Opera Dining at Crows Nest

I went to Opera Dining on coupon from LivingSocial for $49 for a three course meal for two people with a shared entree, individual mains and individual desserts (good because I’m certainly not sharing my dessert!)

My first observation of the restaurant was that it was almost empty (with only 2 other tables) and pretty bleak for a Saturday night. The restaurant was in need of a serious makeover and decor upgrade and to be honest, reminded me of the type of restaurants that you see on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. There were candles on the table which were never lit for us, and the evening really could have used that extra ambience. The evening also would have benefited from a bit of heat, as the door never closed fully, so the outside chill made its way into the dining room.

Thankfully, the food was a step up from the ambience. It didn’t start strong though with the salt and pepper squid entree (below). It’s been awhile since I’ve had salt and pepper squid that was so far from crispy and well, they just didn’t taste all that fresh.

The mains were decent, though not very pretty. I had the angel hair pasta with lamb ragu. The ragu itself was delicious and flavoursome. The angel hair pasta was a little overcooked and a bit too soft for my liking but they were incredibly generous with the amount of pasta on the plate. My partner had the lamb shank with braised vegetables on mash which was also flavoursome and generous in serving size. The lamb was tender and moist.

 

The desserts were pretty good though – but hey, I’m a dessert lover so I’m not very picky. We had the sticky date pudding and something called the ‘chocolate avalanche’ which was a rich chocolate pudding. Warm and very comforting desserts.

Details: Opera Dining, 344 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest NSW 2065