Food Porn Nation

Uccello is tucked away on Level 4 of the Ivy and overlooks the Ivy Pool, which I find weird as I have never really seen this with my very own eyes in broad daylight. Think Pacha. It’s a great spot if you are wanting to make the most of the great sunny weather and make use of a city slicking roof top pool. You can eat, eat, eat and let it all hang out. Minus the itsy bitsy teeny weeny.

Headed up by David Lovett, the menu promises an authentic Italian experience, with a less is more approach. It focusing on good quality produce and it shows. The seafood is incredibly fresh, the pasta is hand-made and flavours are subtle yet tasty enough to make each and every dish truly sing.

The highlight of meal, apart from eating all this gorgeous food was seeing Karl Stefanovic in the flesh. I have a massive man crush on him! You really have to love a man that can make you LOL in the morning when you have your cranky pants on and panda eyes are in full swing!

To graze, the crumbed and fried pork stuffed olives ($8) were an instant hit. Deliciously hot, salty with a lovely little crunch on the outset. The oysters were fantastic, creamy and fresh ($3.50 each). So gorgeous it really only needed the lemon – no need for the white balsamic. The red raw prawns ($16) were simply delicious and relied on the subtlety of the lemon, parsley and olive oil dressing to enhance it’s inherent flavours. But at $16, I would like to see more.

The raw beef, truffle & parmesan crostini ($18) was piled with a delicious texture of melt in your mouth chunks of beef balanced lovely with the nuttiness and saltiness of the parmesan. The sourdough had a wonderful texture of crunch and chewiness with hints of smokiness from the charred grill. There was no mistaken the presence of truffle, as you could even catch wafts of it from other diners.

The chargrilled prawns ($26) were lovely and smokey but slightly overcooked and became chewy. The simple addition of oregano and lemon was a lovely addition. Again, I would like to see more prawns at that price tag.

The tagliatelle bolognese ($23) is bellissimo. It’s rich, saucy with beautiful ribbons of hand made pasta. It is so homely and comforting they’ve most likely hijacked some nonna to whip this up. The spaghetti ($27) with clams was a light alternative and also gets my vote. However, it is the spaghetti puttanesca ($21) that really soars. It is colourful, rich, tangy and boasts wonderful flavours. A dish I have myself marked for my return and has myself questioning, “Can vegetarian really taste this good?”

The T Bone comes in at a whopping 900 grams and a price tag of $70, I couldn’t seriously go without a taste. “So Mike, can I please have a taste?” It was probably one of the best steaks I have had in a long while. It’s juicy, melt in your mouth and cooked perfectly which is something I always get nervous about when you spend that kind of money. That awkward moment of hating your steak and having to send it back! No awkwardness here… just pure gratification.

If you’re after something traditional. Go for the Tiramisu ($14). There are some bad ones out there but this I definitely rate. The profiteroles ($16) were an absolute favourite. Delivering on flavour and texture. What you see here is a profiterole covered in white chocolate sauce, crumbled caramel praline and hazelnuts. Oh god… could you imagine? Normally I don’t like white chocolate, nor even nuts for that matter. But this was absolutely mouthwatering that I was soon begging for more.

The service is friendly, food is reasonably priced and delicious. Although the seafood options seemed very pricey when compared to the portion sizes. But there was no doubting the freshness and quality of the seafood. I also love the setting during the day, even though it was personally hard to get past the fact that this was also the venue for a raging pacha night lol. Nonetheless, I highly recommend Uccello for a great Italian and seafood feed.