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Italian
Santini has a new executive chef and a slightly reduced menu. The crowd is the same.
Five nattily dressed and impeccably groomed lads were at a round table. A singleton was sitting, back to the wall, on a banquette with her Louis Vuitton pochette perched conspicuously on the table. Two older women – they looked like serious-minded executives – were deep in conversation. A table of young, thin, sun-tanned women in flouncy dresses were hair flicking.
This is the daily mise en scene at Santini, an Italian restaurant at the very cool QT Hotel. It is a casual posh restaurant with prices that pre-select its customers. You can dine here modestly if you really try, but most guests seem to have the wherewithal to dine here well and often.
They come for the laid back luxury, first rate pasta and grills and a wine list of both girth and depth.
By far the biggest trick they’ve got right at Santini is service. It hovers somewhere between old school, white jacket correctness and an easy going house party. It takes maturity and experienced hands to pull that off.
First, our favourite rice dish in Perth, squid ink risotto with flash seared squid bits. It was wet and loose, nicely buttery, saline and creamy. The small tendrils of squid meat were cooked for just the few seconds it takes to add char and set the protein and lemon juice, and chilli spritzed up the dish perfectly.
We didn’t order a steak on this visit. We had planned to, but went a little hard on share plate snacks and pastas. Last week though, we shared what they call “The QT Rib Eye” a 350g grass fed Harvey Beef black angus ordered rare. It came with Cafe de Paris butter in a whipped, sabayon format, which was nice, but a proper old school pat of CdP butter would have been better. They got the flavours right. If you’ve ever made Café de Paris butter, you know it takes about 20 ingredients to get its unique flavour just so. Which they did. The steak was nicely grilled and rare.
Rigatoncini with puttanesca sauce is as straightforward as a pasta gets. Nowhere to hide. Made well it is a very bold sauce with anchovy, garlic, black olives, capers and basil all cooked through a tomato ragu. We’re guessing rigatoncini is small rigatoni, which it kind of was.
Tagliolini with crab and chopped tomato, pan-cooked with the pasta is a classic much loved by Perth pasta eaters. Every Italian restaurant in town does a version. The pasta was nicely undercooked, the sauce wasn’t too tomato-y or reduced (which can kill the flavour of the crab) and seasoning was spot on. If you’re after a light lunch, this is the dish for you.
They do pizza at Santini. We’ve not ordered one, but from what we saw coming over the pass, these were Neapolitan style: puffy, charred base with simple ingredients on top. They sure smelled good going past.
The chef is Dario Pompucci, who has passion and aptitude for his work. His house made pasta is strong and perfectly chewy. His grilling game is also good. The newly appointed executive chef for the QT Hotel is celebrated chef Stephen Clarke who is responsible for all food across the property. He occasionally gets his hands dirty at Santini, but he’s left the restaurant in good hands with Pompucci.
Love your wine? Sommelier Anthony Taylor has a spooky ability to pick the perfect wine based on the dishes you’ve ordered and customer preferences. Over four bottles we threw down the challenge and were rewarded each time with previously untried wines, all of which were pretty much spectacular.
Many sommeliers, even the good ones, can’t help but impose their will and personal likes on you, which can be very tiresome. Taylor listened to the customer, thought about the food and, while he took us out on a limb, over-delivered with his selections. Impressive.
Pudding is often an afterthought in Italian restaurants. It’s just too easy to bang out a sticky, gloopy tiramisu which keeps the sweet tooths happy regardless of how well, or not, it’s made. It’s good then to find one properly built on coffee and booze-soaked finger biscuits teamed with a mascarpone egg cream so rich it passeth all understanding. And yet, somehow it was light and easy to eat.
Santini is my favourite restaurant. There you go, I said it. It’s not Perth’s best restaurant, but it has an unbeatable amalgam of all the things that matter, when we go out to eat.
You want to relax, take your time and chill man. You want to be spoilt. But there’s more. There’s a flash steakhouse in the West Village in New York called Minetta Tavern. We’ve paid $1500 per head to eat at spectacular restaurants in New York, but Minetta Tavern remains my go-to favourite. It’s posh, almost, it has a fun, rapscallion atmosphere and great anticipatory service, delivered with humour and customer focus. They care about their food and it’s next level good. And they’ll take the bloody cheese off the salad, if you ask.
It reminds me of why I like Santini.
Santini
16.5/20
Cost: Antipasti, $22-$26; pasta, $32-$38; mains, $46-$68; Bistecca Fiorentina, $135; dessert, $18-$25
qthotels.com
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