Good Food hatGood Food hat16.5/20How we score
Italian$$$$
It’s been two decades since Pilu first opened its doors,and at a lunch booking the sun is surely just as bright,the view over Freshwater Beach just as striking.
Then there’s the suckling pig,a day-one dish that sees free-range pork roasted slowly,maialetto style,to render the skin crisp and the flesh rich. It hits as hard as ever,and encapsulates a menu dedicated to Giovanni Pilu’s Sardinian roots,but this is no nostalgia trip.
Saltbush salt atop Skull Island prawns with preserved lemon sauce brings in local touches,as does Murray cod with horseradish foam for bite. Spaghetti alla chitarra,meanwhile,is both rustic and elevated,bug meat and bottarga adding oomph.
The detail counts,too:white spelt and rosemary focaccia has crackle and sheen and salty crunch,the cellar has real depth and the triumphant tiramisardo is still made tableside. Twenty years? And counting.
Continue thisseries
Retro-chic red-and-white chequered Italian.
Steak and seafood goes business class.
Ambitious fish-forward dining from the team behind Saint Peter.
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