Rainy Days And Italian Feasts at Nico, Cammeray

June 18, 2024

121

Nico Cammeray is a new Italian restaurant at Cammeray Square from Chef Nicola Ronconi. He hails from near Veneto in Italy. His menu features house made pasta and must try dishes like a savoury cannoli or spaghetti with wild caught marron. Find out what else is a must order here!

Nicola Ronconi was formerly the Corporate Executive Chef of Fratelli Fresh and hails from Italy. He originally came to Australia with the idea to stay for 6 months. That was twelve years ago. Nico fell in love with the lifestyle in Sydney and Australia, “It’s a meritocracy, if you work hard you will do well. Whether you’re a billionaire or you work a humble job, at the end of the day, everyone can visit a gorgeous beach like Bondi and enjoy it for free…there are so many wonderful things here that everyone can appreciate.”

He grew up in Vicenza, nestled between Verona and Venice. “With my parents busy working most of the time, I often found myself eating deli food or frozen meals. My mum would prepare plain pasta the night before, so I could reheat it after school the next day. I remember experimenting with ingredients from the fridge to make the pasta taste better. That’s when my passion for cooking began,” he explains. His philosophy for cooking is ‘less is more’. “My gigli features friarielli, Italian sausage, and fermented chili – never more than five elements. Similarly, my scallop crudo comprises scallop, pickled fennel, and citrus,” says Nico.

Every time we go to Cammeray it’s raining. Maybe it’s just us, maybe it’s the crazy Sydney weather. But we are undaunted as we are excited for our meal at Nico. The restaurant is located at Cammeray Square so there’s free parking in the evening. The restaurant is warmly decked out and busy this rainy Thursday night.

We start with some home made focaccia, puffy and with a crisp base and rich with olive oil and a generous amount of salt on top. This comes with a delicious smoked butter.

When I saw the menu online I was hoping that the cannoli would be on it and I’m happy to see that it is. The cannoli shells are perfectly thin and filled with a lemony salmon mousse and flying fish roe with finely diced chives at each end. The key to this is the textures of the thin and crisp cannoli shell and the light and delicious salmon filling.

The raw scallops are sliced and served in a shell and it’s a fresh combination of flavours especially if you like ceviches or fresh flavours.

We also order the tiger prawn cigar that is wrapped in filo pastry with salsa rosa drizzled on top. It’s a tasty, crunchy snack to go with drinks.

If there’s one dish I urge you to order it’s the house-made spaghetti paired with Western Australian Donnybrook wild caught marron with a saffron prawn and crab bisque. They offer us the chilli oil which I recommend as it really makes this dish sing. It’s the sort of dish that you don’t want to share. I’d even suggest perhaps ordering one of these per person it’s that good.

We have to ask about our cocktails which haven’t appeared after a long time. We see another table ask for their bottle of wine. If there’s one aspect that they’re struggling with, it’s the service. Although very friendly, they perhaps need a bit more experience. For example, when you make eye contact they simply make eye contact back but don’t come over, you have to specifically call them over. But that’s an easy fix really in the grand scheme of things.

Another must order is the pork cotoletta that comes with the drizzles of spicy Calabrian chilli and capsicum sauce and comes already sliced. The free-range pork neck is juicy inside with a lovely tenderness to it and a crunchy golden shell. The Calabrian sauce, 24-month-aged Parmigiano Reggiano and a squeeze of lemon are all this wonderful cut of pork needs.

The radicchio is the perfect foil for the rich cotoletta. The radicchio has a light bitterness to it but this is tempered with a delicious balsamic and olive oil dressing as well as pomegranate arils and chives.

The lemon tiramisu has been on the menu since day 1 and I can see why. But Nico’s has a unique ingredient in it. “The breakthrough came when my parents-in-law introduced me to authentic Turkish homemade lemonade, which combined with limoncello makes the right balance to soak the ladyfingers,” he explains.

While we both love tiramisu, it’s the snickers dessert that unexpectedly steals both our heart. Mr NQN doesn’t even like chocolate and peanut butter together but there’s a tussle til the end of who finishes this off. It’s a chocolate mousse with peanut butter icecream, caramel and honeycomb and a crispy tuile on top. It’s a pitch perfect blend of flavours but still keeps it light at the end of the meal.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you share all of your dishes or are you not a sharer?