Hot to Tott
My friend Craig, who works on the door at Allianz Stadium, is curious to know where we’re headed for dinner as we arrive on this Saturday evening for the Waratahs game. Totti’s, we tell him, as we trot off to the Members area.
“It’s very popular,” he comments enthusiastically. “I’ve had lots of people tonight heading to Totti’s.”
He’s not wrong. As we take the escalators to level 2, a loud hum hits our ears before we even get into the bar and dining area. And it’s not coming from the ground, where the teams are warming up for the game. It’s coming from Totti’s itself.
Luckily, we have booked, because Totti’s is pumping. We arrive at the check-in desk to find every table taken, except our tight spot at the window overlooking the field. It’s all we can do not to run to the seats in case someone else gets there before us. Totti’s, it seems, is the place to be in the eastern suburbs on a Saturday night. That a quality game is about to kick off is something of a bonus.
“I thought it was going to be quiet here tonight,” says a friend who squeezes in alongside us at the window. “The Tahs aren’t exactly having a great season.”
Do the diners here care how the Tahs are travelling? Apparently not when there’s pasta and prosciutto to enjoy plus Aperol spritzes and red wines that whip out of the kitchen and bar seemingly moments after their orders are placed via the online menu accessed through a barcode on the table.
Totti’s is one of the runaway successes from the Moore Park precinct partnership between Venues NSW and hospitality giant Merivale, which runs the food and beverage programs at both Allianz and the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Drawing inspiration from chef Mike Eggert’s original Totti’s, launched at Bondi’s Royal Hotel in December 2018, the Allianz incarnation — rebranded slightly as Totti’s Pasta Bar — is a stadium rendition of the Italian-themed diner.
Don’t expect potted olive trees (they might obscure the field view) and fold-up green canvas chairs here. Rather, look for an iteration offering neatly packed tables and a pared-down menu that eliminates the original’s more time-consuming dishes (grilled fish, wood-fired bread, bone-in sirloin, for instance).
The emphasis at this Totti’s is on antipasti and pasta, simple tasty dishes that amp the flavour to maximise quick and fuss-free dining. Which makes sense given most people do want to get outside to watch the game without having to wait for their T-bone to rest.
Start with simple plates of goodness such as thinly sliced mortadella ($12), beautifully ripened cherry tomatoes splashed with olive oil and dotted with fragrant thyme ($12), baby peppers roasted with garlic and served with lemon ($9), or other morsels including a ball of tender burrata in olive oil ($12.50), thick, crunchy focaccia ($10), or a heaped plate of prosciutto ($18.50).
The mains list is all about pasta. Ricotta ravioli ($30) offers little ricotta-filled squares in a roasted tomato sauce; bolognese pappardelle ($28) is a moreish ragu with silky pasta ribbons; spinach reginette ($28) is an interesting vegetarian offering of firm frilly pasta folded through with kale and pumpkin seeds that’s both soulful and delicious.
There are other temptations: gnocchi in a four cheese sauce ($28); fettuccine in tomato sugo with stracciatella ($28); and the dish that proves our favourite, a prawn and chilli ditali ($30) — a deeply enjoyable pairing of al dente ribbed pasta tubes with a spicy tomato sauce studded with tiny school prawns and scattered with herbs. Taken with a plate of freshness in a huge and crunchy rocket and parmesan salad ($16.50), it makes for exceptionally good eating. Drinks, meanwhile, from sommelier Franck Moreau’s Italian-leaning wine list, also emerge speedily and are excellent.
There are two desserts — tiramisu ($16) and a Neapolitan ice-cream sandwich ($8.50) — though you may like to save up for the excellent Vinnie’s gelato you can get by the cup down on the concourse level.
It’s all very good, fast, fun, tasty and satisfying. (So much so that we can’t help but return a fortnight later, this time bringing our nine-year-old son. Does anyone bat an eye when he opts for a Four ’N Twenty pie and tomato sauce over pasta and rocket salad? Nope. And it’s more for us. Great.)
As we head out of the stadium after the game, Craig spies us again and asks how we enjoyed Totti’s. “We loved it,” we tell him.
“You’re not the only ones. We had a lot of people tonight coming in just to go to Totti’s. Never mind the rugby. They left before the game kicked off.”
They may well be on to something.
Totti’s Pasta Bar
Level 2, Members area
Allianz Stadium
Note: Totti’s is open to members and those with a members card
Totti’s Mark II
Not one to ever be outdone, the SCG also has its own Totti’s Pasta Bar. The outlet opened for members in the MA Noble Don Bradman Dally Messenger Stand in May, with the same menu as that on offer at Totti’s at Allianz Stadium. The SCG venue brings the total number of Totti’s to six, inclusive of the original in Bondi, plus others in Rozelle (at the Three Weeds hotel), Bar Totti’s in the Sydney CBD, Totti’s Lorne on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road and the pair at the Moore Park stadiums.