Latest favourites and wishlist by nicolavanlaar

Flower Drum - review by nicolavanlaar

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 12:24:44 +0000

Flower Drum - review by nicolavanlaar

Rating: 4.0

Location: 17 Market Lane, 3000, Melbourne, Australia

Tags: professional staff, multicultural diners, lacking in ambience, great flowers, chinese restaurant, iconic

Our girl's weekend in Melbourne had now grown to five of us, with the addition of Lisa, for the Saturday night dinner at Flower Drum.

Our taxi driver was bloody useless and dropped us off back at our hotel. Thankfully I had printed off a whereis.com free map and could direct our second uselss cabbie, to the corner of Bourke St (major shopping precinct in the City) and Russell St, and we hoofed it the rest of the way in the drizzle.

Really, the restaurant has only been opened and critically acclaimed for over 30 years, how difficult can it be to find 17 Market Lane off Bourke Street???

It is an unassuming building, with a door down a darkish side laneway. You head up some stairs (or use the lift) and come upon a large open dining room with strategically placed screens and large floral arrangements.

We found it easier for the purposes of rapid-fire conversation (such as, "if you could be buried with only one book, what would it be?") to just order the 6 course plus fruit Chef's Degustation Menu for $150 per head and move on to a Gin & Tonic. We sorely needed them after the taxi-debacles! :)

The menu included:
1. A delicious mild creamy Crab concoction, served in the whole crab shell.
2. San Choy Boy - quail I think...
3. Salt and Pepper Red Emperor fish on deep-fried Enoki mushrooms, which we arranged to have some squid included.
4. Two generous serves of Peking Duck Pancakes.
5. Black Bean Balmain Bugs cut up in the tail shell.
6. Eye Fillet steak cooked medium rare (and quite chillied), with steamed Boy Choy and fried noodles. This pushed us all over the edge, was a bit disappointing and none of us could finish our portions!
7. A gorgeous light, refreshing fruit platter to share and home-made almond biscuits.

The service was extremely professional and polished. There was an excellent diner/waiter ratio and every need was anticipated. Nothing was too much trouble.

Unfortunately, we now know why they lost a hat recently and dropped out of the top 100 World's Best list. The food was good but not great. There wasn't any star ingredients used or luxe products or unusual combinations to wow us. We felt we could get the same Chinese food in Sydney... although we were pretty happy with the simple fruit platter at the end, which is saying something!

Italy 1 - review by nicolavanlaar

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:23:46 +0000

Italy 1 - review by nicolavanlaar

Rating: 4.0

Location: 27 George Parade, 3000, Melbourne, Australia

Phone: (03) 9654 4430

Website: http://www.italy1.com.au

Tags: italian, warm ambience, family & home feel, good value, great service

It was late on a cold, windy Friday night in August and four Sydney gals were hungry (late thanks to Jetstar Avalon) and looking for some warm, soul food in Melbourne.

Thanks to Rochelle, Cass' office manager, we found Italy 1 down the George Parade side lane at about 9:30pm (next door to Jamie Oliver's 15 or 16 who knows the #? restaurant) and settled into the ambient window seat.

We were gently told (by let's call him 'Fred') we could only have 1 course due to our tardiness and the lateness of the booking. We ordered with gusto (could also be due to the nice Pinot we ordered) and the generously proportioned dishes arrived quickly.

Philippa had a nice spinach and black truffle paste risotto with lashing of grated parmesan cheese. Tamara and Cassandra both had a delish looking linguini marinara with lots of fresh, plump seafood. I had a fabulous duck (a whole confit leg was shredded into it), pancetta, spinach and porcini mushroom risotto. The pasta and risotto dishes were in the high AU$20's. Although nice and filling, we couldn't help ordering the Italy 1 mash aswell...

Here we almost came undone Sue, when we were noticed photographing the Chef's food. Nice 'Fred' came to enquire why and Tamara and I hastily extolled the virtues of trusted places.com!

After some wheedling and begging, I was able to order the Tiramisu dessert ($12) with our coffees. Yes, sadly the other girls whimped out and did not order dessert. Go hard or go home I say!

It was a family recipe kept secret by one of their apprentices, who was being made the very next day, and it was heaven! It came in its' own large white domed bowl with lashings of chocolate all over the top. Coffee, liquer and choc in one hit = what more could you ask for?

Great food, moderate prices, excellent produce, good wine list and professional, funny, good-humoured service made this dining experience a real winner and a great start to a girl's weekend away in Melbourne.

