Bennelong Restaurant - Circular Quay

As soon as we heard that Peter Gilmore was starting a new restaurant, my friend had it booked in. My friend is a huge fan of Quay (particularly their desserts) and could not wait to dine in this new restaurant. My hubby, on the other hand, had some reservation. He didn't like the 'fusion' element of Quay. Likewise, my last experience at this venue (when it was the previous restaurant Guillaume), left my wanting more. Lucky for both of us, Peter Gilmore's new Mod Australian restaurant (focusing tons on the flavour of local produce) exceeded both of our expectations!

Being inside the iconic structure, it was a dining experience with wonderful views (and for this sunny afternoon - plenty of young kids plastering their faces to the window). The staff were friendly and nice, and patient enough with our indecisiveness - which is lucky cos I think we all wanted to order everything on the menu. The freshly baked bread, warm, crunchy crusted and with super soft innards helped with our decisions... maybe?

Opting for the 3 course menu, we managed to all order a different entree. Our friend's beef tartare was a hidden gem under a pile of puffed grains, mushrooms, sesame, and seaweed. Like it should be, the egg yolk was placed on top perfectly. The smoked Blackmore Wagyu was mixed with a fermented chilli paste. Getting a sense that this is packed full of flavour?

Our other friend opted for a safe and surely to be amazing entree of scallops. Three delicately and perfectly seared massive sea scallops accompanied with spring vegetables, a creme fraiche emulsion, lemon jam, herbs and flowers - all for a really neat and clean feel to the dish.

My went for an entree of slow cooked quail. This was a soft and succulent square of quail meat hidden under cultured and fermented grains, a brioche cream, really tasty mushrooms and jerusalem artichoke. Lots of crunch. Loads of mushies. It made for a good flavour combo.

Although all three entrees were delish, hubby's entree was the winner - a really big, super nicely grilled Lady Elliot Island bug. Loads of sweetness, perfectly cooked bug. It came with nice little organic turnip cylinders, radishes and flavoured with XO sauce. YUM~

On to the mains - hubby and one friend ordered the duck. Two substantial pieces of Holmbrae duck sat amongst raw and pickled hispi cabbage, black miso, freekah and seaweed. It was good. There was flavour. But hubby thought it was ordinary, especially when compared with his entree.

My other friend and I both ordered fish. He got the King George Whiting - a super tasty little fish in and of itself. It was served with three, again perfectly cooked, scallops, leeks, native parsley, celery heart and ice-plant (a flower). He liked it.

I might be biased, but I think that my fish blew his fish out of the water! I got served a whole John Dory (minus the head) on the bone, with orach, turnips, and umami butter. The seasoning on the fish was perfecto. So tasty! And the fish was cooked just right. Fresh and really tasty. And so much of it! You even get a nice little theatrical hand towel (you know how we used to have those t-shirts which went from being tiny to normal size when you put it in water? it was the same with this hand towelette) to wipe your hands on after you finish demolishing the fish.

 

Oh - and you get these super tasty potatoes and a plate of fresh lettuce with the mains.

Now we were onto a much anticipated event for the meal - the dessert. We ordered the same desserts around the table. The Opera-house-looking pavlova and the creme caramel v mille-feuille. Yes the pavlova that looks like an Opera House was inventive in it's looks - but flavour wise? It's a pavlova with really nice tasting cream and meringue. It had nothing, NOTHING on the creme caramel mille feuille. Such a playfully plated dessert which was packed full of caramelly flavour. Not overly sweet, and with tons of textures and temperatures all mixed in. I can't describe it - you just have to taste one for yourself. It was absolutely DELICIOUS I wanted to lick my plate~

Coffee and petit fours were last. Coffee was good (which is saying a lot for restaurant coffee), and the petit fours were these cute little caramel-filled cookies.

So all up, it was a great meal. Really tasty. Playful but with a lot of heart and emphasis on flavour. Hats are on it's way I think. I would definitely recommend this place and would definitely try my best to return :)

Ratings:
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 33/40

Bennelong Restaurant
Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9240 8000

Guillaume at Bennelong - Circular Quay

We had heard the news that Guillaume at Bennelong is closing. As I'd never been there, I wasn't too devastated about it. But then hubby heard from friends that it's a top-notch restaurants and as such, he couldn't resist but to book it in.

Bennelong Restaurant

From all the word-of-mouth reviews from our friends, our expectations of this place was rather high. On this occasion, we opted for the 4 course a-la-carte menu ($150). The menu was briefly explained but the same waiter for each table and promptly after the explanation, he dashed off - to return a very very very long time later. It seems that the most attentive staff at the restaurant was our sommelier who chose us a very nice bottle of white.

