Kneading Ruby — Restaurant in Wollongong City Council

Kneading Ruby is a funky cafe and pizza bar located in an unassuming ally in the centre of Wollongong. We had an early booking at 5pm and arrived about 10min early for our sitting. We mistakenly went into the only open door on the building which turned out to be a seperate bar. We were redirected to the correct entrance which was still closed right up to 5pm. Not sure if we were supposed to push open the doors but there were a few other diners also waiting outside. This wasn’t an issue but maybe having the doors open 5min before the sitting would be nice.

We were greeted by a super friendly maître d who showed our party of three to a table at the far end of the dining room. A nice spot which remained cozy even as the dining room quickly filled to capacity. The decor is well thought out and the vibe and atmosphere are upbeat and relaxed. The only advice I had from friends who had been previously is that the venue gets quite loud. I found this was true but not to the point of effecting our meal or comfort.

Once seated our waitress introduced herself. A huge shout out to Paris who looked after us for the whole evening. She could not have been friendlier or more knowledgeable about the menu and dishes. As a group of three we were not able to choose the tasking menus however Paris was able to curate a similar selection of dishes for us which was perfect for our first visit. Paris is a perfect example of how good customer service costs a business nothing but adds so much value to a dining experience!!

A round of drinks was quickly served with a lemon cocktail hitting the spot for the lady in our group and the gents enjoying the tap beer sourced locally from Mittagong.

Entree’s followed a short time later consisting of fresh oysters and beef tartare. The oysters are sourced from Merimbula and served fresh or with with a cirrus jelly. Both variants delicious and we quickly devoured the half dozen! The tartare was served on a gnocco fritto which is an Italian bread made with flour, water and lard. The beef was fresh and well seasoned but the fritto maybe didn’t quite work with this dish. Traditionally the fritto is served with a bold pairing such as cheese or salami. The tartare is very subtle and the fritto very dense which felt slight mismatched. Still very tasty and a great start to the meal.

Next to arrive at the table was polenta chips, grilled octopus and a rocket salad. The polenta chips were cooked perfectly. A crisp outer shell with a smooth and creamy centre. The Gorgonzola sauce is always a super match for this dish however this time I felt that it lacked that blue cheese bite. The grilled octopus was cooked perfectly. Tender and with the nduja sauce had some real kick. Nduja is a pork and chilli past and was a great pairing with the octopus. The rocket salad is a testament to how simple, high quality produce makes the best food. A simple salad with a beautiful lemon dressing and bold flavoured Parmesan; delicious!

The final round of dishes consisted of super comfort favourites of Cavatelli, rosted zucchini and the market fish. The eggless semolina cavatelli pasta was cooked al dente and had a simple but delicious pesto sauce. The roast zucchini was well prepared with a bold and delicious chilli, sunflower seed and ricotta salata. The stand out dish was the market fish. The Barramundi fillet was expertly prepared with a crispy skin that soaked up the cured butter and covered a delicate and refined fillet of juicy flesh! This is a dish I will return to enjoy over and over again!

By this stage our group was full bellied and satisfied however we decided to share the pavlova dessert. Compared to the rest of our meal it was slightly lack lustre and not very refined but I guess not an Italian restaurants signature dish so no hard feelings there 😜.

In conclusion Kneading Ruby has all the elements to a great dining experience. Enjoyable atmosphere, excellent customer service, delicious fresh food and all at a reasonable price....

(4.5 stars) You’ll find Kneading Ruby in a laneway warehouse conversion, sharing space with the steampunk-inspired Breakout bar. The 80-seater restaurant was jam-packed for Sunday lunch a good five years after opening, demonstrating that it continues to meet the needs of Wollongong locals. Cocktails cut new ground, with lemon building a bridge between Makers Mark and fresh strawberry pulp in the Strawberry Fix ($18), and aquafaba (a vegan-friendly egg white replacement) getting a foamy head onto Ms Ruby ($19). She’s made on local (North Wollongong) Seacliff vodka infused with jalapeño and balanced with passionfruit, sugar and lemon.

From the chalkboard menu, the star of the snacks is a quartet of crackers piled with white anchovy, grilled trevisio, cashew and buttermilk ($12). That said, Kneading Ruby’s garlic bread ($9.50) is a stroke of genius: a partially separated hot bread roll with silky confit garlic butter poured over it at the table. It’s so good, it prompted people at the next table to recommend we order it when we asked our waitress what to order. Team it with a Stone & Wood Cloud Catcher pale ale ($10.50) or a glass of the 2017 Parous Chardonnay ($10.50) from South Australia.

Raw kingfish ($22) has been “cooked” in acidity a bit too long for my liking, but the flavours the kitchen teamed it with were so interesting, I ate it with relish anyway. Dabs of persimmon purée and vanilla mascarpone are balanced on the plate with elderflower and jalapeño, still leaving a hole to taste the fish. Pipis ($22), switched out for clams with our permission, have a lively burst of chilli and enough ginger, butter and parsley to make the sauce compelling over the char/grilled bread. A winter blanco salad ($14) with cabbage, radish, fennel, leek, celery and burnt pepitas wants for some Pecorino to work on its own, but is a perfect fresh healthy foil to pizza. Bases here are thinner and lighter than the Neapolitan standard, eating well under pork and fennel sausage, cavolo nero, mozzarella and lashings of confit chilli sauce ($24). I’m going to come back to order my neighbour’s pork cotoletta ($30) served in a puddle of lemon butter and capers. After all, she was right about the...

What should have been a relaxing lunch for my wife and her friends after a very busy week in the hospital as frontline healthworkers , was made into an uncomfortable and upsetting experience.

There were issues from the beginning: being told that we were a party of more than 6 we HAD to have the set menu, to delay in having food delivered to table, to not being able to read the half rubbed out whiteboard menu and being told to download the menu on our phones. We had one person who was only present for an hour so wanted a drink and an appetiser but as was sitting at our table "should" be only having the set menu. Staff "made an exception" for her so she still could sit there?

The bill came and we noted that not only did they add GST- NOT LISTED ANYWHERE WE COULD SEE ON THE MENU THAT IT WOULD BE ADDED AT THE END, but then the waitress who took our cash to the register argued that we had given $120 less than what we had paid and was then asking for more money. There then became a scene in the restaurant and as opposed to balancing the till to discover their mistake (they were not letting us leave until it was sorted so could have done this in the time we waited) we were basically treated as liers as we were told we needed to pay the extra money. We were also charged for a person that we stated "May turn up later" as we requested a seat be saved for her but she would not be eating. They also have no signage to state they do not split bills and this was not communicated at the time of our booking.

Food was amazing so that would be our positive.

Overall a really disappointing lunch and experience and we will be letting everyone in our hospital know that no further work functions are to be...