Date night, last night, was a collab with Farina 00 in Northcote. The gorgeous venue is located a bit out of the busy High St strip, which means that people adventure out specifically to go to the restaurant instead of wandering in off the street.
The owners are super friendly and it was great to be able to sit at the front of the restaurant and watch the pizzas being made. It was torture while we were waiting for our meals as every pizza that came out of the oven looked phenomenal.
We started our meal with two glasses of wine and one of the special menu items - polenta fries. They were deliciously crispy on the outside and warm and gooey on the inside. They came served with aioli and rocket and they were ace paired with the aioli. They would have tasted a bit bland with out a dipping sauce.
We had seen their pizza bowls on Instagram and were very keen to try them, so we both ordered one with a different gnocchi in each. The pizza bowls are a small pizza base, shaped like a bowl, with passata sauce and cheese down the bottom, so you can eat your bowl after you've finished your pasta. Priced under $30, it felt like we were getting 2 meals for the price of 1!
I was keen to try the carbonara, but I ordered the ricotta gnocchi with burnt butter and sage instead. The flavours in this dish were very subtle, but I was glad to have a simpler sauce so that I could demolish my pizza bowl afterwards. The gnocchi was cooked beautifully and were surprisingly large pieces.
My date ordered the gnocchi ragu and said the meat was cooked very well. The sauce was a bit sweet, but it was nice to have something to dip the pizza in to afterwards. He tried mine and said he had FOMO. I offered to swap, but he said it was fine and finished the whole thing - so it must have tasted alright haha.
During our meal, lots of customers came through the door and were greeted by name, showing that the owners go out of their way to remember their loyal customers and their orders. The sense of belonging at Farina 00 is lovely and I would definitely be a regular if I lived in the area. Thanks for having us, team :)
