MoMo - Melbourne

In Melbourne for the Grand Prix once again and it is something I look forward to every year as the weekend is full of good food, good wine and good people. What else do you need?.

So firstly, we head to MoMo a Middle Eastern style restaurant which has become a bit of an Icon in Melbourne. Unfortunately, although I am writing about this place you will need to be quick if you want to go as it is closing down, I believe next month as the chef is moving on.

The ambiance is fantastic and our private room is large enough for everyone to be seated comfortably. Tonight we are having a degustation menu with matching wines. my flash on my camera wasn't working so I do not have any photographs.

We start off with Fresh water crayfish with egg, saffron and haloumy batter, sautéed scallops, hummus and crispy zucchini flowers in yeast butter. 


This was followed by crispy pigeon with sukkah salt on a mintled salad. Wow this was good. We then had Bistayeea - Morocco's celebrated duck pie with almonds and sweet spices.

The important thing to note is that with every course the waiter did a great job in explaining the dish and the matching wines in a way which made the dinning experience somewhat theatrical making the whole night quite sensational. The winning dish of the night for me was the suckling pig which they bought out on a massive platter before the cut it up to show us what we were getting.

Deserts included frozen orange Turkish delight parfait, fresh fruit and a Turkish apple tea souffle.

This was washed down with matching wines from Spain, France, Victoria and Tuscany.

What a night and wonderfully arranged and executed without a flaw.

If you can get there before it closes I would as it is a worthwhile dinning experience. My score was 9/10 for food and service with delivery a perfect score of 10/10.


MoMo Restaurant
Lower Plaza Level
123 Collins Street
Melbourne, Victoria 3000

Blancharu Restaurant - Elizabeth Bay Sydney

A restaurant I have not yet written about and we have been there several times is Blancharu in Elizabeth Bay. This is situated not too far away from the park in Kings Cross near the fountain. The restaurant is quite small and is placed below the footpath so it is easy to miss.

The chef Harunobu Inukai was trained in the art of cooking at Tsuji Cooking School in Osaka, Japan. Harunobu worked at Bilson’s Restaurant for a year, followed by Ampersand Restaurant for two years, where he was awarded two Chefs Hats. In 2000, Harunobu joined VII Restaurant as Executive Chef, where he was again, awarded two Chefs Hats as well as ‘Best New Restaurant’.

The cuisine is Japanese / french and if that rings a bell it is because the chefs have worked in some of our best known restaurants. The food is fine dinning and the 7 course degustation is well worth trying not only for the dishes but the price is affordable as well around $70.

This time around we are taking some friends who are not necessarily into fine dinning so we were a bit worried about what they were going to think. Well we didn't have to worry at all they loved it. Below are 4 dishes we had and all were excellent.



Crown of crab served with eggplant caviar and green pea mousse



Pork belly galette and ganmodoki with mizore sauce

I love this place for its inventive food which is not too far out to enjoy. The menu is constantly changing and if you give them your email address they will send you updates on the changes.My score for service was 8/10 and for food was 9/10. Grab some friends and try it and I am sure you will return for more.

Bennelong Restaurant - Sydney Opera House

This is a very special place right in the world famous Sydney Opera House looking out onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the boats on the Harbour. I am sure there are not too many locations as good as this around the world. Add to this a master chef in Guilluame Brahimi and you have the recipe for a great restaurant and dinning experience.

It's Friday in December and the place is rocking inside and out with people everywhere taking in the sites of Sydney and great weather to boot. We are seated not too far from the window so we have a great view of the bridge and the Harbour. We don't have a lot of time because we have to be out by 3pm as my guests have a plane to catch.

For entree I have a lobster salad with foie gras which was absolutely delightful, freshly shucked oysters and shallot vinegar, and we washed this down with a lovely savingon blanc from NZ. 


For mains we had crispy barramundi on a bed of pureed cauliflower with a Shiraz jus, Waygu steak with mushrooms and confit of shallot merlo sauce, and Blue Eyed Trevalla with summer vegetables.