The sourdough and the creamy butter was quite deliciousness. The bread was soft and tasty, and the crust crunchy. Unfortunately, when we wanted a bit more bread halfway through the meal, we had to ask THREE times for it (as it was delivered to the wrong table first, then the request was ignored).

sourdough and butter

The amuse bouche was another place where the waiter screwed up. They delivered it the next table, which then clashed with the delivery of their first course. The amuse bouche, when it did get here, was really delicious. Velvety pumpkin puree with that seared foie gras cube to make it super creamy and crazily tasty. Yup! sign me up for more of this.

pumpkin veloute

Hubby's choice of first course was the smoked eel with silverbeet, oyster, truffle and 'Sot L'y Laisse'.
It was heaps aromatic and the presentation was interesting. Hubby found it 'okay' in taste.

smoked eel

I opted for the savoury green custardwhich was the pea royale. The cold, smooth custard was really rich and full of flavour. It was topped with cubes of speck, croutons and peas, with truffle specks throughout. Tasty.

pea royale

For the second course, hubby ordered the squid 'tagliatelle'. The sea urchin butter sauce smelt really really good! The squid was thinly sliced to mimic tagliatelle and was served with a squid ink tapioca cracker.

Squid Tagliatelle

My choice was the scallops, seared to perfection. It came with jerusalem artichoke, broad beans and chicken jus gras. I love well cooked, tasty scallops :)

scallops

I think that's where the awesomeness stops. Hubby's main was the wagyu beef. The waiter had said that it was the brisket slow cooked for 12 hours. It's meant to be melt-in-your-mouth, but it wasn't. I think it was still quite chewy and stringy. The wagyu came with shimeji mushrooms, a potato galette, parsley puree dollop, and a parsnip puree dollop. The waitress also came out with their 'famous' paris mash. This was good. Creamy, buttery and smooth. Unfortunately, compared to some potato purees we have had recently (e.g. at Black by Ezard), it fell short.

wagyu beef brisket

My deconstructed bouillabaisse was better. The clear soup was full of flavour. Unfortunately, the barramundi and the prawn were both a touch overcooked. They gave me mash with this too! LOL. Also, complimentary salad was also given on the side.

barramundi and prawns

A palate cleanser of pink grapefruit and champagne granita was not really my cup of tea nor to my hubby's liking. It was slightly too bitter and a bit too strong on the champagne hit.

pink grapefruit granita

The dessert was pretty good though. Hubby had the nougat glace. There was a ring of caramelised banana on top of the nougat and served with a caramelly icecream with crushed peanuts.

nougat glace

I had the chestnuty mouse encased in a chocolate tube. The dots of quince (?) and pear however, was left untouched on my plate. The chestnut icecream was also pretty decent.

Chestnut cassis

Petit fours were served with coffee. There was green tea macarons, jelly dome, caramel, madeline and chocolate truffle. Not too bad. My favourite was the caramel, then the macaron.

petit fours

So all up, there were some hits and some misses. The miss was probably the slow and inattentive service which was witnessed until the final stages of the meal where even our bill was wrong. For the price, I daresay it could have been a bit better. If you had wanted to try this place out for yourself, be quick - as it's closing at the end of the year.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 4/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 26.5/40

Guillaume at Bennelong
Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02)  9241 1999

Cafe Sydney - Circular Quay

To celebrate our 8 year anniversary, my partner and I decided to dine at Cafe Sydney - a restaurant we've been attempting to try for over 5 years now. Why? Boils down to our laziness to book and the impossibilitiness of dining at this place without a book. So yes - after the much anticipated wait, our expectations of this restaurant was probably quite high. But on our way to the restaurant, both my partner and I had decided to talk it down - if it's better than Bilson's, it's probably OK.

So we arrived for our 8.30pm booking (after a super hectic day at work for both of us). We were tired, we were hungry - we just wanted to eat eat eat! Unfortunately, our table was not ready yet. As such, we were escorted to the bar area where we had our own sofa space. We ordered a couple of drinks as we proceded to wind down. My partner got a beer, I ordered the Guava Polava ($11). This was a refreshingly sweet and fruity mocktail of guava nectar and mango puree. It was actually really yummy. Very mangoey and icey - just the way I like it!

Guava Polava - $11

When we finally got seated at our table (at 9pm), we were met with a a friendly bubbly waiter, a fantastic view of the harbour bridge and delicious aromas stemming from food from tables around us.

Choices of entrees and mains abounded, making our decision-making process quite tough. But we plowed through and persevered.

