Situated at next to the lobby of the Ikon apartment building on Macleay St (the site of many failed restaurants, including twenty eleven) in Potts Point, comes a breath of fresh air to the neighbourhood. It’s definitely the fail-proof option for such a doomed space. Fratelli Fresh opens the second providore for all the precious people like ourselves who would prefer something a little closer to home than Dank St Waterloo. The restaurant, also named Cafe Sopra opened its doors yesterday during a heavy rainstorm, which was in fact, a blessing in disguise – they are adhereing to their no bookings policy. I got a table for two by the banquette (oh how I love the way they use that word) as soon as I closed my umbrella.

Where’s Wally? Barry MacDonald on the very right. Go Bazza.

We started off with our favorite aperitivo – Campari. I honestly cannot find another place in Sydney who serves $8.50 Negroni’s! I fell in love right away.

The tuna carparccio with shaved fennel and tapenade ($22) was absolutely divine. This was made with just one whole slice of fresh, raw tuna. The fennel were thin, delicate ribbons dressed with just the right amount of citrus and baby chives, and the tapenade gave the flavours an interesting italian character.

Cod Pate, poached egg, brioche, mussel dressing (S18) was very special as I haven’t tasted anything similar to this before. The cod pate had the same consistency of hummous, and against the sweet brioche it was an absolutely divine combination of sweet and savoury. The mussels added the extra layer of texture with thinly sliced spanish onion.

Farfalle with smoked chicken, leek and grain mustard ($18) was very creamy and heavy. It tasted sensational for the first few mouthfuls – the grain mustard really making the cream sauce. After a quarter of the way through, it became too rich for my palate.

Pork Belly with water spinach - oh need I say more. You should try the crackling on this (I know, bad cholesterol – I only had two bites of Chris’ plate, I promise!) – just heavenly. A must try!

Funnily enough, my favorite dish of the night was the side of rocket and parmesean ($6). Not a lot of restaurants toss the shaved parmesean right through, and the balsamic vinegar used was top quality from Modena. Every mouthful had the right amout of flavour – the sharpness of the parmesean, the acid sweetness of the balsamic, and such fresh baby rocket, straight from the markets. Yum.

The prices for each dish (and drinks!) were so reasonable – a very filling two course meal with alcohol for two people ended up less than $110. I will definitely make a repeat visit on another stormy night.

This is where they get you, after each meal, I cannot resist the temptations at the store… and I walked out with $37 worth of groceries. Yes, I resisted the $47 packets of Iberian Ham.

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