white walled and well lit

While in Berry for a girls weekend, we had roughly three options for our Saturday night dinner – fine dining (well white table cloth) at Hungry Duck, tapas and woodfired pizza at Mezzadellas, or pub grub at the Berry Hotel. We decided to go with the middle-of-the-road option and we were extremely glad we did.

Mezzadellas is a small restaurant, so make sure you book, and offers the right mix of chatter, music, and kitchen. Oh and it’s BYO, whoop! The crowd is slightly older, but that’s probably because the younger crew are at the pub!

Mezzadellas table space is limited… but that could also be due to the wine bottles and water glasses taking up space!

The menu is fairly extensive, offering a selection of tapas, salads, and  a LOT of pizzas to choose from. They also go the extra mile by specifying which options are vegetarian or gluten free.  

We started with the prawns and squid on black rice. This dish was rather impressive to look at, and more importantly, tasted good too. 3 prawns and 4 squid, there was a strong (but not overpowering) lemon infusion to the seafood. The rice was a good texture, but I couldn’t say what type of flavour I was tasting.

pan seared squid & prawns on spanish black rice with red mojo sauce & almond gremolata ($22)

Our second tapa was the garlic mushrooms. It was the cheapest dish of the night, but probably the most popular. The chef had achieved the right balance of garlic, salt and butter. It was a fairly sizeable dish for the price and just tasted fresh and flavoursome. A real winner.

pan roasted garlic and thyme mushrooms ($11)

Service was brilliant. The waitress asked us what sort of order we wanted our meal selection brought out, and later asked if we wanted new (and heated) plates in between our tapas and our salad and pizza, which was unexpected but much appreciated. Water was topped up regularly.

The salad took the timeless combination of rocket and pear, but jazzed things up a bit with the jamon and parmesan dressing, which was something quiet different. I really enjoyed the parmesan dressing, I didn’t think it was too cheesy or creamy, and there was the right sort of quantity without drenching the salad.

wild roquette, jamon and pear salad with a parmesan dressing ($14)

The ‘Fez’ pizza was one of the specials of the night. Topped with feta, pumpkin, spinach, lamb, toasted almonds, and harissa, The wood fired base was light and crispy. The lamb was more like ‘pulled lamb’ rather than chunks of lamb, but you could taste the lamb flavour, and also a mild spice throughout. It was probably a lot more ‘busy’ than I would usually order, and I would probably order some of the more simple combinations, however everyone was happy with it.

‘special’: fez pizza topped with almond flakes, spinach, lamb, feta, harissa… (large $25)

One espresso was ordered, and was described as only average, however Mezzadellas is where you go for food to share rather than coffee and cake.

espresso ($3)

Extremely well priced. $83 including $2pp byo to feed four (albeit four girls, three of whom are very little!).

Our only gripe was that there was only 1 toilet for both boys and girls…

Busy, so remember to book!

Return factor? If ever in Berry again, definitely! All of us really liked the ambience of this place, the friendly service, and of course the great food on offer. Worth a try if you’re ever in town.

Eatfreak dined here with girlfriends in November 2012