Zia Rina’s Cucina: 857 High Street, Armadale, 9500 2014
My score: 3.5/5
The smell was the first thing that struck me at Rina’s, a 10-month-old restaurant in a quiet clutch of antique and art emporiums. The opening gambit was a warm waft of garlic and bay leaves, lamb and love. Thus cosseted, I noticed the dark, timbered furnishings, gentle lighting, and a small open kitchen where cooking proceeded calmly. There are two dining areas, a front room which feels like a bistro and a rear parlour which is a little out of the way.
I visited for dinner, when Rina’s offers a set three-course menu of shared antipasti, two mains and two desserts. Dishes change nightly (‘That’s why I’m going grey,’ says Rina D’Alessandro, a long-time chef with a background in catering) but the repertoire is fresh and honest, with recipes created by feel rather than by rote. The antipasto always includes delicious, fully collapsed eggplant parmigiana and slippery, sweet roasted and marinated peppers. We also were given tiny fried school prawns, lovely shriveled black olives and crumbed arancini which maintained structural integrity without being tight cannonballs of starch, so often the failing of these risotto balls.
The mains roster has recently included spinach pappardelle and homemade sausage with pork livers but we had gnocchi and lamb. Oh, the gnocchi. I tasted potato not flour as they dissolved in my mouth, collapsing into their creamy mushroom sauce. I’d never stoop to declare that they were ‘gnocching on heaven’s door’ but if I would, they were. A braised lamb dish was good but less rapturous, becoming drier as the pan juices were sopped up. Pick of our desserts was a tiramisu that slumped on the plate in a precious alcoholic stupor.
I was already won over but I melted when Rina did a round of her restaurant, modest and hopeful, checking that all was well. Her service team is warm, winning and not entirely expert, better at memorising than extemporising on the food and wine. Enjoying yourself at a restaurant is so much about expectations. If you visit Rina’s for simple, heartfelt Italian food and good Italian wine at reasonable prices, I very much suspect that you will leave feeling hugged and happy, as I did.
Rina’s serves breakfast and lunch a la carte; popular dishes include the slow-cooked baked beans and smoked ham hock on parmesan polenta and piadini with lemon-roasted chicken and pesto mascarpone.
More set menus:
Moon Under Water, 211 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, 9417 7700
Andrew McConnell’s newest restaurant offers a prix fixe menu of five courses that changes weekly and costs $75.
Loam, 650 Andersons Road, Drysdale, 5251 1101
Make your way to the Bellarine Peninsula to eat at Loam where the always-interesting degustation menus are based on local and seasonal produce and served in one of country Victoria’s most appealing dining rooms.
Maha Bar and Grill, 21 Bond Street, Melbourne, 9629 5900
You don’t have to go for the soufra banquet menu at Shane Delia’s Middle Eastern restaurant but it’s a nice, easy (and filling) way to experience Maha’s range and hospitality.
First published in The Age, October 14, 2012
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