This is Tony. We love him. He was the maître d’ at our favourite Italian restaurant until a couple of years ago. Over the time that we’ve known him, he’s watched our boys grow up from little kids to young adults, and marveled with us at their voracious appetites for pizza and pasta.
Completely by chance, I discovered a few days ago that he and his sister Carm have just opened their own place in the nearby suburb of Russell Lea. We couldn’t resist heading out last night for a meal at their new La Casa Ristorante.
The restaurant has a wonderful, welcoming ambience – gently lit, adorned with photos of Italy, with comfortable seating and earthy, rough-hewn tables. It’s a very elegant yet easy room to settle into.
My main meal, which I had no chance of eating on my own, was a full rack of sticky pork ribs, oven roasted for eight hours and served with a side of chunky fries. Big Boy and I agreed that these were, without doubt, the best ribs we’d ever eaten; they were unbelievably tender – literally falling off the bone – and perfectly accentuated by the sweet, sticky sauce. There were plenty of grill options available – half or full racks of pork or beef ribs, and a variety of different cuts and weights of steak.
Small Man demolished a bowl of fries and an entire pizza – this one had a thin, crispy base, and was topped with all of his favourite ingredients – olives, anchovies, tomato, cheese and oregano. I told him Tony had created that pizza just for him…
Pete’s main was a simple pasta of eggplant and olives, topped with fresh ricotta. The flavours were fresh and sweet…
Big Boy had the handmade pappardelle with pancetta and mushrooms in a white wine and cream sauce, before eating half of my ribs…
The boys and I chose gelato and sorbet for dessert, while Pete opted for the ricotta cannoli (of course!)…
We had a wonderful night – the boys in particular enjoyed themselves enormously, and were really happy to see Tony again. We’ll definitely be back there again soon!
. . . . .
La Casa Ristorante
271 Lyons Road
Russell Lea NSW
Open Tuesday – Sunday, from 5pm
Tel 9712 3882
www.lacasaristorante.com.au
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Cannoli are my absolute favorite dessert! The food looks incredible…
Gosh that pizza and those ribs look good. Those photos are making me hungry and it is only 10am! I did work for most of the night though so perhaps my body thinks it is dinner time…?! Those toppings would be my son’s choice for a pizza too. He is always on a quest for the perfect margarita pizza but can be persuaded to allow olives and anchovies so we can share some of it.
The meal looks fantastic – sadly it’s too much of a drive from the Adelaide Hills to there.
My son would crawl over broken glass to get to those cannoli!
Oh god those ribs!!!! Everything looks so yummy! What a food paradise!
Cool – that’s just up the road. Lovely a homely Italian place!
following yr marvellous & delicious narration, pls feel free to visit the following link http://www.lacasaristorante.com.au/
greets from overseas, europe!
Sasha, they were really good cannoli too! They’re a bit of a speciality in Sydney’s inner west…
SG, we should organise a night to go together with our families – there’s lots there, even for the glucose and lactose intolerant.. :)
Amanda, thank you – I wish I could send some to your son!
Tes, ooooh, the ribs. I’m still thinking about them today…
Vita, that’s great if it’s close to you! Wish it was closer to us! :) Btw, did you see the photos of beets I took for you – they’re in the comments of the previous post…
Gina, thank you, I forgot to include the link. I’ll edit it into the post now!
The “Siciliana” pizza is one of my favourites also with added Salamino an Italian hot sausage, for that extra wroom!Cannoli look wonderful.!I’ve never tackled making them that’s my Mums signature dish…my Nonna (grandmother) was Siciliana and passed the recipe down…Yvette x
Celia…, I love Italian food…. I love Asian foods too, a lot, but there’s nothing that says great food than Italian and I love the ambiance a good Italian restaurant has too. This one sounds awesome. Great find.
Yvette, wow! I’ve never known anyone to make cannoli at home! And I didn’t realise you were of Italian heritage too!
Anna, you’d probably understand better than most people, but even before the food arrived, this restaurant just had the most lovely feel. It wasn’t just me, either, our sons were laughing and joking the whole time – clearly feeling very comfortable there!
The people who run La Casa are the salt of the earth. I have been following them around for the last four months making a documentary. Here are some of the highlights; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WISW7VwYcaw
And here is the mad wonderful party; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UyR5R2daEY
Those ribs-wow how huge is that rack? :o Carm and her family have done such an amazing job. I can’t wait to eat there. Loved this review Celia, loved it! :D
Thanks for sharing Celia. I’m completely sold. Those ribs look amazing. I have been looking for an Italian restaurant that is cozy, unpretentious and serves great food. Without charging a bomb, that is.
Wink, the thing I liked particularly was the grill – so often suburban Italian restaurants tend to focus on pasta and pizza only. It was nice to have other options as well.
