Andiamo, Jervois Road

After much searching on dineout and many phone calls to fully booked restaurants, we finally decided to go to Andiamo last night. They did warn us that the only available tables they had were outside, but knowing that we went prepared - me with my trusty pashmina and Simon with icebreaker merino wool. :)

So they seated us under a very pleasing heater, side by side so that neither of us was sitting in the wind and it was actually very pleasant! Especially once they filled up a bit in side - it was clearly quite noisy in there, while we had our own private dining room, and a fabulous vantage point for watching passer-by.

What we ate:
Entree

• Jane - Veal Sweetbreads with chorizo and beurre blanc - really nice, beautiful chorizo
• Simon - Grilled marinated Lamb Fillet on a salad of vine-ripened tomatoes,
  goats cheese, pickled garlic and roquette leaves.lovely smokey flavour

Main

• Jane - Oven roasted crisp Pork Belly served on a Polish red cabbage choucroute
  with mashed kumara and crackling.- this was lovely, an appropriate serving size (which is always important with pork belly), lovely crackling and mash, wasn't quite so fussed on the red cabbage
• Simon - Confit of duck, toulouse sausage, white bean cassoulet - something different for Simon to order, but he was really pleased with this.

Dessert

• Jane - Pannacotta of Valrhona chocolate served with poached seasonal
  fruit and Mascarpone- this was quite divine! A very smooth, thick pannacotta, not too sweet.
• Simon - Lemon mousse on sablé with mint coulis, stone fruit compote and
  passionfruit Sorbet.. Oh my word! Its not often that we rave about desserts, in fact more often than not we find them a bit of an anti-climax to an otherwise lovely meal. But this was to die for! We'd go back just for this dessert! The Lemon mousse was so light and deliciously lemony, the passionfruit sorbet packed full of flavour. Fantastic!

What we drank

• Jane - Dr Loosen Reisling - lovely and citrusy - this was a recommendation from the sommelier to have with the pork. Quite a bit of residual sugar, and definitely a good match. Lovely.
• Simon - Menhir Primitivo Quota 29, from Puglia, Italy. Absolutely beautiful, served at the perfect temperature and had a very warm nose to it - which followed through into the palate as well. Also a recommendation from the sommelier
• Coffees - not so good, but still drinkable (unlike the ones we had at Chevalier point in the morning). I expect their brunch coffees are better, and we don't tend to judge a restaurant on the quality of their coffees at an evening meal.

The Decor and Atmosphere

As noted above, we were outside, and it was quite perfect.

Service

Fantastic! Excellent attention to detail, fabulously knowledgable sommelier. Despite being the only people sitting outside, we were really well looked after, with only one slightly longer wait when we were ready to place our dessert order - by which time inside was absolutely packed.

Price

We paid just over $150 for 3 courses, a wine each and coffees. For the quality and overall experience, this was good value for money.

Overall Impression

Lovely restaurant, we'd most definitely go back.