Jamie’s Italian Sydney
On Sunday, February 21st, I arrived in Sydney, Australia for my semester abroad at the University of New South Wales. Right from the start, I could see how generous, thoughtful, and friendly the people are in Australia. However, to my surprise, Sydney was filled with a very diverse population, ranging from indigenous Australians to Americans to Chinese to British to Vietnamese and so many more. After some research, I found that in the past few years, Australia has seen an influx of approximately 2,000,000 immigrants, largely from Asia. As a result, the food in Australia has taken a large turn. While Australia is known for certain foods, such as vegemite, a popular spread, the country has a large amount of Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, American, and other ‘global’ cuisines and restaurants all around. These restaurants have grown in popularity over the past few years.
After visiting the famous Taronga Zoo in Sydney, I decided to go to Jamie’s Italian Sydney Restaurant, located in the ‘heart’ of Sydney. This was one of the only restaurants open on Sunday, as in Australia, almost every store or restaurant is closed on Sundays. The restaurant is rustically designed, bringing about a relaxed aura and theme. Furthermore, Jamie’s Italian was filled with the chef’s cookbooks, engraved napkins, and ingredients, all of which added to the authentic feel. The kitchen is open and as a result, we could watch the chefs cook. When sitting at the table with friends, we all had high expectations, as the Italian food in the United States is very good. We were not disappointed. I ordered the Rigatoni Pomodor, a pasta in tomato sauce, made with garlic, basil, mascarpone, mozzarella, and breadcrumbs. My meal was simply delicious! My friend ordered the Truffle Risotto made with creamy gorgonzola, summer truffle with parmesan and crunchy breadcrumbs on top. She enjoyed her meal as well. By the time the waitress came with the dessert menus, we were all too stuffed. We ordered the check and left. In Australia, it is not very customary to leave tips, which is very different than the United States. Furthermore, restaurants in Australia are very comfortable with splitting checks in several ways whereas in the US, restaurants may be reluctant to do so.
After tasting the food and browsing through the cookbooks at the table, I decided to learn more about Jamie’s. Jamie’s Italian was founded in Oxford in 2008 and has over 40 restaurants world-wide. Sydney is one of the more popular locations of Jamie’s Italian and is recommended in almost all guidebooks of Sydney. We really enjoyed our meal and I can’t wait to see what else Sydney has to offer food-wise.
