Mister Bianco restaurant review 2024: Kara Monssen visits Kew’s new-look Italian stalwart

Kew’s Italian stalwart restaurant is back with a new look and feel— even the food has changed and it’s better than before.

Mister Bianco is back with a new look and feel— even the food has changed.

Here’s a useless piece of information you didn’t ask for.

Tortellini is the jaffle of the pasta world.

In fairness, those supple pasta sheets crinkle at the edges just like our sandwich white in the machine.

And both encase a delicious, molten cheesy mess within. Mind blown.

Surely chef Joe Vargetto had the same light bulb moment while toying with his piadina inspired dish.

The flatbread from northern Italy’s Emilia Romana region is usually cradling prosciutto, squacquerone (Bologna soft cheese) and rocket.

Vargetto didn’t think it was that much of a cheesy stretch to splash slippery pasta parcels in a bright and buttery parmesan and rocket emulsion, with crispy prosciutto chips and call it a sanger of sorts — it even tastes like one.

A fun riff on tradition, but also a symbol for everything Mister Bianco’s new-era stands for.

Reinvention.

Mister Bianco 2.0 is much larger, aesthetically darker and with better than before food. Picture: Kristoffer Paulsen.

Not many restaurants, especially in this climate, have the luxury to do so.

Though with a powerful local following beneath its wings, the MB crew took the leap of faith.

Vargetto held Mister Bianco (High Streets) final service last Father’s Day, with plans to close the restaurant indefinitely until he found a bigger space to level his and the team’s ambition. That place was George Calombaris’s old Hellenic Republic, on the other fork of the junction on Cotham Rd.

And within nine or so weeks, they made the impossible possible with a complete refit including the de-whickering of Calomabris’s intricate ceiling work and shading every possible finish or feature in Vargetto’s trademark black. Though he’ll argue it’s “jaguar”.

Even the soap in the ladies, which is worth a look.

The new place is sleek and stylish, think Bianco goes to Hollywood.

There’s an artistic Di Stasio Citta energy as you pass through the slick concrete entrance and automated glass door. To your right, a glamorous golden ball gown material plays curtain, hiding the soon to open Bianchetto wine and cocktail bar next door.

Scfone is not a Sicilian pizza, as has been suggested. Picture: Kristoffer Paulsen.

To your left, an expanse of a 100 seat dining room filled with marble topped tables and leather booths paying homage to the set-up of Bianco’s High St digs.

It’s old meets new, just like the food.

Joe’s cooking is at once impressively different and exciting, while being warmly familiar.

Cushy potato focaccia ($7), in all its olive oil and salty glory, works best swiped in a zippy beetroot dip. Don’t double down on bread, even if it means missing the scifone ($11). It’s not Sicilian pizza, as it’s been reported, more focaccia with toppings.

You can tell it’s pre-baked and warmed for service, a forgivable, though noticeable, time saving hack when eaten alongside the OG.

The saffron spaghetti— and most pasta at Mister Bianco— is worthy of your time. Picture: Kristoffer Paulsen.

I’ve been scheming since Christmas of a way to turn my leftovers into Joe’s pork trotter croquettes; a crumbed and fried puck, dolloped in apple puree. At $8, she’s a money spinner, but somehow I can’t fight the urge to another. Annnd maybe another. Same with those salted cod bites ($10 each): a potato rosti hatted in a creamy cod slaw, which are less impressive than those trotters.

I’d much rather get two serves of the calamari ($28): springy poached curls, melt in your mouth delicate, over a creamy potato mash throbbing with chorizo bits and burnt butter.

The perfect foil for the rest of that focaccia. I’d return alone just for this.

And the tortellini, of course, though a heaping of head chef Jesse McFadden’s sunny saffron spaghetti ($36), would go swimmingly with a crisp glass of Greco.

Chef Joe Vargetto’s cheese trolley was a gift from his late mother. Picture: Kristoffer Paulsen.

Speaking of wine, the list is vast and cost of living safe. All glasses are under $20, cocktails not much higher. Bottles cover all bases — reasonable to push the boat. Especially if Barolo summons during your Angus eye fillet course ($60), served to your choosing, lapping in a robust jus. Sides extra.

World-class bartender Orlando Marzo’s coffee liquor makes the perfect finisher, which drinks like an espresso martini without the frothy thrills and plays lover to Joe’s tiramisu ($17), or a wedge of cheese from Bianco’s rustic timber trolley; wheeled over by Vargetto himself.

He tells us the trolley was a fortuitous gift from his late mother, prior to his cheffing career.

What’s old is new again — and much like Mister Bianco 2.0 — it works and we love it.