Scarlett Restaurant - The Rocks

As a part of a friend's hens, dinner was at Scarlett Restaurant at The Rocks. Being a hens, the restaurant locked us up in a private sandstone room with no windows (to block out our noise?). Apologising for the photo quality first off due to lighting and use of a phone camera.

We had choices of three entrees, mains and desserts. We also got a nice salad, super thick cut chips and broccoli to share for the table too. For my entree, I opted for the Ceviche of Kingfish. Fresh yummy slices of king fish was served in a bed of blood orange dressing with chilli and radish. It was quite tasty.

Ceviche of Kingfish

For the main (even though the photo doesn't show anything), I had the roast beef fillet served with shimeji mushrooms, asparagus, bone marrow and jus. I asked for my beef medium rare and it came out perfect! Juicy, tender, really really tasty. Unfortunately, my friend wanted hers medium but it came out as a dry super super well down slab of (almost inedible) meat. What I absolutely loved about this dish was the bone marrow :) (but I am biased cos I love bone marrow).

Roast Beef Fillet

By dessert time, I was pretty stuffed. My option was the Chocolate mousse. This was nice and sweet (but not overlly so). It came with a  yoghurt sorbet which I wasn't a super huge fan of, as well as a slightly too thick and too difficult to bite into salted caramel toffee.

chocolate mousse with yoghurt sorbet

This was a pretty decent meal given that we came as a group function. It was better than I expected :)

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Scarlett Restaurant
34 Harrington St
The Rocks, NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 8220 9999

Altitude Restaurant - The Rocks

Having not fine-dined in a little while, I was super looking forward to our dinner reservation at Altitude in Shangri-la hotel. I booked last minute so was not surprised to be left with either a crazily early 6.30pm spot or a 9pm spot. For the views, I went for 6.30pm and was not disappointed - the view was an amazing spectacle~

Altitude Restaurant view

For the night, my partner and I opted for the $135 Epicurious menu with 7 courses. For starts, freshly baked bread - white ciabatta, wholemeal or sourdough. All three options were wonderfully warm and soft. I particularly adored the ciabatta which had a crunch top with fluffy insides which the butter just melded with.

freshly baked bread

Course one was cured hiramasa kingfish. The fish tasted awesome. Fresh with a vanilla-lime vinaigrette. On top of the rounded kingfish pile was creamy avocado mousse and baby celery leaves. Quite a delicious start.

Cured Hiramasa Kingfish

The next course was quite interesting. There were flathead fillets rolled in savoy cabbage. I think these were then steamed and accompanied with clams, sauteed chanterelles which appeared to soak in the buttery sauce, and spotted with tarragon and peas.

flathead rolled in savoy cabbage, sauteed chanterelles, clams and tarragon

There was also a roasted and braised chicken terrine. I think that there was foie gras in the terrine but it wasn't too overpowering. The chicken chunks were nice, but not spectacular. With the terrine was a curried cauliflower beignet which was interestingly deep-fried yet mushy and crunchy little bits of apple was... umm... OK?

Chicken terrine

The next course went back to the seafood arena. There was a decent chunk of suzuki mulloway with crispy skin (or mostly crispy skin). This came with a beetroot puree, beetroot noodles and kohirabi noodles. I didn't touch the beetroot (and amazingly, my hubby didn't touch it much either). But the fish was cooked relatively well :)

crispy skin suzuki mulloway

In terms of the main, there was a choice of either duck or lamb. I opted for duck, my hubby - the lamb. My confit duck leg was sauced with a fennel and pedro ximenez-sultana jus and sat on a black pepper spatzle. The duck was tasty and the meat was tender. Unfortunately, the skin wasn't crispy... which is something I would have rathered. But notwithstanding, it was still quite yummy.

confit duck leg, black pepper spatzle

My hubby requested his lamb to be cooked medium. Unfortunately, it came out pretty much well down. I was disappointed at how un-pink the whole thing was. My partner didn't seem to care too much...either the lamb was seasoned well anyway, or he was just too busy messaging his friends to care. The lamb was accompanied with savoy cabbage, braised chestnuts and potato fondant.

roasted murraylands lamb loin

Next was the pre-dessert of bethonga pineapple jelly with a malibu sabayon sorbet. The pineapple jelly was really flavoursome and to my liking. The slimy cold jelly-like texture was nicely complimentary to the sorbet and the white fluffy egg-whitey substance. YUM.

