Fourth Village Providore — Restaurant in Sydney

Lunch at Fourth Village. Yesterday was our first visit back to Fourth Village since the pandemic. I was not expecting too much. I understand staffing issues in the hospitality industry, so I was prepared. The staff were excellent and attentive. We sat outside. Great venue, you could have been in a piazza anywhere in Italy. The food was excellent. I had the linguini with prawns and Balmain bugs in a prawn bisque sauce. Decadent. Moma mia. My wife had lamb cutlets—top quality, chunky and cooked to perfection. A glass of Nero D’avilo (always order this if it's on the wine list). One thing to observe when drinking Italian wine (or any European wine for that matter). It is not for quaffing. Take a sip whilst waiting for your meal, but only a sip. Wait until the food arrives. It takes on a different complexity. This is why they make wine - to drink with food. Just saying. We had to have desert, didn't we? Well, it’s Sunday. Breakout day. I had cannoli, my favourite. Delicious. My wife had the homemade tiramisu. I had to have a taste. The best tiramisu this side of the Mediterranean. Do not miss this. A point to add - it is huge. Maybe think about sharing. The cost? Reasonable for the ambience, quality of the food and level of service. It has been too long between lunches. We will be back soon. In passing it is a great place for a family get-together. Plenty of space for kids to play. Pet-friendly outside. A fabulous venue and a great Italian...

The food here without a doubt is fantastic, but today 24/03/2019 was one of the worst times I've ever had there, my family and i went there for lunch and we got there and ordered, (we were waiting for 2 more family members to get there so that's why we ordered early) we got our food and someone in my family brought their own food which was just a small salad because she was gluten free and didn't trust the restaurant to make anything that was gluten free because of all the flour floating around in the air, and i'm guessing it was the assistant manager who said she couldn't eat it in here and that she had to eat it outside and he was being genuinely being very nice about how he was saying it and how he was very sorry about it, but then the actual manager came down and was being very very disrespectful saying that he was gonna kick us all out if she didn't leave and after about 1 minute of him being there she got up and left and even when she was not there anymore he continued being very rude and had no empathy towards us at all, it felt like he was also trying to play the victim card in this situation, i said to him "just don't worry about it, its fine, lets just put this in the past and move on" and he continued to be very rude and disrespectful towards us even when she had left, in the end he did not apologies for what he did and seemed like he did not care for what he had just done,...

Fourth time there, with the three first experiences being decent, but not this last one. Arrived for dessert and coffee with my partner, the restaurant was at ~5% capacity and were told they normally only serve full courses at 1pm. Manager went in pretending he would check if there were no online bookings for that time, which is absurd since the place was basically empty. He came back and told us we could go in. While ordering, a rude waitress took our order with a rejection face, lips and eyes moving to the side.

At the end, I went to the counter to pay and the manager simply turned his back against me, a completely pathetic and childish behaviour. What do you get with that? Certainly not a full restaurant.

What did you do to the panettone? A messy liquorish vanilla sauce with some blueberries and chocolate sprinkled on top, probably made by a teenager in a rush. One simply does not put milk chocolate on top of a sweet sauce because the flavour gets nulled out. And one does not serve panettone without a pure milk-based side like mascarpone or butter.

Pizzas are ok but you can find better ones around Sydney. They use too much pecorino and parmesan on top which makes the whole deal quite salty.

Coffee is very decent.

Want alternatives? Check out Fratteli's Wood Fired Pizza in Cremorne for a relaxed place with an awesome seafood pasta or Il Perugino in Mosman for a fancier...