Stefano’s Restaurant

2 Reviews on “Stefano’s Restaurant”

• Carmilla5

  My partner who travels to Mildura 3 times a year visits Stefano’s at least once a year and has begged me to come up. Glad I did. I love that the restaurant is set in the cellar in the Grand Hotel near the river. It was a hot night (next day first 40+ day) so it was lovely and cool inside. There’s two areas to be seated; a room to the left and a long passage to the right. Nearly a full house on a Tuesday night. The two staff serving, Brendon who has been with Stefanos for 17 years was the sommelier, loved his job and it showed. They had a collection of wines by the glass, selected by him for each course of the 5 course degustation. He and Tanya were fantastic, warm without being too much. First course was a rabbit and mushroom terrine. Loved it’s tasty coolness and realised I hadn’t eaten rabbit for many years; not that I would know it was rabbit. Second course was the cheesy Parmesan and stinging nettle sformantino, which like a soufflé. That one went down too quickly. I loved the perfect cheesiness of it. The nettles added a lovely flavour. Next was the chicken livers and pappardelle. Normally the idea of any liver would put me off but as this was Stefanos, knew it would be good and whilst the photo does not do it justice, it was outstanding! Do flavoursome. Only one little piece of liver actually tasted like liver, the rest was so more-ish. Loved how they served each dish in the perfect timing, where you actually felt like you weren’t being stuffed like a Xmas turkey. When the main of honeyed roasted duck came, it had probably been more than 20 mins, so we were hungry. This was my least favourite as it was a wee bit over cooked so not as much of the duck was able to be eaten as it was stick to the bone. But saying that, the meat was delicious and served with celeriac mash and wilted baby spinach. Never thought with 5 courses I could fit in dessert but luckily this came fairly quickly and consisted of two different desserts. One was a vanilla bean bavarois and poached quince and the other a meringue encrusted blood orange sorbet. Such a lovely idea to have two desserts. I secretly hoped for something with chocolate but both of these different mouthfeels; the crunch of meringue, the soft velvety bavarois, the cool sorbet finished off a perfect experience!Stefano was in the kitchen cooking up a storm. So grateful to have eaten here. He’s really created an amazing food culture in Mildura, as have many of the Italians who made Mildura their home (Tony Araco for one). Mille Gracie Stefano and team. As a ps, we met Bart van Olphen, a winemake, who makes the amazing Vermantino served in house, that was out of this world. Lovely to meet him and his father, who was over from Holland. Other wines of note were the Rose and Shiraz. Don’t remember the names as I wasn’t drinking.

  March 20, 2020, 2:23 am

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• CAC

  A great treat tonight as Stefano prepared a real food experience for us . Peperone with a melanzana stuffing on a bed of chick peas and ricotta salata. EXQUISITE. Tagliarini with tonno. EVEN MORE EXQUISITE. Soufflé with wild nettle. So soft and MORE AND MORE EXQUISITE. The lamb shank – to die for !!!!!Finally , quince panna cotta. MIZZICA !The meal was truly wonderful from the home made bread and butter to the coffee. We will be travelling the 600 kilometres from Melbourne to come back to Stefano ‘s , again and again. BRAVISSIMO E GRAZIE FI CUORE.

  August 20, 2019, 2:23 am

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