We ordered a garlic naan ($2.50) as opposed to traditional bread rolls. The garlic naan came our fresh and warm. Smelt fantastically aromatic and was light, very slightly oily, and subtly garlicy. It was quite appetising indeed.

garlic naan - $2.50

We also decided on an entree to share. We chose the grilled scallops ($27). Three big ish plump scallops came topped with rolled white anchovy. Accompanying it was shaved fennel, cabbage and 2 ruby grapefruit pieces. There was also small clumps of pine nuts and a smooth creamy pile of white sauce. Fortunately, the scallops were nicely grilled and not over cooked. The shaved fennel and cabbage salad was fresh, but the grapefruit pieces were slightly too juicy to be complimentary. The pinenut clumps were absolutely gorgeous. However, the same could not be said about the white anchovy. The anchovy was super strong and super salty and super overpowering. Eating the anchovy with the scallop meant that you absolutely cannot taste the scallop - anchovy only. It's amazing how such a small clump of fish can be so dense and strong.

Scallops - $27

In terms of mains, my partner opted for the pork belly ($38) under the strong recommendation by the waiter. The pork belly was twice cooked, with a nice rod of pork crackling, and accompanied with caramelised pear, speck, pistacio and jus. The waiter described the meat as "melt in your mouth" goodness - and melt-in-your-mouth goodness was how this meat was. It was very flavoursome, sooooo tender, and a good mix of meat and fat. The crunchiness of pork crackling was demonstrated by the huge cutting and crunching noises made by my partner. According to him, this dish was good - but not awesomely WOW.

Pork Belly - $38

I opted for a 'food addition' special of the night. The john dory ($42) came with black-coloured squid and prawn ravioli and small cubes of zucchini and chorizo. The john dory fillet was nice and tender. The skin was unfortunately not crisp and overall, the fish was slightly too salty. The ravioli pasta shell was a bit too thick and chewy - slightly too little squid and prawn mix for the thick pasta shell - the proportion was not quite right. In terms of the zucchini and chorizo cubes, they were pretty average. No complaints. The bisque sauce it came with was also OK.

John Dory - $42

In terms of sides, we ordered the mashed potato ($8) and the rocket and parmesan salad ($8.50). The mashed potato was very average. Not creamy enough and not fluffy enough - slightly too dense. Tasted also slightly like my packet deb mash (which I actually love). It just wasn't as awesome as mash ought to be at restaurants. The rocket and parmesan salad, on the other hand, was really pretty good. The rocket was fresh. There was a good amount of balsamic vinegar, and the parmesan cheese was pretty greatly complementary to the rocket.

mashed potato - $8

rocket and parmesan salad - $8.50

After all this food, my partner and I were both stuffed. We eyed the dessert menu and eyed the time and decided against getting dessert. Not that it wouldn't have been good- but nothing popped out as awesome 'eat me now!' dessert.

Overall, the food was not bad. The ambiance was absolutely wonderful, dim-litted, romantic and with a fantastic view. The service here wasn't the most attentive, but he was definately cheerful and friendly enough. I believe we had a good time and a decent meal to celebrate our 8 years of being together :)

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 9.5/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 33/40

Cafe Sydney
Customs House 5th Floor
31 Alfred Street
Circular Quay
Sydney
NSW 2000
tel: (02) 9251 8683

Selah - Circular Quay

Selah - a relaxed modern Australian restaurant situated in Circular Quay area was where our crew of four decided to dine.

Dim-litted, warm and cozy, we quickly settled quickly into slightly hard wooden chairs and ordered our share of entrees and mains.

My two friends decided to share a pear and goats curd salad ($18). This was plated as layered filo wafers, sliced pears, dalops of goats curd, candied walnut and cress with lemon thyme and and aged balsamic dressing. My friends thoroughly enjoyed this dish. It was fresh and had an interesting varietied texture. Apparently the candied walnuts were slightly too much on the sweet side. However, it seemed to balance out the possible bitterness of some other ingredients in the pile. Nonetheless, my partner seemed to think pinenuts would be a better option here (but less novel I guess).

pear & goats curd salad - $18

My partner decided to share an entree of cured atlantic salmon ($19). This came topped with a heap of avocado, drops of yellow miso and wasabi dressing on the side, and topped with baby herbs and roasted nori. The cured atlantic salmon was refreshing and subtly salted and olive oily and the miso wasabi bought about a nice hit of flavour reminiscent of a mild mustard. The avocado, a natural companion to this fish, was nothing less of being awesomely complementary.

