Ristorante Tartufo, Fortitude Valley: restaurant review
Ristorante Tartufo
1000 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley
Phone: (07) 3852 1500
tartufo.com.au
Open: lunch, dinner daily
Food: Broadly Italian with a slight Neapolitan focus and a specific pizza section
Star rating: 4 stars
The Pitch: Right there in the foyer of Tartufo, piccolo slice of Napoli in the middle of Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, is one of the finest 1968 Vespa 150 Sprints you’re likely to see this side of Vesuvius. It’s black; it has all the right chrome-work; enamel “Piaggio” badges; the two separate seats. It’s highly collectable. It’s from a different decade but if this thing couldn’t bring out your inner Gregory Peck or Audrey Hepburn, you simply don’t have a Roman Holiday bone in your body. What’s fabulous about this little “wasp”, however, is that it is pretty much totally original, yet in excellent condition. Not gussied up, not a restored wreck, just a wonderful example of a scooter that has clearly been looked after very well since it came out of a factory in Pontedera, Tuscany, all those years ago. Excuse the rather long preamble, but fact is, the Vespa is a metaphor for the restaurant. Tartufo isn’t a restored classic; it’s an original, in excellent shape, just earning more and more respect.
The reality: In the Valley’s Emporium centre, where restaurateur Tony Percuoco built Tartufo from the shell of predecessor Belle Epoque, age is proving kind. When it opened five years ago, Tartufo’s mix of Pompeii-meets-Paris looked a bit try-hard but maturity has given the place character, an acquired elegance that, while obviously faux-Old Naples, is also rather charming. A Brisbane version of the Gran Caffe Gambrinus, perhaps. The long zinc bar is still there; so too the tiles, the monochrome images on the wall. The Ducati has been replaced with a Moto Guzzi. Most noticeably, the restaurant is now divided: wine bar and pizzeria — with its red-upholstered booths and plantation shutter dividing walls — to the right and dining room with white linen to the left.
The cuisine: Tartufo still casts the Italian net wide, as most Italian restaurants in Australia need to, with famous dishes from many regions, but for anyone who hasn’t visited in a while, the addition of a freestanding Neapolitan pizza oven, with its own discrete pizza section and Italian pizzaiolo at the front of the house, is the real change. So, on one side of the place you can have pizza and anything from the ristorante menu. And, of course, its wine list. The more “formal” — or structured — side of the place is a pizza-free zone. It’s a good model, particularly because Percuoco, possibly as a matter of Neapolitan “face” as much as chef pride, has set out to do pizza in an uncompromised manner. And as regular readers may know, we are great fans of Naples’ greatest culinary creation. Fast it may be, cheap it should never be considered.
Drinks: Unsurprisingly, the list focuses on Italian varietals, both Old World and New. It’s a proper, accessible collection, at fair prices.
Highlights: Staff. One of the great things about all the European staff in Australian restaurants these days is professionalism and lack of “it’s about me” attitude. And food. Everything we tried at lunch at Tartufo was seriously excellent. The vitello tonnato is layered with quality poached meat and all the usual suspects (including tiny capers from Pantelleria) with a delicious tuna mayo and lots of black pepper. Outstanding. Pizza is the real deal: slow-proven dough, crisp yet chewy, slightly charred from quick, high-temp cooking. And the choices are smart, not novelty. Salsiccia e Friarielli, for example, includes a base of broccoli leaf pesto, fior di latte, tiny pine nuts and crumbled pork sausage with lots of pepper. It’s like being on the Via Chiaia. And, having endured a few try-hard panna cotta attempts over the past year, what a pleasure to find possibly the finest example of this dessert I’ve ever enjoyed. The texture, the vanilla/honey flavour, the delicacy of a cream set with seemingly no agent … It wobbled under a gentle breath. Oh my.
Lowlights: I’ve never been a fan of the Neville Brothers. More attention to the music would be a good thing.
Will I need a food dictionary?: Perhaps. There’s a pleasing but unaffected authenticity to Tartufo’s Italian-ness we liked a lot. That extends to the Italian waitstaff who talk to the food well.
The damage: Very fair. Excellent value for money, actually.
The last word: Trying hard and kicking goals. I’ll be back.
Source: The Australian, John Lethlean, 9th January 2016
