lunch at lucio's

on a recent trip to sydney, we hit the ground running after arriving on the red eye. well, running to the best italian restaurant, that is! this little gem is tucked away in the most picturesque neighbourhood in paddington and it felt just like italy. ordinarily wouldn't have liked the kitsch decor, but in this particular setting it was all charm. lucio, the man himself, and his team of bona fide italians (sorry, i'm such a sucker for authenticity) were themselves on charm offensive, and within seconds they'd seated me, whisked my precious bag to safety on a pretentious bag hook and served a three hour meal in double-time, only because there was a harbour cruise to be on within two hours. props for their grace under pressure, not to mention mega efficiency!

absolutely adore the painting of the coquettish girl by the gate.

and then the onslaught began, not that i minded.

burrata con prosciutto di parma served with focaccia

it was my first taste of burrata and ohmyword i fell right in love. it's the lightest cheese i've tried, love the semi-solid texture but minus the overpowering headiness that comes with french cheese. it's delightfully un-overpowering, if that's even a word and matched with prosciutto it was heaven on a plate. i could eat mountains of it without tiring of its delicate, subtle taste.

gamberi & carciofi - salad of raw artichokes and grilled yamba bay prawns

ostriche naturale - sydney rock oysters from merimbula, new south wales

it sounds excessive in retrospect, but at lunch it seemed only naturale to have a dozen each.

fazzoletti neri al frutti di mare - black handkerchief pasta with cuttlefish, mussels, prawns & chilli;

pappardelle di zafferano con capesante - saffron pappardelle with queensland scallops & zucchini flowers

both pasta fresca fatta di casa, the magic words meaning fresh pasta made in their very own kitchen. don't leave home without it! the carbohydrate queen that i am was suitably satisfied by this out-of-this-world offering. not had anything like it before (handkerchief pasta? helloOO! where have you been all my life?)

scampi alla griglia - grilled scampi

again, fresh fresh fresh and a plateful each :)

now this pesce al sale (whole snapper baked in rock salt) was an absolute masterpiece. it's tetsuya-san's favourite dish at lucio's and one cannot go wrong following tetsuya-san because he is the authority on food. i could not believe my eyes when this baby rolled out of the kitchen. and then lucio personally unveiled it and plated it for us. the salt cast around the fish did not make it salty but instead let the fish be baked to sweet perfection. there was the slightest hint of the natural sweetness of the snapper and it was plated very artfully with some salsa to set off the natural juice of the flesh. the fish flaked at the slightest pressure and it melted in my mouth. dare i say, mama mia! was catapulted into outer space in sheer gastronomic glee. the rest of lunch got a little fuzzy after this...

and the joys of not having places to go or people to meet was that we got to stay on for dessert! stuffed as i was, another part of my tummy magically opened up for chocolate and prune pudding with chocolate sauce and chestnut ice cream and...

roasted pear with polenta cookie and gingerbread ice cream. mind you, i single-handedly finished both desserts. mine all mine :) i love new tastes! like who'd have thought of polenta cookie?! am a big fan of savoury polenta, especially when it's under a lamb shank sloooow cooked to perfection. but this polenta cookie was pretty darn awesome toO! and the gingerbread ice cream felt like christmas came early...

and as if this first lunch was not enough, we somehow found ourselves back there thrice for lunch in three days. much as i love new places and new experiences, even i knew lucio's was a good thing when i saw it. perfectly content, we went back the next two days and lucio served us completely different menu each time. don't know how he did it but that man is magic. by far the best italian i've ever had - nothing else compares, despite being in tuscany this summer, this was even better! it was so good that there was some serious banter about buying the restaurant (my host was a little bullish) but just before they could start negotiations, lucio threw his wife in to sweeten the deal and one look at her, we figured she was worth her weight in gold and too expensive for us casual connoisseurs.