Vivaldi is a welcome and much needed addition to the dining scene in this area, surrounded by residential areas of Malabar and Little Bay, aswell as near the industrial areas around Port Botany. It is great to see this quality Italian restaurant pop up in the area. We visited for a group dining experience. Such is the service, we were welcomed like one of the family, as was eveyone dining there. The restaurant space is slightly industrial and quite large with high ceilings, but the center piece being the magnificent wood fired pizza oven. 

The chefs at Vivaldi are of Italian heritage with many years experience. There are plenty of classics on the menu, with all food made to order guaranteeing freshness. Fresh handmade pasta and woodfired pizza. For added excitement, there are weekly specials from diffent regions of Italy. They also have great Italian boutique beer and other beers on tap.

To start, we got a great garlic pizza straight out of the woodfired oven. Accompanying this with the antipasto, which is a must, containing an assortment of quality cured meat, including pickled anchovies(actually quite nice), house made marinated veg and cheese.

The woodfired pizzas then arrived at the table. A couple of masterpieces. The de avola is the hot pick, with hot sardinian salami with black ligurian olives, spanish onion and chilli. The Toscana is another classic topped with prosciutto, rocket and parmigiano reggiano.

Then the spaghetti di mare, with fresh seafood and house made pasta in tomato sauce. The housemade gnocchi, fresh cloud like pockets it a tasty tomato sauce.

The finale: a revelation, cannoli with a crisp pastry filled with creamy ricotta, mixed with candied orange. Originally made for a family birthday and luckily for us it is now on the menu.

A local gem with great food, the staff displaying the welcoming nature and hospitality the Italians are known for. Thanks to the guys at Ompty for the invite and the great company. As always great to dine with the talented Jason King from spooning Australia.

http://www.vivaldikitchen.com.au/