Fontana — Restaurant in Sydney

In a space that's held some good cooking over the years, this place punches well enough, without delivering knock-out blows , before dessert goes the full Tyson. The room is really lovely, and the service works well. The early and middle acts are good, but unevenly so. Yep, the garlic bread hits hard. Fab roasted garlic puree squirts joyously from its cave; a substantial risk to your best shirt. As lovely as the ricotta is, i don't really see a role for it, in what is a 1 man play. The seafood salad is solid enough, too, with cracking prawns starring. The next course is swings and mostly misses. The spaghetti with anchovy "meatballs" is full of great elements. However, the spaghetti is cooked aussie style, overcooked for Italian purists, suvh as your confused euro-nowhere reviewer. The fettuccine suffers an even greater fate of too much time in the bath, and the sauce lacks the dimensions of a complex bianca ragu...fennel, and some great white wine reduction is my tip for repair here. The salad is dynamite. Terrific leaves with lovely pickled veg, scattered within a wonderful dressing. The gratinee leaves me as flat as a 3rd round knock-out. Love corn, love gratinee, but the combination is as misplaced as a pig in Haldon St. The desserts rescue the 3*, rocketing up the rankings. Easily the best stracciatelle gelato ever..yep, better than rivareno. The polenta almond cookie belies its ordinary appearance to leap onto the front stage. The peculiarly able-to-be-piped zabaglione may be short on the egg and marsala flavours; sits as erect as meringue (which classic zabaglione only dreams of doing), but combines with its bed of caramelised orange like passionfruit on a pav'. Worth your visit if...

The location is great, the setting is very simple but nicely arranged and illuminated.

Unfortunately we found Fontana to be a bit of an over-hyped, over-priced option, mostly leveraging the cool location and exoticism of the stripped-down Italian menu.

We found the menu a bit too limited in options, the recipes too simple, the execution a bit inconsistent, and the price too high.

There is nothing wrong with a simple Italian menu, as long as the execution is impeccable, the ingredients of the highest quality, and price is reasonable. Unfortunately I did not find this to be the case here.

The mackerel toast looked lovely but was very small and lacked flavour. The mozzarella in carrozza was quite nice, but very small, and being a limited dish in its nature ( it is just a a pretty looking fried mozzarella), it was nothing to write home about.

The white ragu pasta was nicely flavoured, but again a little too simple for the price. Unfortunately the pasta was a little overcooked, which is definitely not ok in any pasta dish, but particularly in such a simple recipe.

We had the Peposo as a main, as they had run out of the only other main (baccala'), and this was maybe the highlight. An interesting, well executed and tasty meat course. Unfortunately the meat was a bit fat and there was not much of it, really.

The wine list was lovely but pricey, and I found the serves to be below average in terms of quantity, when compared to other restaurants in the same range.

We wanted to like this place but unfortunately it didnt happen. It definitely has shown potential but last night we found the menu choice and dish execution a tad underwhelming, especially at this...

4.5/5 - An incredibly delicious restaurant! It feels like a rare find to discover such good food in Sydney. The upstairs dining area is very cozy, and the staff are almost all women, which makes us feel very safe. They’re super friendly, making the whole experience very relaxing.

The first dish, a combination of mozzarella, beetroot, and kale, was refreshing and not greasy at all. The garlic bread recommended by the staff was also amazing, with a rich garlic sauce inside. Another entree, veal slices with anchovies, was a first-time try for me—savory and appetizing, and it paired well with bread. The most surprising dish for me was the fennel. I never imagined such a simple ingredient could taste this good—sweet, tender, and not greasy at all. I loved it.

In comparison to the other three dishes, the pasta was a bit underwhelming. While the seasoning was decent, I wasn’t a fan of the prawn‘s texture. That’s not really the chef’s fault, though—it might just be an issue with Australian seafood in general. We actually ordered the zucchini flower as well, but the staff forgot to place the order. Coincidentally, we were already full, so we didn’t bother mentioning it.

Overall, the food was fantastic, and the service was excellent—friendly, non-intrusive, and not pushy at all. Apart from the slightly less impressive pasta, this is still an...