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Jamie’s Italian

Jamie’s Italian is fast food dressed up as rustic Italian but you’ll have to wait to get it. Simon Thomsen reports.

There is a moment in the film Six Degrees Of Separation when Stockard Channing’s character, Ouisa, slaps the roof of the Sistine Chapel, touching the hand of God on Michelangelo’s Creation Of Adam fresco. Given the chance, we’d all love to slap the Almighty’s hand, but happily settle for lesser gods, in this case Jamie Oliver.

That desire partly explains a queue outside the CBD trattoria bearing his name when I join it at 12.05pm on a weekday. They don’t take bookings for less than six people. Fifteen minutes elapse before we reach a young woman who explains another 20 minutes will pass before we can be seated. We get a beeper and wait in the bar. She’s true to her word, but it’s after 1pm by the time our first dish arrives. The kitchen is reasonably quick, but if you only have an hour for lunch, chances are you’ll spend most of it waiting.

The god of pukka tucker is applying the same principles that made McDonald’s a global success to Jamie’s Italian. He’s selling the restaurants as a franchise. There are 26.

Jamie’s Italian is all about systems. And volume. This is fast food dressed up as rustic Italian. The service is as cheerful and charming as the man himself.

Jamie’s special ingredient is adjectives such as “gorgeous”, “vibrant”, “beautiful” and “amazing” sprinkled liberally through many dishes.

My favourite is the “insanely good truffle oil” on that most rustic of Italian classics, “posh chips” with parmesan ($6). At least no truffles are harmed in making the truffle oil: it’s synthetic.

The menu is divided into eight nibbles, 10 antipasti, 13 pasta and rice dishes, 12 mains, 10 sides and nine desserts.

Jamie says he should have been Italian, but I suspect only Silvio Berlusconi would rival him in the popularity stakes once Italians discovered his “authentic” menu includes an appetiser of “Italian nachos” ($7) and “Italian” Bakewell tart ($9) for dessert.

But first we start with the nachos: deep-fried ravioli with a four-cheese filling and “angry” arrabiata sauce. The crunchy pasta is puffed up like Sicilian cannoli, with small nuggets of gooey cheese inside.

Scamorza arancini ($9.50), crumbed and fried rice balls filled with smoky mozzarella and porcini, are more satisfying and truthfully Italian.

Next is bucatini carbonara, $12/$19. The pasta suffers from what seems like rigor mortis – a stiffness that leaves it bent like leftover electrical wires and impossible to twirl on a fork. There’s a creamy puddle in the bowl with the pancetta, leeks, eggs and parmesan.

The short pasta tubes in the cuttlefish paccheri, $13.50/$21, are also what my dining companion declares “bravely al dente”. I like the braised cuttlefish in white wine with capers, tomato and parsley.

Tuscan wild boar sausage, $22.40, is a little dry, yet pleasantly spiced on a bed of lentils sharpened by vinegar. The best dish is “fish baked in a bag” ($28), a take on Sicily’s pesce al cartoccio. A mulloway fillet with fennel, chilli and mussels and clams in their shells sits on couscous-like bulgur wheat that absorbs the briny juices as the fish steams in a “bag” that releases its wonderful scent when opened.

I don’t doubt the quality of ingredients or the commitment, but there’s something missing from this restaurant. Call it a soul.

Hopefully the investors will have made their cash after everyone has had the chance to slap the hand of God. But for this travesty to all that is great about Italian eating in Sydney, I just want to slap Oliver.

How it rated

Food: 11/20
Staff: 7/10
Drink: 3/5
X-factor: 3/5
Value: 8/10

The score out of 50 – 32

Jamie’s Italian’s details

Address: 107 Pitt St, Sydney; Phone (02) 8240 9000
Food: Italian
Drink: Licensed; small range of Italian varietals
Hours: Lunch dinner Mon-Sat 11.30am-late; no bookings
Price guide: Entrees $6-$16.50; Mains $15-$38; Desserts $6-$9.50

Snapshot: In a city with a great Italian heritage and food, Jamie Oliver’s faux Italian doesn’t cut the mostarda, but that won’t stop it being a roaring success.

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Information in this article is correct as of 6 December, 2011

Simon Thomsen reviews NSW restaurants for the taste section every Tuesday in The Daily Telegraph.