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Salotto

Catriona Jackson

Salotto's margherita pizza.
Salotto's margherita pizza.Elesa Kurtz

13/20

Italian$$

When I came to Canberra more than two decades ago Santa Lucia was one of the first places I was taken, usually by the then editor of The Canberra Times, Jack Waterford. Those lunches served as a kind of initiation, to the journalistic life and to the town I had adopted. Public service Mandarins would whisper gems into Jack's ear as I ploughed through the veal marsala, matters of the highest and lowest order were discussed over big bowls of spaghetti and generous goblets of white wine.

The relaxed generosity of the place suited us all, so it was with interest and a little nostalgia that we visited Salotto, the restaurant cum bar run by next generation of Catanzaritis in Kennedy Street, Kingston. On a Saturday night we take a two-hour slot and make sure we arrive on time. Twenty-somethings are taking advantage of the couches and fancy drinks - families with kids and couples are sitting up to eat.

Almost everyone orders dishes to share, some propped on stands to increase table capacity.

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Torno al Crudo.
Torno al Crudo.Elesa Kurtz

The place looks not all that different to its previous incarnation as the Kennedy Room, with couches out front and the big space inside sectioned up to eliminate the barn feeling. It is clear you can choose how and where you want to eat, drink and perhaps later dance.

Antipasto ($25) should be a fresh and exciting, if familiar part of an Italian meal. Tired versions abound these days but not here. The platter is generous, with decent quality meats, air-dried beef and tender prosciutto, wafer-thin grilled eggplant and zucchini, decent batons of hard cheese, tangy picked vegetable and artichoke. The antipasto is the dish of the night, and perfect as a quality late night drink absorber, as well as as part of a serious meal.

Torno al crudo ($17) is a tasty dish of wafer thin slices of lightly smoked tuna, with caperberries for tang. Little scoops of orange and campari sorbet are not as savoury as you might think given the Campari, with a sweetness that didn't quite work with the tuna.

Who can walk past a Nutella-stuffed cronut?
Who can walk past a Nutella-stuffed cronut?Elesa Kurtz
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A bottle of Pasqua Valpolicella​ ($29) washes the food down well, and is one of a good range of Italian wines along with plenty of locals at reasonable prices.

The Margherita pizza ($18) is good and juicy with quality ingredients, but none of the blistered finish we are getting used with the rise of real pizza in Canberra.

The Gnocchi are lovely tender pillows of potato dumpling, clearly made by someone who knows what they are doing. The generous bowlful came  with a well rounded, smooth tomato sauce, with parmesan and mozzarella adding a lightly creamy edge.

The thinly sliced cabbage salad ($7) is tangy with vinegar as it should be and cuts through the richness of the mains. A pasta with frutti di mare (seafood) is a disappointment. Great waves of wide, flat pasta arrive with very little oil and garlic, and a pretty scant amount of seafood. This dish should pull all the seafood together in the oil, imbuing the pasta with that wonderful sweet seafood flavour, with little bursts of taste as you hit a mussel or clam.

A Nutella cronut ($14) is a little on the oily side, the hot pastry enriched with Nutella and good quality vanilla ice cream.

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As the evening matures the noise levels rise and a hint of the night ahead enters the room. Families slink off, others decamp to couches for a post-dinner refreshment.

Consistency is a problem at Salotto, with some good solid dishes displaying skill and care, and others missing the mark. Service is enthusiastic, but a little scattered, with lots of attention some of the time and little at others.

Salotto is a promising new venue, with solid heritage to work from. We will be back to see how they grow.

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