Essenza Italian - Surry Hills

Friendly, welcoming service, excellent food, generous servings and well presented in a true Italian fashion. The pork with sage and apples was mouth watering and the Ox tail ragu was flavoursome. We enjoyed sharing the panna cotta.

Had the mussels and salami board as entrees the salami board was massive! Definitely worth the price! Followed with porchetta and barramundi as mains and both were quite flavourful. The pork was quite tough though. Finished off with the mini dessert platter and it was definitely worth getting loved the pannacotta!

Such a cute italian restaurant in Surry Hills serving delicious pastas and mains. I had the penne with fried eggplant, tomato based sauce and ricotta salata, and it was great! The outdoor terrace area at the back made it a great venue to catch up with friends on a Friday night. Would recommend!

As Italian as it can get<br/ <br/ We had Arancini Balls for entree and wow absolutely light and delicious. I've had this entree in the past (at other restaurants) and they've often been heavy and deeply fried. These were very light and pleasant to eat.<br/ <br/ For main we had Risotto Marinara and Spaghetti Meat Balls.<br/ Spaghetti was delicious and full of flavour. The most balls were juicy and well cooked<br/ The risotto is the usual meal I have at an Italian restaurant and so I am very picky. Often in a marinara they don't have enough seafood.... this restaurant has plenty which was great. The arborio rice was well cooked and did not contain and crunch rice. The flavour I think it did need some more salt or maybe cooked more in some of the seafood juice. It just very slightly lacked flavour.<br/ <br/ The ambiance of this restaurant is terrific and great relaxing vibe. It is great for a romantic dinner or a family dinner. It is a very laid back restaurant.<br/ <br/ The waiter we had was very professional, friendly and knew the menu well.<br/ She was able to recommend wine as we asked and explained the dish to us when we had a question.<br/ <br/ I would go back again, definitely and next time I will take our friends. It was a great experience and look forward to trying other Italian meals.

Fantastic local.... super friendly staff and the lasagne is amazing. They also do salmon dishes really really well here. The biscotti accompanying the bill are delicious !!!