The Perfect coffee at Bardini

At the time I was cheffing in France, Switzerland and Italy I always had a special Bistro around the corner from my house where all the people from the neighbourhood used to gather before and after work for a cup of great coffee,beer or a snack,exchanging the local news gossip or arguing politics.

These places were the a second home to most of the neighbourhood where you read the morning news paper,ate Sunday lunches with the family,left messages for friends (before the invention of mobile phones)or escaped a nagging wife.But you always got a great cup of coffee.One reason why Starbucks did not catch up in Europe.

Osaka too is dotted with numerous coffee shops serving horrible dark liquid which I would not call coffee.Some of them sport an laboratory apparatus from the 1960's ,which look as if they are genetically modifying the coffee then making a great cup of coffee.These places are frequented by salary men, sales personal whiling away their time before the next meeting and the usual morning punch perm "Oyaji"(Japanese old man) with their sports pages with a bit off saucy soft porn at the end.

The youngsters and the fashionable lot usually head for the Starbucks close by.But in my neighbour hood Bardini changed that all.Tanaka san the owner of Bardini spent a couple of years cheffing in Italy and when he came back brought back the Taverna concept with him.

Bardini sports a standing bar around which the regulars gather and have great cup of coffee from Tanaka san's expensive Cimbali machine.Apart from the great strong flavour of italian beans the coffee has a great mousse on top which is always a sign for a well made coffee.Here a espresso cost 250￥ as compared to 400￥ of Starbucks and is a hundred times much better tasting than the later.

Bardini also show cases Italian food with a hint of french.My personal favourite are the "Polpette" pork balls in tomato tyme sauce.Tanaka san puts pork ear cartilage in his pork balls to give a crunch to it. The combination of the soft pork mince and the crunch of the cartilage is perfect.Also do not forget to order a piece of baguette to mop up the sauce.

Bardini

Phone:0665323810

Opening time : 11:30~16:30(L.O 15:30)

16:30~23:00(L.O 22:00)

Tuesdays closed and every 3rd Monday of the month closed

URL http://bardini.jp