Dinner @ Svago

Svago is a recently opened Italian restaurant in what used to be Baraka in High Street, Kew and what intrigued me when I first heard about it was that all the dishes are made to be shared - there's none of that entrée/main demarcation.

We order 3 of the small dishes to begin with


Svago Bruschetta plate - ocean trout with goat cheese, marinated mushrooms, mozzarella, tomato, basil & rocket pesto and cured tuna - an excellent assortment that offers exciting choices.




Baccalà Mantecato with potato foam and Parmigiano cylinder - the baccalà was as good as we'd had in Venice, though we shared it, we each could have happily eaten one all to ourselves.

Zeppole of Whitefish - whitefish fritters - though fried they retained no excess oil, light and fluffy and absolutely morish.


We are enjoying these dishes with an all too easy to drink 2004 Monte Antico Sangiovese blend

Next are 3 of the larger dishes



At the front to the left


porchetta - rolled and stuffed with herbs it comes sliced and served with grilled bread.

next to it on the right

are these fritters of pasta frittata - crumbed and fried, these golden cubes contain an interesting mix of pasta and vegetable.

and at the top

grilled scamorza cheese served with minty zucchini slices - a winning combination of smokey, chewy cheese.

There's no real issue of ordering more food as you go along so we opted from another two dishes - one from each section of the menu


to the left is a cured kingfish and the right, Neapolitan rice balls in a rich tomato concasse

We finished off with desserts:



rhum baba on left and an unusual looking cannolo on the right - both dishes were extremely light, the rhum baba had a cloud like consistency while the case of the cannolo was wafer thin.

We both left here with huge smiles on our faces - it is exceptional Italian food that doesn't rely on cliche. It's the type of food you would find in Italy and for a while you can pretend that you are - the only thing that is missing is a tv in the corner showing soccer. It's lovely to hear Italian spoken and Paalo always gets a kick from asking for "il conto."

I hope the locals realize that they have a gem in their backyards.

The details:
Svago
285-287 High Street, Kew

Phone: 9855 0505

Open:
Lunch: Thursday - Friday 12pm - 2.30pm

Dinner: Tuesday - Saturday 6pm - 11pm

web

www.svago.com.au