6 Russell Pl Melbourne,
VIC 3000
When dining out and having a great experience, the question is, will lightning strike twice? After a great night out at Sarti a few weeks ago, I was keen to return and now I can confirm, yes it does.
Sarti could be described as a sleeper restaurant. It is not really the first name that comes to mind when reeling off a list of must-dine restaurants in Melbourne, but yet it delivers well above a lot of the fashionable darlings.
For this visit we decided to pass the responsibility for the meal over to the kitchen to choose a menu for us. What was to follow was a magnificent lunch of modern unpretentious Italian food. The fritto misto of lightly battered and fried crab, zuchini, calamari & whitebait is perhaps the best deep fried food in Melbourne outside of Tempura Hajime.
Equally enjoyable is the salumi platter which lead to the highlight dish of the meal of perfectly cooked squid ink pasta garnished with blue swimmer crab, tomato and chilli. This type of cooking highlights italian done well and makes memories of Lygon strip a thing of the past.
Secondi and contorni of perfect medium rare beef with mash and kale accompanied by broccoli and roast potatoes finished the meal off magnificently. Nothing flashy, nothing overcomplicated, just perfectly executed cooking at its best.
Sadly the savoury courses left little room for desert, we did enjoy a couple of donuts with a homemade nutella. For those that have room to spare, the tiramasu is also highly recommended. The layered desert of textures and flavours puts the old school masrcapone monstrosities to shame. Well worth a trip for this alone.By now I think it is pretty clear, Sarti is an excellent restaurant and not too extravagant. Food was approximately $90 which for the quality, quantity and service is good value in Melbourne.
