Predictably, walking down to Stanley Street to get dinner and hoping for Bar Reggio to be at least partly vacant was a pipe dream at best...but there was a silver lining to that cloudy reverie: we found Reggio Lounge. If you mosey away from the door of Bar back towards the strip of other restaurants, you will notice a new spot on the corner with inviting open windows and clean stainless steel tables indoors and out. As you approach, you'll realize it contains Reggio in the name and you'll wonder, "Is this related to Bar Reggio? Do they have trademark infringement in Australia? Can you trademark a name or single identifying word?" The answer to the last two questions is irrelevant, because YES! It is related to Bar Reggio.
This spot is basically an expansion effort, as best as I can tell. A board on the wall directly upon entry indicates the connection to Bar with a cork board and pictures of the "Reggio family," patrons and staff from next door and photos of the new space. However, rather than closing the main restaurant to knock down a wall in order to attach the next door space, I assume they just decided to buy it and fix it up as a distinct space which sufficiently extends their small kingdom.
The food is pretty much the same, as far as I can tell from one visit, but again, prepped in a distinct kitchen. We were seated, ordered, and fed well before the 45 minute wait next door would have had us let in by. This is some of the simplest, tastiest Italian food you can get in Sydney, in my opinion. It's not so simple that it's insulting; there's no use of the same four ingredients in rotation essentially serving the same one thing to everyone (Bill and Toni's, I'm looking at you...). But it does have four or five essential elements on each plate, sauced adequately, seasoned perfectly, with no frills and lots of delicious, satisfying taste. Most things have oil (but aren't greasy), salt (but aren't mouth-puckering), and chilli (but aren't lip-swelling), which is perfect to my palate.
We shared a Caesar salad with eggs, bacon and romaine, lightly dressed and with fresh and crisp garlic bread cuts as croutons. He had penne with sausage and porcini, which was creamy and rich but not so heavy as to make one feel disgusting after. And I had spaghetti gambieri, with prawns, Napoli (tomato) sauce, chilli and oil in perfect balance. At times in Australia I find prawns to have a slightly "off" taste, for lack of a better word, a bit chemical smelling/tasting perhaps of chlorine, as best I can describe. Not so these; I was picking one up and man-handling it to try and get the tail out (and failed) so I just wiped my messy hands up and tried to recover and eat the rest of my plate like a polite human being.
Basically, your food here is so good you want every last bite. Service was friendly and fast, the new space is fresh and clean and not as overwhelmingly busy and packed-in like the next-door Bar, which is usually a claustrophobic cluster-f*ck. I enjoyed that we just found this because the newness seems to contribute to some relative restaurant emptiness and I find that enjoyable in dining. Don't expect it to stay like that for long though. Word should get out: this place is not just the next best thing/back-up option for Bar Reggio's wait list...it's the same and in some ways, better. read more