When I first heard of Bonta Vita, I knew it was the kind of place that I had to save for M and her boys. It’s a Malaysian Italian restaurant serving Rizza or Roti Pizza  (pronounced Ritza) were their star item. I had also read about the Rice Dice where rolling the dice allows you to decide what you’re eating that night and if you happen to roll the same numbers, your table gets free gelato so I knew that the idea of winning a dessert would appeal enormously to them. Indeed S has fantasies of living for free here just eating dessert (yes he of the never ending dessert tank).

BYO torch for menu reading

It’s part of the Lumiere building, where we walk past the colourful fountain which has everyone oohing and aahing with the changing light colours. S says in hushed tones “Mummy, can we afford this place?”. We walk in and it’s nicely outfitted. We’re shown our booth which is actually a booth that has another table added to it which is either a good thing or a bad thing as everyone feels quite apart but as we learn later, the narrow booth table requires this in order to fit our food. And it also smells pervadingly of fried chicken owing to the KFC next door and is incredibly dark so we resort to using a shared torch to read the menu, not something we ever have issues with so hopefully you’ll forgive the less than stellar photographs that we got. Our waiter brings over four tealights which don’t really help. Some of the lights are turned on, but most remain out for the whole time we are there.

I inquire about the Rice Dice and the waiter says that that was from an old menu item but after some discussion he brings us the menu and I read out the instructions. It’s different from when Ffichiban visited, quite different in fact that there are actually now 3 dice you have to roll and now you have to order an entree, main and dessert. When FFichiban visited it was 2 dice and you just ordered a rice dish and a side. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that rolling a triple is a lot harder than rolling a double and you are possibly up for pretty expensive meal with rules such as “if you don’t obey the dice, you must buy a round of drinks for the whole table” and with their drinks being $8.90, it seems like the odds are definitely stacked in the house’s favour. Your 3 course meal could cost you anything between $38 to $69.

Apricot Moon and Suai Suai $8.90 each

Instead we order what we like. The menu is broken down into section from Rizzas, Malaysian food and Italian food.  We start with drinks. I’m intrigued by the Apricot Moon drink described as “a unique Egyptian blend, especially made for us using apricot that is mixed with secret recipes that takes 2 days of preparation to be served to our customers”. I’m hopeful and at $8.90 it sounds like it might be quite special indeed. One sip and instantly we taste dried apricots. We can figure that it’s made by soaking dried apricots for 2 days in hot water and then pureeing them. I know because I’ve done it for an apricot sorbet and it tasted exactly like this. The Suai Suai is plain yogurt mixed with kiwi, vanilla gelato and a dash of honey blended with ice which tastes like a honey smoothie. This also doesn’t quite reach the heights of the description.

Rizza #1

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The Sydney dining scene is a diverse one but there are some things that you could call a quintessential Sydney dining experience, especially if you’re trying to recommend an experience to overseas friends. The one thing that springs to mind first is a place involving a view of the water. Sydney is known for its spectacular waterfront spanning across several areas of Sydney. Another thing, one that gets derided by other smaller cities, is a place that is somewhat a bit posey, where beautiful creatures go to roam at night. “It’s SO Sydney” they mock. Tonight, we are combining the two. At the early hour of 6pm, as the Manly Ferry heads towards the wharf, we are meeting at Hugos (no apostrophe!) at Manly.

Open just a couple of months earlier, Hugos Manly is part of the Hugos chain (although they’d probably be horrified to be part of a chain) co-owned by television chef Pete Evans and his brother David. I’d been to the now closed Hugos at Bondi many, many years ago and I recall that there was a lovely view there and that my husband was disgruntled at the size of his pasta main.

Located on the right hand side of Manly Wharf, the view of the water is stunning. And so to are the staff with the hostesses some modelish towering species of human skyscraper in incredibly high heels to make them seem even taller. I’ve been to fashion shows before but I’ve never seen women this tall before-even the tall amongst our party are agape. They and the staff are surprisingly friendly and helpful but in the evenings there is a no bookings policy (hence why we are dining at 6pm, some of the boys hate waiting) and all members of the table must be present before being seated. People are also able to sit on the outside section, bar style, and enjoy a drink.

Waiting what seems like an eternity for the rest of our table to arrive (in reality it’s only 5-10 minutes), the towering hostess in yellow has managed to find us a prized outside table (outside is not really outside, it’s still inside but well you know what I mean). The restaurant is loud and made even louder throughout the night but the light drizzle which sends all of their customers that usually wait outside, inside.

We’re given our menus, a mix of entrees, mains and pizzas which are not too badly priced given the location and restaurant. I realise that Peter Evans’ specialty is fish (after all that is what his cookbook is called) but we’re in the mood for pizza. We choose a few things, mostly from the pizza menu and one of the tasting plates for 2 so that we can get a selection of his regular dishes. The vegetarians amongst us have trouble deciding. “We’ve never had this much choice before!” they exclaim.

We’ve heard service is hard to get but once you get their attention, they’re very attentive and they’re right, The Assman has to signal a member of the waitstaff by waving but for the rest of the night they’re extremely attentive, our smiling waitress coming back several times to check that we’re happy with everything.

We’re not waiting long for our pizzas and they arrive on bamboo boards, sizable enough to satisfy with a thin base. They look delicious and we can’t wait to dig in. The tasting plate for 2 also looks good as does the Sugar snaps with salted ricotta.

Tasting platter for two: italian meatballs, fried calamari, oysters, salmon carpaccio $38

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