P.S. Unbeknownst to us, they also have an Italy 1 at Camberwell and a Bistro 1 at 126 Little Collins St.
www.italy1.com.au
www.bistro1.com.au

Rock Restaurant - review by TamaraC

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:21:29 +0000

Rock Restaurant - review by TamaraC

Rating: 4.0

Location: 576 Debeyers Road, 2320, Pokolbin, Australia

Phone: 02 4998 6968

Website: http://www.rockrestaurant.com.au/

Tags: Modern Australian; contemporary feel

This is the second of the two great spots reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald by Simon Thomsen that I loved. The restaurants, not Simon Thomsen : )

Now this one is an out-of-towner, located in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley wine region of NSW (conveniently located only 2 hours from Sydney). It's a great region, and you're spoiled for choice for dining in the Valley, so I turned to Guru Simon for advice. The other option was a place I won't mention because you have to pronounce it the French way and then you sound as pretentious as it looks. That's why we didn't choose it. Everyone can pronounce The Rock'.

This restaurant is part of the Poole's Rock winery, which produces the well-known white Cockfighter's Ghost. As one wine-tasting funny boy told me, you have to be careful how you pronounce it once you've had a few glasses, because you can easily swap the ghost' elsewhere in the name of the wine and end up in trouble ; ) We played it safe and ordered NZ wines!

To start with though, me and DC had a leisurely pre-dinner drink in the funky bar area which featured cushions so cool I wished I'd brought a bigger bag&

Once we were seated at our table with the rest of our party, it was revealed that my very kind friends had pre-ordered a bottle of Moet et Chandon Rose Imperial in honour of my birthday, so the six of us toasted, sipped and enjoyed this wonderful luxury, while we perused the menu.

It was one of those menus that featured all the hot-button ingredients, so choosing was tricky. Everything was available in tasting, entrée or main sizes, so that guests can choose a tasting menu, a traditional three courser, or something in between. We all opted for three tastings and a dessert.

I started with scallop tortellini with king brown mushrooms, pancetta and Riesling cream. Delicate, but I couldn't pick up the pancetta flavour and thought the texture of the tortellini was a little dried-out under the Riesling cream.

Second came duck breast, stuffed with apple, raisin and hazelnut, on a generous bed of Tasmanian truffles, with licquorice sauce. The combination of duck, truffle and liquorice were what tempted me, and while the truffles were deliciously woody and flavoursome, I couldn't taste any liquorice, and the duck was on the tough side. My fellow diners who also had the duck in their selections reported that their's were succulent, however they seemed to have far more stuffing and far less truffle than mine featured.

My last tasting was of the grilled Wagyu rump, on artichoke puree with a fine leaf salad atop. I am in the philistine category when it comes to steak - I don't like mine to have any of the blood still running, so this was a little full-on for me. Also, a little sinewy.

This left dessert, for which I chose a prune and cognac soufflé, delightfully presented in a copper ramekin with pouring cream alongside. Who doesn't like a nice piece of serving ware?! Breathing in while having mouthful of this eggy soufflé in your mouth was a heady experience as the full force of the cognac came through! Elegant petit fours completed a delicious meal, marred for me only by the texture of my choices. We had chosen our wines well, with a Seresin 2006 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and another wonderful NZ Pinot Noir (whose name escapes me now) utterly drinkable, and an evening of great company with great friends!

And as a PS I have to say that the service was among the best I've had anywhere recently. Knowledgeable, with useful suggestions, touch of humour, no attitude, thoughtful and warm, everyone we came across was professional and attentive.

Rock Restaurant - review by nicolavanlaar

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 07:44:21 +0000

Rock Restaurant - review by nicolavanlaar

Rating: 4.0

Location: 576 Debeyers Road, 2320, Pokolbin, Australia

Phone: 02 4998 6968

Website: http://www.rockrestaurant.com.au/

Tags: cultured, mature, cool & smart, young professionals, international, good value

Six of us dined last night at Rock restaurant, in the Pooles Rock Vineyard, in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley, for our friend Tamara's birthday.

After reading glowing reviews in Vogue Entertaining & Travel and SMH online, we thought, let's give staid Robert's at Pepper's a miss this time and try somewhere new. Boy were we glad we did! :)

The restaurant at night is called Rock and the cafe during the day is called Firestick. There is also a nice bar area to the side with comfy armchairs. Rock looks like a modern corrugated iron warehouse from the outside. Inside it is one big open-plan modern structure with the back wall all glass overlooking the vineyard. The bathrooms are interesting with square toilet "bowls" to match the square hand basin and running bathroom theme.

