Baroque Bar - Bistro - Patisserie

This has been on my list for some time and I thought let's go and try it out. this I am sure used to be a bar maybe even a pub in the rocks area of Sydney. It is right on the corner of George St as it begins to wind up into the rocks area. Just across the road is the Quay restaurant . This was a Saturday night and a nice night not too hot and not too cold, so finding a car park is nearly impossible, however we found one under the Harbour bridge which is not too far away. I had eaten at Felix bistro on Friday and was looking forward to comparing the two.

We turned up and I was somewhat surprised that it was so casual and a patisserie to boot. However we were shown to our table ( no tablecloths) of course. The menu is not exhaustive and they were already out of most of their specials. But we were able to choose some excellent dishes. I started off with a scallop dish which I had never seen before. the scallops were joined together to make it look like one large scallop and it was served up with mushrooms and pea. The other entree was fresh asparagus with a poached egg, not very inventive but was cooked to perfection.

Because there were no specials left and neither of us felt like fish so we both had the beef cheeks which were very good and served with mash, again nothing out of the ordinary but what they did they did well.

The deserts were more exciting than the rest of the menu and you could ether choose something from the menu or what was in the patisserie we chose a couple of macaroons and a white chocolate berry Mouse cake.

The service was good and friendly, the food cooked very well, the menu was unexciting and ordinary as was the wine list. I would rate this a 5/10 only because there were limited items on the menu for us to try. would I go back, probably for lunch.

SpiceTemple -Sydney

This is a place I hadn't been before and many people have given it a great wrap, so I decided to try for myself. I have only in the last few years begun to love chili and this was going to be a hot experience. Accompanying me was a very good friend and work colleague. Firstly, when you arrive the front door is a video screen with curtains giving you the impression you are entering somewhere mysterious. A great start. Once you enter you go down three flights of stairs remembering you enter at street level.

At the bottom of the stairs it is dark with each table with their own small downlight, dark wood and an ambiance which tells you this is going to be special. We are shown to our table and immediately start reading the menu which is chinese /asian based.

There are many options to choose from all of which sound great. The waitress advises that we should share each dish and that for two people we should look at two entrees and one main as the entrees are quite large. There are dishes in red writing which signify that it is a very hot dish. We decide to stay with the normal dishes.

We started with squid in five spices, Chilli, and other spices with a dark Chilli sauce. This was very tasty and quite hot for me. We then had the scallop dish with flat noodle and peppers. Again this saucy dish was not as hot but the scallops were cooked just right.

For our main we chose the hot prawns which came with some Chinese vegetables, this was reasonably hot but we decided we would go for a second main and one written in red, so we went for the chicken with Chilli done 3 ways. The chicken itself was not hot but the Chilli was bringing tears to the eyes of my lunch companion, a seasoned Chilli lover. This was washed down with a Grosset riesling.

After lots of water we decided to have desert to cleanse the pallet. We had a cherry jelly and peanut chocolate dish and a chocolate, peanut, caramel ice-cream, which was like a giant snickers bar for you chocoholics.

It turned out to be a wonderful experience and we have already booked to go back again to try some of the other dishes. The service was excellent, the menu was creative and well written, the lighting was fine even though it was very dark it added to the experience. I would rate this 9/10 for service and 8/10 for food.

My suggestion is try this Neil Perry establishment and you won't be disappointed.

Spice Temple
Bligh St Sydney 2000

Kinya Japanese Restaurant Docklands Melbourne

Visiting Melbourne these days has more on offer than ever, in particular their restaurants. Apart from the obvious places to eat they also have many small restaurants that are worth a visit. Some are in Hardware Lane and some are just in small lanes throughout the city.

This time my business client wanted to go to a Japanese restaurant in the new Docklands area where the convention centre is. They are still doing some building there but it will be the next restaurant district once completed.

He had tried this place once before and decided I may like it considering I love Japanese food. the Restaurant is called Kinya and is quite a traditional Japanese with an excellent fit out. We started with Tempura prawns, a spinach dish and a Asali Chawan Mushi which was steam egg custard with clams and Japanese mushrooms.

We then had a mix platter of Sushi and Sashimi and finished it off with Golden Fish which was grilled marinated snow fish with the chefs special miso. The fish was cooked to perfection and had a smooth finish with that sweet miso taste. The skin was very well caramelised and crispy which was the piece I left for last.This is their signature dish and was sensational. The sushi plate was like a work of art and needed to be included on my food blog for all those people who click on my site. The scallops you can see were wonderful, juicy and tasty, not sure what the sauce was but it was also a little sweet. How good does the large prawn look !

