La Zana Ristorante

Former North Shore local restaurant of the year and still a local favourite, La Zana is often full midweek as well as weekends. Patrons are a mix of families & couples. Bookings are usually required.

Simply the best Italian restaurant in the area, La Zana consistently dishes up perfectly cooked pasta, a good range of freshly baked pizzas and supplements this staple fare with a varied 'primi' & 'secondi' menu that incorporates both traditional antipasti and veal dishes, as well as an appealing range of seafood dishes. The seafood hotpot in particular is one to try.

I can recommend the tagliatelle boscaiola - perfect fresh pasta in a creamy sauce with bacon that avoids being too rich.

Serving size is relatively large, so if you are a dessert nut, you'll need to miss out on the starter.

The other dish ordered was Tagliatelle La Zana which was also a great feed and a good blend of chicken & avocado in a white sauce.

Service was polite and friendly.

~ Poppy

India Tea & Curry House

India Tea & Curry House is a traditional Indian food restaurant with a homely feel and great food. The menu is typical of its genre, but is exactly what you want to see when choosing Indian cuisine. The restaurant caters for dinner only from 5:30pm, eat-in or takeaway and is licensed for BYO.

The dishes are true to their heritage with no hesitation when it comes to flavor and spice. On Thursday night we ordered Chicken Korma and Balti Beef for mains with plain and cheese Naan as a side. The Korma was enriched with flavor but not too much spice which went down with ease, unlike the Balti Beef which got the tastes buds attention quickly with the immediate heat. Together with the Naan breads the curries made a delicious feast that definitely followed with a loosening of the belt buckle as a sign of satisfaction. - I will gladly note, the one dish that was westernised was the cheese Nann, which was made with mouthwatering stringy cheese instead of crumbly Indian cheese.

One of the most pleasurable points of the evening was the service. All the waiters were so softly spoken and polite, with no need for a note book to remember the orders. They were very attentive to every table and made the evening more enjoyable. As each guest left we were all greeted by the owners who asked how our evening was and were generally interested in what we had to say.

Overall this restaurant gets a big thumbs up due to its traditional food qualities and impeccable service.

~ Poppy

Infuzions

Infuzions is an extremely versatile mixed Asian food restaurant that is a new addition to the collection of night life restaurants in the suburb or Hornsby, NSW. By versatile I mean applicable to both Asian nationalities and western as as the menu combines both traditional Asian dishes like pad Thai, sang choy bow and vegetables and silk tofu stir fry, and then caters greatly for western cultures with dishes such as oven roasted salmon, Wagyu beef salad and fun dishes such as grilled meats on vertical skewers.

The menu is sectioned into categories including entrees, BBQ & grill, curries, Asian pan and wok. Infuzions caters for lunch, dinner and take away.

On Thursday night when I attended there was a live band playing classics from all eras that was enjoyed by a vast age group of audience. The general client age group for the dinner session was between 30-60 years of age as the restaurant is more sophisticated and is also licensed with a wide range of beers, ciders, wines, champagnes and cocktails.

The food quality was satisfactory, with a special recommendation to the scallops to start - cooked/seasoned to perfection! The mains were a good size but not too complex in variation of flavours - in particular the infuzions marinated chicken.

If I were to go again I would order a range of entree's as a tapas style meal as there were many dishes that tempted me but the mains were too large to order a variety.

Overall it was a pleasant evening with good entertainment and food too!

~ Poppy

infuzions.com.au/hornsby/