Zigolini's
107 Queen St. Woollahra, Sydney
02 9236 2337

There has been a revolution in Australians’ drinking habits in recent times – and I’m not talking about the dramatic decrease in the wine imbibing of the Hungry Hinch.

I’m talking about the revolution in the consumption of tea. Especially in restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne. It’s the biggest thing since the Boston Tea Party and some up-market restaurateurs, who should know better, have missed it.

It is no longer acceptable to offer patrons every sort of coffee imaginable from a skinny latte to a double espresso from a specific hillside in Papua New Guinea or a mountain range in Columbia. And, in the same breath offer tea drinkers English Breakfast, Earl Grey and Green Tea. All of it served in tea bags.

(Why you would drink a breakfast tea at 11 o’clock at night is beyond me).  I even went to the classy Lucio’s in Paddington recently and although the tea came in a tea pot it had the tell-tale string hanging out the top.

The ever-reliable Beppi’s – the Italian institution in Darlinghurst – serves a great, fresh, fruit tea but the best I came across on a recent nosebag visit to Sydney was at Zigolini’s in Woollahra.

They have a whole tea list. My favourite was called Petal. The ingredients:  Lemongrass, lavender, red clover, rose hop, rose petals, chamomile.

And they come from the tea house of herbal tea expert Penelope Sach. She runs her fascinating business out of a small upstairs tea shop in Queen Street, Woollahra. The tea comes in vacuum-shrunk plastic sleeves ( like you see advertised on TV to store bulky winter clothes) and can buy  an anti-oxidant berry tea for the heart, liquorice root tea for an acidic stomach and spearmint with calendula to clear your sinuses.

Obviously, despite this raving about tea we didn’t go to Zigolini’s for a beverage. My literary agent, Margaret Gee took me there and I loved the atmosphere. A small bistro that could have been in France or Italy with the walls covered in local art.

She had a baked barramundi fillet with a parsnip puree. The skin of the fillet was encouragingly crispy. I did look at the parsley and shallot spaghetti with king prawns, chilli and gremolata but finally went (yet again) for a seafood risotto.

This risotto del mare had a generous serving of clams and mussels and fish in a light tomato bisque. I was so impressed by the texture and the taste and the friendly service and the ambience that I took Mrs. Nosebag back there for lunch the following day.

I was in a “mollusc mood” and asked for extra mussels which dutifully came and they charged me no extra for them.

If I had been in sandwich mode I would have had a Bruschetta with smoked salmon, horse radish cream, rocket and a caper salsa.

Mrs. Nosebag, on my advice had the crispy skinned barramundi with tomato beurre blanc and a side order of steamed greens with olive oil, and almonds. She knocked back the parsnip puree because (as a vegetarian-fishatarian) she had the waiter check on what was in the stock. It was veal-based. I guess that’s a change from chicken. These days, there seems to be chicken stock in almost every dish to give it “hidden body” as they used to say about a famous shampoo.

For desserts they have biggies like a Belgian chocolate fondant, or a Persian date cream brulee, or  apple, rhubarb and strawberry crumble.

But they also have little lemon tarts and a Portuguese custard tart with a sweet pastry case. I went for the custard.

And then it was the tea smorgasbord and not a tea bag in sight. Zigolini’s may start with a Z but, in my two lunches there I gave it an A.

 July 25, 2006