Sushi Plate

Golden Fish

The service and food was excellent and I will be going back. I rate them 9/10 for service and 8/10 for food and the experience. When ordering the sashimi plate ask for the special scallops to be included.

Kinya

70 Lorimer St Docklands

Telephone: 03 96462400

Fax: 03 96461388

Otto Ristorante - Finger Wharf Woolloomooloo

24 degrees, no wind a beautiful sunny day, where else would you rather be than at a wonderful restaurant in a wonderful location. It always amazes me that it doesn't matter what day it is there are always people dining at one of the restaurants on finger wharf.

Today we chose Otto's as our guest had not been there for some years. For those of you who haven't been there it is an iconic restaurant with many tables outside and you get a fantastic view looking back at the city. And there are always beautiful people to look at.


Today was no different, so now that the atmosphere has been created what did we choose for lunch and what wine did we wash it down with. We started with half a dozen oyster natural, the special lamb pappardelle and a Porchini Soufle. The Lamb rageout was excellent with home made pasta and a taste that was rich and well rounded. The portion was small but very filling and just the right size for an entree.

The porchini soufle was presented on a plate covered with melted cheese and the soufle stood up on it's own in the middle of the plate, wobbling around like a jelly. The taste was very light and moist with more cheese taste than mushroom, but was worthy of the special.

For mains 2 of us had the grilled barramundi fillets and one had a spagetti seafood dish. The fish was cut rather thin for Barramundi which I liked as I don't particularly like fat fish. The sides were beans with pancetta, chips and a caprese salad. The spaghetti was an entree size and was full of small pieces of seafood with the home made spaghetti melting in the mouth.

All of this was washed down with a bottle of Polish Hill Grosset Riesling and a few beers. No one had enough room for deserts but they had some on the menu which made me wish I wasn't full. All in all a very rewarding dining experience with great service and wonderful food. I would rate this a 7/10 for both.

I suggest you wait for a few more weeks and when spring is here do yourself a favor and go to Otto's for a great afternoon out. But remember it is hard to go back to work if you have to.

Woolloomooloo Wharf
6 Cowper Wharf Road
Woolloomooloo NSW 2011
Tel : +61 2 9368 7488

District Dining - Surry Hills Sydney

The best way to describe this place is funky. the decor and ambiance is busy and bistro like. the food is quite different and is made up of small tapas plates which you share. this is well known chef Warren Turnbull's newest restaurant. his other restaurant is Assiette in Albion st. The service was excellent and the wine list not as extensive as most, which is good as you don't have to wade through pages of wines from around the world.

We started off with;

Crispy quail eggs tarragon mayonnaise,
Crispy courgette flower Kervella goats curd truffled honey
Seared scallops jerusalem artichoke crispy pancetta, prune.

These dishes were all the size of an entree and good to share.

There are some heavier dishes as well which we had
Rabbit ragout, pappardelle, green olive, pangrattato,
Cone bay barramundi, celeriac, peas and bacon, sherry vinaigrette.

and then finished off with a

Dark chocolate brownie, macadamia brittle, white chocolate ice-cream.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes something different but it is a bistro so not a romantic dinner for 2. it's somewhere you would go to before going to the theatre. The only bad point for me was it was a bit rushed as they have 2 dinning times and they need your table. My rating is 6.5/10 for food, service and overall dinning experience.


17 Randle Street, Surry Hills
Sydney, NSW 2010
(02) 9211 7798
info@districtdining.com.au

My Top 10 Restaurants

1. Berowra Waters Inn
2. Cutler & Co
3. Quay
4. Sepia
5. Universal
6. Nu's Thai
7. Otto's
8. Est
9. Comm
10.Saki

Peacock Trattoria Kyle Bay NSW

This is an Italian / modern Australian restaurant even though I think of Chinese when I see the name. This is run by 2 chefs which have had experience at the Riverview Hotel in Balmain. The restaurant is painted on the inside with plenty of colour apparently by a tatooist. This is a gem set in thew middle of the burbs in the southern suburbs or St George area.

The food is delicious but I did not take any photos so I will try and explain the dishes. We had the chefs choice which was $60 per head and gave us 2 starters, 1 entree. a main and a sweet. This was real value for money.

The starters were a duck salad with ridichio, apple, roasted hazelnuts and vincotta. I will come back just for this. The other starter was a pizza with anchovies. The next course was rabbit done in a shortcrust pastry with poppy seeds. The mains were Pork belly and a Barramundi both were cooked to perfection. The sweet was a cappacinno cassata which was true to its name.

