Sud - 219 King st - Another boring Italian restaurant

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Seems the AFL final series has me a little preoccupied. I had reason to go to SUD during the week. First of all SUD was the choice because it was close to where we were not because we made a special trip there. While it wasn't terrible, there was very little that really impressed me. There was 3 of us. We had entrees and mains, no dessert, 1 bottle of wine and the bill (not cheque !) was $300.

Entrees were $21.00 each and the wait staff tell us they are designed to be shared. Ok this makes sense and sounds like a good idea, especially after seeing the entrees that went to the table next to us, we thought that sharing was a good idea. Which prompted the following conversation:

Me: "Is that the normal size of the entrees?" (inconspicuously pointing to the table next to us)
Waiter: "Yes that's right"
Me: "Looks like sharing them would be a great idea"

We ordered the white anchovy and french bean salad, the octopus, and the quail. The three dishes are served to each of the three of us individually and if we did try and share them we would have starved. I got one par-boned quail. Predominantly leg. Not one of the dishes was really shareable. And even if we wanted to this was made even more difficult by the fact that we had no plates to share anything on. The best I can say is that the braised radicchio was good.

I ordered the cotechino as a main which was meant to be boiled then grilled. Well there was no evidence of it being grilled. And for those of you that don't know cotechino it's quite a fatty Italian sausage that is the size of a salami. It is usually wrapped in muslin and boiled, then either sliced and eaten as is with horseradish, or you can grill the slices. GRILL the slices - means put them somewhere near a grill. Preferably on the grill so that it actually GRILLS. The flavour was good, the cherry tomato muck thrown over the top of it took away from the flavour and the soft polenta was obviously of some rare variety that can only be served by the teaspoon full. It would have cost them $0.80c to make - would it kill them to give me a decent portion?

My fellow diners had lamb and kingfish which just looked boring. The green salad had no dressing that I could detect and the obligatory "rosemary garlic potatoes" were like "rosemary and garlic potatoes" that every other half arsed Italian restaurant serves up.

I first went to SUD about 10 years ago I think. A couple of loud but friendly Italian boys ran it and it was fun. The food was fresh, just innovative enough to give you something new but still be familiar and the 2 times I had been there were great. Well it ain't that place any more. It's boring.

The lack of effort that went in to writing the menu up in crappy handwriting on a metal "whiteboard" with a crappy black marker that I couldn't read from 2 metres away is sadly reflected in the lack of attention in the food.

On the plus side the staff were really nice. But unfortunately that's not enough. The place isn't bad - it's just not good. if you need good Italian go somewhere else like Cecconi, da Noi. You can be bored shitless for a lot less than $300.