The Age 2009 Good Food Guide
Sometimes, a meal at Va Tutto can feel like stepping into a dinner scene with the Sopranos - without the risk of getting whacked. There’s a good chance you’ll witness rounds of air-kissing at this light-drenched corner restaurant, the venue of choice for emotional Italo-Australian parties, ‘zero’ birthdays and anniversary dinners since it opened in 2005. Chef Paul Recinella and his wife Myrto previously owned Zio’s in East Melbourne and many of their former customers have followed them here, knowing the service will be congenial, the chocolate-and-cream fit-out sleek and the contemporary menu intriguing. Recinella reaches well beyond his Italian roots, adding ideas from France, Asia and the Middle East to his bag of tricks. So alongside Whiting carpaccio slicked with lemon and oil, and light, lovely potato gnocci draped with buffalo mozzarella, you might find plump seafood wontons bobbing in a shittake-infused broth, or rose-pink lamb racks and chunky kibbe plated with a silken potato mash and pomegranate molasses. The cooking is mature, confident and unashamedly crowd-pleasing. What’s not to love about doughnuts oozing molten chocolate?
Article from The Age Epicure July 2008 - David Sutherland
Paul Recinella is one of those hard working chefs quietly pleasing large bands of loyal customers, day after day, night after night - or years.
After buying Zio's in East Melbourne in 1988 at just 26, Recinella and his wife and business partner Myrto gradually transformed the restaurant into one of the inner city's most popular dining venues.
"It had an intimate, friendly atmosphere that people liked", Recinella says. Being quite small and located inside a small terrace house, and with the style of food we were doing, I think the customers almost felt like they were visiting us at home."
Three years ago fresh pastures beckoned, and Recinella put his head together with an architect to create his dream kitchen in Va Tutto in Ivanhoe.
"I'm fanatical about making everything in house." he says.
Although the menu at Va Tutto ranges from Italian to Greek to Asian, Recinella particularly loves his seafood.
The Age Good Food Guide 2008
Listen carefully and you'll hear the cheer go up from this former culinary no-go zone. Destination dining on a suburban scale, the Va Tutto package has been tailored to it's location, embracing the generous space with an inoffensive retro-modern treatment of an airy bar/bistro and smart restaurant. The food of Paul Recinella, formerly of East Melbourne's Zio's, also hits the bullseye, remaining on-trend without scaring the locals. Mostly Mediterranean but flirting with some Asian influences, judicious tweaks raise the quotidian to the sublime - think melt-in-the-mouth Wagyu beef lasagne or gyoza bursting with chunks of scallop and king prawn. Recinella is fond of upping the ante; witness his pan-fried John Dory on tempura-style prawns and a salad of potato and smoked trout.
Elsewhere he's happy to let his ingredients such as Iberico ham, scampi and pearl meat speak for themselves. Dessert offerings encapsulate the experience, veering between the subtlety of pistachio baked custard and the unblushing crowd-pleaser of pavlova.
Article from the Glutton section Herald Sun Sunday Magazine May 2007
What's the difference between a bistro and a restaurant? It's a question that comes up when I call to book at Va Tutto and am asked which I'd prefer (the floor space is divided between a casual bistro and a formal restaurant). I opt for the bistro - I'm in a relaxed mood tonight - but after enjoying fine food and attentive service on that side, I decide that the difference between Va Tutto's two halves comes down to tablecloths and padded chairs. Indeed, a lot of dishes on both menus are similar in style and price (although if you want to try one of the superb pizzas, head for the bistro). Va Tutto's owners - husband and wife team Paul and Myrto Recinella - ran East Melbourne's Zio's for 16 years before relocating northeast in 2005. The move paid off; they were voted the Herald Sun's Restaurant of the Year in 2006. The food is best described as Italian with an Asian twist, and if the satisfied looks on the diners' faces are anything to go by, it's a combination that works. We start by sharing an entrée - my other half had spotted the dessert menu and wants to leave room - the Thai-style fish and prawn cakes with herb and kaffir lime leaf dressing ($15). It's more fish for me - with the special of yellow-fin tuna served on a bed of horseradish mash with olive tapenade ($29) - and Wagyu beef lasagne with parmesan béchamel ($26) for him. As for the much-anticipated dessert, let's just say 'sublime' barely does justice to our frozen Valrhona chocolate and Zabaglione parfait ($13). In fact, sublime sums up Va Tutto quite nicely.
Herald Sun June 2006
IF NOT from left field, my restaurant of the year is in Ivanhoe - out of East Melbourne.Until the arrival of va tutto, the suburban north-east was a gastronomic desert.
Now the Ivanhoe area — where I have lived for most of my life — has its first great eating place. And the East Melbourne connection? Paul and Myrta Recinella, Va Tutto's owners, ran and cooked at the estimable Zio's in Lansdowne St for several years.
Myrto managed front-of-house and Paul led the kitchen brigade.
Now they've moved from a restrained and fairly cramped, as I recall, Victoriana to a spacious, well-lit and sleek new corner brasserie, cafe and bar.
I don't know of a better tripe dish than Paul's "Venetian" version. Streamers of long-cooked gut team up with aromatic vegetables and swatches of spinach in a delicious broth.
Riding the lot are a few wafer-thin triangles of parmesan. The result is sublime.
