La Rosa The Strand

Date night has rolled around again. Last week we visited the Milan Cricket Club, a British-inspired pop-up at La Rosa The Strand. Savvy restaurateur, Nino Zoccali, has snaffled the talented Old Fitzroy darling, Nic Hill, for a short term stint that turns his Italian restaurant into a British-Italian steakhouse. Think posh pub nosh, like an upmarket Scotch egg ($12) dragged through Oxford sauce, and hand cut raw beef on dripping toast ($26). We opted to throw in oysters ($6/each) kept thematic with a stout vinegar dressing, and tender, grilled beef tongue ($24) made more punchy by not-quite-enough anchovy, and share a t-bone. Rest assured fillet steak eaters, there’s no difficult to handle bones to content with. Our 400g Rose Mallee British breed beef ($65) came sliced from the bone, with all its juicy pink glory on display. The marrow bone is filled with a tangy horseradish cremé that complements the tender and flavoursome beef and glazed Yorkshire pud. (if you need more than one, they’re a four buck add-on). You’ll definitely need pleasantly oil-free hand-cut chips and béarnaise ($12). We were steered off the side salad in favour of the spring vegetable vinaigrette ($18) entree, littered with the season’s bounty of baby zucchini, sugar snaps and radishes. It’s a punishingly tart dressing—as you’ll find out if you put an onion into your mouth—that’s probably better suited to the start of your evening when libations from the circulating gin trolley are there to ease the pain. While I understand the Aussie focus, some dry English gins chosen to suit the British theming would have seen me indulge in a martini. Service is attentive, and the fame of the chef has seen the usual La Rosa crowd give way to groups of younger men (my guess is chefs keen to keep an eye on what Hill is cooking next).

Elegant without pretense. Fine Italian fare served in leisurely but timely manner. The tall and lean waiter (seemed senior) was extremely well versed, kind and patient. We dined there at lunch with a kid present. I took one star off because the blonde waiter just asked us to wait further and was not hurrying to find out what's going on as my friend's daughter cried silently for something that could be solved immediately with a waiter's help. Thankfully the senior waiter rescued the situation and was extra kind and attentive to our table. Food's really top notch. My friend who's a Sydney resident already planned to come back.