Restaurant Atelier, Glebe, NSW

This was one of the earlier restaurants I visited for degustation during my time in Sydney, and unfortunately that's when things started going downhill (for my wallet! But uphill in terms of the start of a great culinary experience :) ) A friend of mine originally brought me to Restaurant Atelier as the food was great, and they also had a mid week special where you could get a three course dinner for $68. That was what we had set out for, but soon as we arrived and I took a glimpse of the menu, our attention immediately turned to the degustation option, which offered a seven course degustation, for only $85. In hindsight, I definitely would have chosen the degustation option, as the quality of the food was simply amazing. 

We started off with some house made sour dough. One of my favourite things about a restaurant is their freshly made bread rolls! The sour dough was still warm when it arrived, with a crispy crust and pillow soft inside. The vinaigrette and tapenade were as usual, but what stood out for me was the French butter! It was so flavoursome and melted right away when spread on the bread. If you haven't tried this stuff, then you must! 

Warm sour dough with vinaigrette, tapenade, French butter.

Our first dish arrived shortly after. We were in for a surprise as we left the decision of dishes to the chef for the entire degustation. We were served with pearl meat, presented beautifully on a clam shell. The pearl meat had a similar texture to scallops, but had a meatier flavour and firmer texture. This was pan seared it, then topped with black sesame and asparagus. On the side was yuzu gel, which the waitress recommended us to eat the pearl meat with some yuzu gel. The natural sweetness of the pearl meat really blew me away. 

Pan seared pearl meat, asparagus, yuzu

Next came our second entree, which was a kingfish ceviche. I have noticed many restaurants using kingfish in their menus, and I must say, this was one of the more creative ways I have seen kingfish being prepared so far. The kingfish ceviche was filled with heirloom tomatoes and topped with a tomato sorbet, which also contained ox heart to give the sorbet a nice pink colour. I wasn't put off by the ox heart, as I could really only taste the tanginess from the tomatoes. The dish was surrounded by dots of basil gel and barrel aged feta. I loved all the textures, tastes and temperatures of this dish and had a great time devouring it all :) 

Kingfish Ceviche, Salad of Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil Gel, Greek Feta & a Tomato Sorbet

For some reason, I really felt like indulging, so when the waitress told us they were offering white truffles  (with a supplement charge, of course) on their dishes that  night, I bit the bullet and gave in to temptation. Boy was I glad I did. What could be better than having white truffle on one of my favourite seafood - scallops! This dish was so tasty! The shiitake mushrooms with Thai basil was so fragrant, and the duck consommé just gave a real flavour punch. This was all topped off with only one beautifully seared, tender scallop, which is the only negative thing I have to say about this dish. 

Burgendy Truffle fromet. Duck Consomme, Shiitake Mushrooms, Seared Scallops, Thai Basil

I was really glad with our surprise degustation menu this time, because next came another favourite of mine - john  dory. It was a poached fillet of John dory drizzled with sauce bernaise on top, pieces of salsify and a tempura shiso leaf. I was amazed by the chef's tempura technique to make a shiso leaf that was battered and deep fried so well! The technique which he used allowed the delicate leaf to retain it's shape yet produce a crunchy, non oily tempura shiso. The king brown mushroom sprinkled with dried fennel pollen from California was beautifully seasoned and also a treat.

Poached Fillets of John Dory, Roasted Salsify, White Onion Soubise, King Brown Mushroom, Bernaiuse Sauce

We were approaching the end of our mains, and I was really excited to see what the chef had in store for us as this would be my second truffle dish. We were served roasted duck with a crisp duck leg confit. Other accompaniments included drole mushrooms potato gnocchi and duck hearts, finished off with a carrot purée and Xeres jus. The duck was slightly undercooked to keep the meat tender which was good. I wasn't too sure about the duck hearts as I'm not a fan of animal innards. Luckily I had the truffle to go with it!

