14.7.12

Confessions of a shopaholic

Sneaker Heel!
Socks: Gorman
Shoes: Wittner 

You know you have a shopping addiction when you go to the shopping centre to buy groceries for travelling overseas and you leave with a new pair of heels. Classic me! I just couldn't resist. They were too amazing to not get my hands on for another month! Sport luxe heels. So perfect! 

Dinner with DM


Tonight I had dinner at Popolo, a new Italian restaurant in Rushcutters Bay. It was a lovely experience! I booked more than a week in advance but I could only get a 5:15pm seating or a 9:15pm seating. It was an easy choice for me as I am a nanna, 5:15pm booking it was! They take bookings for half the restaurant and the other half is left for walk-ins. They have three sittings per night. At least they take bookings (unlike so many other restaurants in Sydney). Surprisingly when we arrived the restaurant was already more than half full. That is a good sign for just after 5pm! 

Top Left: Gamberoni ($22)

Popolo is located in the middle of several expensive car dealerships. It spills onto the pavement at the front and is very open. The decor is slick, lots of dark, clean tones. The bar is located in the centre of the restaurant and a wall of wine bottles in a large rack separates the kitchen from the dining area. You can see the chefs busily working away through the bottles. Popolo seats about 100 people. We were greeted by our lovely Italian/German waiter Mauritzio. He explained what was on the menu and asked us if we had any questions and then left us to decide. 


The menu was divided into five sections: antipasto, primi, pizza, secondi and contorni. We started with a bread basket, wood fired king prawns and olives. I also had a glass of unfiltered Italian white wine. It was light had a citrus-like taste, quite limey. I enjoyed it! The highlights of my meal were definitely the king prawns which were individually dished out. We received two halves each which were split vertically, head to tail. They were perfectly cooked (although GJ thought they were slightly undercooked), were very fresh and combined with capers, rocket and lemon, extremely light. The three varieties of large pale green, medium sized dark green and small black olives came in a cute jar and our waiter explained what each type of olive was and where it was sourced. 

Left: Popolo unfiltered white wine ($7)
Right: Limoncello ($10)


Top Right: Bread Basket
Bottom Right: Pickled Olives 


For our mains GJ and DM both had the "Schiaffoni" which is basilicata style, large penne with white rabbit ragu. We had read that this was one of their specialty dishes. GJ and DM were most impressed. The portions were very decent. The pasta was hand made and perfectly al dante. The rabbit was moist. Lovely combination. KJ had the "Quaglie" which are skewered quails with spicy chicory. The large skewer of quail came on a bed of sautéed spinach. The only thing about eating quail is you want to eat all of the meat so you end up picking it up with your hands! I had the "Pesce", snapper fillet with herb infused crust. It came on roasted eggplant and was topped with baked cherry tomatoes. It was lovely and light! We shared two servings of "cavolo nero", tuscan cabbage, pine nuts and sultanas. We probably didn't need two servings! It was tasty but it was more sautéed spinach than cabbage! Pizzas kept arriving at tables next to us and they looked delicious. Thin but bubbly bases with generous, fresh toppings with minimal cheese. It was unanimous that next time we would definitely order a pizza!  

Top Left: Schiaffoni ($22)
Top Right: Quaglie ($29)
Bottom Left: Tuscan cabbage, pine nuts and sultanas ($9)
Bottom Right: Pesce ($30)

There were only three dessert options on the menu and none of them really tickled our fancy (although I am sure they were all delicious) so we just opted for coffees and some limoncello to finish off our meal. 


Top Left: DM with Schiaffoni ($22)
Top Right: Latte ($3) and Limoncello ($10)
Bottom: Gamberoni ($22)

Overall, it was a lovely Italian meal. It was not Western Italian and we did not leave feeling bloated and overly full. We did not have carb overload! The food was fresh, light and very tasty. It was also quite reasonably priced. The staff were also extremely personable. When we were leaving a line had started to develop outside the front door. I can definitely see why "Popolo" is the talk of the town of late. 

Popolo
50 McLachlan Avenue
Rushcutters Bay NSW 2011

Overall: 8.5/10
Ambience: 8/10
Food: 8.5/10
Drink: 8/10





Popolo on Urbanspoon

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