Dinnertime here starts around 6pm. It’s tough to find restaurants other than cafes open before 5pm and even tougher if they’re Italian. After our Thursday law class, Jenny and I wanted a BYO meal so we searched high and low on Coogee Bay Road for an Italian place. Only two were open- the first had a mediocre menu and the second looked more appetizing. So that’s how we picked Renato’s.
For the pricing of the menu, the place is a crummy. There is one long booth that runs along one end of the wall where 7 tables are squeezed in between. My problem was they tried to squeeze so much into the space that it was really difficult to get in and out.
Other than that, I was really satisfied with the food. I’d actually never had veal and had to ask the server what exactly it was. So veal is a baby cow and the meat is kept in the dark so it stays tender. The name of the dish was Veal Boscaiola. Boscaiola is just a cream and mushroom based sauce that’s found in Italian pasta. The veal was indeed tender, but it was the boscaiola that made the dish. This sauce had bacon in it.
Jenny ordered their rump steak, which was a bit dry and flavorless for it. The veal and the steak were the same price at $27 each and both come with tender baby potatoes and some steamed carrots and beans. I heard the pasta dishes are good and from what I saw, the portion sizes were huge.
We also brought the red wine we got from New Zealand. Jenny didn’t like it very much so we only finished like a third of it. The rest is still sitting in my closet.
I almost forgot! We got dessert too. Their cakes are decent and served with either cream or ice cream. Obviously, get the ice cream, but be aware that their ice cream is a bit gritty and almost stale (can ice cream even go stale??) Anyway, the slice was overpriced at $8, but oh wells.
237 Coogee Bay Rd
Coogee, NSW 2034
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