Pineapple jelly with malibu sabayon sorbet

Last but not least, there was a dessert of warm dark chocolate fondant. My fondant, unfortunately was not gooey enough to leak out. However, it did meet my chocolate cravings :) There was also a chocolate mousse which was yummy, rich and smooth and a prune and armagnac ice-cream (which was not to my liking).

warm dark chocolate fondant, milk chocolate mousse, prune and armagnac ice cream

We ordered coffee to finish. The coffee was good - both my cappuccino and my hubby's long black. Disappointingly, no petit-fours came to bid us goodbye.

Coffee

All up, views and ambiance was magnificent. Food was good. Service was average but not lacking.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 9/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 31/40

Altitude Restaurant
176 Cumberland Street
The Rocks
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9250 6123

Ocean Room - The Rocks

Since our honeymoon, "life" had just gotten in the way of my awesome hubby and I from sitting down to an intimate nice dinner together until now with the chosen venue of Ocean Room.

Ocean Room

It was a relatively tough decision between their degustation or a-la-carte menu. At the end of the night, a-la-carte won. Tapaz-style dishes we opted for as starters included the soft shell crab taco ($6 each), tuna cornet ($5) and the aburi scallop ($5 each).

The soft shell crab taco was really yummy. The taco shells were thin and super crispy. It kinda crumbled a the bite - but in a good sort of way. The soft shell crabs were quite strongly spiced and deep fried just right. This sat on top of lightly pickled vegetables which made for a good balance - the unhealthy crab and the healthy salad. YUM!

soft shell crab taco - $6 each

The tuna cornet comprised of very paper thinly curled nori rice cracker cornet. In this crisp cornet was finely diced marinated blue fin tuna tartare. I have to say - this was tiny! One bite could probably do for this cornet. It was an interesting combination. Not overly tasty but ... meh~ not bad either.

tuna cornet - $5

The aburi scallop was another interesting combination. Yummy flame seared scallop encasing a good dollop of Japanese pesto and a heap of Tasmanian wakame. Not 100% convinced that the wakame and pesto went together and not sure if the scallop went together with the two condiments.

Aburi Scallop - $5 each

We couldn't got to Ocean Room without trying their signature dish - the Tuna Creation ($23). This was 5 tuna cubes prepared in 5 ways with 5 condiments. The leftest cube of tuna was oil blanched with bits of fresh ginger and corriander on top. This was served with chilli salt. Together, it was average. The next one down the line was a natural raw cube of tuna served with light soy salt and a tiny bit of wasabi and lemon zest on top. I liked the light soy salt and I think this combination went well. The middle one was also served with soy salt, but this time, the salt was 3 years aged. The tuna cube was seared and sprinkled with five peppers and salmon roe. I believe this one was yum too~! The fourth cube down the line was raw tuna with black salt, and jalapeno and yuzu zest on top. The black salt was scarce but strong. You probably only needed 1 or 2 flakes to accompany the tuna otherwise the fish would be overpowered. Last but not least, the marinated tuna with truffle salt. Fried garlic and fresh chilli was sprinkled on top. I think that this was the strongest in flavour and quite tasty.

tuna creation - $23

We also ordered a scallop melt roll ($17). This was a cucumber, pickle, salmon sushi roll with seared scallop on top, flame seared cheddar cheese, garlic miso on the cheese and either bonito flakes or caviar on top of that. I love scallop. I love sushi. I love cheese. However, when all put together, it was the cheese that sunk the boat. Not sure if cheddar cheese should be on sushi.

