There’s so much going on it’s difficult to know exactly where to start with Mullane’s Hotel, Momento Hospitality’s ambitious hub housed in the sprawling Central Plaza development across from the Norwest Boulevard Metro Station. For starters, there’s the big public bar on the ground floor, of course, as well as a café brewing Italian coffee and pressing spit-roasted porchetta jaffles, along with other housemade snacks. Then there’s an on-site craft distillery, specialising not just in small-batch vodka and gin, but in limoncello and other traditional liqueurs, too.
The beating heart of the operation, however, has to be Sarino’s – the 120-seat restaurant and bar up on level one. Refined plates from the open kitchen pay homage to Italian classics with occasional native twists. Expect the likes of ricotta, parmesan and buffalo mozzarella ravioli sauced in burnt sage butter or snapper fillet with marjoram pangrattato, while a roaring Josper grill is responsible for 1.2-kilo cuts of bistecca alla Fiorentina and John Dory finished with chestnut mushrooms and macadamia. A 200-strong label wine list has all your pairing needs covered, as does the aperitivo-inspired cocktail carte should you prefer something a little boozier (a Sunday Roast-inspired Negroni, perhaps?). If your pockets are deep, splurge on a big night out in one of the swanky private dining rooms, or on a bottle of rare single malt – they’ll keep it safely in your own private cabinet and bust it out with schmick glassware, mixers and nibbles whenever you rock up and say the word.