Some of the guests had desert which consisted of a chocolate mouse cake, chocolate souffle with white chocolate and cherry ripple ice cream and petit fors. everything was delicious and delivered flawlessly. service was a little slow and they got one of the dishes incorrect which reduced their score.




I would always recommend this restaurant and I scored them a 8/10 for food and 6/10 for service for the reasons above.

Sea Level - Cronulla Sydney

Taking time out to dine in your own area can sometimes prove to be a good decision. So when I had some business colleagues from the UK out I decided to local and show them something other than the city.

One of the best restaurants in the Sutherland Shire has been Sea Level however I have had some poor experiences there but I thought I wold take the chance. The restaurant is located right on the beach at Cronulla and has a terrific outlook and a relaxing ambiance without being too casual. The menu of course is mainly seafood but they have some meat, duck and chicken options. The prices are quite reasonable and best of all their wines are not over priced.

There were 9 of us and many had different dishes for entree like scallops in the shell,
Vitello tonnato; thinly sliced rare veal with beans, anchovies, shaved lemon, baby capers & tuna mayonnaise, Fried zucchini flowers stuffed with four cheeses, tomato ragout & pounded basil dressing.

for mains We had Green lobster tail roasted in cafe de paris butter, creme fraiche herb potatoes, watercress & citrus salad,Baked atlantic salmon fillet with baby beets, persian fetta, quail eggs, crisp pancetta & hazelnut dressing, Char grilled fillet of beef with sweet corn puree, potato fondant, fried shiitake mushrooms & asparagus.

Overall the food was very well presented and cooked just right with excellent service being provided. The restaurant was busy but timing of the dishes was good and all in all an excellent night was had by everyone. The bill was also fair and reasonable.

This is one place you should put on your to do list during summer and have a lazy breakfast on a Sunday, a long lunch or just a romantic dinner as the sun sets over the beach. Great for people watching if you are into that and watch the world go by. I rate them a 7/10 for food and a 9/10 for service.


Sealevel Restaurant + Bar
2 The Kingsway
Cronulla NSW 2230

P. (02) 9523 8888
F. (02) 9523 9518

Trading Hours
Breakfast
Sat & Sun,
8am-10:45am

Lunch
7 days, 12:00pm


Dinner
7 days, 5:30pm

Aria Restaurant

A sunny day and a Friday is a great reason to find some good clients and have a lunch by the harbour. I had planned ahead and booked Aria which is a restaurant I had not been to for at least 18 months, no real reason just so many new ones to try. But I am alwayS impressed with this place which basically has not changed since it opened which must be 15 years ago.

The ambiance is quite special very posh and at the same time very relaxed. this is one place where you can have a romantic dinner date or a corporate lunch. It was also great to see some of the old favorites were still on the menu like the Duck and Pea Pie.

To start all 4 of us had the special entree which was a salmon sashimi with a tea smoked herbs , tapioca and wasabi with a jelly that I can't remember what it was. It was very good but I thought it could have had a little more taste.

For our main I could not go past the duck and pea pie which was better than I remember, great pastry a little sweet which I loved. Lots of shreded duck and peas in a moist pie. one had the pork belly which was an entree but had it as a main. The pork looked crispy and juicy and my guest commented on how well it was cooked. The other person had grilled Barramundi which was Also cooked to perfection. There was a good choice and something to please everyone.

I was not going to have desert but my guest wanted one so I had to take a bullet for him and have one myself. We both chose the passionfruit souffle which was to die for, literally. we finished off with coffee and petit fors which consisted of a co nut rough, raspberry jelly and a chocolate truffle.

This was an excellent lunch choice not only for the food but also for the view and for those who don't know where the restaurant is it is next door to the Opera house on Circular Quay, looking out at the best harbour in the world and the Harbour Bridge. What a way to spend Lunch on a sunny Friday.


May I surest you grab a friend, customer or anyone and head down to Aria for a magnificant experience. My score for both food and service, which by the way could not be faulted is 8/10.



ARIA Restaurant Sydney •
1 Macquarie Street, East Circular Quay, Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: +61 2 9252 2555

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