We turned up in a place that I remember playing their as a child as I was bought up in Woollahra. At the back of a small park stands this wonderful old building which has been the site of other famous restaurants in the past. We pushed the glass door open and the noise was incredible and so many People. The restaurant is split into 2 areas, a bar with communal eating on a long timber table and the sit down restaurant.
Our table was not quite ready so we had a drink in the bar area sitting next to some people who were having dinner and it looked delicious. It took about 15 minutes before we got to the table, now very hungry.
The menu is quite different as they have dishes to share, main plates, small plates and nibbles plus desserts. We chose 2 dishes off the mains but people near us were sharing the wood roasted Moran family lamb with chick peas and mint. Another couple had the roasted chicken dish seen on TV.
We both had the snow crab slider, lettuce and kewpie mayonnaise from the nibbles menu as an entree. This was perfect, a beautiful moist crab Pattie on a bun but all aspects of this was good. The photo is not very good as I started eating before I remembered to take a photo.
Now that I had started eating I decided I needed a steak so I went for the char grilled Moran family grass fed beef with horseradish. The other person had the Roasted Snapper, leeks, Swiss brown mushrooms and salsa verde. Both dishes were excellent along with our sides of hand cut chips with lemon thyme aioli.
Being near where I grew up I couldn't go past having dessert and in particular the rhubarb eclair with poached rhubarb and custard apple. This was very different but lovely and we also ordered the Bombe Alaska with fresh raspberries.
All in all a good dinning experience and hopefully I will go back and try some other dishes. Service given the number of people was ok but not great so only 6/10. The food was excellent and rate this 8/10.
Chiswick Gardens Restaurant
65 Ocean St Woollahra
02 83888688
