessandro Pavoni left Brescia ten years ago and landed in Sydney. After working for other people he now owns his own restaurants: Ormeggio’ at ‘The Spit’ and Spiedo in Westfield in the city.
Alessandro’s menu is mostly northern Italian with a little bit of the south thrown in. The menu is full of Italian ingredients sourced directly from Italy: amongst them Geraldo di Nola rigatoni, carnaroli rice and faro, while the wines, which are mostly Italian, are a little more eclectic.
The most popular dish, a traditional Bresciano spiedo of chicken, rabbit, pork and quail is spit-​roasted for five hours and lovingly moistened with butter and sage. The aroma is divine and it is cooked inside the restaurant, the smell influencing many customers.
Pavoni has taught his sous chef to make Tuscan pici. The pasta is made fresh every day, hand rolled from a combination of wholemeal and plain white flour. The pici is combined with King Prawns, candied orange and smoked eggplant. The whole lot is topped by puttanesca breadcrumbs, a wonderful invention of breadcrumbs soaked in a traditional puttanesca sauce and then oven roasted.
The venison from New Zealand, which he says it is the best in the world goes to make his ‘Battuta di cervo in crosta di quinoa e amaranto, melograno e mostarda di castagne’ — creamy flesh of venison combined with a topping of amaranth, quinoa (pronounced keen-​wah) and mustard chestnuts.
Everybody loves desserts and Alessandro doesn’t disappoint. He has made the Milanese drink Babajada into a dessert by slowly cooking the chocolate and coffee cream in a small ring in the oven until it is set, and then he adds raspberries or raspberry sorbet and almond praline. For those who don’t do dessert and prefer cheese he offers a selection of Bagoss, Taleggio, La Tur and Verde di Capra.