Twelve, Newtown

Belated post. After another round of exams, the last for Madam Saucy, unless she wants that 3rd degree, my close girlfriends and I decided to have a long overdue catch up (and celebratory drinks) after our long self imposed study exiles. Another reason I just couldn’t wait for it all to be over was that I knew my great friends MedicineWoman and H would be coming from Brizvegas and Eden respectively to visit and celebrate the end of exams with us – aren’t they the best?!

Sindel and I kicked off our celebrations with a post exam bbq at our house, but emerged later to join the rest at Twelve on King St. I like the exterior look of Twelve as a restaurant, it’s huge glass front offers a peek not only at the fixtures, but allows people like me to spot friends inside:)

Antipasto Platter

Starting with the antipasto platter to share, we were lucky it consisted of mostly chargrilled veggies (MedicineWoman is vegan). The veggies tasted fresh and even though it’s not in the picture, there was large, crispy bread sticks to mop up all that dip:) Nothing spectacular but still a nice start. In the past I’ve also had the saganaki prawns as a starter and they were yum (not to mention the serving size was huge).

Lamb with Roasted Beetroot and Pumpkin, served with a Mint Jus

This dish was quite large. The meat was cooked well – tender and juicy, but I thought the beetroot could have been more flavoursome. The jus was a lovely compliment to the meat and Madam Saucy had no complaints with this meal.

On a side note, this restaurant is extremely noisy. There’s something about the acoustics of the place… It used to bother me but I guess I must be used to it now. If you touch underneath the table you can feel the foam they’ve added there to absorb the noise but I don’t think it does much. Note the noise never stops me from coming

Fresh fig, chilli and basil fettucine

Sindel and I voted for pasta. My usual pasta dish here is the fettucine with WA swimmer crab, champagne, parsley and marscapone, which is divine:) but that night I didn’t feel any desire for a seafood oriented dish. Instead I opted for Sindel’s old faithful, the fig, chilli and basil pasta. This wasn’t an entirely bad thing as I always stare at her plate and ask for bites when she has it anyway lol. The figs are gorgeously sweet, and the amount of chilli is just right, offset by the tiniest dash of cream. The combination of flavours was beautiful, although I do think it would benefit from less pasta and a more figs lol (that’s just me being cheeky and wanting mooooore!)

The staff here are just great, every time I’ve been here I’ve had an efficient, friendly waitperson and tonight was no exception. MedicineWoman needed to make some small adjustments for a pizza in order to accommodate her veganism and both the wait and kitchen staff were more than happy to switch menu items for her:) I didn’t manage to get a decent shot of this said pizza (apologies), but it looked fabulous:)

Italian pavlova with marcscapone and vincotto macerated black grapes

H joined us just in time for dessert – looking smashing as per usual. This dessert was the special on the night and H, Sindel and I shared it (Madam Saucy and MedicineWoman were done with food for the night). It looked beautiful, the pavlova was cooked to perfection and the creamy marscapone was deliciously sweet but not sickening. The grapes were large and juicy.

Overall I love coming to this restaurant. Not only is it close and convenient for me, it also offers something unique on a street that is undoubtedly dominated by thai food. Sure, it’s a little noisy, but I’ve always found the food and staff really enjoyable, PLUS the fact that it’s BYO, and there’s a Vintage Cellars next door :D


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Twelve
218 King St

Newtown, NSW, 2042
Phone (02) 9519 9412

http://www.twelvenewtown.com.au/