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Hi, I'm Vivian and I'm a uni student obsessed with fitness and food (I know, it doesn't exactly go hand-in-hand). I'll have my "no eating out" times and my "I deserve to try new food" moments. I'm on a mission to try new places, mainly around the Adelaide CBD, on a student budget. Rarely you'll be seeing expensive, fine dining on my blog, but that's an occasional thing. I have a lot of posts on Sydney restaurants too, because that's where I spend all my holidays. Read on for my pictures and opinions on the food Adelaide has to offer! Got something on your mind? Leave a comment - I would love to hear from you! For more food pictures - check out http://instagram.com/vvnhuynh

Sunday, 25 November 2012

Liana's Italian Restaurant

The birthday celebrations just don't end! Despite the fact that is it now a week after my 20th birthday, the girls wanted to continue with the celebrations because my actual birthday fell during their university exam period. And who am I to pass for another opportunity to try some grand Sydney food?

 There's nothing quite like the company of the best girlfriends.

I was asked to choose a restaurant in the Parramatta region, and considering that I spend most of my time in Adelaide, I had to resort to researching the restaurants in that area. In the heart of Parramatta lies a warm, social atmosphere of night dining, where from experience, the task of choosing a single restaurant can be quite daunting due to the plentiful restaurants around, each with their own specialty.

 Pollo Funghi Risotto - $19.90

Positive reviews lead me to settling on Liana's Italian Restaurant. I've always noticed it when walking along Church St in Parramatta, but only recently has it caught my attention. I love how keeping this food blog encourages me to try new places and new meals as opposed to eating at my same favourite restaurants all the time, always ordering the exact same dish.

One of the things I love most about eating out with the girls is the fact that we seem to always want to share the food, and you know that only means one thing - this blogger gets to review even more dishes! Let me start off with the Pollo Funghi Risotto, consisting of "sliced chicken breast, mushrooms, shallots, white wine and cream, finished with a touch of parmesan". I believe that risotto is hard to perfect. This is because the only perfect dish of risotto I've ever experience was at Criniti's Italian Restaurant, and since then, I haven't been lucky enough to have tried another risotto dish that even comes close in comparison. For this Pollo Funghi Risotto, the first word that came to my mind was "boring". It wasn't terrible, but wasn't memorable either. I'm glad that we ordered other dishes, because if this was my only meal, I would be highly displeased.

Boscaiola Gnocchi - $23.90
  
I almost breathed a sigh of relief when looking back upon that photo of the Boscaiola Gnocchi, which consists of "bacon, mushrooms, garlic, shallots, white wine and cream". The texture of the gnocchi was just amazing. As I'm writing this, I actually just shut my eyes and smiled happily. Please don't judge my weirdness, but that is just how fantastic it was. The creamy sauce complimented the perfectly-made gnocchi so well. I'm definitely going back for the gnocchi!

 Pesto Pollo Pizza - $23.90

The Pesto Pollo Pizza was lovely. Consisting of "chicken, basil pesto, mozzarella, semi dried tomatoes, red onion, fetta cheese", this was a generous pizza. You can't see it, but the pizza base is topped with pesto that gave it a pleasant hit. Was this pizza worth the money? From my point of view, although it was decent, it wasn't as great an a true Italian pizza is supposed to be. Give it a go if you wish, but I'll give this a pass if I come back to eat here again.

Tropicana Pizza - $22.90

It disappoints me to have to say that the Tropicana Pizza, consisting of "smoked ham, pineapple, capsicum, oregano and mozzarella cheese", was easily a miss. There was nothing exciting about it at all. I could get a better pizza at half the price at my local fast food pizza joint.

So overall, would I come back to eat here again? Yes, because the food wasn't terrible, the prices were decent, the amount was generous, the service was very good, and the atmosphere of the restaurant was very relaxing. Thus, despite some of its misses, Liana's Italian Restaurant deserves some credit.

Liana's Italian Restaurant
306 Church St. (cnr Philliip st), Parramatta NSW 2150
Rating: 7/10
Lianas on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

  1. You sure enjoyed your extended birthday celebration, am I right? Well, I’m sure this celebration is quite different from the usual because you’re celebrating it with your best girlfriends in an Italian restaurant. Anyway, those food all look tasty. I’d love to try the Tropicana Pizza.

    >Hope Williams

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    1. Yes, I sure did have a blast celebrating my birthday with these beautiful girls! Italian food is always a safe bet - it's full of flavour, had variety, tastes amazing, and is great to share with your loved ones! I didn't like the Tropicana Pizza much, but give it a try yourself if you're keen and keep me updated on how it goes! :)

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