scallop melt roll - $17

Now onto the mains. I ordered the tuna fin ($39). Only one word can describe this - EPIC. When I ordered it, I was thinking of the fins of a normal sized fish. But I was wrong. Very very wrong. When this dish came out, my hubby was thinking that this was a whole sword fish and thought to himself ("That can't be ours~"). BUT... it was. This was HUGEMUNGOUSNESS!!!! It was like 40-50cm in bigness! It came with a tuna wing "map" which detailed 3 bits to it, all different in taste and texture. The far part of it was the back loin - which is part of a muscle that supports the head of the tuna. This part tends to be very lean and the flavour is quite intense and strong. The inner middle part is the fin muscle. And this part is one of the most active muscles of the whole fish - it's darker looking (almost brown ish) and tastes quite different to any other part of the tuna. My favourite is the bit closest to us - the neck belly. This part is fatty and smooth and rich and tasty and deliciousness. YUM. It also can be considered "otoro". This massive yellow fin tuna wing came accompanied with a crushed cucumber ponzu dipping sauce which I didn't have to use much of coz the slow roastedness of the tuna was flavoursome enough :)

tuna wing - $39

My partner's main was tiny compared to my tuna wing. His Shiogama pork belly "cout de sel"($37) came with a dash of spicy kochujang sauce and a small salad. The pork belly was tender and rich and tasty. Not bad but I think our attention was captured by the massive tuna wing.

shiogama pork - $37

For a sweet finish, I ordered the chocolate tasting plate ($17). This comprised of 3 small cakes. The opera cake on the left with creamy yummy chocolate and espresso layers, a white and dark chocolate parcel (with sponge and mousse bits encased inside the chocolate coating), and a chocolate mud cake which was rich and moist and doused in delicious chocolate ganache. Not a bad finish to the night at all!

chocolate tasting plate - $17

All up, this place is pretty impressive. Views of the Opera House, which hanging tubes of brass (or whatever metal it is), a good variety on the menu, and OK service. Only bad thing was, they never returned with our change. Either they thought that $16 is definitely going to be tip or they just genuinely forgot - not quite sure. But as a patron, I prefer to see the change returned and if I so choose to tip them the whole lot of the change, I would let them know by leaving it on the table.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 30/40

Ocean Room
Bay 4 - Ground Level
Overseas Passenger Terminal
Circular Quay West
The Rocks
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9252 9585

Nakashima - The Rocks

My partner and I had booked in for pre-wedding photos. Since it has been raining quite a lot recently, it had me checking the weather reports (which were ever-changing and ever-conflicting) and thank God, it was quite an amazing day - albiet the slight drizzle. Our awesome photographer from Amuse Photography stuck with us all day and ran around for us because half the time, we were like... "what?" "can't hear you" "what did you want us to do?"... but luckily, he was very much patient with us LOL.

Amuse Photography

So after a whole afternoon of shooting, we were all slightly famished and wanted something to eat. We had initially wanted pub-grub, but being completely packed out all over The Rocks area, we finally decided to eat at Nakashima.

Us, our photographer, and our little entourage of helpers decided to order a main each, and then something to share between all of us. I think I must have been the most oddly dressed customer at the restaurant - wedding dress with a shirt on top (only because I'm lazy). Nonetheless, despite my odd attire, the waitresses still treated us nicely and with a smile.

I ordered a sashimi salad. This was a nice big bowl of cabbage and carrots and seaweed with quite a lot of sashimi cubes (tuna, salmon, kingfish), even though most of the sashimi cubes were in the middle of the whole greenery (and hence, uncaught by my camera). The sashimi was nice and cold and fresh, and mixed with the salad dressing and the cabbage - not a bad feed at all.

Sashimi Salad

My camera did the rounds at the table. I believe that one of our friends ordered a seafood udon? or maybe it was a tempura prawn (singular) udon? He polished it off, but he went on about how there's this udon place in Japan which is the bomb - which gives me the signal that this probably isn't the most awesome udon he's had.

Tempura prawn udon

Another of our friends ordered a tonkatsu. The sauce came separately. It looked a nice golden brown and there were no complaints by him - so I can only deduce that it was pretty alright.

