Bambini Trust

Ph: 9283 7098; St James Trust Building, 185 Elizabeth St, SYDNEY 2000 www.bambinitrust.com.au

Modern European, $$ +, ** for Ambience
Open Breakfast Mon-Fri 7am-11am Lunch Mon-Fri noon-3pm Dinner Mon-Sat 5.30pm-10pm, Closed All public holidays; Licensed; AE DC MC V
Chef (Oliver Carruthers, 2007-11-3) Owner (Michael & Angela Potts, 2007-11-3)

Mietta's Review
Devoted owner/chef team Angela Loannides and Michael Potts have perfected their unpretentious menu. The fare is haute bistro, with a strong nod towards the Mediterranean. The wine list is selective and often has some unusual specials. The service is what we would expect in a restaurant costing twice the price - but all too rarely seen.

Other published opinions

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide "Bambini must be doing something right because the corporate crowd it's catered to for a decade keeps coming back for more. Serving from breakfast right through to dinner, this chic, sleek jewel of a restaurant (cafe in name alone) hits its straps at lunchtime"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 14/20 "The old-world feel of this narrow, softly lit room full of dark wood, leather and marble, with small paper-over-cloth tables and monogrammed glassware, suits its location in the business end of town"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "Bambini Trust Cafe delivers far more than its name suggests. The chic interior, all dark wood, tessellated tiles and fabric-swagged lighting, is reminiscent of Europe's (and Melbourne's) cosy bistros"

Sydney Eats 2008 "A broodingly dark and handsome set of rooms in the heart of the CBD and a favourite with the wiggies from the courts, this place is superb for a sophisticated city breakfast - or just grab a coffee and a roll, a working lunch or a leisurely dinner"

Sydney Eats 2008 "At last, a grown-up Sydney venue that doesn't have the decor and ambience of a refrigerator"

Sydney Morning Herald Lenny Ann Low, 25-4-2006 "In Sydney, the Bambini Wine Room is like an electric shock. A small exquisite bar with chandeliers, flagstone floors and burnished mirrors? Ornate lamps casting a golden glow? Menu items written in assertive, curly script from a white-inked pen on a mirror above curving leather banquette seating? Yes, all of that. Plus French cafe-style tables and chairs, bespoke dark-wood shelving rising to the roof and elaborate cream cornicing hanging from the ceiling like massive Renaissance art frames. Your local pub this is not."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 14/20 "There is an air of unflappable European hospitality about Bambini Trust. Everyone is accommodated with equal sangfroid amid the dark wood and marble. There's the comfortable feeling of arriving in a tranquil harbour, safe from the storm of city life."

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide "Consistency and class are the message at this mini-institution (much more than the cafe it bills itself as). The heritage exterior, facing onto Hyde Park, is matched by the easy elegance of the interior and a pared-back lunch and dinner menu of Italian-inspired classics: excellent pasta dishes plus five or six mains featuring barramundi, kingfish, wagyu and veal."

Sydney Eats 2006 "A friend rang and asked where she should make a dinner date with a European academic. Where else but this moody place, its walls lined with dark wood? It could be in Prague, Madrid, Melbourne. But the food is Sydney haute cafe."

SBS Eating Guide to Sydney 2005 "Behind the sandstone and dark wooden doors of the elegant St James Trust building is a bit of an Italian oasis. The feel is classy business lunch venue with that certain Italian warmth. This is due to the longtime front-of-house staff, who know many of their customers by name."

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 score 14/20 "Who would have thought that just three shorts steps could whisk you away from the city and a little closer to heaven. Bambini Trust offers attentive service, intimate surroundings and seductive food. With dark wood walls, it could be a small diner in Europe"

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 Best Breakfast "a spot of breakfast, served with the style of a true restaurateur"

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 "Bambini Trust sets the standard in sleek CBD cafe! restaurants. Much of its trade is done in the mornings, when it fires up local lawyers and publishers with takeaway breakfasts of coffee, turkish toast with banana-and honey, and ham, cheese and tomato pannini. For lunch and dinner, it turns into a serious restaurant"

Sydney Cheap Eats 2005 "This heritage-listed building wouldn't be out of place in one of those arty, faux-Euro commercials - all Corinthian pillars, mascara and soulful looks - and it takes on extra international cachet from the Sheraton next door."

SMH, goodliving, 1/6/04, Matthew Evans,'I'm a great fan of Bambini Trust,not only for the consistently delicious food but the ambience.Timber panelling and the broken L-shaped room give the space an intimacy lacking at most eateries around town.'

SMH GFG 2004, Score 14/20, Award Winning Restaurant-Best Cafe,'it just gets better with age.The intimate space oozes designer chic...This is some of the best pasta in the city' Australian Gourmet Traveller Guide 2004- one black star for casual dining- favourite amoungst city business crowd, near the courts, elegant ambience, smart wine list, friendly and mature service.