ADELAIDE Food: NEW Fugazzi Bar & Dining

Adelaide has always punched above its weight when it comes to food and dining.

This week saw the opening of Fugazzi on the old Rigoni’s site in Leigh Street. Rigoni’s had been there as long as I can remember – in fact 60-ish years!

Fugazzi comes to you from the people who brought us Nido in Hyde Park – Laura and Max Sharrad along with Simon Kardachi of Shobosho, Osteria Oggi and Press.

If you add Fino Vino and Orso, you have, in my opinion, nearly all the best restaurants in Adelaide. There’s Georges too – but that is almost as much of an institution as Rigoni’s was.

Anyway, I just wanted to say what a great experience we had at lunch there. And it was their opening week.

Thanks to all the staff who assisted the four of us to have a great dining experience. Janet (front of house & Manager) Oliver who is cute and demonstrated an immensely deep knowledge of wine – but then, he should, he’s the sommelier and our waitress – whose name, unfortunately, I didn’t catch.

It’s an impressive – and expensive fit-out. The cheese drawer is pretty amazing as is the wine cabinet around it. There are booths and a semi-private room, marble table tops, and a kind of ceiling skirt that helps dampen the sound.

We had the ‘Roman Vegemite’, whipped ricotta, ox tongue and wagyu bresaola, followed by pasta: the corzetti, Taglierini with swimmer crab, and the ravioli and the wood-fired roast cabbage which was all delicious.

Oh, and the toilets are worth a visit, with M/F private stalls, but a communal wash basin area.

And that name – derived from New York Italian slang ‘fugazi‘ which means ‘fake’ – or ‘not what it seems’, or sort of pretentious. A bold name for a restaurant, and one that belies its quality!