Tonkatsu

This vegetable hotpot looking thing is actually a gyoza hotpot. The gyoza is non-deep fried. So essentially, it's a dumpling and vege soup. The dumplings are all hidden underneath and so, on the surface, this can easily be mistaken for just veges in soup :P

Gyoza hot pot

My partner and our photographer ordered a kastu curry with rice. Came also with salad and pickles. My partner said that the curry was pretty decent and the pork didn't look bad. So overall, I think he enjoyed this.

Katsu Curry

Lastly, we ordered california rolls and a sashimi and sushi set to share. The california rolls were average - I did have a california roll craving so this dish satisfied that desire. The sashimi was cut thick and it was very fresh indeed. Definately not bad.

California Roll

Sushi and Sashimi

Dinner here is surprisingly cheap. Mains range from around $10-15ish... so it's pretty decent for good Jap food around this area. Most probably will visit again when I'm not dressed as oddly :P

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 31/40

Nakashima
7 Cambridge St
The Rocks
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9241 1364

Guylian Cafe (2) - The Rocks

Guylian Cafe was visited by my partner and I one evening. We thought we'd so something different so we parked at Milson's Point and then walked the bridge over to the Rocks (parking for 2 hrs = $12).

After a long leisurely stroll, we ended up at Guylian Cafe for a coffee. But ofcourse, with the option of a dark chocolate shake, why settle for just coffee? The dark chocolate shake a nice, soothing sweet drink for the night. However, because I'm a big fan of thick shakes and not milk shakes, and because the drink wasn't as dark chocolatey as I would have liked, this drink didn't quite hit the spot. Better than nothing though.

Guylian Dark Chocolate Shake

My partner just ordered a large latte. Pretty small for a large - thought I. But it did have a nice heart-shaped coffee art on it. The coffee was strong enough, but I don't know - compared to Melbourne coffees, all coffees in Sydney seem watery and less smooth. This one also had a slightly wierd bitter aftertaste. Hmmm... So I guess coffee in Melbourne tastes awesome, but lacks coffee art whereas Sydney coffees tend to look better, yet lack the awesome coffee factor.

Large Latte

Well - I'm not even going to put the prices of these drinks on because 1) I've forgotton the price 2) it's definately not as cheap as the price they advertise on their website 3) I remember that the prices were quite a bit expense compared to what they are worth. To top it all off - by the time we left, we decided to cab it back to Milson's Point. So the moral of the story? Don't park your car on the other side of Sydney when it's late at night! :)

Ratings:
Food - 6.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 5/10
Overall - 25.5/40

Guylian Cafe
91 George Street
The Rocks
NSW 2000
tel: (02) 8274 7500

Rockpool - The Rocks

Rockpool

Being too late in booking Tetsuya, my partner and I settled for dinner at Neil Perry's Rockpool. We were greated by friendly staff and whisked away to our table. The staff kindly took away our coats and they waited patiently until we called them over to make our order. We ordered the grand tasting menu and my partner got it with matching wines.

We were first served with bread. There were two choices - the Ficelle, or the sour-dough garlicy one. I chose the latter, which means my partner had the ficelle.

ficelle - bread

Yummy bread and butter

The bread was yummy, soft and super fresh tasting. Heaped with the Échiré butter, which had a smooth, subtle, creamy, somewhat delicate taste, it was deliciousness! So much so, in fact, that my partner had seconds and thirds of the ficelle bread on top of our 9 course meal.

Our first course comprised of sterling caviar on prawn toast, Ortiz "family reserve" salted anchovy with tomato confit on toast, and bluefin tuna with ginger, soy and yuzu jelly. Matching wine for this course was a champagne from France - the Le Brun Servenay Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs. The sommelier was super nice, friendly and smiley. He had a nice story to tell us when introducing each of the wines. Unfortunately, with my shoddy memory, these storys basically went in one ear, and out the other.

