Il Postino, Alstonville.
Many of my friends are Sydney born and bred. They are used to convenience, public transport, a plethora of eating options and a variety of purchasing choices relying on shops here, down the road and in the next suburb too. They don’t know the horror and pain of living 10 minutes drive from a town with only a handful of eateries, counting ‘the milk bar’ and the small country town chinese restaurant (think honey prawns and a family ordering 6 large fried rice with sweet and sour sauce for dinner – I used to work there) amongst their number. But the little almost-restaurant-free town I left almost 10 years ago hasn’t been in a time warp , much to my surprise, with a few cosmopolitan eateries open for business.
Garlic and Herb pizza – $8.00
When a girlfriend from school (pre-school, in fact!) suggested we meet in town for lunch I hoped it wouldn’t be at the milk bar – there are only so many toasted cheese, tomato and onion sandwiches one can eat in a lifetime – and was pleasantly surprised as we took our seats in the old post office, now a heritage building housing Il Postino, an italian restaurant specialising in wood fired pizza.
Roast pumpkin, baby spinach, pine nut and goats cheese salad – $15.00
With a sophisticated casual-chic makeover, this space is so different from the time we used to collect our mail here. Sometime in the 90′s they moved the post office (and in the process forgetting our PO Box number, 83 didn’t exist in the new post office), and various restaurants have been here ever since.
Our garlic and herb pizza, salty and redolent with rosemary and garlic whets the appetite wonderfully, but $8.00 for this small serve seems a little steep. Our mountainous salad artfully turns what could be a disappointingly wispy dish into a satisfying meal. A roasted pumpkin ‘aioli’ is mixed all the way through the light baby spinach leaves, dotted with creamy goats cheese, and unfortunately insipid tomatoes and untoasted pine nuts. The crowning tangle of fried sweet potato is a winner, more please!
Orange, almond and basil cake – $6.00 (i think).
We shrug off the hard up-sell for wine, coffee and tea, and I can ignore the clearing of the plate while my friend still had a slice of pizza in hand, but I am a bit sad that the basil in our dessert was nowhere to be found. Despite this, the gluten-free cake was a sweet ending, and the accompanying lemony cream, flecked with vanilla beans shows more thought, precision and taste than the ever present dollop of plain over-whipped cream.
This meal was overpriced by Sydney standards, but economies of scale force it to be this way. I hope Il Postino survives, Alstonville needs pizza that isn’t from Eagle Boys, and the few tables here for this weekend lunch prove that a nice meal and a glass of wine has a market here. When the Alstonville bypass is complete the resulting drop in traffic will make sitting out on the deck here will be much more enjoyable, and maybe this town will become a dining destination, or maybe I’m dreaming. Regardless, I’m happy that tidy town Alstonville is making movements towards cosmopolitan modernity, more please!
Il Postino
86 Main Street, Alstonville,
Phone: 02 66283333
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4 Comments
lili! you’re amazing for remembering all the details of our lunch! missing you, but luckily there’s pikelet and pie for when im craving a little bit of lil. mmmmmmm! x
aimee: Awww! You’re lovely. It was a lovely lunch, thanks for sharing it with me.
xx.
My sister and I took our mother here yesterday for Mothers Day lets just say it leaves alot to be desired $40 for 2 courses my mother was looking forward to the lamb but alas when we ordered we were told we should have been told it was sold out when we were seated. So that left us with 3 options fish, tortellini and prawns we ended up ordering 2 tortellini, 1 fish. When our meals finally arrived the fish looked great but the tortellini was very unimpressive with only 5 20cent size pieces of tortellini on the plate with a drizzle of olive oil my sister and I were not impressed! Mothers kingfish did taste excellent served with a potato croquette and beetroot relish and looked good enough for the price! The tortellini was pretty average flavour not great and the edges under cooked. We did manage to order one of each of the desserts a tiramisu, panna cotta and a creme brulee which all came out looking amazing and tasted beautiful. I did make a trip to the bathroom to find 4 ladies talking about how horrible their experience had been thus far once again no lamb, entrees missing, desserts coming out on hot plates with melted gelato and hearing other tables only being offered 2 out of 4 mains. All in all I would not go back being over priced and quality enough to justify it!
Emma: Thank you for your comment! I think that you had the same ‘hit and miss’ experience with the food that I experienced. Having worked in many restaurants on the North Coast and in Sydney I know what it is like to be in the kitchen on a day like Mothers day. I can pretty much guarantee that last Sunday was the busiest day that Il Postino has ever had. It is no wonder that the service was slow and patchy. They would have been hugely understaffed – why hire and train staff that you will only require for one or two busy days a year? It is important to make note of such a failing and your bad experience, but I don’t think that this place should be judged so harshly for this crazy of crazy days.
I noted in my review that the service was lacking and I visited on a very quiet day. I’m sorry that you had such a bad experience, I hope it didn’t ruin Mothers day for your family!