Berta, Surry Hills Sagra Night: Mushrooms (CLOSED)

EDIT: Berta has now closed

Phew! I'm back. So after a whirlwind month that included trips to Dubai, Melbourne and Hong Kong, I'm home again in Sydney. I've missed you. There was a sigh of happiness at Sydney's blue skies, waking up to birds chirping and there may have even been a tear or two when I was reunited with my bed. It's the simple things.

And despite the jet leg and impending sickness, nothing could hold me back from dinner with friends at Berta. Each Tuesday, Berta holds a sagra night. Sagra means festival in Italian and it's usually linked to a food festival of some kind. At Berta they use their sagra nights to showcase a seasonal ingredient, creating a one-night-only four-course menu. It's just like Iron Chef but without the dubbing!

Past ingredients have included watermelon, olives, figs, cherries, olive oil and honey -  the honey was sourced from their own rooftop beehive. Tonight's ingredient will be mushrooms. Four courses will set you back a very modest $55. An optional accompanying wine flight costs an extra $40.


Starter 1: Lombardo peppers with porcini butter

The restaurant is full for the 8.30pm sitting, filled with a happy mix of hipsters and older couples. There's a cheerful vibe to the evening - as though we're all part of an intimate wedding reception - and it's clear that many diners are regulars.

Lombardo peppers kick off our evening, a long and skinny Italian chilli pepper sauteed in porcini butter. It's a particularly explosive start for M who cops the only super hot chilli pepper on the plate - only one in seven peppers are hot, the rest are mild. It wasn't the red one either.


Starter 2: Button mushrooms with garlic chive crochetta

The starters at the Berta sagra dinners usually include a mix of small canape-style dishes. Our second starter is a crochetta stuffed with button mushrooms and garlic chives, deliciously gooey with cheese in the middle.


Starter 3: Swiss brown mushrooms with preserved lemon ricotta cream

I'm a huge fan of head chef O Tama's take on the traditional bruschetta, slabs of toasted crostini slathered generously with preserved lemon ricotta cream and then scattered with Swiss brown mushrooms. The ricotta cream is lush and smooth, lightened with preserved lemon that adds a gentle zing.


Starter 4: Pickled pine mushrooms with cucumber, black fungus, dandelion and chilli

Pickled pine mushrooms give the acidic tang that kickstarts our appetite for more. The mushrooms have a vinegary oomph but still retain their chewiness, tossed through with fat wedges of cucumber, crunchy slivers of black fungus and fresh dandelion leaves.


Head chef O Tama Carey in the kitchen

Diners can sneak glimpses into the tiny kitchen from their seats, but there's no need to spy on the chef. After starters are served, head chef O Tama Carey comes out into the dining room to explain the entire menu. She takes us through the experimental dishes that were tried before tonight's menu was finalised. Saffron milk cap mushrooms, she soon discovered, do not taste appealing if you soak them in saffron milk - a idea she thought was genius at the time!

Lauren Norman, sommelier at Berta, then follows, explaining why she matched each wine to each dish for those partaking in the optional wine flight.


Entree: Risotto with oyster mushrooms, parmesan and horseradish mascarpone

Entrees take some time to hit the table but cooking each table's risotto to order pays off handsomely - the risotto is perfectly al dente, the plump and creamy grains cooked with texturally meaty oyster mushrooms. We're instructed to mix the parmesan and horseradish mascarpone through the dish, adding a lovely and light creaminess to every mouthful.


Main: Braised brisket with bone marrow, pancetta, button mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms 

Mains of braised brisket are enticing enough, but it's the presence of bone marrow that gets us most excited. We ignore the advice to mix the bone marrow through this one, and instead scoop into directly into our mouths for maximum concentrated bliss.

The brisket is luscious anyway, tender and falling apart with a gentle nudge of a fork, amped up with salty strips of pancetta, button mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms.


Main side: Soft polenta 

On the side we delve into a salad of crisp iceberg lettuce and a bowl of soft polenta that is magical in its velvety smoothness. It's rich and creamy with a distinct underlying taste of corn. I wanted to curl up in a corner and savour this slowly.


Main side: Iceberg lettuce 


Dessert: Candied pine mushrooms with celery, Italian meringue and vanilla porcini dust 

Mushrooms for dessert? Of course we did! Candied pine mushrooms are an ambitious undertaking and although we applaud the effort, they do feel a little out of place on the plate, with a squeaky savoury chewiness that can't be ignored. We love everything else on the plate though: the Italian meringues are blowtorched just so, and we can't get enough of the creme anglaise covered in vanilla porcini dust.

Overall a fun night out at a very wallet-friendly price. $55 for four courses is a bargain for this level of creativity and love on a plate.






Sagra is held every Tuesday night with two sittings: 6pm and 8.30pm

The upcoming sagra theme nights are:
1 April - Apples with Phil the farmer
8 April - Celery and celeriac
15 April - Lamb

The sagra night costs $55 for four courses with an optional matched wine flight for $40. For more details or latest information, check the Berta events site or contact them directly by phone.


Berta CLOSED
17-19 Alberta Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9264 6133

Opening hours:
Lunch Friday 12pm-3pm
Dinner Tuesday to Saturday 6pm til late


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