Truffle cacio e pepe
Found in a converted cottage on Orwell Street, I fell across this Potts Point restaurant a few weeks ago, and when I say ‘fell across’, I mean ‘fell across its feet in love’, because Chester White Cured Diner belongs in a dream.
The truffle cacio e pepe
This Italian dream muffin has one particular attribute that steals your breath: it has truffle cacio e pepe on the menu. Shut the front gate! This simple, ancient Italian flavour combo of cheese and pepper just got seriously sexy.
Chester White’s version of spaghetti, salt and pepper, parsley and black truffles are mixed at the table, inside a hollowed out wheel of truffle-laced Pecorino cheese, before being heaped onto your plate. At this point, you’re not human if you don’t have a sizable-sized drop of drool hanging from your mouth.
And, I can assure you, the indulgent pasta tastes and smells as good as it sounds, if not better.
A menu of Italian favourites
Putting the truffle cacio e pepe aside (not that it should ever be put aside, but alas), everything else on the Italian-inspired menu is pretty damn fabulous.
Named after a breed of white pig, Chester White Cured Diner serves up simple and seasonally-changing fare, including the likes of carbonara pasta (amazing), organic lamb shoulder (yum) and enough charcuterie to make your heart sing (heaven).
Prepare to leave looking like you’re a pregnant dinosaur.
Charcuterie board
Roasted cauliflower, with parmesan crust, pickled grapes, red onion and sage butter
Ricotta gnocchi
Chester White Cured Diner is…
Chester White Cured Diner is a spitting image of its older sister Buffalo Dining Club, who operates from a very similar playbook just up the road in Darlinghurst: cured meats, pasta, cacio e pepe, it’s all there. But CWCD is that little bit more relaxed. That and its cacio e pepe comes with truffle.
The service here is ultra friendly, like you’re dining at a mate’s house. A mate who likes country and blues music, full retro-ness and American diner-style furniture. Roll the dice and you’ll be seated at either the bar overlooking a back wall of hanging cured meat, a high table watching the goings on of Orwell Street or in the white picket-fenced outside courtyard.
Image credit: Chester White Cured Diner
Like many restaurants in Potts Point, Chester White doesn’t take reservations. So be prepared to wait a good hour on weekends. Conveniently, there’s lots of great bars to kill time at in this neck of the woods: Dear Saint Eloise, The Butler and Ms. G’s, just to name a few.
Don’t worry, once your chops are digging into that cheesy spaghetti, any wait-time is long forgotten.
Chester White Cured Diner | 3 Orwell Street, Potts Point, New South Wales
Phone: (02) 9332 3692
chesterwhitediner.com.au
