Dolcissimo

To coincide with having two visitors to our home, we organised to have dinner at Dolcissimo in the Italian suburb of Haberfield. Having expanded since the last time I visited last year, they now occupy three shop spaces and also have seating available upstairs.

We had to wait for a bit despite having made a booking earlier. Standing there looking at the dessert made me feel hungrier as time passed.

Famous for their cuisine and equally notorious service, we were ushered upstairs and were shown to a table situated directly above the clay pizza oven. Wah, the heat was... hm... and we thought the table they gave us was not big enough to accommodate the six of us. Luckily, the waiter serving us was alert enough to notice that and had us changed to a bigger space towards the back of the shop.

We started off with a basket of crunchy and herbalicious garlic bread...

There was a short wait for the food, as well, so we savoured the wine that Justin and gang bought on their Hunter Valley expedition. Verdict - nice! Xin Wen was slightly drunk, I reckon, as she was extra chirpy, extra talkative, extra crazy. Haha!

She ordered the Risotto Alla Pescatora and it had the most fancy look. Or at least to me, it did due to the lobster bits sticking out...

Arborio rice and fresh seafood cooked in white wine, extra virgin olive oil with garlic and parsley, this had a light taste, compared to the other fancy-looking dish, the Spaghetti Marinara, which Justin ordered. With an assortment of fresh seafood in a tomato, garlic, white wine, extra virgin olive oil & parsley sauce, we've had that before and yes, it is DA BOMB! Anyone who patrons this eatery MUST try this dish!

The photo does not do it justice because it was already gorged into. The pretty photo of this dish did not get saved because yours truly here clumsily dropped her camera on the floor!

Lucas, our guest from KL, ordered the Spaghetti Aglio E Olio Con Gamberi, which is home-made long pasta cooked with prawns and a touch of baby spinach sauteed in extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley and chilli.

Gosh, there were so many prawns! I especially liked how the parsley and chilli made it smell inviting.

Audrey and I ordered the Risotto Con Pollo E Funghi, which is Arborio rice cooked with tender chicken breast fillet pieces, mushrooms, shallots, extra virgin olive oil, garlic and parsley. Yes, when you see the word 'funghi' in the name of the dish, expect plenty of it...

Amazingly, despite my love for risotto, I could not finish my meal! The starchiness of the pasta was a little too much for me to stomach, literally. Xin Wen and Justin managed to get me to finish all the chicken and mushroom in it, though. Hahaha....

The only non-pasta dish ordered was Alex's...

It is called the Petto Di Pollo Alla Boscaiola and it is supposed to be a chicken dish consisting of chicken breast fillets, bacon pieces, spring onion, mushrooms in a creamy tomato sauce but look at the amount of vegetables it had!

We girls had to help him finish the vegetables!

The next time I visit this place again, I seriously need to make it a point to try their gelato. After all, they claim to be home to Australia's finest gelato.