We've got a lot of one-of-a-kind, funky restaurants in Sydney. Everything from a bar inside a barber shop, hot pot with robots that spray refreshing water on you and a ramen shop where they only make a set number of bowls a day. As a foodie I love the variety we have and there is a never-ending supply of new restaurants opening to explore.
Mr. Liquor's Dirty Italian Disco
This was a pop-up I was made aware of and once we visited, we were HOOKED. Not just because it happened to be 5 mins from where we lived but the quality of the food was amazing, the choice of music (90s RNB) was even better and the decor was so casual and cool!
It's built at the back of a pub/bar where they usually store all the alcohol, but after the sun goes down they pull up the roller shutter doors, bring out the tables and chairs and pump the music up, turn the lights down and disco balls are hung!
This review is from when I visited the last two times (yes I went twice in two weeks...they closed on Sunday as they were only meant to be a pop-up so I had to make sure I went as many times as possible!!).
Diving into the menu and starters!
The menu is super simple. There are starters that are either cured meats, cheese or other snacking items that you can get stuck into within a few minutes of sitting down.
I saw most people order the bruschetta combinations but, trying to cut back on our yeast-intake we went for the chicken liver parfait (with my friend eating the side of bread, which was smelling insanely good!).
We also tried some calamari served with Italian rice. This sounds boring but actually the calamari was cooked beautifully and the rice had tons of flavour.
We also tried the porchetta served with charred pineapple. This wasn't bad, the porchetta was really high quality and tasted good but it was a bit like 'eating loads of ham' as my husband pointed out - which he thought was a bit of a rip off!
The main event....PASTA!
First up is the fettucine in a tomato butter sauce. Yes. This was every bit as delicious as its name implies. I absolutely LOVE pastas that have crunchy croutons in it and this pasta didn't disappoint in croutons or flavour!
We also ordered the gnochetti with braised lamb and rosemary. The gnochetti was cooked absolutely perfectly al dente and there was a great depth of flavour to the lamb.
Their pastas were definitely the highlight of the meal everytime we went. 10/10.
We also ordered this side of polenta, corn and chervil. Sounds weird but was strangely delicious. I love polenta!
Is there room for dessert?
What a preposterous question, of course there is room! We started with their home-made soft serve flavour of cookies 'n' cream
Next up was the homemade tiramisu served in a bowl - the serving was HUGE. I don't usually like tiramisu as I don't drink coffee but this was actually wonderfully light.
Closing Thoughts
I already miss this place and it hasn't even been a week =(. Even though we have some great Italian restaurants in Sydney (I'm a snob I know but I only eat at places that make their own pasta), it was great to have one practically in my backyard that had an amazingly cool, chill vibe as well.
Good news? They're actually opening up another pop-up in the same location shortly!! Stay tuned for what cuisine that one is!
Let me know what you guys think and if you have something like this in your city!
P.S. We got sat at table #24 which is my bday and lucky number!
P.P.S. SORRY for the terribly grainy photos, I didn't bring my camera with me and the lighting was extremely dark i.e. non-existent.
