Edit: CLOSED

Hi guys. If I said to you ‘hey what do you think about eating in an old liquor shop drive thru?’ You’d probably think I was nuts hey? Buuut that’s exactly what I’m about to tell ya! Pinbone’s Mike Eggert and Jemma Whiteman (with Berri Eggert at front of house) are back with Mr Liquor’s Dirty Italian Disco, a 6 month popup at the Tennyson Hotel in Mascot.

If you’ve ever been the type who prefers looking at labels of wines rather than staring blankly at a menu listing names, you’ll love it here. Check out the shelves stacked full of wines or have a sticky beak walk in the walk in fridge which is festooned with a giant shiny disco ball.

We start with the Chicken liver parfait ($15) which is wondrously creamy, rich and a pleasing shade of baby pink. It’s a perfect balance of salty and sweet with the caramelised onions and the finely chopped chives. Interestingly the parfait doesn’t come with bread ($5) so we order 2 serves for the table which also comes with a tub of the most delicious whipped butter.

The kitchen sends out the ‘Ndjua ($8) on the house and we gleefully schmear the spicy salami spread onto wodges of warm bread.

The Beef tongue ($16) with a rubble of porcini and tomato is ridiculously soft. Almost… eerily so. For some reason I’ve always been creeped out by tongue, I’m generally fine with most other organs (except… eyeballs)

The Gnocchetti with braised lamb and rosemary ($24) is a must order! I savoured each curl of the ridged gnochetti with mouthfuls of tender lamb against the crunch of the fried bread crumbs. I’m pretty sure I can quite easily have eaten this bowl by myself haha I shall return to test this theory.

The Pappardelle with green vegetable ragu ($23) is a wonder, the ribbons of pasta are silky and perfect against the bright green sauce which according to LTL is a mix of spinach, Cavolo nero, parsley and basil.

While the Porchetta with charred scallion ($28) sadly does not have the envisioned edge of crackle, it brings a smile to Eric’s face who exclaims it tastes just like Christmas ham! And it does! It’s beautifully tender, slightly smoky and a sweetness from the honey and maple syrup that hits all the right boxes.

The 1kg rib-eye ($100) is a beauty! Look at all that meeeeat! The rib eye is a perfect medium rare with a beautiful edge of creamy fat. It’s got a great smoky flavour and Noods takes great delight at gnawing away at the bone. It’s served with bowls of spicy romesco, horseradish cream and mustard and while we’re not too sure what to make of the hunk of parmesan we stab away at the cheese, whittling it down to mere crumbs.

Greenery! The menu said the Woodfired asparagus with pistachio ($11) was meant to come with taleggio sauce but I’m not sure we got much of it but anywhos I loved the fat raisins!

The White beans ($10) with paper thin slices of crisp zucchini and pangrattato crumbs are a hit with the table. There was just something so comforting about this dish!

And then onto desserts, one of everything please! The Strawberry swirl soft serve with peanut brittle ($8) has us reminiscing about Macca’s strawberry sundae haha we kinda wish we had some fries to dip into it 😛

The Hazelnut tiramisu ($11) is everything I’d hoped and more. I’ve been having way too many substandard tiramisu’s lately but Pinbone nails it. Layers of creamy mascarpone, ladyfinger sponge biscuits and a slick of rich hazelnut paste on the bottom meant we scraped the bowl clean.

Mr Italian’s Dirty Italian Disco by Pinbone
Tennyson Hotel Bottle Shop
952 Botany Road, Mascot, Sydney
Enter the bottle shop via High Street

Trading hours (kitchen closes one hour before closing time)
Wednesday – Friday: 6pm – 12am
Saturday: 6pm – 12am
Sunday: 12pm – 10pm

On my last day of funemployment, Raff and I decided to check out Juan – Bowl and Rice. Originally our plan for the day was for a light snack followed by ice cream and hitting up a bunch of bakeries but one look at the menu and we knew we’d be ordering as much as humanly possible!

Juan offers a tea pairing with each rice bowl but because Raff and I were sharing a whole bunch of stuff I opt for the Hojicha by itself. Side note, how beautiful is the tea cup?! Each bowl, plate and even the wallpaper is so perfect for this space!

The Tonkatsu bowl ($21) blew my mind. I’m normally not the biggest fan of this classic Japanese dish but man this completely changed me! At first all I was interested in was the buttery, glossy omelette draped over the rice and then almost as an afterthought I popped the smallest piece in my mouth and woah. Just woah. The panko batter was golden, crispy and surprisingly not the least bit oily. And the pork!  Oh that juicy bangalow pork! So tender and with a delicious edge of creamy fat! So fricken good!

The presentation of the Wagyu rice bowl ($22) was not quite as I expected, I think I was imagining thickly cut slices of beef? But the 2hr slow cooked Wagyu was still pretty damn tasty especially after stabbing the onsen egg and letting the golden river flow onto the garlic butter rice buried underneath.

I absolutely beamed with happiness at the sight of the blanket of buttery omelette over the Unagi hitsumabushi ($21). I freaking love eggs you guys!

Carefully break through and you’ll be rewarded by the sight of generous amounts of tender, grilled unagi eel buried like treasure within the rice along with slivers of okra. There’s also a lil pot of hojicha dashi to pour in but I honestly felt it didn’t need it.

Feast!

Aaaand for dessert we couldn’t resist the Sakura matcha tiramisu ($9), cutely presented in a sake box. It was the perfect end to a great meal, the tiramisu creamy but not too rich and just the right amount of sweetness to balance the bitterness of the matcha.

Update: Don’t even try to visit without making a booking!

Juan – Bowl and Tea
94A Pitt St,
Redfern

Trading Hours:
Wed – Sun: 12pm – 3pm
Tue – Sat: 6pm – 9.30pm