World Square Welcomes Margherita and Co
Perched under quaint yellow striped awnings and white shutters, we dined at the new World Square restaurant, Margherita and Co. It felt as though we were relaxing at an old-fashioned beach house in the middle of summer and immediately felt at home sitting at the retro-style curved bar towards the front of the restaurant. An eclectic mix of music set the tone for our evening featuring everything from Rod Stewart to the Plain White Tees. And so the night began.
Margherita & Co is the latest venue from upcoming hospitality group Universal Hotels and is located in the Horden Arcade inside the George Street World Square complex. It is a part of the upmarket revitalisation of this new CBD dining district and the first of two stages for the Margherita brand. While Margherita & Co is the more relaxed and casual eatery, perfect for dining in or take away, a high-end wine bar and restaurant is set to open mid-July. Sister venue Margherita Vinoteca will seat 120 and have more of a fine dining focus.
Executive Chef Robert Taylor (formerly of Swine & Co) has been tasked with overseeing both venues and feels this part of town is “ripe for quality Italian food”.
We started our meal with arancini filled with mushrooms, fortina, blac truffle and sardella to our table. The sardella made the dish spicy and flavourful, complementing the perfectly crispy outer crust. My date, who is notoriously hard to please, said afterwards that it was “the most amazing dish of the night”.
While our food was prepared in the spotless kitchen styled in sparkling white tiles, we sampled Margherita and Co’s excellent wine selection with drops from Australia, Italy and beyond.
Margherita and Co. offer delicious pizza, but the pastas are definitely a highlight. Meat dishes on any menu usually catch my eye but at this restaurant, the stand-out pasta was spinach ravioli with ricotta and spinach, sage, burnt butter and parmesan. The combination of the salt and spices, flavourful spinach, soft butter and creamy feta was absolutely mouth-watering.
A close runner-up was the spaghetti carbonara with pancetta, egg and truffle pecorino, which was warm, creamy and cheesy with just enough crunch in the bacon to break up the richness and thickness of the sauce.
The chef-recommended potato gnocchi with prawns, peas, green chilli and dill was delicious too; the surprising mix of ingredients all worked in perfect harmony. The potato was soft and smooth, and cooked to perfection into small, perfectly-shaped dumplings.
We finished our dinner with an Affagato, which, like everything else, was great. Margherita and Co. is also in partnership with Deliveroo, so you can enjoy their entire menu for lunch or dinner at home.
Margherita and Co.
Shop 12 & Shop 15, 91 Liverpool Street, Horden Arcade, Sydney 2000
02 9283 8634
Open Mon-Sun 7am—10pm
http://www.universalhotels.com.au/margherita-co/