There’s a reason why there’s not a spare seat in sight at this new Italian restaurant on Newtown’s main drag.
AGFG asked me to investigate La Favola and I’m damn glad they did. This Italian eatery has only been open since February 2018, but it’s already pulling a serious crowd. I’m here at 8pm on a Friday night and there’s a growing swarm of people huddled outside on King Street waiting patiently for a table.
A modern Italian diner
Inside La Favola, the space is small. Perched on a stool, you’re sitting elbow-to-elbow with other diners. But, you don’t mind. There’s a friendliness in the air. Maybe it’s chef Fabio Stefanelli smiling away in the open kitchen, or the happy staff eager to help you choose your perfect pasta dish.
The friendliness is all in keeping with La Favola’s premise of being a simple Italian diner that churns out authentic, fresh food – fast. Not that it’s your traditional Italian diner at all. The red, green and white is replaced by hanging plants, copper pendants, white brick walls and black tiles.
The fresh aesthetics match the fresh flavours
The Italian-born Stefanelli has on his CV fine-diners such as Cucinetta in Woolwich, Fico in Hobart and Ristorante Cracco in Milan. Yet, he’s created a pretty simple choose-your-own-adventure menu for La Favola, which consists of six pastas and six sauces.
Mix fusilli with carbonara or fettuccine with ragu napoletano, or go crazy and pair casarecce with tucker dal bush (that’s bush meats, bush spices and mountain thyme). And do check the butcher’s paper menu for the weekly specials. There’s also a selection of starters (things like bruschetta and cured meats) and sides (stuff like italian potatoes and mixed salads).
Everything on La Favola’s menu has one thing in common: it’s all super fresh. The pasta handmade from egg yolk and semolina. The pasta sauces simmered away that morning.
I ordered a caprese salad. The husband, who isn’t a fan of mozzarella, tomatoes or basil, told me I’d be eating the whole thing myself. Fine. Actually, that’s better than fine. Then the hoodrat nearly ate the whole bloody thing – it was that good.
But it’s the pasta that’s the hero. And, whatever you do, make sure you save room for dessert.
La Favola cocktail – a caprese salad in a glass
An actual caprese salad (not in a glass)
Calamari
Focaccia with garlic, oregano and rosemary
Pasta special with lots of seafood. That’s crab hiding at the back there.
Ragu napoletano with fusilli
A limoncello palate-cleanser
Cannolo siciliano dessert
Lemon meringue because one dessert is never enough!
La Favola is…
A great neighbourhood restaurant. It’s like the friendly neighbour that’s always there to collect your mail when you’re on holiday. It almost makes me want to pack up my Bronte life and move to Newtown, all so I can have La Favola as my mail-collecting neighbour.
Serving some of the best pasta in Newtown, for a $19–$25 price tag and with $12 BYO, there’s a lot of reasons why you’d love La Favola.
La Favola | 170 King Street, Newtown, New South Wales
Phone: (02) 8021 0002
favola.com.au
