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Black Fire

Natasha Rudra

Slow roasted suckling pig.
Slow roasted suckling pig.Matt Bedford

14.5/20

Mediterranean$$

A colleague joked this year that we should rebadge Food & Wine as Braddon Restaurant Weekly - another day, another restaurant opening on the already crammed Lonsdale Street strip, where you can't walk 10 metres without tripping over someone having brunch. Now the restaurants are moving into Mort Street and Elouera Street. So here we are, sitting down at Black Fire and trying to decide which slow-roasted meat to order from the menu.

It's a pretty unobtrusive spot - dark glass frontage, a very inconspicuous sign, just a couple of tables out the front. But it's packed inside on a weeknight and we're lucky to secure a table down the end near the entrance to the private function room. There's wood and a couple of bits of greenery on the wall, and two large black chandeliers over the bar. And the open grill where the meat sits roasting in pride of place.

Paolo Milanesi is one of the owners and rules the kitchen after running Bicicletta in the old Diamant Hotel and Locanda Italian Steakhouse in the old Rydges. His menu is Mediterranean with a Spanish and Italian flair. It's large with what looks like too many choices - there are sections for first courses, mains, cured meats, vegetables, wood-roasted meats, even sauces. In modern fashion, each dish is described in full, a whole sentence for each one. But everything looks intriguing so we settle for a couple of entrees: wagyu topside with bone marrow and mustard seeded mash ($6 each) and a beetroot macaron with lamb neck ($6 each).

The wagyu is good quality meat, tender and well flavoured, the bone marrow lending an extra earthy punch. The beetroot macaron is just that, two slices of baked crunchy beetroot with a lamb neck mousse sandwiched inside. The beetroot is a little thick and not crisp enough to eat quickly and easily but it's a neat little play on the macaron and there's a contrasting smear of pecorino puree underneath it. A plate of smoked ocean trout goes nicely with a tangle of fennel and zucchini strips and dabs of capsicum or tomato romesco ($18) though a pod of finger lime on the side doesn't add anything to the dish.

While the wine list is reasonably wide with plenty of pinot and shiraz to go with all the meat and a liberal scattering of Spanish vintages, a warm summery post-work dinner calls for sangria and a jug is duly delivered in time for the mains.  The eight-hour slow-roasted suckling pig ($36) is a quiet triumph on its hotplate - tender and meltingly fatty underneath and crisp skinned on top, though the skin could do with a little more puff, like a piece of chicharon.

Dab on some apple sauce and let it cut gently through with fat with sweetness and a hint of acid. Wash down with sangria. A plate of tortelli with green onion in a creamy tomato sauce is stuffed with crab meat and goat's's cheese ($28) and the chef does well to keep both the goat's cheese and the crab distinct, the tart cheese sounding a clear note without overpowering the more delicate crab. In a completely different vein is the duck breast cooked in balsamic sherry ($33), slightly charred and in a sticky caramelised puddle of sherry and honey with perfectly cooked ruby-red meat. It's a good dish in its own right and none of us can pick favourites out of the mains.

The waitstaff, who have been deftly refilling glasses with cool water and been quick to pick up on hints to order and ask questions, clear away quickly and easily. Service has been a tad hesitant but there's been little waiting around to be waited on, which is good when a place is as fully booked as Black Fire. Desserts? Well, sure, and besides the sangria is all gone, magically. Yoghurt mousse with crema catalana ($13) sounds like dairy overload but again, the two elements of the dish are distinct yet work well - the yoghurt spread softly over the bottom of the plate and gently tart, the crema firm and satisfyingly dark and sweet on top.

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Chef Paolo Milanesi of Black Fire.
Chef Paolo Milanesi of Black Fire.Matt Bedford

A reimagined peach melba with passionfruit panna cotta and berries ($12) turns out to be two silky cylinders, one filled with peachy chunks and accompanied slightly oddly with a slice of mandarin, and the other smooth and flavoured with passionfruit. Both perch in a sea of berry coulis. But perhaps the best dessert is the banana cake with dulce de leche ($13). The cake is just one part of a medley of chocolate shards, tangy panna cotta, dulce de leche and wine-poached pear. It's a rich, heady mix, just right to finish off a night at a good new addition to Braddon. Black Fire gives traditional dishes a gentle twist, a quick update, well executed without being too clever or pretentious.

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