OTTO'S & CATALINA'S

We’ve heard about star treatment for radio and television personalities but even by Sydney’s starstruck standards this seemed slightly excessive.

According to a recent feature article in the Food and Wine section of that city’s Daily Telegraph the newest, hottest, “innest” restaurant at Woollomooloo’s Finger Wharf had gone overboard to keep John Laws happy.

Apparently at Otto’s the man with the golden tonsils and golden microphone flashed his gold Amex card so often that he not only had his favourite table it was kept reserved for him on a daily basis.

Now, Sir Hinchalot is not such a hypocrite that he’ll deny he knows people not too far removed from his closest circle of family and friends who get special treatment at certain eating establishments in Melbourne. Favourite tables always made available at the Flower Drum and Romeo’s and Lynch’s.

But the Laws treatment made him literally a legend in his own -and everybody else’s - lunchtime.

His favourite table right down the back is held for him every lunchtime and every dinner time until one of his minions calls to say it not required. Even then he is told who will be breaking bread on his pristine linen.

Mr Laws, we are told, often eats there six times a week because he has one of the new apartments built on the old finger wharf that pokes out into Sydney Harbour.

Armed with all this knowledge we headed there last Saturday night on a weekend visit to Sydney to attend a charity fund-raiser for victims of child abuse.

Would the great man be in residence? For whom would he be holding court? How close to his throne would our table be? Would we get Siberia near the kitchen door?

A good omen on arrival. Laws was not in residence. And we were ushered to HIS table. I felt a bit like Tony Beddison sneaking under somebody’s guard to dine at the Melbourne Club!

And that was just then first great experience. The food was fantastic. The service top class. The ambience as good as it gets.

The mood was set with a complimentary set of nibbles which included succulent raw oysters with plump salmon roe and a secret vinaigrette sauce plus some chunks of 12-year-old parmesan cheese and the thinnest, crispiest bread sticks that forced me off the no carbs diet for the night.

Three of us feasted at a table that formed a discreet island at the back of a packed and happy restaurant. Expensive sure but not outrageous with a good bottle of decanted Coonawarra red for fifty bucks.

The menu was not huge but very clever and very Italian. The main courses running from 29 to 35 bucks.

A white rocks veal t-bone with a puree of cannelloni beans ordered by one friend was delicious and devoured. Stripped to the bone. Sir Hinchalot went for organic chicken with green and yellow beans rolled in a pancetta and served in a tangy, almost oriental broth.

The other diner had one of the steak specials. Thin as a minute steak but real “melt in the mouth” stuff. With a simple rocket and pecorino cheese salad.

It all started to make sense of the menu quote from the gargantuan Luciano Pavarotti who said:

“One of the nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever one is doing and devote our attention to eating”

And that was even before the desserts came.

They only serve seven of them but they are among the best desserts you will find anywhere anytime.

Imagine poached pear in campari and grenadine. Or the Hinchalot pick: Vanilla bean gelato topped with expresso coffee and cocoa liqueur.

I tell you the Otto grotto is a real find. There used to an old song along the lines of “Otto drives me crazy so Otto’s gotto go”. Not in this case. Otto’s gotto STAY.

Which got me thinking about the last placed that John Laws anointed. That was Catalina’s -- also on the water but further around the harbour at Rose Bay. Another “ cost you an arm and a leg” place frequented by the glitterati. Laws, John Singleton, Lady McMahon, Susan Renouf. She was heading home from there, remember, when she left the scene of an accident.

We went back for a Sunday brunch. The place was still packed. But somehow it seemed to have changed. Without all the personalities it lacked personality. They still charged as much. How about $39 for barramundi with a couple of mussels? And $35 for a pork chop with good crackling and red cabbage with some apple?

They did serve a good sushi as they should. Their sushi chef has just been stolen from one of the best Japanese restaurants in Australia - Shiki at The Rocks in old Sydney.

A return visit to a place with fond memories was disappointing. Without the view Catalina’s is about as relevant as the old flying boats after which it gets its name.

A ten per cent surcharge for Sunday dining is also painful and resumptuous -- especially when brunch for two with one bottle of Penfold’s Kalimna pushed the bill well over two hundred dollars.

And another insidious thing, brought in at all the Double Bay ”Double Pay” bistros. Apart from charging you three dollars for bread - they charge a dollar a head surcharge on Saturdays and Sundays. Those Sydney hard movers will get you coming and going.