Tino Brunswick restaurant review: Lively Latin American eatery makes most things from scratch

Forget a sausage in bread, this lively Latin American restaurant is making chorizo unlike anything you’ve tasted before.

Kara Monssen

3 min read

October 4, 2022 - 12:00PM

Food

Don't miss out on the headlines from Food. Followed categories will be added to My News.

The following words set my BS radar right off: “house made”.

Innocent enough, yet I roll my eyes every time a restaurant reminds us that what comes from the kitchen is “made fresh daily” from “seasonal produce”.

Surely that should be a given, yeah?

It’s fine if these phrases hold any truth, yet most come across as baseless marketing mumbo jumbo to get you in the door and spending money.

So you can imagine my shock after reading Brunswick’s new Latin American outfit, Tino, was spruiking “house-made everything”.

Really? You mean, everything?

Tino’s empanadas and ceviche flavours are ever-changing. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Surely not the manchego in those flaky shortcrust empanadas, as that would obviously come from Spain or even that creme fraiche in that eggplant granola dish (you read that right).

Argentinian head chef Sergio Tourn doesn’t want to be pulled up on a technicality, as he’s dead set about cooking from scratch and makes most, but not all, ingredients at the Brunswick

Rd restaurant.

That Spanish cheese may be straight off the plane, but snow white creme fraiche, the sweet relief from that spicy puddle of “veganised” Mexican mole, is made from the same kefir

culture that’s used to make Tino’s cultured butter.

The eggplant with granola works on paper, not in practice. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Behold, some of the juiciest chorizo you’ll ever try. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Even the chorizo, a scarlet sausage coil that’s cranked and cased out the back from free-range pork shoulder, paprika and cumin results in perky, fork-tender meat that’s forever juicy.

Unlike the more familiar, rubbery charcuterie style made by the Spaniards this is game changing, deserving of its own store and smack-the-table good eating. Don’t walk.

Tourn isn’t as strict on the traditional Latin American brief: Colombian, Peruvian, Mexican and Brazilian flavours all get a go, plus he throws in a few modern touches, gleaned from his time at Richmond’s Saint Urban and Fitzroy’s Vamos, while sprinkling Aussie natives in the mix.

With Tino shacking up in Brunswick’s old boozer and bottleshop, Rascal, you’ll feel the urge to order a drink and a steak, stat.

The 80-odd seater looks the bistro part with timber floors and tabletops, moss-green leather accents and black bentwoods throughout. Pull up a pew at the bar, easily mistaken for another table, and let Bruni Costa Silva (former Bar Carolina, Attica) lead the way.

He’s shaking up nine cocktails including $15 zippy pisco sours alongside other drinks spiked with Latin American spirits, syrups and mixers.

That “house made” philosophy also applies to the drinks: when making that barbecued pineapple syrup, the skins are fermented to create tepache, which goes into other boozy and non-alch pours.

Puffy wild rice and corn take the esquites farrotto to a new level. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Tino’s Porterhouse steak with dried chimmicuri is a cut above. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Even the wine, selected by co-owner Taylor Granchi, is largely South America and shows off indigenous drops such as a cheery cherry-loaded Chilean pais that’s on par with pinot noir, a lively Argentinian bubbles or a classic Malbec.

The latter is what you’ll want with the not-so tokenistic porterhouse ($48) perfectly cooked medium rare, decorated with barbecued spring onion and a gritty dry almond chimichurri that adds a new dimension to Argentine classic.

But snaffling some of those off-menu empanadas should be your first priority (this visit oozing with manchego and more of that salty chorizo) encased in flaky shortcrust crescents

that are immediately comforting.

Sergio flips these fillings and the ceviche weekly.

I didn’t quite get the eggplant dish ($22) which teams a kombu (seaweed) based Mexican mole, oven-roasted eggplant topped with sweet sesame and oat-studded granola.

The cereal crunch is cool but out of place and doesn’t sing in unison with the other flavours like it should, plus our eggplant is a little undercooked.

Things veer back on track with Sergio’s clever take on esquites farrotto ($27), a Mexican street food corn salad, where he spins a farro-based risotto with puffy wild rice, jalapeño and vegan stinging nettle cream.

Sergio loves texture and if there’s a dish to get your hit this is it – nutty, puffy wild rice crunch, sweet corn bursts, welcome stodge from the veg and farro, which this week is being subbed out for black beans to become gluten-free and vegan. Sigh, we are in Brunswick after all.

While the rest of the city has been put on notice, know that Sergio isn’t taking you for a ride with his “house made” cooking at Tino. He’s bypassing the BS as best he can, doing as he should to make delicious food – and he’s doing a mighty job of it.