The beauty of Rock (apart from not doing two dinner sittings) is that each scrumptious menu offering can be taken as a Tasting, Entree or Main size. So you order what you feel like, when you feel like it and dependant on how hungry you are at the time and no-one rushes you out the door.

The charming and professional Maitre'd Adam, will advise and guide you through the choices. The wait staff use individual touch-screens. For example, we were served bread and complimentary blue eye cod choux pastry puffs to start. Then we asked to see the dessert list, so we could gauge our hunger.

We ordered 3 tasting plates each and two bowls each for the table, of the steamed broccolini with almonds and roasted garlic and rosemary potatoes, which were an extremely reasonable $7 each.

We had gorgeous New Zealand white and red wines and a cheeky Moet rose for initial birthday bubbles. Then we ordered a dessert each, which came in two size choices and finished off with a divine French sticky. We were also served coffee delice meringue and orange curd muffin petit fours at the end of the meal. I'm afraid I can't review the coffee here, as we were all abit tipsy for coffee by this stage, but they did serve Mariage Freres teas I noticed!

If you are sensible enough to make the drive here, the stand-out winners to order, in my opinion are;
* Duck breast stuffed with truffle (lots of it from W.A.!), apple, raisin and hazelnut on buttered zucchini and liquorice sauce.
* Venison with king mushroom noodles beetroot fondant and snow pea and zebra tomato salad.
* The grilled Wagyu rump (Aussie Blackmore's), roasted jerusalem artichoke puree and fine herb salad was tasty enough, but we all found the beef a little bit too chewy and disappointing, despite being cooked Medium-Rare.
* The quince tart tartin with a quenelle of Marco Polo M.F. tea-infused Sabayon was to die for! You need to allow 20-25 minutes for this dessert (and the prune and VERY cognac souffle) to be cooked.

Overall excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Small oversights included; one 's' on the dessert menu, no Sydney Rock oysters available and no decoration to Tamara's dessert plate or singing or birthday fanfare...

www.rockrestaurant.com.au

Sean's Panorama - review by nicolavanlaar

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:40:27 +0000

Sean's Panorama - review by nicolavanlaar

Rating: 4.0

Location: 270 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, 2062, Sydney, Australia

Phone: 02 9365 4924

Website: http://www.seanspanaroma.com.au/

Tags: cozy, good quality, good wine list, good location, friendly staff, expensive, lively

We went to Sean's Panorama last Friday night, with gastro-friends Brett and Lisa, for an early dinner at 6:30pm, as they take 2 sittings and they are tiny. They are open for lunch 12-3pm Saturday and Sunday and dinner Thursday to Saturday 6-9:30pm.

It was just as well we did, as when we were leaving, Brett overheard the kitchen saying four upsetting words, "we're out of duck"! Well upsetting for the later diners perhaps, as I'd already devoured mine! :)

Located at the North end of Bondi Beach, there's no view at night-time, but the atmosphere of the tightly packed little restaurant is friendly and homey.

The staff are extremely professional and friendly. I asked for a Bellini, but was declined as "sorry, peaches aren't in season at the moment".

Entrees were not anything fabulous... three of us had chickpea coated calamari deep-fried with aioli and Brett had a prawn bisque soup with cauliflower dumplings. Although the bread rolls were delish!

The food is what you wish you could make at home, delicious but a bit overpriced at $38-$42 for a main. I had the duck two ways, which was a crispy-skinned breast sliced and a leg confit with a potato rosti. Lisa had the veal scallopini with mushrooms and spinach. Steve and Brett had the pork special which was on the rack, fennel encrusted, then sliced and served on winter vegetables with a strip of crackling. Yummo!

The desserts were good too. Brett had Jenny's baked custard tart with rhubarb. Steve had a divine mandarin and ruby red grapefruit sorbet. Lisa and I had the chocolate puddings with double cream.

For the four of us, with a pre-dinner drink each, 3 courses and a very delicious Yarra Valley Macforbes Coldstream Pinot ($68), the bill came to $450 = not cheap, but we had a delightful night and were out of there before 8:30pm!

Thelma & Louise - review by nicolavanlaar

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:24:41 +0000

Thelma & Louise - review by nicolavanlaar

Rating: 4.0

Location: 1 Hayes Street, Neutral Bay, 2089, Sydney, Australia

Tags: cosy, good brew, quick bite

Thelma & Louise's is a groovy little cafe at the bottom of Hayes Street, right next to the Ferry Wharf. The beauty of this cafe, is it's small deck with 3 tables for 2, hangs out over the water next to the wharf. There are 2 big glass sliding doors which give nice views out to the Harbour to about half the tables inside.

