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Ever since I saw Stefano de Pieri riding his trusty old pushbike around the Mildura district in A Gondola On The Murray, I have wanted to experience the culinary delights of his restaurant, Stefano’s. And this weekend, I finally did! As a fellow paesani, I felt a certain kinship with him as he visited Italian households that made their own salami, bread, or stuffed olives. I have never met the man personally, but I love his passion for both his heritage and his new home in Australia.

The restaurant itself is a real little gem. Tucked away in the cellar basement of the old Mildura Grand Hotel, it is a steep descent down a curved stairway to a cavernous entrance. It is a rather intimate space; closed-in, dark, exposed brick, lit only by a single lamp on each table. But it is perfect for that romantic dinner date that we should all experience at least once in our lives.

Service was tight, friendly and professional - although my one qualm was that one had to retain the cutlery between some of the courses (?!). But apart from that, everything flowed superbly.

Stefano’s operates as degustation only - five or six courses with the cheeky caveat “subject to the whim of the chef…”. As the menu is a surprise, picking a wine can be somewhat of a challenge. Therefore we went with the sommeliers wine match for each dish - which I think is their intention.

To whet the appetite we were given warm chewy little triangles of ciabatta rolls, olive oil, goats chevre and olives. The bread was seriously THE best restaurant bread I’ve had in quite some time - made onsite in their own bakery. We also spied it for sale later on at 27Deakin.

First course was an antipasto; thinly shaved prosciutto, salad of calamari, battered and deep fried zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and sweet juicy roma tomatoes. The calamari salad was a cold dish of thinly sliced calamari dressed in a mild olive oil, lemon and herbs. My first impression was that it needed more salt and lemon. But as I kept eating it, I realised how this would have perhaps obliterated the subtle sweetness of the calamari. The stuffed zucchini flowers were a work of art - a whole baton of baby zucchini with flower still attached, stuffed with a lemony/parmesany ricotta. It was battered and deep fried in a crisp yeasty batter that practically crunched on each mouthful. A light sprinkling of Murray River Pink Salt Flakes also added an extra crunch. The antipasto was matched with a 2005 Pra Soave Classico, a delightful little drop that was quite tropical and limey - a great partner for the citrus tones in the antipasto.

Our second dish was the char grilled quail with cos lettuce & tallegio and red capsicum. The quail is possibly the best I have ever eaten in my life. Spatchcocked and generously seasoned, the meat was pink and succulent and the skin crispy and smokey. It arrived with a crisp cos lettuce salad garnished with shavings of tallegio, and sweet roasted peppers licked with a glug of olive oil, the extra virgin kind. The plate was sprinkled with ruby red pomegranate arils, or seeds. The dish was matched with a 2004 Chanson Bourgogne Rouge, a pinot noir style that partnered really well with the sweetness of the quail and pomegranates.

Third dish was a fresh gnocchetti with asparagus and blue swimmer crab. The gnocchetti were little potato/herb slithers that I think were extruded through a bronze die as they had that rough artisnal look about them. The sauce was disgustingly good - flakes of blue swimmer crab, discs of asparagus and the gnochetti were coated in a nutty beurre noisette. It was matched with a 2005 Cullen Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, which was also a limey little number. It was a perfect partner to the crab.

The fourth, or main dish of the night, was slow roasted Loxton beef with turned potatoes, dutch carrots and green beans. The beef had been slow roasted at an extremely low temperature for about three hours, and was a lovely medium rare piece of fillet that was oh so tender. Some poor little apprentice chef probably sat in the galley hand turning (carving) the potatoes for days, but they did look lovely on the plate. This dish was matched with 2004 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Merlot, a rather smooth drop with good tannins and lots of berry flavour.

Our last course of the night was a caramel panna cotta with strawberries in Grand Marnier. This was the only dish that didn’t impress. The taste was marvellous - creamy, pure, light with an almost toffee caramel taste. But there was too much gelatine in the mix, and it had lost its necessary languid wobbliness. I was heartbroken. I so wanted the dessert to be as exemplary as the previous dishes. We didn’t go the matched wine for this course (an Iced Riesling), as were already quite sloshed after the rather generous serves of the other wines.

All in all though, the experience was just beautiful. Perfect company, wonderfully amazing food, fine service, and ambience in spades. Time to start planning a return visit :-).

Written by mellie on December 3rd, 2006 | Tags: mildura, restaurants | Category: Uncategorized |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL