Cafe Paci, Sydney

Newtown.  Not an area of Sydney I necessarily venture to often (although, I do think the Cuckoo Callay there is better than the Surry Hills one for brunch).  Finnish food.  Definitely not a cuisine I seek out often (um, ever?  Not that I'm opposed but, it just hasn't ever really come up ...).  And yet, for one of the more significant dates of the year, my birthday, I did just that.  I ventured to Newtown, for Finnish cuisine at Cafe Paci.

Intrigued?  You should be.  Intriguing basically sums up every element of dining there.  The decor, the menu, the dishes themselves, are all, well, interesting.  This is not a place to be bored.  

Birthday Dinner.

I visited Cafe Paci on my birthday, with one other guest.  He had visited twice before, and highly recommended it.  Reservations are required a bit in advance, for basically all nights, all times, all party sizes, so, plan accordingly.

We had a nice meal - it was certainly some of the most unique food I've had in a long time, and was quite good.  Definitely a place for foodies, as much as I hate that term, because the food is, well, interesting.

Service was also good, which is not something I say often about Sydney.  Water glasses were kept reasonably full (house sparkling water is free!), new beverages offered when wine glasses/cocktails ran low, serving utensils brought for each share plate, new dishes provided between courses, and the staff were friendly but not invasive.  The meal was well paced out.

I think the menu changes fairly frequently, and I'd be happy to return to try more of this gem.

Setting

Cafe Paci is located right on the main strip in Newtown, in a busy, bustling area.

Street Front.

Cafe Paci looks like pretty much every other establishment of this section of Newtown: bright, fairly generic sign, no outdoor seating, just an entrance and a few windows to the street.

Bar.

But once you step inside, the charm is immediate.  Exposed brick, real wood furniture, quirky art.

A long bar surrounds the mostly open kitchen, with plentiful seating all along.  For a group of two, I think the bar seating would likely be nice, particularly if you want to watch the action in the kitchen.

Table Seating.

Tables are along the other side of the fairly narrow room, all tables for 2 that can be joined together to create configurations of different group sizes easily.

I liked the comfortable bench seating along the wall, and the esthetic of the lamps.

Place Setting.

I found the place setting a bit simple, given the slightly quirky interior and the menu.  Basic white plate, basic cutlery, basic water glasses.  With so many other interesting focal points, this felt a bit like a lost opportunity.

Food & Drink

Don't be afraid!

The wine list has very reasonably priced wines (by the glass or bottle), featuring a large number of orange and rose wines, in addition to standard white/reds.  The list draws from all over - Italian, French, Spanish, Australian, really, a large variety.

I thought this note in the wine menu was cute, as it made the somewhat eclectic wine list more approachable.  And I'll admit, I took a look, and felt pretty lost, not recognizing much of anything.

I had a decent red from Italy later in the meal, 2019 Alice Bonaccorsi Diecidiciletri, a varietal I had never heard of before, nerello mascalese.  It wasn't the most complex wine out there, but it was an easy drinker, nothing offensive about it, and priced quite reasonably at $17/glass.

Old Fashioned. $20.

"Scotch, honey, caraway."

To get started though, I went for a cocktail, perhaps a bit boring, particularly as their cocktail menu is fairly limited, but, I still had a bit of a sore throat, and scotch really is what I wanted.  Hence, an old fashioned.

It was a fine old fashioned, served in a pleasingly heavy glass. Not much to say about it. My companion had a similarly boring negroni.  

Menu

I didn't need the drinks to be interesting though, as the food offerings more than make up for it.

The food menu, much like the wine list, is kinda all over the place.  Pinpointing exactly what the style of cuisine is is quite difficult.  After all, there are items like deviled eggs (hmm, where do those come from?  I think they are British?), and calzones (Italian?), and basics like oysters, but then ... well, it is just so hard to describe.  For example, there is a taco ... but its a rye taco and has ox tongue and sauerkraut.  That certainly isn't Mexican.  There is gnocchi ... but, with an XO sauce, making it, uh, Asian-Italian?  And classic steak frites with sauce Diane for those intimidated by the rest of the menu, bringing in a touch of France and England.  It is a hard menu to really reason about, but it all sounded very, very interesting.  And I guess, uh, Finnish?

In addition to the printed menu, there were a handful of specials, including a few raw seafood options, a salad, market fish of the day, and a couple truffle pasta specials.

The dishes are intended to be shared, except for the first few items that are priced per piece.  We were encouraged to order about 5 different dishes and share them all, but as my companion is vegetarian, and I was drawn in by many of the seafood options, we opted to share a few as starters, and have our own mains.  Our selection of 3 starters and 2 mains (plus 2 desserts!) was just right, but definitely a filling meal, and we easily could have done a bit less.

I appreciated that the dessert menu was included on the main menu, so I could plan accordingly.

Potato and molasses bread with butter. $4.50/each.

Ok, so, if you know me, you know that I generally don't bother eat much bread with meals.  I'm definitely not carb adverse (believe me, put a bread pudding in front of me, or any breakfast carbs, or pile of mashed potatoes, etc, and you'll see), but, bread isn't that exciting to me, and I usually want so many other things.  And I definitely do not go out of my way to order bread at a place that charges for it.

And yet, I gladly ordered the bread here.  I had seen photos, and read reviews, plus had my dining companion's glowing recommendation of it, and, well, yup, I was interested in the bread.  The bread!

My interest was rewarded with some pretty awesome bread.  It was super moist and fluffy due to the potato base, really a unique texture, and had a fairly strong malty flavor from the molasses, and, swoon, the crust.  The crust was sticky, sticky, sticky, and basically, well, candy.  It was impossible to tear this bread with your fingers and not get sticky fingers, but, a bite or two in, you quickly stop caring.  The butter I think may have also had some molasses in it, and it was whipped and fluffy, and the type of butter that you spread on way too thick because its just downright delicious and who cares.

This dish, the simple bread and butter, the optional, paid, bread and butter, set the tone for the rest of the meal.  If it could be that unique and special, well, I knew I was in for a treat.

****+, really, some of the best bread I've probably ever had.  My second favorite dish I think, and it was great to save a little to soak up sauces later on.  I'd certainly get this again.

Mushroom Salad Special. $26.

Next up we opted for the salad special, a fascinating mushroom and comte cheese based dish.  We were told there would be raw mushrooms, crispy fried mushrooms, comte custard, and more.  Given my love of mushrooms, of crispy things, of comte, and of custards, this was a no brainer.

It was a fascinating dish.  The base was crazy thin sliced raw baby mushrooms.  Shockingly thin slices.  Think sorta like mushroom carpacchio I guess.  They were earthy and slimy, and you definitely have to like legit mushrooms (e.g. not plain white or brown table mushrooms) to like this.  On top was tons of the crispy fried little mushrooms.  Sooo much texture.  I liked them the best.  There was also shaved comte that kinda got lost amongst the strong mushrooms flavors, and I guess some comte custard in there, but I can't say I really found that.  

This was kinda fun to eat, and I liked the textures and strong flavors, but, I didn't particularly want more than a few spoonfuls of it.  Interesting to try, but not really the sort of dish you return to.  We didn't finish it, not because it was bad really, it just wasn't that good.  My least favorite dish.

***.

Radicchio, gorgonzola, anchovy, blackberry. $24.
(Anchovy on the side).

Next up, another salad.  Now, this one I was excited for, because I quite like radicchio and love anchovies.  Not quite sure when I last had anchovies, and they sounded perfect.  As my dining companion is vegetarian, the staff offered to put them on the side, which worked great.

I really enjoyed this dish.  The radicchio was served as full leaves, dressed well with at least olive oil (and I think some balsamic?).  Yes, it was a pain to eat as you needed to cut it up yourself, but, it was crisp as could be.  Under the radicchio was a few blackberries, gorgonzola cream and gorgonzola hunks, more olive oil (and again, I think balsamic?).  The gorgonzola cream, blackberries, and radicchio were a killer combination in my book, with the bitter base, the sweet and acidic fruit, and the creamy and funky cheese, really a fantastic play of flavors and quite balanced.  And then of course, my precious anchovies.  Yes, just anchovies, but, I love their funk, and they went quite well with the other ingredients.  I think the salad would be "fine" without them, but I suspect they added quite a bit.  They were soaked in high quality olive oil too.

Overall, well, I loved this.  Yup, a salad.  With essentially only 4 components.  But such beautiful balance.  I used extra bread to lap up the olive oil/balsamic/gorgonzola cream after my salad components were gone, and was pretty thrilled.

****+, my favorite of the dishes.

Potato dumpling with XO trout. $28.

I actually was fairly satisfied with the meal at this point, and would have gladly polished off the rest of the bread, dunking it in any remaining sauces, and moved on to dessert.  But ... we had more substantial dishes ahead, ordered individually as I wasn't interested in the vegetarian pasta.

I could have opted for a seafood forward dish, my standard, but, instead I went for the fascinating sounding potato dumplings.  I had seen photos so I knew this would be gnocchi, but with an Asian style XO sauce.  Fascinating.

It was a good dish.  The dumplings were soft pillows, not gummy, nicely done.  I do sometimes like gnocchi with a bit of sear, or bit of chew to it, and these were just a very soft style, but, they were good.

The XO sauce of course was where the interesting bits were here.  I didn't really taste, nor see, trout, but, there was definitely fermented funk to it, a bit of spice, and well, it was just unlike any other gnocchi I've had before, for sure.  Asian gnocchi ... it works.

I liked this, and I was glad to try something so unique, but I found that I got sick of it after a few bites.  Maybe I was just full and so pleased with the previous dishes?  I probably wouldn't get it again.  My third pick.  ***+.

Sourdough pasta with pear and pecorino. $26.

For his more substantial dish, my companion opted for the vegetarian pasta (the other option was an eggplant dish, which actually sounded pretty good).

As this featured sourdough prominently, I didn't ask to try it.  He did say it was sour.  In retrospect, I do kinda wish I had asked to try it.  I would love to discover some kind of sourdough item I can tolerate, or even, gasp, enjoy ...

Carrot sorbet with yoghurt and licorice. $15.

And then, it was time for dessert.  The menu had three options, in addition to a cheese course, and all sounded pretty fascinating.  Any other day, I probably would have gone for the passionfruit pain perdu with salted caramel and ice cream, as I love warm, carby desserts, sweet sauces, and cool ice cream pairings, but, I had been feasting on epic bread pudding from Saga Bakery for two days straight, and, well, I actually wasn't craving that style of dessert.  And I really am not normally into sorbet but ... this sounded fascinating, and I adore licorice.

My companion had visited before and had this then, and wanted it again.  And he didn't want to share.  Thus, two of the same it was.  Because he had told them it was my birthday, mine came with a candle, and luckily, no singing or embarrassing attention, which I appreciated.  And, I'm not going to lie, it was nice to blow out a candle on my birthday, as silly as it is. 

This was easily the most unique and memorable dessert I have had in years.  It also was quite good.

The base was a licorice cake.  Real licorice, like, black licorice, not the red candy stuff that is popular in the US.  It was incredibly light, and the licorice flavor was fairly intense.  I think my mother would hate this, but, I adore this style of licorice, so I was quite pleased.

Above that, a scoop of carrot sorbet.  Perfectly soft, refreshing, lightly sweet, and yes, it tasted somewhat like carrot.  Before you think that is weird though, um, think about carrot cake?  Carrots have a natural sweetness and are used in dessert applications all the time.  It worked, really.

And then then, the yoghurt, which was sooooooo light and fluffy, definitely aerated, mousse.  It too was lightly sweet, but still plenty tangy, and the texture was fantastic.

I'm honestly not sure which component I liked the best.  They were all very nicely executed, and together, the flavors and textures truly worked well.  This isn't a very sweet dessert, if you want sweet, likely the passionfruit pain perdu is for you, but it was refreshing, and a fantastic end to the meal.

I'd certainly consider getting this again, but also would like to try others.  The creativity level here is off the charts, and it makes you just want to explore more, even if you like a dish.  If I were to try to refine this dish more, I'd like to see some kind of crunchy element added and perhaps a salty element.  Part of what I love about black licorice is the salt, and I think that could work here in moderation, perhaps as part of the yogurt element?

Anyway, a very unique, interesting, and tasty dessert, very in-theme with the whole meal.  ****.