Cicerone ~ Cucina Romana — Restaurant in Sydney

Ordered the honey and garlic bread, carbonara with truffle, oxtail ragu, mortadella pizza, cacio e pepe fries, and tiramisu to share.

Terrific service, mixed thoughts on the food, and a few other factors that made for an average dining experience.

The honey and garlic bread was okay, had a nice, charred woodfire flavour complemented nicely by the sweet honey and savoury garlic, but the bread was maybe length of 10 cm and width of 3cm; in other words, tiny, with a hefty $12 price tag, which I found to be ridiculous.

As for the pasta, the carbonara was a highlight; traditional, rich and creamy, crispy guanciale, you can't go wrong. However again, portions was an issue; there was about a scoop of pasta on the plate, and a whopping $33 price tag with added truffle. And, as expected, you might have needed a microscope to see the truffle on the plate, as there was next to none.

As for the oxtail ragu, it did not have that deep, rich flavour that I was hoping for, and you could scarcely taste the somewhat earthy, unique oxtail flavour that is what makes oxtail so great. Overall, a disappointing dish. Again, this dish from memory was $34 for a scoop of pasta. I simply don't understand how the portions can be so small with such a high price tag, especially given that carbonara pasta in particular is not a dish that takes exceptional expertise or skill.

The cacio e pepe fries were how you would expect them to be. Okay, but again nothing special.

As for the mortadella pizza, this was by far the highlight. Fresh mortadella complimented nicely by a nutty, rich and creamy white sauce. Seriously loved it.

Lastly, the tiramisu was another highlight. Nice chunks of caramel, not too heavy of a coffee flavour, it was a good tiramisu I can't lie.

At the end, I also found out that I had been charged $9 for still table water, which was an incredible disappointment and just unheard of in any restaurant I've been to before.

Overall unfortunately, I can't say that I will come back. I want to further emphasise that I just can't understand in what universe it is acceptable to pay over $30 for average to decent pasta in a casual restaurant and to only receive a small scoop. This is definitely not what an Italian Nonna would do to her...

I would advise anyone with beloved pets, friends or honestly just basic human empathy to reconsider if this establishment is one which they want to give their money to.

Last month, I made a booking for myself and a friend to this restaurant. However, the day of the booking, my friend’s pet passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly. I tried to call the restaurant to cancel our reservation but as they didn’t open until 5pm, I couldn’t get through. And given the circumstances, I needed to be with my friend to support her that day and didn’t have the chance nor was it front of mind to call again after 5pm when the restaurant opened.

The next day my credit card was charged $80. I emailed the restaurant and explained the circumstances and the fact that I had tried to contact them and asked if they could refund the cancellation fee. Not only did they refuse to refund the cancellation fee, they have ignored subsequent emails I have sent asking if there is any other resolution possible (e.g. credit).

There was zero empathy in the response. It may seem like a small thing but having worked in the customer service industry, there wasn’t even any acknowledgement for the difficult circumstances, no “I’m sorry to hear that this happened, let me see what I can do for you”.

Restaurants are small businesses that deserve our support. And a big part of my preference for these businesses is that they still have the human element that is missing a lot of the times when dealing with large businesses. However this is not the case at Cicerone Cucina Romana. They had an opportunity to offer empathy and understanding to potential customers. We would have been more than happy to return on another day given the fact that we had been wanting to try this restaurant for a while. Instead, they made what was already a difficult day, especially for my friend, even worse.

We all face emergencies and personal . And when this happens, the social norm is to be understanding of these circumstances. But this isn’t the case for this establishment. So I encourage patrons to consider my experience when thinking about...

First impression, service not really good. The waitress rush you to order & she even keep coming back to my table twice. The last one, i said please give me 5 more minutes and she rolled her eyes.

I mean, this is my first time here. You not even ask or offer if we need any suggestions. If you do that, it will be easier for both of us maybe? (as most restaurants i go, whenever they look we take longer time to decide. They usually offered some recommendations)

And you know how difficult to book into your restaurant! It took 2-3 weeks reservations in advance. So i just want to make sure i choose the right food why people come here.

Ok, just back to the food as we here for food 👋🏻

• Fritto Mistico 4/5 Both calamari & prawns very crunchy and well seasoned. Love the combination of the espresso mayo! Balanced out the sourness of usual mayo. So you have lit bit bitterness in your mayo & unique taste note.

• Rigatoni alla zozzona 3.5/5 Pasta al dente. Love the guanciale & pork sausage texture so much. I have this kind of pasta in other restaurants but cicerone ones hit lit bit different because the crunchy texture of pork sausage. Sauce just normal, overall it’s nice but yeah just nothing too special.

• Tonnarelli cacio e pepe 3/5 I ordered this because i love cacio e pepe so much & read review that people said cicerone had one of the best in sydney. It’s too creamy for us as cacio e pepe itself already contains cheese inside. When we mixed everything together. It became super creamy. We can’t finished this one. Taste ok

• Fungi Pizza 4/5 Pizza big portion 👍 very thin & crispy loveeeee it!! Everything really balanced and well blend.

Personally, i think this restaurant is too overhyped. I mean from the service & the food comparing to the difficulty of reservation it just not that worth. If you havent try this restaurant maybe you can give it a try at least once.

Nothing too really...