Several times here I've shared an antipasti starter — a generous taste-plate of hot and cold things — and the gnocchi with a rich and complex ox-tail stew is brilliant.
And it's to the credit of Paul and his team that va tutto's list strays occasionally from traditional Latin offerings.
I've tried a plinth of yellowfin tuna coated with black and white sesame seeds and left warm-raw in the middle.
Topped with a dark-green mince of baby watercress, it sat on a cushion of roasted and peeled red capsicum strips and was circled by balsamic vinegar and a herb sauce.
Try ordering it in Rome.
My highest-scoring (19 out of 20) restaurant in the past 12 months, Va Tutto offers excellent value for money.
Review by Stephen Downes December 2005
Ivanhoe has never had a better restaurant than Va Tutto. How do I know? I’ve lived in and around this — until now — gastronomically neglected suburb for almost half a century.
So I guess I’m not the only one delighted with Va Tutto’s opening in October. It’s a wonderful sleek new brasserie, café and bar, one of Melbourne’s best. Owners Paul and Myrto Recinella had for many years the estimable Italian restaurant Zio’s in East Melbourne. Now they’ve moved nearer home and opened what Ivanhoe and its adjacent suburbs were crying out for.
I remember the “Venetian style” honeycomb tripe ($13.50) from Joe’s days. I don’t know a better tripe dish. It’s simply sublime, a good serving of streamers of long-cooked gut with aromatic vegetables — you can see the carrot cubes — and swatches of spinach in a delicious broth. Riding the lot are a few wafer-thin triangles of parmesan. Paul Recinella modestly says it’s simply his mother’s recipe.
Everything I tried was excellent. But a well-salted dark-green mince of baby watercress topping a 3cm-thick plinth of yellowfin tuna ($25.90) was utterly memorable. Coated with black and white sesame seeds and left warm-raw in the middle, the tuna itself was wonderful. It sat on a low cushion of peeled and roasted red-capsicum strips and was encircled by a thin ring of heavy balsamic vinegar and another of green sauce (salsa verde).
Dishes here look as elegant and refined as the restaurant itself. It’s very swish. Installed on a large well-lit corner site, it’s separated subtly but distinctly into bar, café and restaurant. The bar is towards the front, and once beyond it — in the restaurant — you’ll find a rich plain-grey carpet, buff-coloured fully-upholstered leather dining chairs, white walls and ceiling, dark grainy veneer interrupting the walls, and gorgeous bifold doors in a pale-gold satin-type material to mark off a private dining area. Well-separated tables are double-draped in white fabric and there are big napkins in similar material. The glassware and alloy cutlery are excellent and classic.
The list here begins with a page of “menu extras”, which included the yellowfin, the day we visited, and also featured eggplant lasagna, asparagus risotto and fried zucchini flowers stuffed with goats’ cheese and pesto. Nine entrees include a Caesar salad, veal carpaccio, spicy calamari, chargrilled ox tongue and the tripe.
Even in entrée size, potato gnocchi with a ragout of ox tail and chilli ($13.90, $19.90) was ample, the ragout (beef stew) rich and complex, and the chilli restrained. And the gnocchi themselves were wonderfully spuddish yet light and lovely.
Innovative was a duck “tasting plate” ($28.90). Why give customers a single main course of duck when you can present them with — on a glass platter of four partitions — a confit leg on a delicate curry sauce, a meat-filled and delightfully spicy duck and Sichuan pepper spring roll (which sat with green shreds of pickled seaweed), counters of pan-roasted five-spice breast in a terrific brown juice, and a golden and crisply furry duck and melted-cheese rice ball?
Eight listed desserts were complemented by a marvellous tart ($10.90) of almond paste, whisky and crushed almonds in a biscuit crust. A brittle wafer was the platform for a big globe of vanilla icecream studded with vanilla dust. And a lattice of toffee protruded from the ice.
www.eatanddrink.com.au
Simple but elegant dining room with well-laid tables and fine attention to detail from welcome to farewell.
The menu draws dishes from cuisines across the globe ... dangerous territory if kitchen skills are less than highly skilled ... and performs at the highest level. Dishes stay loyal to their source and this is part of their success. Cooked with skill and artfully presented this is exciting as dishes don't jar with each other but combine in a comples dining experience. Staff are caring and supervised to ensure you are happy throughout the meal.
An interesting and balanced wine list completes one of the finest suburban dining experiences in Melbourne.
www.yourrestaurants.com.au
Owners Paul and Myrto Recinella are well-known for their previous venture, Zio's, a 16-year institution. While they have left East Melbourne behind for the streets of Ivanhoe, this is no sea change. Far from relaxing into a cosy corner cafe, the duo have launched into this large-scale project of cafe, wine bar and bistro. Tastefully renovating an old building, they've producing a modern space of natural tones and crisp white accents. The view into the kitchen lends the dining room a dynamic vibe, while the outdoor terrace looks out onto the (increasingly) bustling street.
The Recinella's have brought their focus on modern Italian cuisine over from Zio's, including some of their most popular dishes, though the menu also has an Asian flavour. Thankfully, this is a surprisingly happy marriage, allowing for such creations as the duck tasting plate - a gastronomic journey from continent to continent. One doesn't often get culinary creativity and stylish surrounds for such prices, and while Va Tutto does not undervalue itself, neither will it burn a hole in anyone's pocket