Honey-Roasted Grimauld Duckling Breast, Crisp Confit, Baby Turnips, Confit Carrot Puree, Xeres Jus

Time for desserts! Judging by the quality of our entrees and mains, our desserts were going to be nothing less than  divine. And we were right! Our first dessert was a chocolate based dessert - olive oil chocolate delice, sprinkled with vanilla salt. The waitress explained that the dessert is made in the same way as mayonnaise, hence the texture but with the richness and lightness, making it very fluffy but rich. The sorbet was made from sheep's milk yoghurt, with a chocolate jelly on the side, a freshly baked tuile and finished off with sherry caramel. We had sweet, sour, savoury tastes in our dessert all at once which was amazing!

Chocolate delice, sorbet, tuile

Last, but certainly not least, was a beautifully baked Mandarin & Chocolate Souffle. Inside contained fresh mandarin and a dark chocolate ganache which reminded me of Jaffa balls! I really liked how everything was not too sweet.

 Mandarin & Chocolate Souffle with Mandarin Sorbet, Bitter Orange Milkshake

We had a fabulous dining experience at Restaurant Atelier! The waitress was so knowledgeable and provided great service. The food was amazing and I would definitely recommend this to anyone visiting Sydney! Restaurant Atelier had high quality food, and lucky for us, didn't have a high price tag to match! I am looking forward to returning to this place once they have rotated their menu!

Urbane, Brisbane, QLD

I absolutely hate dining out when I’m sick. But since we had already made a booking for Urbane two weeks in advance, I had to go, even it if meant I wouldn’t be able to properly taste some of the food. I read that Urbane had recently received 2 Stars in The Courier-Mail 2011 Food + Wine Guide, Queensland. Having also read other foodies’ reviews of this restaurant, I went in with pretty high expectations – almost as high as what I had for Shannon Bennett’s Vue De Monde in Melbourne. 

We had the degustation menu and it was a real shame that I had to eat with a half blocked nose. But from what I managed to taste, it was rather enjoyable. I must say though, from all the fine dining restaurants I have eaten at so far, the dishes at Urbane are one of the prettiest and more comparable to Vue De Monde (in terms of presentation and food quality) than most other restaurants I have been to. 

The ambience at the restaurant was also really nice, along with extremely attentive staff and a knowledgeable sommelier. I would really like to visit Urbane again for a special occasion when I’m actually feeling well; so that I can truly appreciate each and every one of the dishes on the degustation menu (maybe when they have a new menu, perhaps? Haha!). But for now, let me allow the photos to do the talking.  

Chevre de Poitou, baby beets and fossilised pear, onion petals, salad leaves, honey vinaigrette

Hiramasa kingfish, grape juice and pickled onion, Apple gel, strawberry aioli and potato crisps (Very fresh kingfish; plump and firm texture)

Coral trout, squid ink and samphire, scallop paper, fennel and peach (I was amazed by the scallop paper! So creative and flavoursome)

Foie gras, almond milk curd and jasmine, gingerbread and honey glazed figs (My favourite dish of the night!)

Crisp pork belly and tail with black bean, pineapple and clove, mustard green and daikon (Very Asian inspired)

Wagyu rib fillet, black cardamom and garlic, nettle and onion, barley and shoots (That splash of black on the side is the black cardamom garlic which is supposed to be eaten with the rib fillet!)

Goats cheese mousse and frozen powder, herb sorbet, Green fruit, basil and celery (Goats cheese mousse had such a strong, but pleasant flavour)

Licorice ice cream and foam, olive oil sponge, Sarsaparilla granita and fresh pear (Loved all the elements in this dessert!)

The Lab Bar + Restaurant, Brisbane, QLD

Having previously visited The Lab Bar for a friend’s birthday and enjoyed our experience, I decided to make another visit, this time for my own birthday! The Lab Bar has received many awards over the years, with the most recent being one of the winners of the 2011 Australian Good Food & Travel Guide – 1 Chef Hat restaurant.

We quickly decided on our dishes and our entrees arrived promptly soon after we had devoured the complimentary dinner rolls (the dinner rolls that restaurants serve are always so tasty, aren’t they?) I think we did fairly well at selecting a variety of different tastes from the menu.

