Cafe Sydney, Sydney

Cafe Sydney

Level 5, Customs House

31 Alfred Street

Circular Quay

02 9251 8683

www.cafesydney.com


Cafe Sydney is located on the top floor of the Customs House building and has an amazing view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The bottom levels of Customs house is actually a library, but once you enter the restaurant you'll completely forget that you're even in the same building. The restaurant is elegant, has fantastic views and is perfect for special occasions. We were there to celebrate the 23rd birthday of a very close friend. Happy Birthday A.

Antipodes sparkling water




Naan platter

Apparently one of the restaurant's specialities is naan bread so we had to give it a try. These were really good and we ended up ordering 2 platters. The goats cheese and spinach naan was particularly good.



Moreton Bay bugs with avocado, beetroot, mint, hazelnut, baby leaves, citrus dressing and ocean trout roe ($27)


This dish was light, simple and refreshing.




Seared scallops with prosciutto, roast red pepper, white bean puree, sour dough crumbs and balsamic dressing ($27)

Beautiful, large, succulent scallops.



Wagyu carpaccio with soft free range egg, sorrel, celery heart and pecorino ($27)

I'm always a little hesitant to eat raw beef but this wasn't too bad. It didn't really taste like meat though.



Kingfish carpaccio with herb crusted white anchovy, ruby grapefruit, baby leaves and lime aioli ($26)



Pacific Oysters, freshly shucked on ice with eschallot and caramelised cabernet vinegar (39 1 doz)





Crispy twice cooked pork belly with prosciutto wrapped pork fillet, savoy cabbage, prunes and jus ($39)






Roast de-boned, free range chicken with heirloom baby carrots, mushroom, goat cheese polenta and consomme ($38)






Roasted lamb loin and confit lamb breast with a feta cigar, eggplant, olives, tomato and jus ($39)




Peppered beef tenderloin with swiss brown mushroom, brussels sprouts, porcini cream and jus ($39)





Dessert Platter ($45)

Baked blood orange custard with poached winter fruit and cinnamon grissini

Dark chocolate terrine with strawberry sorbet

Warm rhubarb tart with pistachio crumble and fresh raspberry ripple ice cream

Baked cheesecake with glazed pineapple, coconut crisp and pineapple sorbet







Dark chocolate terrine with strawberry sorbet

Wickedly good





Espresso Martini




I really enjoyed dinner at Cafe Sydney. The service was friendly, the food was good and the restaurant beautiful. Although the food wasn't spectacular, Cafe Sydney ticks all the other boxes. I'll return and would love to come back during lunch for the views.

Longrain, Thai, Sydney

Longrain Restaurant & Bar

85 Commonwealth Street Sydney

9280 2888

http://www.longrain.com.au/

Thank you to the lovely J for dinner tonight :) I am very lucky to have such an amazing friend.

Longrain is a modern Thai restaurant that serves authentic Thai food with a fine dining twist. I never used to think that the words 'authentic", thai' and 'fine dining' would ever go hand in hand but tonight has definitely changed all that. Longrain is chic (I mean.. come on, it sits inside an old converted warehouse) and the food is absolutely spectacular.

Eggnet with pork, prawn, peanuts, bean sprouts & sweet vinegar ($31)

This dish blew me away. There was just so much flavour.. I would love to learn how to match flavours together like this. The prawns, pork, peanuts, bean sprouts etc.. everything complemented each other perfectly. The only thing that I couldn't taste was the egg (haha).

Caramelised Pork hock with five spice and chilli vinegar ($33.50)

J recommended this and it was delicious. The pork hock was crunchy - not crispy like the way pork belly is. The problem with pork belly is that its just crispy fat which is really really unhealthy. At least with crunchy pork hock its crispy meat and not crispy fat. Anyways .. I think this is slightly healthier than pork belly. It tastes better than pork belly too :)

We couldn't finish the pork hock or the egg nett and we were so full. But we ordered dessert anyways!

After much debate we decided on the Thai Chaos, coconut jelly, black sticky rice, tapoica and custard apple ($16.50)

How good does that look? Its like triple layer happiness. Whoever said love, fame and fortune makes you happy was wrong. I think the real answer is food..

Peter Doyle @ the Quay, Sydney

Peter Doyle @ the Quay, Sydney

Overseas Passenger Terminal

Circular Quay, Sydney

9241 7265

http://www.doyleatthequay.com.au/

My sister bought one of these coupons for a 3 course meal for 2 at Peter Doyle @ the Quay for something like $80. I've been burned by these coupons a few times so I was a bit skeptical. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn't true. I once bought a coupon for a place that refused to take bookings even though I was calling and emailing and doing everything short of harrassment. And when we finally get a booking and turn up? The restaurant is half empty. Seriously.

Anyways ... Peter Doyle

\

The coupon turned out to be a really great deal. Check out that view! Daymn.

Trio of Tasmanian Salmon vodka & orange cured salmon with fennel salad, smoked salmon lettuce roll

Queensland Scallops served on truffle scented cauliflower with raisin caper dressing & popcorn shoots

Barramundi Fillets grilled with coconut, kafir leaves served with Asian greens

Fish and Chips

Passionfruit tart

An enjoyable experience and highly recommended.

