Marta

This was incredible, came for a birthday party and I have to say this is some of the best Italian food I've ever had! The octopus had a perfect char and melted in your mouth, pasta seeped flavour with each bite, the fried gnocchi had an amazing crunch and the octopus stuffed fried zucchini flower was to die for. 10/10. Definitely going back

In one of the most successful restaurant pivots in a crisis, MARTA Osteria has rolled out their weekend Roman-style bakery to appease weekday boredom while we all work and study from home. With a clear COVIDSafe plan in place, the staff are inside the restaurant, and the patrons widely spaced in a pedestrian square, queuing a metre-and-a-half apart for crisp Italian pastries and gelato plucked from a gelato cart. Owner-chef Flavio Carnevale was a baker before he was a chef, and gee it shows in airy, chewy, salt-crusted focaccia with Italian mortadella and provolone encased within. Even better is an airy round of focaccia studded with blistered cherry tomatoes and anchovies for a big umami kick. Sfogliatine sourdough puff pastry is created into crisp sandwiches with prosciutto and cheese. To finish there are maritozzi – sweet brioche buns filled with cream – that are pleasant in texture and not overly sweet. Though the shattery pastry millefoglie with golden mascarpone and blueberries is hard to beat for your work from home elevenses. The five items came to $54, which isn’t cheap for pastries, but when everything hits the mark and the restaurant is able to keep all their staff working through Sydney’s second lockdown, I am happy to pay it.

This is a comment on the baked goods, not the restaurant. My friend introduced me to this Italian pastry - Sfogliatelle. Even after seeking guidance from Google, I still don’t know how to pronounce it. Something like "sfohl-ya-TEL-le" According to Google, it is made from a thin, kneaded dough, with a layer of lard/fat, rolled up into a cigar shape, chilled and then cut into the required pieces. For each piece, create a hollow for the filling and then bake. It is interesting - layers of thin, leaf-like, flaky, "dryish", crust enveloping a filling (custard, pistachio etc.) that is not overly sweet. Definitely something to try.

Best Italian pastry’s, Great for a weekend adventure! Super fresh, incredibly delicious and worth the wait. I recommend you coming earlier on weekends as there is always a long queue but it moves relatively fast and the service is friendly. The bakery opens 8.30am on weekends. We got there at 10:30am and there was still plenty pastries left over and they are constantly baking so it’s always fresh and warm! We got (pictured) sour cherry and pistachio Sfogliatelle which I highly recommend, ham, cheese and truffle Sfogliatelle style croissant - also highly recommend! Spinach, ham, cheese and egg roll, good but wouldn’t urgently get again. (Not pictured): custard croissant (highly recommend) and 2 coffees came to around $59. Highly recommend !

Fantastic bakery. Focaccia schnitzel sandwich was incredible and the pastries equally delicious. The only small tip I would give is put a menu out for people in the queue to look at - it was hard to know what everything was when we got to the counter which meant we had to ask the guy loads of questions about what everything was. Otherwise delightful and will be back weekly!! 😋

Extremely good pastries, good coffee too. Unfortunately the service ruined our experience, or at least our opinion on this restaurant. The guy who served us never smiled, when we asked about focaccia toppings he rudely replied as he didn’t want to be there wasting his time. When we left the venue we kindly said bye guys thank you and NO ONE of the staff replied back (The bar was not busy at all, only us and another table of four) Really sorry to say that because breakfast was great but having this kind of service put us off in coming back again