Our first entrée was the pork belly with prawns. This definitely a Thai inspired dish, as the green papaya with chilli, peanuts and mango tasted just like a papaya salad I have had before - loved how the papaya was nice and fresh. The pork belly had a crispy crackle and the meat was tender. While the prawns were fresh, it was a little bit disappointing to see they were slightly overdone. It would have been better if they went a bit easier on the seasoning as it was quite salty when eaten with the papaya salad.  

 Free range pork belly, prawns, chilli, mango purée, green papaya & peanuts

Next came our scallop entrée. I have had this before and it was great, but I wanted to order it again for my guests to try. Luckily they were pleased about it. The scallops were seared to a lovely golden brown colour but still soft and tender on the inside. I love it! The onion tarte tatin gave the scallops a nice sweetness, which, when eaten all together with the rocket salad, made it a light but satisfying little dish.  

 Scallop, onion tarte tatin, goats feta & rocket

Time for our mains.

One of the fussier guests had his heart set on a lamb dish which he expected to be perfectly cooked, and that was exactly what he got. The lamb rump was cooked to medium rare, still with a slight tinge of pink in the meat. I watched as my guest nodded his head in approval as he worked his way through his dish. The lamb wasn’t seasoned very much, but it was fine, as the accompaniments were full of flavour, and if the lamb was also fully seasoned, it would have been overkill. I loved the blue cheese gratin too! 

 Lamb rump, blue cheese gratin, confit beetroot, poached garlic purée

I wouldn’t usually order ‘fish & chips’ at a restaurant, but was tempted as they were serving sea perch which I have had before and really liked. The pea & mint purée sounded interesting too, so why not. The perch was grilled to a golden brown and the firm, flesh with subtle flavours from the perch itself was a delight.

 Grilled market fish (sea perch), hand cut chips, spiced herb salt, pea & mint purée, aioli

Honeyhype ordered what turned out to be my favourite dish of the night. A platter filled with mixed seafood (fish chunks, grilled prawns, seared scallops). Everything ingredient used was just so fresh, and tasty with a generous amount of everything – a thumbs up from honeyhype!

Grilled medley of seafood, asparagus, kipfler potatoes, gremolata, orange foam

Our last main was the roasted duck. It was roasted with a crispy skin and the meat inside was soft and tender. However this dish was a little bit light in taste for my liking, especially when the taste of everything else in the dish were rather light, but the cannellini beans mix containing tomato puree, herbs and bacon pieces, that came with it was a great match with the duck.

 Burrawong Farm duck cassoulet, figs, croquette, lemon oil

By the time we had finished our mains, everyone was too full to order dessert, but we ‘had’ to order something, even just to share! I was worried the brownie would turn out too rich and sweet, but I was pleasantly surprised when I took a bite of it, only to discover that it was made from dark chocolate! Mrs. Omggimmenow is a big fan of dark chocolate so she was very happy to help finish the entire dessert. Mr. Omggimmenow loved the yoghurt sorbet, and took ownership of it, so everything was gone in no time!

 Chocolate, date & pistachio brownie, pomegranate & yoghurt sorbet

As the waitress found out that it was my birthday, I was given these lovely chocolates, compliments of The Lab + Bar restaurant. They were good quality liqueur chocolates too!

 Liqueur Chocolates

 Our dining experience at The Lab + Bar restaurant was rather pleasant. The waiters were very polite and offered great service – we were definitely well looked after throughout the night. Even the fussiest diner at the table commented on the food being rather nice, even when it was their fine dining experience! Will recommend this place to friends in the future for sure.

Thank You =)

Universal, Darlinghurst, NSW

When honeyhype came to visit me in Sydney, I made sure I took her to some of the better restaurants Sydney had so offer. We had already made a booking at Hurricanes at Darling Harbour for dinner, but last minute changes left us without a booking and it was my job to find a replacement. I searched on Urbanspoon and came across Universal, which seemed appealing as it had really high ratings, but I had my reservations as I have found that these ratings aren’t always accurate. After doing a bit of research on the restaurant, I found out it was in fact owned by Christine Manfield, who had appeared on Season 2 of Master Chef. I had found another Master Chef-made famous restaurant! Luckily it was a week day and they managed to squeeze us in, even with our last minute booking.    