Overall the service was terrific and the food as good as a fine dinning restaurant anywhere in the city. This was a real experience and one to go back time and time again as the menu changes weekly. Well done to owners. I give this an 8/10.

If you would like to go you will find it at 25 Kyle Bay Pde Kyle Bay phone 9546 6900

Atlantic Restaurant. Crown Casino Melbourne

Last week I was unfortunately stuck in Melbourne due to the ash cloud, so whilst I was there one of my customers called and invited me to dinner. He asked me where I wanted to go and I said let's go to Atlantic if you haven't been. This had also been recommended to me by my son a wonderful chef.

I knew where it was because it had taken over from a previous seafood place near Rockpool etc. So on arrival the waiter took us through the restaurant which I must say is well laid out, modern with an open kitchen and quite lively. So far the experience was very good. The menu is interesting and has a variety of different seafood options which should satisfy everyone.

The waiter came over to advise of their specials and went to great length to tell us about the risotto with scampi and black truffle making sure we liked truffle before we ordered. 2 of us ordered the risotto which sounded wonderful and one had soft-shell crab. That is where the experience came to a holt. The risotto came out without the scampi on top of the dish but rather a few small pieces buried in the rice. And as for the black truffle you could hardly taste it let alone see it.

The waiter took the orders for the main and convinced one to have the salmon special and one person had the kingfish and I had the ironbark smoked steamed baby Barramundi. However when the meals came out I was given a salmon as well which I kindly said that is not what I ordered. The waiter started to argue with me that he had convinced me to have the salmon, so you can imagine how I felt, no apology just an argument, eventually he said ok and my fish came out about 10 minutes later. Now for the review, the salmon came out in a broth and was excellent as was my smoked fish however the kingfish was so overcooked it was like carving a well done steak. Overall my fish was very very good and worth the wait.

Unusual as it may sound I also had desert which was a beautiful lemon tart with basil ice-cream again there was one desert not available and the other guest had a panacotta which was served in a glass with a berry granita. Very inventive and tasty.

Overall it is very hard to judge this place as the food was excellent but the service very ordinary and inappropriate. THerefore i have decided to give this place 2 scores. 8.5/10 for their food and 4/10 for service. I big question is would I go back and the answer is no.

You can find this restaurant in the Crown Casino complex in Melbourne and you should go and try for yourself.

Kingsley Steakhouse in king st sydney

This is an oldie but a goodie so my visit recently did not let me down. Firstly we started with a half a dozen oysters natural which were delicious. Trying to manage my waist line is difficult but I try to minimize my carb intake when I can so no sourdough bread. Bugger.

I chose the petite filet as it was only 160 grams and no fat. It was cooked to perfection medium rare to the point I had to say something to the chef as it could not have been any tastier. This was served with a salad but you can choose a number of mouth watering extras like chips, baked potato, plus some exciting sides. We had fresh steamed green vegetables. But they have many others and in the past I would have had the caramelized onions and chips. I did have the mushroom jus for my steak.

No sweets but for those who go to Kingsleys know they have chocolate coated coffee beans with coffee so we got stuck into them. No photos today as my camera is broken but I rate them a 7/10 for both service And food and they would have rated higher but their wine list by the glass is poor. I do suggest that if you are after a good steak then it's hard to go past Kingsleys or Stearsons. Contact them on wWw.kingsleyausteak.com.au 029295 5080

Auge restaurant 22 Grote street Adelaide

I had the pleasure of dinning at this almost hidden away Italian Ristorante with a client who we were celebrating their 10th anniversary with us. The atmosphere was excellent and they were very busy for a Wednesday night. Lots of attention by staff and some wonderful appetisers.This is a place I will return to try some more dishes. We started with scallops which were cooked to perfection.

Cape Sante della Baia di Harvey (Queensland) scottate in padella con mousse di pomodoro, crema di cetriolo e olio al peperoncino

seared harvey bay scallops with tomato sugo mousse, chilled cucumber soup, chilli oil & baby herb salad

Although the next course was steak it was exactly what I was looking for nicely pink in the middle and a good carmelised colour on the outside. The pea mouse was also different and was very tasty.

Filetto di Manzo al forno servito con vegetali estivi 250g beef fillet with summer vegetables - kipfler potatoes, baby carrots roasted cherry tomatoes, pea mousse & micro radish

Meringa con fragole alla sambuca nera e mascarpone alla vaniglia soft baked meringue, black sambuca poached strawberries with vanilla mascarpone