New kid on Norton Street

Since moving to Leichhardt last August I have been trying to find a decent, reasonably priced Italian restaurant amongst the dozens that flank Norton and Marion streets. Easy enough, you would think, given Leichhardt’s reputation (deserved or not these days) for being the centre of Sydney’s Italian community. Not so. I don’t know why but the vast majority of restaurants in Leichhardt are dire. The best restaurant the suburb has to offer, the two-hatted Bistro Ortolan, is neither Italian nor reasonably enough priced to be more than an occasional treat.

Enter Aperitivo (163 Norton St, http://www.aperitivo.com.au/). This new kid on the block has only been open for a couple of weeks but already it’s drawing the Friday and Saturday night crowds (no doubt also desperate for a decent meal). The concept – small Tapas-style Mediterranean dishes to share – is a departure from Leichhardt’s usual pasta- ‘n’ pizza-heavy menus and so is the restaurant itself. With its funky décor and small wine bar vibe, Aperitivo wouldn’t look out of place in Surry Hills.

Arriving for dinner a little after 7.30pm on Friday, my friend Annabel and I quickly realised that we should have rustled up some more friends to accompany us. With 20 or so tempting “plates” to choose from and only two of us eating, we weren’t going to be able to try everything that caught our eye. Decisions, decisions.

First to arrive on the table was an aromatic dish of seared sea scallops, blue cheese polenta, porcini mushrooms and truffle oil. Without thinking too hard about it I’d been expecting a set polenta “cake” but instead the creamy white polenta that came out was gloriously soft and luscious, subtly laced with tangy blue cheese. Although undeniably rich, the marriage of the scallops, blue cheese, mushrooms and truffle oil in the dish worked beautifully. Thoughts of licking the plate were quickly squashed.

A fresh whitebait salad with fennel, olive oil and garlic was next up and worked almost like a palate cleanser after the rich polenta. I’d never had whitebait that wasn’t fried before but these little darlings were fleshy and succulent. Sensational.

The description of our next dish, a scampi flan [my emphasis] with sweet garlic sauce and crispy artichokes, was a little misleading. The delicately pink-hued “island” that arrived in a lake of garlicky sauce was more of a mousse than anything else. I would have liked this dish to have, if not some sort of pastry base, then at least a little more contrast between the textures of the scampi and the sauce. The crispy artichokes resembled, and unfortunately, tasted a little like, sticks.

Tossing up whether to order another savoury dish or share a dessert, we opted for the latter after seeing the sexy-looking numbers being delivered to the tables around us. Our choice? Whole roasted figs with goats cheese, ice cream and a spicy fig sauce. Accompanied by cream rather than ice cream and fresh figs in addition to the roasted figs, this dish was inspired and one I’ll be trying to recreate come summer when figs are more readily available (heaven knows where these were flow in from).

With the bill coming in at around $120 (which included a bottle of NZ Sauvignon Blanc), Aperitivo certainly fits my requirement of “reasonably priced” and even though the service is still a little raw (I’m sure they’ll improve once they’ve been open a little longer), it’s definitely better than “decent”. Overall, I’d say I’ve finally found the Leichhardt restaurant I’ve been looking for.