Criniti’s: Italian Cuisine, Down Under!

If you’re staying near Sydney’s Darling Harbour, odds are, you are going to have access to an excellent array of fine dining with an even finer view of the Sydney skyline, minus the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.  But views aside, there are a plethora excellent restaurants ranging from rather cheap, to “empty your wallets!”, along with a variety of tastes to satisfy anyone’s palette.

One such place inside the Harbourside Mall is Criniti’s, an Italian restaurant offering a full menu of some of the best Italian eats, served more than halfway around the world from the boot-shaped country, itself!  When I stepped inside this rather noisy and dimly lit eatery, I was hesitant to say the least.  I didn’t want to walk into an Australian version of The Olive Garden (although that would be more authentic!); I had never had good Italian food in Australia before.  But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you should never judge a book by its cover!

The menu was filled with a variety of pasta dishes that ran the gamut from “authentica” to nouveau Italiano.  Knowing I didn’t want to over think it, I ordered a beef tortellini in a cream sauce, mixed with onions, pancetta, parsley, and topped with parmasean.  In just a few minutes, I are the whole dish clean!  Not a single shred of parm was leftover!

A few nights later, I returned with a hankering for something a little more traditional: an order of meatballs with a personal-size lasagna.  The sauce was smooth; almost borderline creamy, like a creamy tomato soup.  Not to mention every bite had chunks of rich meat in almost every bite!  And with its personal-tin size makes it fun to eat, and too good to share!  A great recommendation!

For desert, I had the creme brulee, garnished with fresh berries and a super-thin cookie with powdered sugar.  And nothing finishes off a four-star meal quite like creme brulee!  I don’t know what it is about  eating creme brulee for desert in a fancy restaurant that always puts a smile on my face?  Maybe its the fact that I’m on vacation, and I say, “bring on the brulee!”  Mangia, Australia!