16 July 2009

Pendolino: Italian, Strand Arcade, Sydney (15 July 2009)

Shop 100, Level 2, The Strand Arcade
412-414 George Street, Sydney 2000
http://www.pendolino.com.au


Escape the shopping crowds

Tucked high above the ground floor pedestrian traffic of the Strand Arcade is Pendolino's caffe and their more expensive restaurant inside. Arriving at 12.30 the caffe was already pretty much full and the fancy restaurant seemed to attract a steady stream of business crowd diners. The truffled chicken liver lasagne was recommended by a friend and was good and definitely was a 'substantial meal' as listed on the menu. The cotoletta alla milanese aka chicken schnitzel was nice as well with it's delicious crispy lettuce salad and shoestring fries although I always find it frustrating and difficult to cut my schnitzel when it's placed on top of the chips and there was no room on the plate to put it to one side. I can recommend the 2005 Strada del Bacco Sangiovese which went down smoothly on the palette. The restaurant looks like a great place to have a special lunch and here's the SMH Good Living review by Simon Thomsen back in May 2008.

Do you have a favourite Italian restaurant?

Vincisgrassi: Truffled chicken liver and Portobello mushroom lasagne $15

Cotoletta alla milanese: Fresh breadcrumb and parmesan-crusted chicken, salad leaves, lemon and shoestring fries $18

Caffe substantial meals menu

Caffe wine menu

Strand Arcade


Caffe

5 comments:

YaYa said...

Wow, I think I just found my next favourite Italian!

Bean Sprout's Cafe said...

The lasagne looks great ! I wanted to try their cafe but totally forget about it.. Hope I got chance to go soon.

Gummi Baby said...

Great blog! The Strand is not one of those places that you think of to go for fine dining so next time I'm in the city I'll definitely check this place out! I like the look of that parmesan crusted chicken and the chips! (Did I mention I'm a chip fan?) :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Simon - this post was so great I have to try Caffe Pendolino for myself - and then wrote about it on my blog! Evan gave a link to you original inspiring review - would love for you to check it out!

Simon Leong said...

hi yaya, i hope to try other dishes at this place one day. the more expensive restaurant dining area looks really nice.

hi bean sprout's cafe, it's an easy one to forget about when it's so well hidden from the shoppers.

hi gummi baby, your right. i think most people would think there's only retail boutique shops above the ground floor. i'm a huge chip fan too!

hi mylifemoreordinary, thanks for reading my blog and venturing out to try the schnitzel. glad you enjoyed it and thanks so much for adding my food blog link in your review :-)

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