cured atlantic salmon - $19

Now onto the mains. My friend's rolled pork loin with prosciutto ($32) was labels as good but slightly bland and uninteresting. Topped with a super crunchy slab of crackling and lying atop a bed of caramelised apples, and a celery and fennel salad, caramelised apple, celery and fennel, my friend said that the pork was not untender but it was nothing more than just a slab of pork.

pork loin - $32

Two lots of marinated lamb back strap ($33) was ordered. Asthetically arranged with sliced fillets of lamb cooked medium rare and topped with a goats cheese stuffed pepper and drizzled with harissa mayo, my partner and friend seems to enjoy this dish much. Apparantely much more 'exciting' than the pork. Much more texture and more flavoursome. The quinoa was mildly curry/spicy-ish with the texture of couscous. Mmm... interesting.

lamb back strap - $33

Last but not least was my seared atlantic salmon ($32). The salmon was cooked okay-ish well. Not overcooked and not undercooked. However, the salmon skin was not crispy (which is a bit of a shame). A variety of asian mushrooms (including oyster and enoki mushrooms) were mixed with crab meat and shallots, and rolled inside a thin omelette. The salmon was sitting on top of a bed of chinese veges which were soaking in a soy and ginger dressing. Overall, this dish was appetising but not too wow~ The asian mushroom omelette got a little boring at the end, but I as I liked mushrooms, I persevered until it was all devoured.

seared atlantic salmon - $32

To round off all our mains, we got a bowl of hand cut chips with aioli ($8). Thick cut and soft and lightly dusted with salt, the only downfall was the crunchlessness (which personally, I didn't mind). The aioli was nice too - but not as awesome herbed mayo from Grill'd burgers LOL.

hand cut chips with aioli - $8

All up, Selah provided a chillaxy dining environment with good food and decent service. Their portions weren't huge and their dessert menu was not enticing enough for us to stay - but the mains and entrees were fitting to our appetites.

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

Selah
12 Loftus Street
Circular Quay
Sydney 2000
tel: (02) 9247 0097

Guylian Cafe - Circular Quay

Long awaited...
I long for and await for many things in life.
Some things, when they finally happen, I'm thrilled and overjoyed.
Others, might lead to bitter disappointment.

Guylian Cafe was a long awaited occasion for me. Enjoying a brisk walk to East Circular Quay (as we parked at the Rocks to stroll thru the markets), we arrived at the chocolate cafe.

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe

There were many enticing cakes in the cabinets, but my partner and I chose to sit down and slowly take our pick.

Window shopping for cakes.

I couldn't decide between cake or icecream - so I got a bit of both.
We ordered the Guylian baked chocolate cake ($14), which the menu promised to be a moist, rich belgian chocolate cake with guylian signature ganache. Promised, but failed to deliver. The cake was very averagely a chocolate sponge cake with a very averagely chocolate ganache. Hmmm... very very average. For $14, I would expect a bit more, in terms of taste, chocolate hit, texture, or really... just anything!

Guylian Baked Chocolate Cake - $14

We also ordered the 60% dark chocolate icecream ($5.50). I see the icecream, I see the chocolate... but where is the dark 60% bit??? Nonetheless, I still enjoy icecream - dark or not. But compared to the dark chocolate icecream from Lindt Cafe ... somewhat incomparable.

Dark Chocolate Icecream - $5.50

Last to come was the Guylian Dark Chocolate Shake ($9). In previous posts where the service was lacking and inattentive, I've always made excuses for them (eg. they were super busy). In this case - yes they were busy, but the service definately needs to be turned up a notch. I don't appreciate waitresses serving three lots of customers whilst holding my previously ice-cold drink, then look as if she is about the head back into the store until finally, she realises why there is a drink in her hand in the first place. hmmmpphhhffff.
Anyway, service aside, this milkshake was chocolatey and sweet. Just like any other chocolate milkshake I've had. Again... where is the dark chocolate bit? Nonetheless, my partner thoroughly enjoyed this shake.

Guylian Dark Chocolate Shake - $9

In all, the location of the store provides an awesome quay-side experience - it was only when we were walking towards the car that we bumped into the Guylian Cafe situated at The Rocks... for which my partner (who hates walking) was not pleased about.

I found my chocolate experience at Guylian to be truely... average - nothing spectacular. But maybe next time, I should be more adventurous and step outside my dark chocolate longings.

Ratings:
Food - 5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Service - 4/10
Value for money - 5/10
Overall - 22/40

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe
East Circular Quay
Shop 10, Opera Quays
3 Macquarie Street
Sydney, 2000
Tel: (02) 8274 7900