For my second trip to Adelaide (in October ’20), my line up of restaurants included Magill Estate Restaurant, Nido Bar & Pasta, Botanic Gardens Restaurant and Topiary. I was really keen in checking out Nido because of ‘MasterChef Australia: Back To Win (2020)’. A program which I faithfully followed (while in Australia). My curiosity was piqued because the judges would often rain praises on Laura Sharrad’s pasta dishes.

With that… Reservation was made for dinner, 2 weeks in advanced via Nido’s website. And one could say I was excited for my meal. I even went to their website to check out the online (sample) menu. Trying to anticipate what pasta dishes would be on the actual menu when I reach the restaurant.

And I was really hoping for cacio e pepe to be on the menu, but was slightly disappointed to see it’s not. Sob. But the real disappointment came when the staff said the tasting menu (AUD52 or AUD78) was not available for solo diner as the dishes on the tasting menu were meant to be shared. SOB!

And from the menu (pages 1, 2), I ordered:-

1) Sicilian anchovy finger, AUD7 (above) – With fermented chilli, ricotta and basil. I knew I ordered anchovy, but nothing prepared me for what was to come. It was too salty for my liking! I couldn’t. There were two flavours on the menu for this finger food/morsel; Anchovy and crab. I probably should have stuck to blue swimmer crab.

2) Market fish crudo, AUD24 (above) – With lemon mascarpone, pickled fennel. And I really enjoyed this dish. The tangy sauce and pickled fennel ribbons went really well with the kingfish.

3) Gnocchi, AUD30 (above) – With spiced pork ragu, pecorino. With no cacio e pepe on the menu, my next choice of pasta was gnocchi. Gnocchi was also one of the pastas which Laura made on MasterChef, but with ricotta, peas, apple caramel and mint. And now… I am not who would crave for Italian cuisine. And even if I do have Italian cuisine with my friends, we would be sticking to the spaghetti, linguine, angle hair pasta or ravioli. So this gnocchi dish was honestly a first for me, as far as I could remember. And to be honest, I always thought gnocchi was the size of our pinky finger. But boy was I wrong. They were huge. And they were cooked to perfection! The texture of the gnocchi… It was light, soft (not to be mistaken as mushy), and… Airy. If we could eat clouds, this would be it. And I would say the gnocchi was adequately sized such that one could feel its texture as one chewed. Oddly addictive! And pork ragu was a good match; In terms of texture, the pork ragu was more chewy than the pasta. So beside nailing the flavour, I honestly felt it was a good balance in the textures too. Am really glad to have my proper taste of gnocchi at Nido.

4) Yoghurt gelato, AUD10 (above) – With bay leaf oil. This looked deceivingly simple, but it was so good! This was also a dish which Laura pulled out on MasterChef! Just that the restaurant’s rendition was without the snow-like salted white chocolate.

5) Tiramisu, AUD16 (above) – Creamy, with a very wet sponge. Just the way I like my tiramisu, though I nearly choked on the generous amount of cocoa powder. Ha.

Out of the 5 dishes, 3 were brought out by Laura. And it was pretty cool to see her up close and personal! And the thing was… When I was enjoying my meal, I wondered if the dishes (especially the pasta ones) were personally cooked by Laura. It was later from my conversation with her that I learnt they had been looking for a manager. And in the absence of one, she had been temporarily filling that role while her husband Max Sharrad (who is also a chef) took charge of the kitchen.

And now… When I was making my reservation, I was given the option to choose my seating. Between standard (table), outdoor and counter, I opted for counter. Was expecting to be seated facing the kitchen, but was assigned to a table that was smacked right beside the entrance instead. And because it was pushed against the closed bi-fold door, I was basically sitting with my back facing the restaurant and looking out. And what annoyed me was that whenever someone entered, my table would rattle when they closed the entrance door since it’s all part of the same bi-fold door system.

But that aside, I enjoyed my meal at Nido Bar & Pasta. Worth a visit, especially if one is a fan of Laura because of MasterChef.