As far as tastes go, the bluefin tuna was fresh and tasty. The ginger, soy and yuzu jelly added a delicate and subtle taste. The jelly simply melted in our mouths, complementing the tuna quite well. The caviar on prawn toast, however, was slightly chewy. It was tastey. Yet, it was not awesomenessly so. As for the anchovy with tomato... it was soooooo salty!!! Yes, anchovies are meant to be salty and fishy tasting... but it was slightly overpoweringly so. However, it did have an interesting texture. The anchovy on top was firm, the tomato was squishy and the toast was hard. Mixed in together, you get a crunchy saltiness.

Le Brun Servenay Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs

Ortiz "family reserve" salted anchovy with tomato confit on toast

sterling caviar on prawn toast

bluefin tuna with ginger, soy, and yuzu jelly

The second course was a crab broth with hand picked mud crab, dashi custard, tapioca and wild bamboo pith. Put simply, it's a crab chawanmushi with crab broth poured on top. Personally, it's the first time I've had tapioca balls in soup. I found the soup fragrant and pepper-tasting-like. The crab also bought with it a subtle sweetness. The bamboo pith added texture. I'm not sure what the tapioca adds... On the other hand, my partner did not taste any of the flavours which I described. So either, there were inconsistencies in our dishes - or - my partner's taste buds are shot :P

This course was served with a white, again from France - the Joseph Cattin Gewürztraminer. The wine was quite fruity-tasting and sweet. Mmmm... has my approval and my partner's disapproval LOL.

Joseph Cattin Gewürztraminer

Crab broth with hand picked mud crab, dashi custard, tapioca and wild bamboo pith

On with our third course - lobster, abalone mushroom, tea smoked duck procuitto and asian peer with pepper caramel dressing served with a white from USA - Stags Leap Viognier. My photos of this course is quite poor. Nevermind - let me describe it to you. A piece of nicely cooked lobster sat on top of a slightly sweet tasting sauced abalone mushroom. Complementing this was an extremely tea-tasting procuitto (much like the chinese tea-egg flavour) - quite mind-blowing, and also a thinly sliced nashi-pear piece. Nicely presented and nice tasting but not yet over-the-top WOW factor.

Stags Leap Viognier

Lobster, abalone mushroom, tea smoked duck proscuitto and asian pear

I love scallops and so, I was much awaiting the next course of grilled scallop with stir fried southern calamari, smoked bacon and squid ink noodles. The smiley sommelier served up the Farago Hill 'George Ellis' Pinot Gris, a wine from the Southern Highlands, NSW. The scallop was quite perfectly cooked, slightly salty and very yummy. What the drew the attention of my partner the most were those tiny little yellow cubes (I think you can just identify them in my photo) which tasted sooooo bacon-like. Omigosh - so much bacon taste in a tiny yellow crunchy cube (and I thought they were croutons at first!).

Farago Hill 'George Ellis' Pinot Gris

scallop with squid ink noodles

The next dish was absolutely mind-blowing and was what my partner and I decided to be the highlight of the evening. Seemingly simple, the crispy skin murray cod with celeriac, olive and three variations of artichoke was filled with omg-ness. The cod was cooked to perfection~! The fish so super fresh, tender, smooth and the skin was aweseomely crispyness. Not too salty, but very very tastey. I also loved the white pureed artichoke sauce upon which the fish sat upon. Mmm... my mouth salivates at just the thought of this dish. The fish was complemented by the Yarra Yarra Sanvignon Blanc, Sermillon from the Yarra Valley, Victoria along which the friendly sommenlier told us the sad story of how this wine owner lost most of his vineyard in the Victorian bushfires.

