Having walked past the beautiful exteriors of balla on numerous occasions, we decided to book one of our pre-Christmas gatherings at Balla last year. Headed by chef Stefano Manfredi, Balla sets out to introduce their customers to a modern interpretation of the classic Osteria Milanese cuisine (where chef Manfredi comes from). The interiors are definitely modern (emphasised even more so with the provision of wine menus on iPads), and the space is open and expansive.
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| Modern interiors |
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| Complimentary bread basket |
The night starts of well with a complimentary bread basket filled with crusty white sourdough bread slices and rolls, and fluffy focaccia slices.
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| Strozzapreti with prawns |
All pasta at Balla is made in-house and daily so we knew we had to at least try some of the pasta dishes. We decided to choose both the strozzapreti and papperdelle pasta dishes. I found the texture of the strozzapreti overly chewy in comparison to the usual silky-smooth texture it has, but the subtly creamy prawn sauce was delicious.
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| Trenette al sugo di dentice |
Curly papperdelle pasta with tomato and snapper sauce, garlic and chilli. Definitely our favourite dish of the night. The snapper infused tomato based sauce was deliciously addictive, and the curly pasta with it's increased surface to volume ratio, was the perfect accompaniment to cling onto as much sauce as possible.
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| La tagliata Fiorentina |
The final dish we ordered for the night was the traditional wood-grilled 800g Florentine T-bone. The steak was cooked precisely to the medium-rare we ordered, with it being relatively crispy and charred on the outside whilst still pink on the inside. The steak was juicy and flavoursome, and goes well with the much needed side of sauteed seasonal greens.
Whilst the dessert menu looked tempting, we decided that we were too full to try anything substantial so we rolled ourselves to the nearby gelato messina.
Osteria Balla
Level G, Harbour Side
The Star, 80 Pyrmont St
Pyrmont NSW 2009
02 9567 9129
http://www.star.com.au
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