Restaurant review | Reno’s Adelaide CBD

Traditional Italian offering melt-in-your-mouth magic is available in this new CBD lunch spot. Read the review.

Lasagna rotolo at Reno's Bistro, Adelaide

Try topping this as a Father’s Day present. Walk into Reno’s Bistro in the city and the first thing you’ll read is a tribute to its namesake, the owners’ papa, “whose love has shaped us, whose endless effort has lifted us, and whose unwavering support has inspired us beyond measure”.

That touching message gives way to cheeky dinner table banter. Above the bar, an illuminated sign lists 10 House Rules, kicking off with “No talking until Reno’s had his espresso”.

Honouring family ties and a powerful Italian/Australian upbringing are the bedrock beneath Reno’s, a clever breakfast-to-dinner cafe/restaurant that opened a few months back in the lobby of a refurbished office tower in Pirie St.

This vast corporate space has limitations when it comes to creating atmosphere but, even on a cold night with limited patronage, Reno’s thoughtful, heartfelt food has enough soul to make it a rewarding experience. A short menu ventures beyond the usual standards and flavours ring true. If every restaurant lasagne had a meat sauce half as good as the rotolo version here, the world would be a better place.

Reno Marafioti was born in Australia; his parents migrated from different towns in Calabria. He married Cinzia and they had four children while running a cleaning business.

Son Frankie had an entrepreneurial streak. While studying at the University of Adelaide nine years ago, he saw a gap in the offering on campus and, with his father’s help, established a coffee van. This expanded, with his sister Claudia, her husband Joseph and other partners becoming involved, and new ventures opened including Bluprint in the Santos building and, most recently, Bernie’s in Burnside Village.

Interior shot at Reno's Bistro.

Reno’s is closest to Bluprint, another lobby venue. This time, the decor highlights shades of red, from bright tomato in the signage to deeper wine colours in tabletops, menus and the tiles behind a bar and servery. A row of booths alongside a partition separate the restaurant from the passageway through the foyer.

Chef Joshua Heathcote (ex Lune Bar, Market St) was brought across from another part of the business, as was the house-made focaccia that turns lunchtime sandos into something special.

For dinner, the puffy bread is toasted and cut into soldiers that are custom-built for sponging up leftover sauce or spreading with a roasted capsicum and almond dip similar to romesco.

It certainly comes in handy when mopping up after a super bowl of juicy pipis pulled from the heat just as they are beginning to open and dunked into a feisty concoction based on an XO that derives its meaty umami flavour from offcuts of prosciutto, pancetta and other salumi.

Bresaola, a beef-based relative of those pork products, is cut paper-thin, spread on a plate and crowned with a celeriac remoulade finished with toasty fried capers and brussels sprout leaves. Equal parts Italian and NYC Jewish deli, the combination puts a deft spin on a classic and works brilliantly.

Pipis in salumi XO sauce at Reno's Bistro.

The rotolo is three loosely formed rings of sheet pasta filled with a ragu of beef pieces, wine and tomato that has clearly burbled away on the back burner for a number of hours. Bechamel and parmesan are spread over the top, before the whole thing is blasted in a hot oven until the cheese is molten and all the edges crisp. It will be hard to go back to standard lasagne again.

After the brilliant earlier pipis, those featuring in the linguine are shrunken and chewy, and the sauce based on their juices needs further reduction and emulsifying to better adhere to the pasta.

A pork cutlet covered in a crunchy, Panko-style crust spiked with parmesan is cut from the bone into thick slices and draped in a blanket of creamy florentine spinach. A zippy salad of apple and pickled endive kicks in just as it’s all becoming a bit too indulgent.

Desserts are still a work in progress, with a proper list in the pipeline. A few pastries are offered but we’ve already eaten plenty.

Reno, it turns out, is there on the same night, only a few booths down from where we are sitting. His verdict is the one that really counts, certainly to his children. My guess is that he’d be the proudest of dads – and rightly so.

Ground floor,
45 Pirie St, city

0499 979 755

Main courses

$30-$45

Open

Breakfast, lunch
Mon-Fri

Dinner Thu-Fri

Must try

Pipis with salumi XO; lasagna rotolo

Verdict

Food 15/20

Ambience 11/20

Service 13/20

Value 14/20

Overall 13/20

As a guide, scores indicate:

1-9 Fail; 10-11 Satisfactory;
12-14 Recommended; 15-16 Very Good; 17-18 Outstanding;
19-20 World Class

delicious.com.au/eatout