The décor was minimalistic yet elegance. The lighting was dimmed throughout the restaurant, giving a really lovely ambience and a rather relaxing, yet classy feel.

As we took our seats the waiter ran us through the menu, and explained the concept behind Christine’s dishes. They portions are quite small and the purpose was so we could order a few dishes to share between the two of us. He suggested we order four dishes to share, but we only ordered three, just to make sure we had enough room for dessert. 

Seeing scallops one of my favourite foods, I couldn’t go past the seared scallops on the menu. The seared scallops were cooked just the way I liked my scallops – golden brown colour on the outside with a soft and melting texture on the inside. The scallops were sweet and extremely fresh. I also loved how there were so many textures in this dish- the crispiness of the roasted lotus root, crunch from the tempura, finished off with the samphire and wasabi avocado which gave the dish a distinctive taste.  This was such an enjoyable little dish!

Seared sea scallop, asparagus tempura, lotus root, samphire and wasabi avocado 

The scallops were quickly devoured and soon came our pork belly dish. I picked this dish as I was curious about how they would make consommé from kimchi! But it turned out to be a very wise choice as the consommé tasted so clean and crisp with a hit of spiciness. The pork belly was so tender too, which was great. The pork belly was only lightly marinated but the consommé made up the savouriness which made it just right. The two balls next to the pork were in fact oysters wrapped in wombok to look like two dumplings.  

Fragrant pork and kimchi consommé,  oyster and chive dumplings, soy braised pork belly 

My eyes lit up when I saw ‘truffle’ on the menu, as it’s also another ingredient which I really enjoy. The presentation was not as nice as the previous two dishes, but the taste was just as good. The fish was firm and fresh (without the fishy taste!).   

Coorong yellow eye, black truffle potato galette, caramelised foie gras and spinach  

Dessert time! There were 6 desserts to choose from and they all sounded so delicious, that we had difficulty deciding on just one! We narrowed it down to three desserts, but the waiter gave us a hand and suggested two of the more popular ones to us. My goodness were we blown away!

First up, madame pompadour, which contained white peach curd, peach and rosé jelly, peach macarons, fromage blanc sherbet, fairy floss. We couldn’t help but stare at the dish in awe for a few seconds before we excitedly dug into this. The flavours were absolutely amazing. Peaches, roses, tangy sherbet, light, fluffy fairy floss, not to mention tiny peach flavoured macarons! This was such a complicated dessert and it was executed so very well. What a mind blowing dessert to say the least.

Madame pompadour - white peach curd, peach and rosé jelly, peach macarons, fromage blanc sherbet, fairy floss

  I’m not usually a fan of heavy caramel desserts as they can sometimes get too rich which is off putting. This dessert has definitely changed my mind about caramel/honeycomb for good. I think this is Christine’s interpretation of the Golden Gaytime ice-cream and she has done a really good job at capturing all the flavours from the ice-block Aussies have grown up with. The honeycomb ice-cream was sweet but not sickly, and I also loved the caramel parfait which was surrounded by a crunchy salted hazelnut caramel cylindrical shell.

    Gaytime goes nuts  - honeycomb ice cream, caramel parfait, chocolate crunch, salted hazelnut caramel

Just to prove how good the desserts were, we managed to eat both desserts and liked the plates clean (figure of speech!). They were probably the most amazing desserts I have had (excluding Vue De Monde).

Universal turned out to be a wonderful dining experience for both honeyhype and I. I would definitely recommend Universal to my friends who are visiting Sydney, or even locals who haven’t had the chance to try it! I look forward to visiting Universal again to try out the rest of their menu, not to mention the desserts!

Flying Fish, Pyrmont, NSW

Since it was the last night of our stay in Sydney, honeyhype & I decided to have something nicer to end our trip, before travelling to Melbourne on our food hunting journey. We chose Flying Fish, because alas, it is owned by Peter Kuruvita who was a guest chef on Master Chef - Season 2 (can you tell I'm obsessed much?). 
Since Flying Fish is famous for its seafood, we decided on the seafood tasting menu so we could try more varieties. This was a wise decision indeed.