Yarra Yarra Sauvignon Blanc, Sermillon

Crispy skin murray cod with celeriac, olive and three variations of artichoke

Now on to the red meat. Our next course was the seared and fried quail with chinese black bean, radish and black olive salsa and hunan style dressing. This bought with it a distinctly asian taste. The white saucey thing had added a tinge of peanut taste. What I didn't appreciate was the quail eggs. It had a deep-fried layer on the outside, and yet, was mushy mushy on the inside. The worse thing was, it didn't even taste like much! Ugh - not my cup of tea. This dish came with the first red of the night - the Brezza 'Cannubi' Barbera d'Alba from Italy. I think it was around here that my partner felt a bit light-headed~

Brezza 'Cannubi' Barbera d'Alba

Quail with chinese black bean, radish and black olive salsa

This next dish is strangely reminiscent of chinese beef brisket. The red braise of rangers valley short rib, tendon (singular!!!), and shiitake mushrooms with flowering garlic chives and crispy sichuan shallot cake was highly liked by my partner... and kicked down to the normal realm by me. Seriously! It might look different to my mum's beef brisket, but it sure tastes similar! I have to ammend, however, that the beef was extremely extremely tender. So tender that it does slightly give that 'melt in your mouth' feel. The crispy shallot cake was an interesting (yet somewhat useless) addition to the plate. It added... umm... crispiness? The dish was served with a high quality red - the Hewitson 'Old Garden' Mourvèdre from South Australia. The grapes supposedly grew on 100 year old vines, according to the story-telling sommelier. The taste was very pure.

Hewitson 'Old Garden' Mourvèdre

Red braise of rangers valley short rib, tendon, shiitake with crispy sichuan shallot cake

We also got greens tossed in vinegarette. This was again, very average.

fresh green salad

Now onto the first of our desserts. The Vanilla panna cotta with queenslad strawberries and rose granita was surprisingly yummy. The rose granita was sooooo over the top rose-flavoured. Appreciated by my partner. But I felt as though I was eating rose petals - just in the form of icey cool shaved ice. When eaten in small portions along with the candied strawberries, however, it all complemented the vanilla panna cotta quite well. This dessert was served with what I consider the yummiest wine of the evening - the Pizzini Brachetto from Victoria. This wine just tastes like sparkling strawberry yummness. Expectedly, my partner did not appreciate the wine.

Pizzini Brachetto

Vanilla panna cotta with queensland strawberries and rose granita

Unfortunately, we did not appreciate the final dessert quite as much. The turnover of caramelised apples and calvados mousse with "granny smith" sorbet did not pique my fancy. The caramelised toffee-looking top and bottom deceivingly crunchy bit was not at all crisp. Rather, it was pastry-like and caramelised. The mousse was also not spectacular and it did not appreciate the caramelised mushiness of the apple nor the apple jelly thing. It was all a bit too sugary. The only bit I liked was the granny smith sorbet which was refreshing. The wine which complemented this was the Michel Torino 'Don David' Late Harvest Torrontes which supposedly tasted appricoty.

Michel Torino ' Don David' late harvest torrontes

Turnover of caramelised apples and calvados mousse with "granny smith" sorbet

Coffee and petit-fours finished the night. My partner's cappuccino was introduced to us as a "flat white", whilst I ordered a skim mocha. And oh my~ This coffee was amaaaazzzing! Up to my Melbournian-converted partner's standards and better tasting than my campus coffee. Wow. I think we need to return to Rockpool, even if it is just for the coffee. My only complaint would be the lack of coffee art - but I guess things just need to look good when they aint good tasting.

Cappuccino

Skim Mocha

In terms of petit fours, there was white chocolate with candied cherries, sponge-cakey things, passionfruit marshmellows, and home-made toffees. I liked the white choc - but not the candied cherries on top. My partner was very amused by the marshmellows and gobbled up quite a few.

White choc with candied cherries, sponge cakey things

passionfruit marshmellows and toffees

In all, ambiance of this place was super. The service here was also immaculate. Most waiters were smilely and friendly - the sommelier particularly so - and the waiter non-stopedly topped my glass of water when it ran low. Food-wise, I guess I expected to be more "WOW"ed away given it was a 2-hat. The cod was easily the best dish of the night, but other than that, things were good but not spectacular. Overall, it was a great dining experience but I think we'd need to check out other degustations before giving this a second go.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 9.5/10
Ambiance - 9.5/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 35.5/40

Rockpool Sydney
107 George Street
The Rocks
NSW 2000
tel: (02) 9252 1888