Where Not to Eat - Tino's Italian restaurant in Woolooware

I have had many disappointing dining experiences over the years in Australia and overseas, but never considered taking the time to write them down until I started this blog in late 2011. Before I get to the real story about Tino's Italian resteaurant in Woolooware, I need to tell you a little story about Woolooware. Woolooware is a suburb in the Sutherland Shire in NSW, Australia, just around the corner from Cronulla, the popular seaside-suburb in Sydney South. Woolooware, being in the Sutherland Shire, has a predominately-anglo population, and the food there is about as 'vanilla' as its people. To put it simply, anything that isn't steak and chips OR fish and chips, would be considered 'exotic cuisine' in the Shire. A few months ago, a group of friends took me to this Italian restaurant called 'Tino's' in Woolooware that they had been raving about for dinner one Saturday. I was excited and terrified at the same time, because (1) I hadn't had many dining experiences in the Shire worth writing home about, (2) I was slightly worried that my culinarily-naive friends would order something truly terrifying. As much as I kept on telling myself everything was going to be fine, and I was going to have an unexpectedly-good meal, all of my worries were realised. Where do I start? hmm, let's start from the Dukkah the 'committee' ordered as an entree. First of all, there is something odd about ordering Dukkah in an Italian restaurant to begin with (given its middle-eastern origin), even for fusion-food fans like me. When the Dukkah arrived, I was speechless: what was presented to me was a very small quantity of Dukkah (so small I could practically count each seed with 10 fingers), a bowl of pale-looking olive oil that looks like it's 10th press, and a mountain of bread. You do not need to be a math genuis to know that the ratio is way out, and a foodie to know that it will be dry and tasteless. The only thing, other than the tasteless oil, to help down the dry bread was my own saliva, and the only thing I had to add a little taste to the dry bread and tasteless oil was a few seeds and strands of herbs I found stuck between my teeth. I got myself extra Dukkah (and an evil stare) after I complaint to the waitress/restaurant owner that we needed more Dukkah, and the olive oil was of poor quality. After the terrible entree, everything was further downhill from there. I had a seafood pasta for main. The quantity was generous, and that's the only nice thing I have to say about it. The seafood was overcooked, the sauce was bland/underseasoned, and too sour for my pallet, and the pasta was overcooked.

Long story short, I walked into Tino's, hoping to get a good Italian feed, and ended up getting a bad middle-eastern Dukkah entree and bland pasta for main. I walked away, thinking, this restaurant is going on my Where-Not-To-Eat list.