As for pricing, we found it quite reasonable – the pastas and pizzas were (from memory) about $14 – 18, and that huge rack of ribs plus fries was $34. They’re more than happy for people to share too – I overhead one of the waitresses offering that option to the large table next to us.
Tony told us that what he wanted was a place where people could come, relax and eat until they were fit to burst. I think he’s succeeded.. :)
Eman, thanks for stopping by. Great videos! Tony and Carm really are salt of the earth, I hope they achieve the enormous success they deserve at La Casa!
Lorraine, thank you! I don’t normally take a lot of photos when we eat out, but the boys were so smiley the whole night that I couldn’t resist pulling the camera out! The food was truly superb – that rack of ribs was about 35cm/14″ long! When it arrived at the table, I looked at Big Boy and said, “I’m not sharing”. I had to though – no way I could get through it all! :)
WHy oh why oh why did I read that just before I have SALAD for dinner. sigh ….
It’s not too late to put it in the fridge and head out to dinner.. :)
No way would I be sharing those ribs! If you don’t want to be stabbed with a fork, hands off!
Ohmygosh those ribs! And it sounds like you had lots of food, but I guess that’s normal when you have many boys at dinner :) The other thing that’s making me drool are those cannoli!
Chef R, like I said, that’s what I thought, but I just couldn’t eat it all!!
Honey, I didn’t mention the garlic pizza we had as starters either. Teenage boys = hungry wolves. :)
Damn! Not on the Burwood line! The drive home after dinner would kill me.
It’s so nice to go somewhere where you’re known and welcomed – glad you had a good time. Cannot believe the size of your pork dish – it looks as though it could feed the whole family. Food all looks lovely and some nice vegetarian options too.
Yum oh yum! A bit of a trek for us, but I think that would be worth it. The pizza and cannoli look like they have my name written on it…yep down there on the bottom- teeny writing :-)
Cosmo, that’s a shame! I can’t even think of which station it’s near, actually…
Choc, sorry to wave that huge slab of meat in your face! There were lovely vegetarian options – Pete’s pasta was really nice, as were several of the pizzas.
Brydie, as I mentioned above, I noticed they had some little monkeys’ meals available as well… :)
I’m almost planning on coming to Australia when my niece get stationed in Canberra- next summer- and these kinds of posts are doing a job in convincing me to make the journey.
I’m keeping a list of places to go – just in case I come! LOL!
Thanks for getting the taste buds working – even from this distance- I’m salivating!
I’ve been following Carm’s story on twitter. So beautiful to see the family dream come true. The restaurant and food looks amazing!
That ricotta cannoli made me drool a little to be honest. Yuuum…
Heidi, how nice for your niece – Canberra is a lovely place!
Emma, the cannoli were fantastic! :)
Why, oh why, do I not live near you? Or perhaps it’s better if we don’t, since we’d eat and drink ourselves into oblivion.
Ha! Could you imagine? You’d have to turn in your writing gig for weight watchers.. :)
Ohh – I’m heading there in Feb!
Cool! Look forward to seeing you then!
This looks like the delicious food I am seeing in Italy now.
It is truly exciting to be able to support a restaurant that you have great interest in. It looks like Tony has done a splendid job with the menu and you all enjoyed it greatly.
Debra, I think Tony and Carm would be very happy to read your comment! :)
Daniel, thanks for stopping by – you’re right! We would have gone once because it was Tony’s restaurant, but we will certainly keep going back because it was such a fabulous dining experience!
Celia – I know a lot of people who love Tony, I’ve only heard good things about him. It’s great to develop a close relationship with a restaurant, I had the same thing when I was a kid with my family and various restaurants.
Eman – Ah so you’re finally reading food blogs! Never thought I’d see the day HAHA. I guess that you’ll have to spend more time on them now with your family’s restaurant La Casa being finally realised.
celia, La Casa is my local!!! eaten there a few times..had the most divine marbled scotch fillet last weekend…melted in the mouth! and the pizza’s are too much! the genuine thing., glad to see you noting the restaurant. Mx
Ok, I’m sold, I need to get there quick smart! Those ribs, creamy papardelle, ricotta connoli mmm mmm :)
[…] other photos and reviews were out there and I came across Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial’s blog post about eating at La Casa and I was hooked even […]
Hello! From your bagel recipe to your review of pictures of pasta at La Casa, I am loving the journey!
My niece from the USA is coming to Adelaide next year for Uni and we are SO going to try your bagel recipe with her. I came to Australia in 1981 and still crave a bagel now and then. There’s nowhere to get them in Adelaide. Also just returned from 10 weeks in Italy visiting family and travelling around, and your La Casa dishes look so very authentic.
Keep up the good work!
http://www.tenweeksinitaly.wordpress.com
http://www.mltucker.wordpress.com
Mary Louise Tucker (Lou)
Lou, thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy the bagels – my friends from the NY think they’re ok, even though I don’t have a benchmark to judge them on! :)