Ninety 4 – Woolwich

The last time I ventured out on a ferry was a bit of a failed attempt where I was too preoccupied with my iPhone and ended up getting off a stop before I was meant to. Funny enough it was to the same postcode for brunch at Deckhouse Café not too far from Ninety 4 in this leafy peninsula that juts out into the harbour. It’s not often I head out this far for dinner but when the Ouffer deal site was advertising a $59 Italian 7-course degustation for two valued at $180 including a bottle of vino it was worth the public transport schlepp from Erskineville.   

Arriving at Woolwich a little early was a great excuse to sit up on the balcony at Woolwich Pier Hotel for a couple of cold ones, overlooking Cockatoo Island and the city skyline. This really is a gorgeous area with its harbour glimpses, grand houses with his & hers BMW’s parked in the driveway and the occasional stepford housewife power-walking with her boutique pooch. Welcome to Woolwich, daaarling.

Not a lot has been said about Ninety 4 which is surprising seeing they’ve been feeding the locals for 7 years after taking over from the previous Mediterranean eating house called Duo’s. The restaurant has two rooms – the front one beautifully but simply decked out with a printed and padded fabric wall, wooden floors and tables, glass pendants and stone counter that should be fully illuminated but somehow isn’t. The room at the back is cosy and doesn’t impress as much with its plain Jane appearance.

Service here is really on the ball; casual, friendly and very professional. Our degustation kicks off after cracking open a Margaret River screw-top and the arrival of melazana – a roll of sliced eggplant filled with creamy ricotta and topped with a little basil pesto and slow-roasted tomato. Simple, tasty and the meaty black olive on the side is a bit of a teaser because all I wanted was a bowl of them.

The next morsel is the lemon polpa di granchio – a filo pastry cone filled with crab meat and dipped in crushed wasabi peas. Sadly the heat that comes with wasabi peas didn’t come through in the overall flavour of the dish but the creamy crab meat and the sweet scribble of balsamic reduction matched nicely.    

Polpetti di formaggio di capra sounds great in Italian and in English we have a ball of mild goat cheese rolled in a fine meal of pistachio and walnuts sitting on a water cracker, sided with black truffle paste and almond crème sauce. On the regular menu this dish comes as a pair – one rolled in the nuts and the other with the truffle paste and almond crème. Can I have more truffle, please? Man I love this stuff, and in my books there’s never enough of it.

I know the concept of a degustation is to sample pieces of the general menu but the problem with me is that my gluttinous personality kicks in and wants way more than I’m given. All the dishes so far have been great and when the calamari ripieni comes out I just want more of it. The theme of stuffing things continues with the baby squid being filled with spinach and ricotta and the sauce of tomato, onion and parmesan complete the flavours that remind me of the Mediterranean. Bread would have been perfect here but now I’m just splitting hairs. Lucky for me there was a cheese course of gorgonzola, rocket salad and grissini that worked nicely after the seafood and tomato flavours and thanks to the other half not being a fan of gorgonzola I had a double dose.    

Two of my favourite things are dumplings and pork belly and while Ninty 4 hasn’t combined the two, the next course of maiale (translation – pig) satisfies sufficiently. This small piece of not-too-fatty pork belly has been slow-cooked and is draped with a spear of asparagus as it nestles against a creamy mound of cauliflower purée. A melting grilled scallop contrasts in texture with the rich pork meat and crispy crackling making the dish a hands down winner.

Sadly the two dessert choices of lemon tart and chocolate truffle cake prevent the degustation from ending with a bang. While they’re not terrible we just found the cheesecake-like tart and gelatine-set mousse-like cake a little on the ordinary side. Ho hum. Overall a great meal and next time I’ll be trying one of the pizzas.  

Tagged as: Italian, Woolwich