There’s lots of things to love about Chiosco by Ormeggio, the casual sibling found right next door to the award-winning Ormeggio. The first and obvious one is the views – the Italian restaurant is literally right on the water at The Spit (you need to walk through d’Albora Marina to reach it). And those shiny, nearly-as-good-as-a-holiday harbour vistas also don’t come with the usual Sydney waterfront price tag. In fact, there’s a good-value six-course set menu for $79 per person, which we will be back for. Then there’s the food cooked by chefs that belong to the Ormeggio team, so they’re fluent in Italian flavours.
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Take the mozzarella salad, which comes with heirloom tomatoes, sweet rockmelon and torn basil; or the fresh ocean trout with zesty citrus segments, fennel and pink pepper; and fried calamari with lemon mayonnaise. Planes, shmanes – these plates will take you from Mosman to Capri in just a few blissful mouthfuls.
You’ll have to order Chiosco’s signature vitello tonnato, which comes with thinly sliced rosy veal underneath a creamy and salty tuna sauce and crisp fried capers. Throw in a bowl or two of al dente pasta, or perhaps grilled prawns or bistecca with rosemary oil, and a bottle of a crisp white and that’s lunch done well.
We also love that Chiosco is the kind of place you can go to with swimmers underneath your shorts, where service comes with a big smile and lots of “ciao!”s and you really do forget about the time. And, it’s BYO (plus corkage).
If it’s been a while between visits - or if you’ve never been before - add Chiosco by Ormeggio to your summertime hit list. It’s bellissimo.
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