Otto Ristorante
Area 8 Woolloomooloo Wharf
Sydney
02 9368 7488

It’s a nice touch when a menu says: ‘Boat berth available. Booking essential’. But that’s the sort of place Otto is. Sticking out into the harbour on Cowper Wharf. As one observer noted, Otto is the place to see the 'in' people whether it be media moguls, film stars, politicians or the latest bankrupt.

Dennis Hopper, k.d.Lang, Bill Clinton, Tom Cruise, Sam Neill. Jacki Weaver (as the ex-husband, I was there with her). Singer LeAnn Rimes reportedly lunched there five days in a row and had the same meal every day:  chicken pappardelle in a tomato sauce with green olives.

Recently John Singleton was dining there with former football star Benny Elias while Singo’s beauteous former wife, Julie, was next door at Kingsley’s Steak House with actress Kate Fitzpatrick and a socialite who almost made a career out of being  a friend of Princess Diana’s,  Marie Sutton.

As I mentioned in a recent travel article on hinch.net Otto is one of the great waterside venues for Sydney dining. And I lunched there on two successive clear-skied Sydney days recently. Both times with Sydneysiders who love that string of wharf restaurants at the ‘Loo. 

The first time, with the indefatigable radio star Bob Rogers, was with a smidgeon of trepidation because the previous year a similar lunch had been rudely and crudely interrupted by an over-imbibed, reptilean, former radio heavyweight, John Laws.

He had launched himself from Otto  -- his daily watering hole – and lurched up the wharf to Salon Blanc to inform us (in earshot of all other outdoor diners) that we were ‘a pair of despicable c—ts’. And the sun was barely over the yardarm.

That scene of the crime has gone the way of many seemingly prosperous and impervious nosheries in Sydney and Melbourne these days so I opted instead for Otto where the maitre ‘d assured me I was safe from another resonant spray because ‘Mr. Laws hasn’t booked in until tonight’.

My Otto experiences came as a new eating regimen got into full swing. Eating only entrées even as mains and  favouring raw seafood:  tuna, salmon, kingfish, ocean trout in sashimi and carpaccio. Plus dishes like the multiple mushroom risotto served perfectly at Bistro Guillaume in Melbourneand a summer favourite, stuffed zucchini flowers.

In Sydney I had faultless and generous serves of dark tuna sashimi at Catalina in Rose Bay and Pink Salt (a constant and consistent Sydney favourite in Double Bay.

At Otto they got me in a good mood from the ‘get-go’ as they say with a terrific ‘horse radishy’ Virgin Mary (or Bloody Shame) and the best, crunchy-crusted olive bread. I’m one of those people who judges restaurants by their bread. In many places I won’t eat the bland, almost supermarket-style, rolls they find cheap and convenient.

The bread here rated alongside Guillaume, Neil Perry’s (in both Sydney and Melbourne and the Fawkner in South Yarra. And so did the ocean trout carpaccio special.

Selfishly (or shellfishly) I was surprised that they only served Sydney Rock oysters. I thought they’d at least have some Coffin Bay or Streaky Bay from South Australia or some of the new exotic and top class New South Wales varieties.

But they did have one superb dish which fitted into my entrée strategy and I ordered it both days. To give it the full Italian treatment – because Otto Ristorante is a serious, and seriously good, Italian restaurant(with seriously high wine prices) the dish was Fiori di zucchini ripieni baccala con gamberi.

That’s zucchini flowers stuffed with creamed salt cod served with caper berries and a couple of Spencer Gulf prawns. A great summer lunch dish, sitting at an outside table, listening to the breeze in the boat riggings and watching it ruffle the short skirts of the lithesome females passing by.

There’s plenty of big (to me, heavy) meat on the menu if you are a serious carnivore. The pork cutlet is a 300 gram beauty served with beetroot jam, horseradish and caramelized walnuts. That’s what Mr. Rogers demolished. Plus there’s a choice of duck, steak, a Wagyu carpaccio and a rack of lamb.

And if, while dining downstairs, you glance up at the mezzanine and see a bunch of the Beautiful People having a private party then don’t despair. You can reserve it too if you guarantee a minimum spend of $25,000 – plus a 9% service fee.

My dear old Grandma used to use the expression ‘pop to the loo’. She meant to ‘spend a penny’. You need a lot of pennies to contemplate popping to this ‘Loo.

February 6, 2009