I had a dinner date with L last Wednesday and used a voucher I bought months ago for Maretti Caffe Cuccina. I have never been to Mosman Park (shocking) but the restaurant was very easy to find, just off Stirling Highway. Somehow I had the impression that this is a fine dining restaurant but when I walked in it felt like I was in a renovated warehouse. The lights were dim and were certainly not the romantic kind of dim lights which felt eerie.
We were served by a very friendly waitress but it was almost impossible to understand what she was saying. We really couldn’t decipher what accent she had. With that fine dining expectation I had, I was really disappointed to see that our waitress was reading the voucher course off the back of the order sheet. With the voucher we got to choose between a meat or a fish course. This again was a disappointment because we had the impression (from the voucher) that we could order anything from the menu so long as it was 1 entree, 1 pasta, 1 main and 1 dessert. We were also told that we both had to have to same course. Er, how hard would it be to cook the other course if they offered it? L and I always share our dishes when we go out to eat so this was clearly disappointing. Since we couldn’t understand what kind of fish was being served we opted to go for the meat course. We started of with an entree called panzerotti.
Maretti Caffe Cuccina: panzerotti
Without reading the menu I couldn’t tell what I was eating with this dish. It was bland and there was no one taste that stood out. On my way out I took a take away menu and found out that it was fried pizza crust with mozzarella and tomatoes inside served with a tomato sauce dip on the side. The pizza crust was too thick; not enough mozzarella or tomatoes; and the sauce was very bland with a hint of chilli. Definitely not something I would order again.
Next up was a small plate of fettucini amatriciana and I mean really small. Overlooking the size, this was one good pasta. Unlike the tomato sauce of the entree, the sauce for the pasta was very tasty and rich. Fettucini was al dente and the pancetta and bacon added a lovely flavour to the dish.
Maretti Caffe Cuccina: fettucini amatriciana
Then the meat dish was served. A sirloin steak with porcini sauce chunky mashed potatoes. I only wished that the steak came in a bigger piece. Cooked to medium doneness, it was very tender with the sauce just salty enough. There was only 1 porcini mushroom stalk in the whole dish too. L gave me her 1 stalk so I had 2 stalks. Score. The mashed potatoes were very good, too, except it was too soft and couldn’t hold its shape.
Maretti Caffe Cuccina: steak and mash
In between all the chatting and the wine, L and I both agree that the best part was dessert – chocolate mousse!
Maretti Caffe Cuccina: chocolate mousse
It was heaven in a tiny cup (but which holds a lot more mousse than I expected). It was chocolate-y and very light. The white chocolate bits on top added a nice texture to it. It did not taste like those type of dessert that has been sitting in the fridge for quite a while. This did taste like it was freshly made.
As we were leaving the staff asked us if everything went ok and asked if we would consider coming back. Our response was yes (a little bit of a lie because I’m a torn between the shock of the serving size and wanting to try the non-voucher dishes) so she gave us a discount voucher for our next visit.
My rating: 6.5/10
