The Meatball & Wine Bar has a simple yet very effective concept. The menu explains it all to you in 3 simple steps; Choose your balls and your sauce, then choose something for your balls to sit on. Instead of heading to the typical Italian restaurant for pizza or pasta, head here to have a simple yet tasty dish of the filling meatballs done right. With two locations now open, Flinders Lane near the popular Chin Chin and recently opened on Swan St in Richmond.
By chance we found ourselves driving by the Richmond location and had to stop in to test out this trendy new restaurant. We walked into a rustic brick walled building with a beautiful (yet simple) bar and humble furniture.
With a smallish menu to choose from it has all your favourite dishes including meatballs, sliders, cured meats and cheeses to make for a simple and quick lunch or dinner.
You have the choice between pork (fennel, sage and orange), beef (Angus), chicken (Lilydale grown) and fish (market fish with dill and lemon), which makes it easy for everyone to choose something delicious. Sauces come in red (tomato-based), white (creamy) or green (pesto salsa verde). For an extra $4 you choose what you want your balls to sit on; beans, polenta, mash, pasta, or something ‘veg’ (which changes daily).
We opted for the pork meatballs with the tomato sauce, which sat on creamy smashed mash and the beef meatballs with tomato sauce (all dishes are served in 3’s). We also ordered beef sliders with tomato sauce, which were amazing! Very juicy little burgers and full of flavour.
The food was served within 15 minutes (if that) of ordering. It’s nice to go somewhere decent for lunch where you don’t need to wait close to 30 minutes for your meal. I will admit, when the food first came out, it was hard to imagine that these two small dishes would be enough to fill us both up. However, by the time the waiter came around to ask if we wanted dessert, we were too stuffed to even look at the menu.
Someone is definitely lucky enough to get their Nonna’s meatball recipe because they tasted exactly like the traditional meatball my Nonna use to make. These just had the added kick of different sauces and some great sides to go with them. I would have loved to try their dessert, but just couldn’t find the room to fit it in.
On our next visit I will make sure to leave room for something sweet to end the day! This place is a winner in my books for both comfy and stylish foods.