I only ever go here for brunch with my girlfriends (Mandy lives in the Street), as it can get quite boisterous with conversations bouncing off the floorboards and the lunch menu from 12pm doesn't tempt me as much.

The service is always friendly (eg. my 3 year old was given highlighters and paper and a lovely chocolate hundreds & thousands covered heart today) but one waitress in particular is very hit and miss.

For example, Mandy's sausage side came as bacon, Natalie's side of spinach didn't turn up and they have been out of coffee loyalty stamper cards for a week now. You also have to specify which type of bread to get the good toast. Something has gone seriously wrong here recently and they use 1.5 slices of some thin, soy/linseed bread. They used to use thickly -sliced and turkish toast - much preferable!

Today Natalie had the salmon benedict and said the smoked salmon was very good. I had eggs benedict on bacon. There was a good portion of bacon but it was not the good short cut or middle rasher and could have been of better quality. Also the bearnaise sauce was a bit runny and bland and probably could have used more egg yolks in it.

Other than that, it is super convenient for us (or anyone catching a ferry), the coffee is always good, the staff friendly, prices reasonable, they have a gift store a few shops up and it has a killer view. So we keep going back despite the hiccups. :-)

The Bathers' Pavillion - review by nicolavanlaar

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:02:04 +0000

The Bathers' Pavillion - review by nicolavanlaar

Rating: 5.0

Location: 4 The Esplanande, Balmoral Beach, 2088, Sydney, Australia

Tags: cosy, best courveture hot chocolates!, top food, family & home feel, good brew, expensive

Bather's, at the gorgeous Balmoral Beach on Sydney's Lower North Shore, has views to die for straight through North Head. Bather's is also a very different place for breakfast, lunch, high tea and dinner and on the informal cafe side (where you can't book) versus the more structured and expensive restaurant side.

We went for breakfast this rainy old winter morning with another young family. We always pick the cafe side and this morning we didn't have to wait and we got a beachy booth with pillows!

We all went for hot breakfasts this morning at approximately $22 each. Lisa had Eggs Benedict, Steve had the Big Breaky (which is shrinking in my opinion) and Brett and I had Poached Eggs with avocado on corn/spring onion fritters (more corn needed less spring onion me-thinks).

The service is always efficient, professional and friendly here and we were provided with colouring in items for the kids and water without asking. The bathrooms are very luxe too and there is a special tiny tots separate junior toilet.

Afterwards you can take a stroll on the promenade, go upstairs and check out the local art gallery or get a take-away coffee from the newly-opened Bather's Kiosk on the Eastern side. Another plus = it's in the Entertainment Book! The only minus = parking is a killer in Summer.

Epoque Belgian Beer Cafe - review by nicolavanlaar

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:22:47 +0000

Epoque Belgian Beer Cafe - review by nicolavanlaar

Rating: 4.0

Location: 429 Miller Street, Cammeray, 2062, Sydney, Australia

Tags: relaxed, mature, young professionals, friendly

For us, Epoque BBC is our local pub, being a 2 minute drive away. It's just handy that it has so many imported specialty beers, well for the beer-drinking boys amongst our party anyway...

Epoque (and its' sister BBC, the 'Heritage' in the Rocks) is a medium-priced, warm, cosy, masculine (think big beer tankards, lots of mahogany and oak furniture/booths and beer paraphanalia), buzzy (sounds bounce off the floor-boards) beer cafe - well restauarant really!

Last night, we went with the family ( 3 year old and 4 month old) and some friends of ours. We skipped entrees and instead ate the 3 year olds chips and ordered drinks and garlic bread. Of the four of us, three ordered the Twice-cooked Crispy Pork Belly for $26.50 and the odd-one out (my husband!) ordered the Flemish Beef Stew cooked in Beer $22.50 that comes with chips and mayonnaise.

The stew was a little bit below the usual par last night, my husband said the gravy is usually darker and more flavoursome... The rest of us were very happy with our streaky (we cut the centre line of fat out), crispy (the crackling was excellent), pork strap on creamy, garlic mash, with a dollop of apple sauce and a glob of finely grated sauerkraut with juniper berries on the side.

