We love venturing to new places for a meal and always count our blessings when it turns out to be an outstanding experience. This is exactly the case with our visit to the Italian restaurant, Via Alta in the village shopping precinct in Willoughby. With their Italian wait staff and authentic dishes, the restaurant makes you feel as though you are holidaying in Italy, which is a great consolation, considering overseas travel is virtually impossible at the moment. Our dining experience at this restaurant was perfect in every way, their service was excellent, the atmosphere was cosy and the food was superb. Our blog aims give you a literary taste for what this restaurant is offering and hopefully will give you an impetus to make a booking and try the restaurant out for yourself. The meals here are quite rustic and very flavoursome. Not only this, the meals are extremely generous servings. We shared a range of the menu and enjoyed everything that we sampled. There is also a tasting menu if that is something you'd prefer and leave the ordering to the staff. To start with was the creamy burrata, which was a light starter with a lovely freshness, seved with orange and grapefruit segments and a bitter leaves sauce that was well seasoned with a unique flavour we very much enjoyed. The little things that this restaurant does really makes it stand out. For instance, their Zucco Arrosto salad is an absolute winner, for the roast pumpkin, baby spinach, thin ricotta slices and toasted almonds demonstrates how each ingredient carefully considered can make the plate pop with texture and taste. We really liked that the pumpkin was served warm, this took this salad to another level, as did the and the crunch and roasted flavour of the toasted almonds. I had a glass of Prosecco with the entree which matched perfectly, and Via Alta have a good drinks list with wine, beer and cocktails. The wild boar parpadelle was a stunning rustic dish and a standout of the dining experience (and the meals we've had in 2020). The fresh house made pasta was perfect in every way and served aldente, tossed with the wild boar ragout, which was beatifully rich and served with Parmesan cheese. It was certainly a very big potion too. The Gamberi grilled king prawns, tomato broth and garlic bruschetta was our other main, and equally tasty in different ways. This seafood dish is full of tomato sauce and the cherry tomatoes themselves. We loved that this was served on a piece of bread soaking up all of the luscious sauce. The flavour of the prawns stood out and they were in abundance. You know it's almost a rite of passage to have dessert at an Italian restaurant. Whilst we ordinarily go for a cannoli, we opted for a tiramisu on this visit since it sounded amazing, and it was. Layers of sponge cake doused in coffee and liquor with marscapone cream and sprinkled with powdered chocolate makes for the perfect end to the meal. We left here feeling completely satisfied with our meal and we look forward to returning for their truffle menu items in July and August. read more