Nirello's - Blacktown

After tennising at a free court in Blacktown, my friends and I decided to grab a bite to eat a Nirello's. Situated on the outskirts of Westpoint, this little Italian restaurant is situated in quite a quiet (and slightly dim-litted) environment. The first thing you can't miss is the menu - it's plastered all over the wall overlapping one another - a bit overwhelming and confusing so luckily, we each get a regular-sized menu to look at.

We decided to order a serving of garlic bread to share ($3.50). This smelt awesome when it came out and was also nice and cruchy and tasty. However, I don't know if it was styles or because they don't know how to cut bread in half, but the two slices were cut soooo unevenly. Luckily, there was four of us and all four of us didn't really care how big or small our garlic bread portions were.

Garlic bread - $3.50

One of my friends decided to order the Nirello Special pizza. She had wanted to small size. After consulting with a friendly looking waiter who said that the small pizza was tiny and she pretty much definately ought to get the large one (large $17.50), my friend decided to heed to the waiters advice and get the large one. I have to say, however, that my friend is actually quite small, very skinny and very very very skinny. To think that she could finish a large pizza on her own... what was the waiter thinking??? Lo and behold, the large pizza came out - very large and round and on slightly thick and hefty crust, topped with sliced italian sausage, mushrooms, capsicum, onion, garlic and mozarella cheese and lo and behold, she actually couldn't finish it! In fact, she ate 4 pieces (exactly the number of slices the small pizza would have been). When my friends bit into the pizza, she was saying that it was a bit spicy and wondered why. We hypothesised that it the was the sausage which was a bit spicy. In fact, there was actually a bit of chilli in the sauce. Mystery solved! :)

Nirello special - $17.50 (large)

My other friend decided to order the linguine pesto (entree size - $16.90). Interesting enough, when we asked the waiter if we ought to order the entree size or the main size for the pasta, he described the main size as really really really big and the entree size as really really big. Hence, he talked both my friend and I into ordering the entree size. It turned out that the pasta was big - the size of a main from most decent restaurants... but it wasn't as HUGE as he'd made it out to be. My friend's linguine pesto comprised of linguine, chicken, and lots of basil pesto. He thought it tasted alright - not bad. But halfway through the meal - the swamp occurred. Yes - a swamp of oil (hopefully olive oil) started to freak us out. He still perservered with finishing his pasta though :)

linguine pesto - $16.90 (entree size)

Unfortunately, my linguine al salmone (entree size - $17.90) suffered the same swamp fate. It was still tasty though. Nicely cooked linguine with smoked salmon and asparagus bits tossed in super creamy garlic sauce. Mmm... yummy... but the swamp made it feel super super super unhealthy.

linguine al salmone - $17.90 (entree size)

My partner ordered a non-pizza non-pasta item. He opted instead, for the chicken parmigiana ($22.90). This was two crumbed chicken breasts topped with eggplant and melted mozarella cheese and doused with napoli sauce with bits of overcooked broccoli on the side. The napoli sauce was rich and aromatic and very tomatoey. My partner rated this so-so.

chicken parmigiana - $22.90

Last but not least - onto dessert. We decided to order a nutella pizza to share (small - $10.90). As we were people who learnt very quickly from past mistakes, we told the waiter that we wanted a small one - yes - even after he gave us a "are you sure?" look, we stuck to our decision of a small nutella pizza. And rightfully so. We were so sure that the description of this said "...topped with strawberries..." so when we saw this, we all had a good laugh. We thought- really??? only 3 lone strawberries chopped in half? It was only after a more close inspection that we found out - it was TWO strawberries chopped in thirds! Surely it would have looked asthetically better to cross-sectionally cut the straweberry and spread it out. Anyway - strawberries aside, the pizza was pretty decent. Warm, thick but not too thick crust topped with nutella. I would have preferred a bit more nutella - but it was still okay.

Nutella Pizza - $10.90 (small)

In all, Nirello's was an OK Italian restaurant out west. Having an awesome 25% off voucher thanks to the E-book meant that we each paid no more than $18. Nice and cheap and tasty.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Nirello's
Westpoint Blacktown
Level 3, Flushcombe Rd
(Opp. Blacktown Council)
Blacktown
NSW 2148
Tel: (02) 9622 8050