Rosa's Kitchen

I've been wanting to dine chez Rosa for a while and it seemed a great place for a girls catch up on a Friday night so at 8pm we gathered in the cosy dining room with a bottle of prosecco.

Admittedly service was a little slow and laboured initially but it was a full house and whilst we were hungry we also had a lot to catch up on so the stretched out timings weren't unbearable. As the night progressed though, that initial slow burn eased and we were treated with a warm and friendly charm and experienced some great hospitality.

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We ordered our entrees first to get then on the way and out to us to stave off those Friday evening munchies. And I am pleased to say they arrived promptly and did such as satisfying job of whetting the appetite for more.

We decided to dig in family style and shared:

• Large antipasto platter which actually consisted of two plates - one plate of salami and mortadella and a second plate of cracked wheat salad, fried ricotta, pickled fennel, olives, some potato cake things, roasted peppers and a basket of bread
• Grilled king prawns with a herby salad and roasted tomatoes
• Stuffed peppers with caponata and topped with parmesan

Beautifully rustic with hearty wholesome flavours everything tasted good and out tummies responded with joy and glee! It felt like we were in an Italian trattoria in the heart of the Umbrian countryside as opposed to down a Melbourne alleyway!

For our main courses we decided to continue to embrace the family style eating and went with:

• Zucchini fries dusted with rosemary
• Spaghetti alla Norma - Michelle declared she thought it would be a creamy white wine sauce and it turned out to be tomato sauce, grilled eggplant and grated Parmesan so way off the mark!
• Casarecce with rabbit ragu
• Spatchcook with red onion, pancetta and green beans

The zucchini fries arrived first and disappeared in moments! The pastas were so tasty and that delicious al dente that I so enjoy. I think my favourite was the rabbit ragu. The spatchcock was all golden and crispy skinned.

There was so much that we couldn't finish the spatchcock and left a little leg but that was with great reluctance. Every dish was just so flavoursome and there was a lot of exclamations of "yum" going round the table.

Although we were so full, the mere mention of ricotta filled cannoli and lemon and mascarpone tart had us contemplating a sweet finish and we ended up with the tart and three spoons. Michelle said she only wanted one spoonful but I saw her go in for more! That's how good it was!

And the evening rounded out with Frangelicos all round; actually several rounds of Frangelico.

The beauty of Rosa's Kitchen was that it feels intimate and cosy and warm without being overcrowded and being seated elbow to elbow with the table next door. There's a buzzy busy atmosphere without it being over noisy so that you have to shout to chat to your dining companions. It's just a great comforting place that is like home. My kind of place and I can't wait to go back again for more of Rosa's soul restoring goodness.

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