Post-COVID dining: Amalfi shows us what to expect

The first stage in re-opening the state’s restaurants will suit those who prefer their dinner without the din, writes Simon Wilkinson.

One of the more common complaints I receive from readers is that modern restaurants are too noisy and make it impossible to have a decent conversation. Too many people… too many hard, echoing surfaces… too bloody loud. One correspondent even suggested I take a sound meter while doing reviews and include the reading as part of the score.

Well, that gentleman and his like-minded brethren should be over the moon for the next few weeks. The first baby steps in easing the state’s COVID-19 lockdown have delivered just what they want.

Saltimbocca at Amalfi

Take Amalfi, the legendary east end Italian. In more than 35 years of trade on Frome St, it has been rare to find the restaurant anything less than packed. And with terrazzo floors, bare wooden tables and copious quantities of bonhomie, a regular service night can seem like the aural equivalent of sharing a shipping container with a high school brass band.

But not now. For our visit last weekend, on the second night that restaurants were allowed to serve a maximum of 10 diners indoors, that room feels totally different and the volume is turned right down. Not that our group of four didn’t enjoy ourselves. Any loosening of the shackles is worth celebrating, of course, but this new reality will take time to seem anything like normal.

We share the space with three other pairs of diners, each marooned on their own table in the distance. Closer to the door, spare furniture has been used to create a separate zone to corral the constant flow of customers and drivers picking up the takeaway orders that have kept Amalfi in business for the past few months. Outside, another 10 hardy souls are offered blankets with their bistecca.

Most of Amalfi’s regular service corps is on the road, having been redeployed to delivery work. In their place, co-owner Frank Hannon-Tan is tending to the handful of tables. The open kitchen, on the other hand, is fully staffed and creating a rattle and hum that provides the night’s soundtrack.

There is no easing gently into this restart. Other than a trio of omissions (including the antipasto, strangely enough), the full printed menu is on offer, alongside a blackboard list of specials.

The “melanzane” is a good place to start. Big ovals cut lengthwise from the eggplant are coated in a golden beer batter that will have fish-and-chippers scrambling for the recipe. Inside, the veg has collapsed into a luscious pale goo, while a puddle of tomato sugo and parmesan shavings help knock it into shape.

Pasta dishes at Amalfi

Strips of salt and pepper calamari look like overfed fettucine and, while light on the promised seasonings, make for good nibbling when dunked into a tartare-style mayonnaise.

Amalfi has never been shy about its portions but the bowls of pasta this evening look best suited to a household of ravenous teenage boys, a subject about which I have first-hand knowledge.

Great heaps of spaghetti, rigatoni and linguine are smothered in sauces that have been given their own testosterone boost.

Puttanesca hits the bullseye with a backdrop of concentrated tomato and melted anchovy loaded up with top-class capers and kalamata olives, each providing their own expression of carefully honed saltiness. The amalfitana has similar oomph in a more veg-minded compilation including eggplant, artichokes and spinach.

Amalfi is one of very few Italian eateries in this town to use proper veal, especially in its excellent rendition of traditional saltimbocca romana with prosciutto and fresh sage. This time it is scaloppine amalfi, in which three medallions of wonderfully tender sautéed meat are matched with mushrooms, pancetta and an intense reduction sauce. It comes with roasted potato and a green salad, but I reckon the spinach from the mixed vegetables is a better match.

Given the restricted numbers, Amalfi has a time limit on bookings and our 90-minute slot comes to an end just as we down tools on the mains. Suffice to say tiramisu, the only dessert on offer, has always been up to scratch in the past.

In the past… back in those not-so-distant days of packed, exuberant, well-run restaurants where the energy was the only thing contagious and a few hours of dining could take you to a happy place way faster than any overseas flight – restaurants like the old Amalfi.

The noise haters might not agree but I can’t wait for regular service to resume.

AMALFI

29 Frome St, city

8223 1948; amalfipizzeria.com.au

OWNERS Frank Hannon-Tan, Brenton Loughnan

CHEF Brenton Loughnan

FOOD Italian

SMALL $14.90-$24.50

MAIN $26.50-$34

DESSERT $8.50

DRINKS Extensive cellar with mix of easy-drinking locals and some of their Italian friends.

OPEN LUNCH Mon-Fri DINNER Mon-Sat

SCORE 14.5/20