A nice little entree to start our meal - king prawns with a avocado mayo. Juicy prawns, full of flavour, the mayo was light and had a hint of avocado taste in it. Different, but it worked.  

King prawn with avocado mayo

Our first main arrived promptly shortly after- seared yellow fin tuna. I was salivating even when I first saw this on the menu!  The tuna had a vibrant, red colour, which looked and tasted very fresh. There was an interesting mix of flavours in this dish; citrus from the red grapefruit, crispy pork crackle, tender pieces of tuna, all of which were layered on top of a juicy, soft piece of pork belly. The pepper caramel gave the dish a nice finishing touch as the tanginess from the grapefruit was balanced by the sweetness of the caramel.

 Seared yellow fin tuna with ruby red grapefruit, sweet crackling pork and black pepper caramel

Our next dish was Seafood tapas. This dish was really enjoyable, as it had a small portion of four different tastes of the ocean. All three types of fish (trout, himarashi kingfish, and smoked bonito) had characteristic of fresh sashimi: sweet, creamy flesh and a pleasant texture. But I enjoyed the cuttlefish noodles the most. The cuttlefish just melts in your mouth, and the mayonnaise dressing gave it a nice twist.

Seafood tapas

Our seafood tapas was followed by another fish - confit of petuna ocean trout with pea and black sesame mousse, puffed quinoa and tangerine oil. This was a rather refreshing dish, as the tangerine oil gave the fish a mild citrus scent, but there was also a tanginess to it - I later found out what gave the ocean trout roe a bit of a tangy flavour when eating was the addition of finger limes used in the dish. I later found a few small bones though - so please be careful when you eat this!

Confit of Petuna ocean trout with pea & black sesame mousse, puffed quinoa & tangerine oil 

Next up was a prawn ravioli with poached scampi. This was one of my favourites for the night. Fresh sweet prawns hidden inside this giant ravioli which was delicious when eaten together with the broccolini and tomato. The pasta was also cooked very well - pastry was thin and al dente, just the way I liked. I wish there was more than one ravioli on my plate though! 

Prawn ravioli, poached scampi with tomato & broccolini

There's not many types of fish which I like, because I'm always scared of the unpleasant fish smell and taste. But our next dish - pan fried John Dory with king prawns, really changed my mind. The fish had a nice crispy skin and the meat was firm with no fishy taste at all. The dish also came with some house made hand-cut chips and a fresh salad with vinaigrette - kind of like fish and chips, except with lots of vegetables which made this a very healthy dish! :) 

John Dory – pan fried john dory with king prawn, young autumn vegetables, yuzu and seaweed butter

We also ordered several mocktails throughout the night as we wanted something non-alcoholic. They were all delicious, but if I had to choose, my favourite was Penny Lane - fresh strawberries and lime with a touch of sugar poured long with cranberry juice. Fabulous. 

Penny Lane

Royal Counsel - A stunning blend of pear, lychee and mint all finished with a taste of apple and lime juices. 

Sultry Miss - A delicate taste of apple juice, lychee and Dilmah natural ceylon ginger tea with a touch of lime. Gorgeous.

 Dinner was wrapped up with dessert – petit fours, as well as individual tasting plates, which consisted of coconut marshmallows, passionfruit souffle, carrot cake, and a guava sorbet with spun sugar. I felt dessert was lacking a bit of creativity, but the flavours were nice and again, I loved the idea of having a tasting plate with different things to try.

Individual tasting plate

Petit fours and tea

Overall we had a great dining experience at Flying Fish. It is obvious why people enjoy dining here so much, as the food is of a high quality, staff are helpful, not to mention amazing views of the Sydney Harbour. The only thing to note is that I would love to see Flying Fish give their tasting menu some more variety and include other seafood such as shell fish as part of the menu. 

 

(Credit to honeyhype for helping with the photos!)

