Restaurant Review: Cafe Sopra, Sydney

Inspired by a lovely review of Cafe Sopra in Waterloo by Pigged Out, I decided to pay it a visit on Saturday for lunch with my friends Dave and Ali.

Cafe Sopra is seemingly for those in know, being completely unsigned. But when you serve Italian food this good do you need to advertise? (For the record you have to walk to the back of Fratelli Fresh, walk past the demonstration kitchen and up the stairs.)

The cafe is in a bright open space, with high ceilings and large windows. Even though we are there just before midday it's very busy and with the crowds that arrived after us, we were happy to have arrived when we did.

I decided upon for the pea risotto. It was a large serving which came out on a shallow plate. A good texture and creamy without being too rich it tasted good. I was a bit surprised that there was no grated parmesan on the top and the waitress didn't offer any, but it turned out not to need any further accompaniments.

Ali ordered the carbonara which she graciously let me try. I learnt a couple of years ago that a authentic risotto doesn't contain cream, all of the richness comes from the egg yolks. This risotto didn't contain any cream as far as I could tell. It contained a very strong hit of garlic and a nice cut of lemon.

Dave choose the sea food orecchiette. I didn't taste the pasta, but it looked good. Dave cleaned his plate and reported that it had the same garlicy punch of the carbonara.

Pigged Out's review completely sold me on the banoffee pie, so there was only ever once dessert choice for me! As Dave and I mused while we were waiting for our puddings banoffee pie is a dangerous restaurant order because it is so easy to make an excellent version at home. So what was the verdict? Overall great, but my sister's version has a thinner biscuit base and more bananas which I prefer.

Ali ordered the rice pudding. I had a cheeky taste. The almost savoury rice pudding was a bit too much of a contrast for the palate from the banoffee pie to taste effectively. The interesting flavour for me was the cloves that came though having presumably infused the milk?

I haven't had much Italian food since arriving in Sydney and this was good Italian food. I don't think this will be my last visit to Cafe Sopra.