Helm Bar, Sydney

Helm Bar and Bistro

Aquarium Wharf, Cockle Bay

9290 1571

http://helmbar.com.au/

Caught up with a few mates over lunch at Helm Bar and Bistro. Since the group was mostly guys, steak was the obvious option. Helm Bar does a $10 Tuesday steak promo so we went to check it out.

Sauces

I found that the steaks were either a hit or a miss. Some of us got really good cuts that were tender and juicy while other people got cuts that were fatty or where large parts were inedible. Each steak was served with a generous size of french fries and some salad leaves.

Since lunch coincided with my birthday... wooo macaroons :) Thanks :) you're all too awesome.

El Loco, Sydney

El Loco

64 Foveaux Street

Surry Hills

9211 4945

http://www.elloco.com.au/

With all the hype around El Loco in the blogsphere, I was really looking forward to trying out the newest Merivale eatery. Upon arriving, it seemed like half the patrons were standing on the sidewalk, holding a corona in one hand and a taco in another. It was packed.

Again - lack of camera = sh!t photos.

We ordered the tacos :

- Carne Asada - lemongrass beef, salsa verde

- Camaron - prawn, salsa verde, pico de gallo

- Pollo - chicken, sweet corn salsa

- Al Pastor - spit roaster pork, pineapple salsa

and the excelsior hot dog

Pollo taco

The hype was well deserved. The atmosphere is lively, although a bit loud. The tacos were all really good and my favourite one would have to be the prawn taco. Also the hotdog *droool* is damn fine. I'll come back just for those hot dogs... yummm..

Grilld

Grilld

241 Crown Street Darlinghurst

www.grilld.com.au

A smashing good burger.

Grilld's philosophy is burgers packed with fresh ingredients. The burgers are lovingly made and stacked with the highest quality ingredients and lean meats that theyre actually healthy! Burger joints are the newest thing around Sydney and I think that Grilld has some of the best burgers around. This is a bit of an old post..I went around 4 months ago? Yes I have a massive backlog of photos to upload :)

Crispy bacon & cheese $10.90

Grilled 100% lean beef, crispy trim bacon, taste cheese, salad, relish and herbed mayo.

Almighty $12.50

Grilled 100% lean beef, taste cheese, crispy trim bacon, free range egg, beetroot with salad, relish and herbed mayo.

The meat patty was juicy and all the salad ingredients tasted very fresh and crisp. I really enjoyed these burgers so if you ever get a chance, give Grilld a try.

August

Hi Everyone!

Apologise for the lack of updates. I've been trying to fix the website and havent had time to blog. At the moment all of my photos are uploaded onto facebook so if work/uni/school blocks facebook, the photos aren't visible. I'm going to try to upload everything onto picasaweb this weekend so that it'll work for everyone.

Another reason for the lack of updates is because I'm in between cameras at the moment (goodbye e-pl1) and I've been using my iPhone to take photos. The iPhone is pretty much useless in low lighting so all my recent dinner photos have turned out atrocious. Hoping to pick up a canon s95 over this weekend (or the next week) so will shortly have decent photos back on the site.

Hope everyone is well (and eating lots).

See you soon!

Churrasco, Brazilian, Coogee

Churrasco,

240 Coogee Bay Road

Coogee

9665 6535

www.churrasco.com.au

Coogee is an amazing Sydney suburb. It has a gorgeous beach surrounded by restaurants, cafes and parks. It also has one of the best Brazilian bbq buffets in Sydney. Churrasco is basically you sit down and waiters come around with skewers (or plates) of meat and its all you-can-eat. Sounds pretty good hey?

Everyone has to order the $38 menu (Even vegetarians) but there are salad and side options you can get on top of the $38 inclusive menu. Otherwise the $38menu includes brazilian rice, black beans and creamy potato.

Rice

Black beans and potato

The potato was a bit gross actually.. it was really gloggy and creamy and I couldnt eat it. Really wished they had some salad leaves or something as a side option.

Chimichurri, vinaigrette and farofa

The chimichurri and vinaigrette were quite nice and went well as sauces for the meats. I had no idea what the farofa was though LOL

Chorizo and chicken hearts

Sirloin

Ham with mustard

This was really good! I had a few servings of this :)

Think this was lamb..

Grilled pineapple with cinnamon

This was deliciously. Sweet, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Its also good to eat this after your meal because pineapple helps you digest all the meat you've just consumed.

Rump

Grilled zucchini

Anyways I didn't take photos of every type of meat because they all sort of look the same and I started to forget which photos were which. But the food was great. My favourites were the cheesy bread, the grilled cheese, the chicken hearts (hehe), the chorizo, the sirloin and the spicy chicken. Oh and the pineapple. Actually everything was pretty much was really good. The meats were all good quality.

The service was really good and all the waitresses/waiters didnt mind that I made them hold the plate while I took a photo (or photos). Thanks :)