Brisbane restaurants: Casa Nostra Ristorante, Fortitude Valley, review

THIS Sicilian-inspired restaurant’s hefty, bound menu reads like a map of Italy and an entire wall in the moody, rustic dining room, features one.

Casa Nostra has a moody, rustic charm courtesy of an photograph of the Sicilian town of Taormina on one wall. Picture: Mark Cranitch

ON A cold, windy night in inner-Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, stepping into Casa Nostra feels like going back to the future. Sarah and Biagio Biuso are serving similar food to that which graced their restaurant Biagio, which opened in inner-west Red Hill in 2007 and remained for some years before the couple had a sea change to Cairns.

Now they’re back and occupying the restaurant space in M&A Lane that was previously home to Mighty Mighty. The fare is old-school Italian – Biagio Biuso is Sicilian and grew up in the pistachio-farming town of Bronte – and that, as well as the personable and adept service headed by Sarah, will be very familiar to former customers of their Waterworks Rd restaurant.

LIST: Best Italian restaurants in Brisbane

The interior ramps it up a notch from their previous digs, with a moody, rustic charm courtesy of an immense photograph of the Sicilian town of Taormina (65km from Bronte) that wallpapers one side of the room, a forest of pot plants, wooden floors, other wallpapered Italian scenes, banquettes and mostly dark furniture.

The hefty bound menu spans territory from bruschetta through antipasti, such as blacklip mussels in a white wine sauce or a twice-cooked duck leg, to pasta, main courses including fish, veal, porchetta and lamb shanks, to several types of pizza. A special of octopus salad ($19.50), the tentacle sliced and served over rice studded with pine nuts, slices of green olive and herbs and an excellent dressing, was a fresh counterpoint to the calamari fritti ($18), a generous mound of well-seasoned, crispy lengths of squid teamed with rocket, lemon wedges and a saucer of aioli.

Fettuccine ai ­frutti di mare ($31).

The wine list, complete with glossary for those not conversant with Italian varieties, is divided into Italian and Australian ­sections, with plenty of by-the-glass options.

A main course of scallopine ripieni ($30), tender, pan-fried veal pockets filled with spinach, sage, prosciutto parma and asiago cheese, is served in a white wine sauce with an array of roast potato, beans, broccoli and carrots and cauliflower.

Similarly conventional, fettuccine ai ­frutti di mare ($31) has prawns, blacklip mussels, vongole, calamari and scampi tossed through the pasta and moistened with a sauce of olive oil and white wine, with a touch of tomato, garlic, chilli and herbs.

Desserts include tiramisu, semifreddo di pistachio, cannoli and passionfruit crème brulee ($12.50), which although it seems something of a cross-border incursion from France, is a perfectly pleasant version.

This is not cutting-edge food; rather, it is generous servings of traditional fare served by staff who seem genuinely interested in diners’ comfort and enjoyment. And that’s got to be a good thing.

CASA NOSTRA RISTORANTE

Shop 6, 100 McLachlan St,
Fortitude Valley

casanostraristorante.com.au

BOOK[phone]

OPENMon-Sat, lunch 12-2.30pm, dinner 5.30pm-late

SCORE OUT OF 10

FOOD: 7

AMBIENCE: 7

SERVICE: 9

VERDICT: Comfort food

Quaff with Des Houghton

To celebrate a 1987 promotion, I threw fiscal caution to the wind and bought a bottle of Penfolds Grange. It was (gasp!) $72. I still have the receipt. I shared the ambrosial reward with friends who delighted in my extravagance. In 1995, in another wanton act of budgetary recklessness, I purchased a bottle of Henschke Hill of Grace for $65. Today, the latest edition Grange will set you back around $785 and the Hill of Grace, $699. Special wines such as these can clearly cost a bomb.

However, bargains abound. You can find plenty in James Halliday’s annual wine rankings published in his Wine Companion (Hardie Grant). I’ve selected some at random. The Alkoomi Black Label Frankland River Shiraz Viognier 2013 got 96 points and carries a price tag of $24. You could expect to pay $200+ for a wine scoring 96 points or better. Also from Western Australia comes Arcadia Wines Mount Barker Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 a 96-point vintage for $22.

Barossa Valley winemaker Kym Teusner offers Teusner The Bilmore Shiraz 2014 for $26. It got 96 points for a wine described as “a rich, fruit-slapping mouthful that draws you swiftly back for a second mouthful, and in no time the bottle is empty, especially if you have shared it with another”.

Best’s Wines from the Grampians in Victoria offers several bargains. My picks are its Great Western Pinot Noir 2015 and No 1 Great Western Shiraz 2014, each selling for $25. They scored 95 points apiece.

Queenslander Boireann made a slew of red wine notching 95 points with price tags from $28. Witches Falls Winery offers its wild ferment grenache and wild ferment mourvèdre for $32. Both got 95 points.

McLaren Vale’s Ben Riggs has bargain buys. The Mr Riggs Wine Company Montepulciano d’Adelaide Hills 2014 got 96 and carries a price tag of $27. It is described as “utterly seductive”.

You can’t go too far wrong with any wine from the Bay of Fires brand. Its Eddystone Point Riesling 2014 for $25 got 96 points. But perhaps the best white wine bargain was from Naked Run Wines. Steve Baraglia’s “dangerously addictive” The First Clare Valley Riesling 2015 got 97 points and sells for an astonishing $22.

O’Leary Walker Wines make wines of grace and power. Try its Polish Hill River Riesling 2015 for $22, which got 95 points. It’s a steal. And if you spot another bargain, let me know.