Grano - Wetherill Park, NSW

I did mention that the Mrs and I had eaten out quite a bit lately...in the midst of adapting to living with another person and enjoying married life, I really hadn't had the time to sort all my photos and write about places. I really should have written about this place ages ago but alas, here we are. For our Valentine's day celebration, the Mrs had come up with a suggestion for a place that she'd seen on Instagram. Since the Mrs rarely ever comes up with suggestions for locations, I took this opportunity immediately and booked a spot for two that day.


Situated on the corner of the industrial part of Wetherill Park, you'd never imagine from the surrounding location that such a well fitted out and romantic restaurant would be right there. They take that industrial fit out and run with it by overlaying a simplistic but charming old school italian vibe to it (complete with tomato cans and old cupboards). We start our night off with a couple of cocktails which is in my opinion: always the best way to start off a celebration. To me though, they were a slight bit too sweet as you couldn't really taste the alcohol. Great for a first date and getting your date talkative though.

For Entrees, we chose to have the zucchini flowers and polpette. The zucchini flowers were crispy and really nicely seasoned, sitting on top of a bed of simple bed of roquette and cherry tomatoes. A drizzle of balsamic glaze is then added with some freshly grated parmesan. The lighter of the two entrees, the crunch factor from the coating and the slightly peppery roquette gives you a really good palate cleanse.

Very shortly after we finished our first entree, our second order also arrived at our table: the polpette or calabrese style meatballs were delicious...plump, juicy balls of beef swim in this tart yet savoury tomato based sauce. The sauce is really simple: fresh tomatoes seasoned very slightly to bring out the sweetness and tartness with maybe just a bit of basil in it. The meatballs are cooked perfectly...red in the centre but definitely cooked through...they retain their shape and meatiness but have a certain tender elasticity. You also get slices of toasted bread to act as the "scarpetta" which means "little shoe", the piece of carb provided to help you sop up the sauce.

For mains, the Mrs and I were allowed to pick a dish each to which I picked the prosciutto e funghi pizza. I picked this because well...I love pizza, especially when it comes out of a wood fire oven. I don't know if my pictures are adequate enough to display how great this piece of pie is...smoky and delicate...the pizza crust is a perfect balance between doughy and crispy. Personally, there was a bit too much roquette on top which meant the thin, salty slices of prosciutto got lost amongst the green but I really, really didn't mind. It was definitely still a delicious pizza.

As Suze calls it...the "Upskirt" shot

The definite favourite of the night was this: the spaghetti al cartoccio. This was the dish that made the Mrs want to come here and boy, I'm so glad she found it. A paper bag is brought to the table on a wooden cutting board with a grilled chilli on the side. You may have seen it on Instagram but the does not compare to actually experiencing the spectacular unveiling in person. As you open that baked bag, the aroma of olive oil, seafood and garlic rise through the air, tempting you to look at the contents and salivate. Each strand of spaghetti is covered in generous lashing of this flavoured oil sauce and each bite yield this wonderful, al-dente snap...seriously, one of the most impressive pasta dishes I've had.

Normally, the Mrs and I actively avoid desserts...as if we hadn't gorged enough, we avoid further ingesting additional sugar that we have no means of working off later. This time though, seeing that it's Valentine's day, the Mrs specifically requested that we order dessert...in particular, she wanted to eat the cannoli. They do it a little special here at Grano: it's all D-I-Y...what this means is that you get two freshly fried cannoli shells dusted in icing sugar, a piping bag packed full of that ricotta flavoured cream and some chocolate sauce. It's entirely up to your discretion on how much ricotta cream you pipe inside, a little or a lot...or just put the bag in your mouth and squeeze. All up to you.

I mentioned it again and again during dinner that night but nothing makes me happier than to see great places like Grano open up in areas that are out of the beaten path. Wetherill Park is a great place to expand and open up at the moment as the population in Western Sydney need more places like this where they can go eat out and enjoy life. It was a really, really enjoyable dinner and since the Mrs works so close to Wetherill Park, I'm looking forward to eventually taking our friends there.