Emilia reviews a ‘picturesque’ wine bar tucked away in a trendy location

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Tucked away in a quiet street in Armadale is Alberts Wine Bar, in a 19th Century façade with chairs and tables that spill out into the footpath. The warm light inside welcomes you in, perfect for a balmy night with the backdrop of floor to roof wine racks displaying their array of authentic small batch wines. Sounds picturesque doesn’t it? 

This is an Ando local and he explained just how badly the area needed something like this. Whilst wine bars aren’t exactly hard to find as you move down High Street, you’re obviously very on ‘High Street’, the magic in Albert’s really is the location. 

Their walls are lined with simple, local line art which pay homage to their name, Albert’s which is the eponym of Australian artist, Albert Tucker who once resided in the area and drew the restaurant. 

I started with my favourite cocktail, a French martini, which they nailed and tried a Airlie Bank 2022 Pinot Noir which I took a picture of so I could buy a bottle for home. You’ll see a trend of that throughout today’s review. It was all so good but so simple, you want to take it all home with you.

Ross, I already knew you’d like this place but you’ll like it even more with the knowledge that Tom Ferne is now the head chef, he’s been at Centonove in Kew and Brae, that’s two Ross centric joints as well as Untitled in Richmond. You may be able to spot some whispers of his past haunts in some of the food like the crab and prawn toast. 

Having evolved from snack foods you can now sit and get a pretty solid meal, I will say, it still sits at wine bar sizes and prices, keep that in mind. We started with a salumi plate, olives, cheese, with bread and butter. The bread was good; tall and fluffy. Salumi plate came topped with mini gherkins and pickled peppers, great balance of spicy and salty. 

I was told I HAD to try the grilled calamari with harissa and capers and I will pass on the encouragement. The calamari was in long tentacles that have smokey sides from the grill and topped with the harissa and caper jus. Again, the word that comes to mind is balance, each element has the opportunity to be overpowering but it’s not.

Onto pastas and we tried the casarecce with venetian duck ragu and the rigatoni with vodka sauce and mozzarella. I was constantly stumped by which one I wanted to keep piling onto my plate. The duck ragu was expertly matched with the casarecce which is that short twist pasta that catches sauce in it’s little grooves and laps up protein perfectly. 

To properly explain how much I was dreaming about having this meal again, the next night I did my best at remaking the rigatoni with vodka, I even had to buy burrata because the meal would not be complete without it. Get yourself pasta that you’re still thinking about the next day…

As a quick add we also added butter lettuce with house dressing and toasted breadcrumbs. Simple, yes. Necessary, also yes. The freshness we needed.

Only comment I would make is that the plates we were given were dessert plate size so you had to keep loading the plate up. It probably would have been easier, especially as there were shared meals to be had to have bigger plates; and ones that got refreshed after the starters so we didn’t have to try to navigate around the pepper ends. 

I loved the atmosphere and even on a Tuesday night there was a certain buzz about it, filled with double dates and mates sharing a wine after work, still in their suits. It felt like somewhere you could just pop down to for one glass and accidentally stay for a couple more. The staff were fantastic, they were warm and helpful and added perfectly to the upmarket but laid back feel of Albert’s.

Albert’s Wine Bar

17 Morey St, Armadale