Olio Cafe
Shop 1 ‘The Forum’
St Leonards Train Station
NSW 2065

Sublime. I adore how a place like Olio is right by where I live, a 5-10 second walk at most. Cosy, intimate and romantic, it makes for a perfect Friday night dinner date.. especially when it’s cold, dark and raining outside! It was a relief to be in the warmth, and fun to watch the chef working at the open kitchen near where we were sitting.

I was ravenous, and promptly decided the Tagliatelle with blue swimmer crab meat, zucchini, tomato & crayfish butter was a winner. AND IT WAS!! It was blimmin’ splendiferous. The crayfish butter made it really luscious and rich, yet the tomato and crab meat gave it a fresh flavour so it wasn’t too ‘heavy’. I was gobsmacked at just how much crab meat they gave, I was literally eating spoonfuls of pure crab meat throughout the whole meal. By far one of the best pastas I’ve ever had.

Chris got the Penne with Italian sausage, caramelised red onion, tomato & red wine. It was super, and really tasty and hearty.. but I didn’t have much of it as I found it really overpowered my pasta which had a more subtle seafood flavour. He liked it though, and they gave great big chunks of sausage (and lots of it), which was great!

And at a whim, we also got some Home made New York fries, sweet chilli & sour cream which I’d initially sulked about as it was $7, and I’d considered it to be waaaay too $$ for fries. But boy, I was so wrong!!! It wasn’t actually fries, it was chunks of potato.. deep fried so the skin was all crisp, and it was sprinkled with sea salt. Dipped in sour cream & sweet chilli then eaten, IT WAS UNBELIEVABLY FANTASTIC. The best fries I’ve ever had. In fact, better than McDonalds fries (which I rank as one of the best foods in the entire world)!!!!! The potato inside was all hot and steamy and fluffy, and the really crisp skin was all salty. Mmmm…. ahhhhhh…..

I basically ate that whole bowl of potatoes, much to Chris’ surprise/horror 😉 And also my pasta. In comparison, Chris didn’t really eat the potatoes and couldn’t even finish his pasta – I called him a “lightweight”, he called me “insane” 😛 I just couldn’t stop eating the pasta and potatoes, they were so insanely good!!!!!! I’m a real carboholic, I crave carbs all day, every day. So these 2 dishes? Heaven.

Home made New York fries, sweet chilli & sour cream
BEST FRIES IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD

Tagliatelle with blue swimmer crab meat, zucchini, tomato & crayfish butter

Penne with Italian sausage, caramelised red onion, tomato & red wine

I love Olio