‘Volare’ means ‘to fly’ in Latin, and that’s just about how you’ll be feeling after biting into Volare’s delightful fare and sipping on a few fine drops.
The Maylands day-to-late joint is your quintessential neighbourhood wine bar and eatery paying homage to coastal cities of Europe, with Sardinia, Marseille, Amalfi, and Valencia in mind.
The leafy, yesteryear space takes up the old Swallow Bar site on Whatley Crescent, and Volare has done a delicate job of preserving the 1920s art-deco characteristics with an elegant yet quaint fit-out.
The heritage bar offers up a menu to match the European ambience, with Volare’s Head Chef Jacob Rutherford, previously of Naber +IIII, Varnish & King, and Baby Mammoth, not afraid to put a twist on tradition.
Share plates and carefully curated cocktails are spread across the carte, with one especially intriguing dish up for grabs – the lobster bomba.
A ‘bombolone’ is a filled doughnut originating from Italy, and filled Volare’s are. With dough that’s made fresh daily, stuffed with a creamy lobster filling, finely grated ricotta salata, and topped with smoked roe for a juicy pop.
The sandwich of sorts is humble, but masterfully constructed with each element divine in its own right married to create a succulent quadruple of seafood and moreish carbohydrates. We can’t think of a more beautiful thing.
But if lobster doughnuts don’t quite tickle your fancy, Volare’s fare also enlists: mushrooms paccheri, with hazlenut and sage brown butter; Yanmah pork cotoletta with nduja, honey and cavolo nero; polenta cake with sunflower pesto and crispy basil; and marinated mussels with garbanzo beans and braised kale.
It’s the simple things for Volare, with a focus on big flavours that less-tampered with ingredients has to offer.
The Maylands small bar is brought to us by the same team behind Northbridge’s Neon Palms – Volare’s polar opposite with its South American flare and vibrant, beach-inspired facade.
Pop in to Maylands’ Volare for flavoursome plates and quenching tipple in the sunny courtyard or at the charming bar, perhaps even cosy up in one of the hand-stitched 1920s train seat booths.