I was the only one to have dessert, the Raspberry Crepes for $10.50, which were quite nice but not outstanding - but then again I have extremely high dessert standards! It was two crepes filled with a not too sweet raspberry coulis, folded into quarters with belgian chocolate sauce drizzled on top and a scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream.

If you like mussels (their specialty with chips and mayo), I can highly recommend the white wine mussels in the pot!

The staff were excellent, helping with the pram, providing colouring pencils/paper, patient and friendly. They take bookings and there is some easy, free council parking in the carpark out the back through the rear entrance! Though it is also on the Miller Street bus route.

Thelma & Louise - review by TamaraC

Tue, 08 May 2007 12:09:24 +0000

Thelma & Louise - review by TamaraC

Rating: 4.0

Location: 1 Hayes Street, Neutral Bay, 2089, Sydney, Australia

Tags: cosy, chai, need to book on weekends, awesome harbour views, genuine retro, proper food, amazing brew, crowded, lively, cozy

As much as I love it, I don't drink coffee. I love to inhale the smell emitting from a well-scented cafe, but I don't drink coffee. What I do love to drink is chai, aka Punjabi Chai, but rarely 'Chai Latte'. Once you've sampled the real deal in India, that frothy, sugary, nasty-fake-spice flavour of so many Chai Lattes made on powder just don't cut it. And hence I drive my friends (mostly NVL) crazy with my (polite) refrain 'is your chai made with leaves or powder?' and if it's not made on leaves, it's Earl Grey for me.

If you can find somewhere that makes it a) with real leaf and/or b) brewing it on milk as well, you've struck gold.

These are my chai ratings:

Thelma & Louise Neutral Bay
These people really know how to do it. A small china teapot filled with milk, chai leaves (including whole spices) and a layer of froth so good that I've been known to drink it even with the tea leaves in it. The brew comes out the colour of a gentle afternoon latte, full of cinnamon and cardomon, perfect with a cookie dunked in (or not...). 5-star chai.

Tetsuyas - review by nicolavanlaar

Thu, 10 May 2007 01:22:37 +0000

Tetsuyas - review by nicolavanlaar

Rating: 5.0

Location: 529 Kent Street, 2000, Sydney, Australia

Tags: artistic, Zen-like experience!, impeccable staff, memorable, Fusion

Where to start?

My husband and I booked to go for our 4 year wedding anniversary 2 weeks ago. We had to take a Saturday lunch slot, as the wait-list to get in for lunch is about 4-6 weeks and dinner approximately 3 months, depending upon which night you want...

We were glad of the lunchtime slot afterall, as it was a drizzly, grey, quiet kind of day. The city was deserted (we didn't need valet parking we got one right out the front), the guests not overly dressed and relaxed, and the peace and tranquility of the Japanese garden could be appreciated. (Water fountains, camellias and maples.)

The service was impeccable and there was a high number of knowledgeable staff per guest ratio and no attitude. Each dish was explained in a friendly manner and nothing was too much trouble.

The 10 course degustation menu is $185 per person without matching wines. The wine list is extensive, although you could bring your own special bottle if you had one, and the climate-controlled glass wine cellar an interesting study in itself.

We took the lunch leisurely over 3 hours, which was a good amount of time to savour each dish and the artistry, enjoy the view and check out the other diners (who were all taking pictures of the food I might add = amazing!) So I asked for my husband's camera phone and started snapping away like a tourist myself! (Sorry if grainy...)

This is the menu and it deserved more than 5 stars in my opinion!

1. Home-made bread rolls with truffle and cheese butter.
2. Chilled pea soup with a bitter dark chocolate sorbet.
3. Quail egg on sevruga caviar and cubed trout.
4. Warm crab custard with broth.
5. Scallop carpaccio with tempura bits and baby salad leaves.
6. The signature rare kelp-crusted trout with roe.
7. Spanner crab ravioli with tomato and basil.
8. Baby barramundi fillet on spinach and mushrooms.
9. Duck fillet on witlof with walnut and orange sauce.
10. Veal with wasabi aioli.
11. Sweet lentils and cheese.
12. Beetroot & blood orange sorbet and the signature strawberry shortcake in shot glasses.
13. Vanilla bean ice-cream with praline, white beans and espresso.
14. Chocolate terrine with cocoa-dusted wafer, marscapone, praline and cognac vanilla bean anglaise. (My favourite - so they gave me a second one!!!)
15. Tea or coffee and pettit fours (the only part of the menu to disappoint - who heard of ccocoa-dusted tofu truffles???)

This is my first review!