Vue de monde, Melbourne, VIC

Vue de monde is owned by the renowned Shannon Bennett - another amazing chef who I only learned of after religiously following last season's Master Chef. I wish I had visited Vue de monde earlier, because I can honestly say it was the most amazing culinary experience that I've had on my food adventures to date.

Sake Restaurant, Brisbane, QLD

The first time I heard of Shaun Presland was when I tuned into Season 2 Master Chef and watched Claire cook off against Shaun in the Celebrity Chef Challenge, as well as in a Masterclass when he taught the group how to make some basic Japanese dishes. I was especially interested because I had always been a fan of Japanese cuisine ever since I visited Tokyo a few years back.

Shaun is the Executive Chef at Sake Restaurant in Sydney and I had planned to visit Sake on my next trip to Sydney. A few months on, I found out that Sake was opening in Brisbane! So J and I went to check it out and boy were we in for an amazing night!

We arrived at 6:15pm and was greeted by a lovely lady who was quite friendly and promptly showed us to our table.

J and I couldn't help but gaze in excitement at the beautifully decorated restaurant, not to mention the countless bottles of Sake at the bar! Just amazing.

We ordered the sashimi appetizer as our entree, as well as the salt & pepper tofu as I had watched Shaun make it in his Masterclass and it looks so good.

The sashimi appetizer was an absolute treat. It was the freshest, most beautiful sashimi I had ever eaten. Even the king snapper/tuna/milkfish all had a nice texture and most importantly - it tasted fresh without the 'fishy' smell or taste.

Sashimi appetizer with wasabi & soy

Next came the salt and pepper tofu. The outside layer was crispy and the soft, silken tofu centre literally gave a 'melt in your mouth' sensation. It was such a simple dish, yet it was done so well.

Salt and pepper tofu with chill and spring onion

If the freshness and quality of the entrees were anything to go by, we knew we were in for a treat with our mains.

We ordered the scampi tempura and miso butterfish to share.

You can always tell by the way a restaurant makes its tempura dishes as to how good the restaurant is. The tempura batter was crunchy and the scampi was cooked just right. The sweet ponzu sauce went well with the tempura scampi, but it was a little bit too strong in taste for me. It would have been better if we had ordered a bowl of rice to go with this dish.

Scampi tempura crunchy tempura scampi tails with sweet ponzu, coriander and jalapeno slices

Our first main was quickly followed by this miso butterfish. The waitress told us that the butterfish was marinated in a sweet miso marinade for 24 hours before it is cooked and served to us. I liked the concept of having fish with a miso taste, but unfortunately this one was a little different to what I had in mind. The flesh was quite firm and the miso taste was not infused into the flesh very much. The sweet miso was also a little bit salty for my liking. Again, I think we should have ordered some rice to go with this dish.

Miso marinated butterfish grilled with pickled radish

We were almost full by the end of our second main, but J really wanted to have dessert and absolutely loves white sesame, so she ordered the white sesame ice-cream. I, also wanted to end my night with a sweet treat and ordered the green-apple mille feuille.

The presentation of J's white sesame ice-cream was amazing. What simply read as being "white sesame ice-cream per scoop " ended up being a huge scoop of ice-cream decorated with a chocolate layered plate, a black sesame tuile with sugar coated pistachios! There were so many things I loved, all on one plate! The ice-cream had a nice and strong sesame taste (the way it should be!) and the tuile was so crispy and the perfect sweetness.

White sesame ice-cream

My green-apple mille feuille was made up of green-apple mousse with layers of crispy thin pastry and apple vanilla syrup. Sounds delicious? That's because it was! The pastry was paper thin (almost!) and the taste of the apple mousse mixed with the tanginess of the green apples wedged between each layer. This dessert was certainly light enough not to make me think "I should have skipped dessert!" Mmmm... Oiishii!

Green-apple mille feuille

Our dinner at Sake Restaurant turned out to be a lovely dining experience. Whether it be the food, atmosphere or the great customer service, I think it was because of all aspects combined that made it such an enjoyable evening. I am looking forward to visiting Sake in Sydney also, but we will definitely be back to dine at Sake Brisbane again!