Fratelli Fresh, Walsh Bay

Fratelli Fresh is an old favourite of mine. I have been a regular at both the Alexandria and Bridge St, CBD restaurants, so I snapped at a recent Dimmi special at their Walsh Bay restaurant for 50% off the $49 set menu.

When we arrived on Friday evening, the place was absolutely buzzing and the waiter explained to us that it would soon clear out as a lot of the guests were crossing the road to a performance at either the Sydney Theatre Company or the Sydney Dance Company. This explained why we were able to book the special from 7:30pm only.

The $49 set menu was ridiculously huge. This was really surprising to me as Fratelli Fresh has been private equity owned (by Quadrant Private Equity) since 2016 so I had expected rationalisation – clearly this hadn’t extended to portion sizes. I’m a fan of value meals but this meal just felt ridiculous. Tell you what, it was hard work walking to Circular Quay post dinner…

For entrees, we were served a platter with stuffed zucchini flowers, a prosciutto and rockmelon salad with buffalo mozzarella and basil, and bruschetta. I loved this platter! The zucchini flowers were so crispy on the outside and with five cheeses stuffed inside, it was a nice warm start to the meal. The bruschetta bread was a little average but the tomato mix on top was refreshing with the right amount of garlic and red onion. The salad with the rockmelon was a little odd for me (I don’t like mixing items I see as savoury with desserts) though the prosciutto was definitely quality.

However, the platter was not the only entree. And I knew we were in trouble in terms of getting full on the entrees alone when I realised there was also a pizza stand on our table. And so out came a whole rosemary focaccia served with an olive oil dip. I can’t express how much I loved this focaccia. I love bread generally speaking, but this was like a really nice pizza dough, crispy on the bottom with rosemary sprinkled throughout. We ended up only having a slice each to save room for our mains and taking the rest of it home in a doggy bag (or a doggy pizza box!)

For the mains, we could each choose either a pasta or a pizza. I’m so glad we both opted for a pasta, given the focaccia from the entree. I chose the lamb ragu penne (left below) which was one of my all-time favourite dishes from other Fratelli Fresh restaurants. I don’t know if it was because I was already full from the entrees this time or because I was in a different Fratelli Fresh, but the ragu sauce just didn’t taste as deep in flavour as I was used to. Don’t get me wrong, it was still nice, but I would have loved a bit more of the sauce and a little bit more rosemary and a little bit more salt (a rare complaint from me as I am usually a bland eater). My dining companion had the prawn linguine which I enjoyed much more than the lamb ragu. There was a generous amount of prawns, and the linguine was cooked perfectly al dente with a really light olive oil, lemon, chilli and garlic sauce. Nice!

For the dessert, we could each choose an item off the menu. With two available choices (gelato and banofee tart), we had both. The banofee tart is another Fratelli Fresh favourite of mine. So simple – a tart pastry crust, a layer of caramel, a layer of banana and then cream. A perfect dessert.

Details: Fratelli Fresh Walsh Bay, 8/16 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay NSW 2000