Just Revamped: Mordeo, Martin Place

Looking for lunch or dinner in the city? Mordeo in Martin Place has moved across the road to new premises with seating for up to 150 people. See what to order and what to expect from this newly relocated restaurant in the heart of the city!

It's a Friday night when Mr NQN and I make our way to Mordeo (Mordeo means to bite or savour). The restaurant is located at 52 Martin Place. It is open from Monday to Friday and used to be located in the Deutsche Bank building across the road until a couple of weeks ago. The new space allows them to merge the formerly separate Mordeo Bistro & Bar and Pasta & Panini Bar into one 150 seater venue. The owner Nicholas Aspros is Greek and comes from three generations in the hospitality industry. Both his mother's and father's families opened up delis and cafes in the city from the 1920's to today.

Along with a new space, they also have a new French chef Jean-Baptiste Legrand formerly of Restaurant Hubert who has created the new menu that they call Southern European. There are banquettes, tables and cute semi circular booths ideal for a couple and in a few weeks' time there will be outdoor tables too. The menu is designed to share and service from our waitress is superb.

We are both having mocktails tonight. Mr NQN's mocktail is a Lychee Blossom with lychee, rosewater, Grenadine and soda while mine is the Disaron-NO Sour made with iced tea, almond syrup and lemon. I immediately prefer the floral notes of his and he likes the almond flavour in mine so we swap around.

We start with the baked tomino with chestnut, honey and thyme with three slices of house made focaccia on the side. The tomino is a very creamy mild cow cheese that is baked until completely melting inside and great for cold nights to warm you up with a glass of wine.

The best seller on the menu is the lamb ragu pappardelle with slow cooked lamb with a rich tomato base ragu with manchego, marjoram and house made pappardelle pasta. We just add a little seasoning and it really pops and the flavour of the lamb is really balanced with the abundance of tomatoes. It's also a sizeable pasta dish so great for sharing; save some of the focaccia to mop up the sauce.

There is a choice of 6 pizza toppings made with their 48 hour fermented dough. We go for the spiciest, the hot sopressa salami with tomato, fior di latte roasted red capsicum with a thin wet base and chill oil on the side. It's a very good pizza and Mr NQN happily devours it with gusto. The crusts are also soft and chewy so not a crumb goes back to the kitchen.

I was curious to try the potato churros as I like the idea of them. These are slender deep-fried mashed potato churros that are crunchy crispy served on the bed of queso cream. They're really tasty and a nice alternative to fries although I think the fries are better for sharing and quantity.

We also love the baby cos lettuce with Mediterranean ranch dressing pangrattato, lemon zest and Parmesan as it is so crisp and fresh. Sometimes wedge salads can be a bit tricky to eat but this one is easier as the sections of lettuce are smaller.

The pork cotoletta is another standout with a very juicy crumbed pork cutlet with a mustard sauce and rosemary spikes on the side as well as a fennel and apple salad. Sometimes pork cotoletta can be dry or bland but not this, this is incredibly juicy and this is my favourite dish of the night, out of a lot of hits.

We are quite full so by the time dessert comes around, we share the chocolate fondant. This is a classic, rich chocolatey fondant with roasted, sliced almonds, creme anglaise and a scoop of vanilla gelato. It's perfectly cooked and when I take to it with a spoon, the liquid fondant spills out, barely contained in the chocolate fondant.

So tell me Dear Reader, what would you have ordered of what we tried? Do you like sharing dishes or do you prefer your own?

NQN and Mr NQN were guests of Mordeo but all opinions remain her own.

Mordeo

Shop 301/52 Martin Pl, Sydney NSW 2000

Monday - Wednesday: 7am - 9:00 pm

Thursday - Friday: 7am - 9:30pm (kitchen closes at 9pm)