The Victoria Room, High Tea, Sydney

The Victoria Room

Level 1, 235 Victoria Street

http://www.thevictoriaroom.com

9357 4488

Last post for the month (I hope!). Its time to take a break from all this eating.

I really enjoy high tea. I think its a great way for girls (and boys) to get together, connect and chat over some nibbles, tea or wine. Its one of those things where its not about the food, its not about the tea or the wine- its about the chit-chat, the conversation and being able to enjoy each others company :)

And I mean, who can dislike high tea if its somewhere as nice as this?

We order the Crave Vintage High Tea Special ($45) which includes a three tiered high tea, loose leaf tea or coffee and a flute of Brown Brothers Champagne.

Sandwiches! I'd just come back from the gym so I demolished my share in like 10 minutes. They were not too bad. There were some chicken, smoked salmon and some cucumber sandwiches I think. To be honest I was too hungry to remember the names.

Sweets. This tier had lavender shortcakes, rose jelly, hummingbird cupcakes and these DELICIOUS fruit lemon custard tarts. I loved the lavender shortcakes and the tarts. The shortcake was really floral and each bite actually made me feel like I was standing in a lavender field.

Scones with fresh cream and jam. I think one was plain and one was sweetbread.

We were served by a really sweet waitress who actually wrote the words 'Thank You' on our bill. Quite liked the personal touch.

The Good: Beautiful surroundings, the atmosphere, the lavender shortbread & the fruit tart, good service

The Bad: I don't think this place has air conditioning (correct me if I'm wrong)

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe, Sydney

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe

Darling Park

Darling Harbour

http://www.guyliancafe.com.au/

So much for going on a diet.

They opened a Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe in the new Darling Park entertainment precinct. Theres also new restaurants and a new park in that area.

The cafe is quite big so I don't think you'll ever have to wait for a table.

They also sell a huge range of cakes, desserts, pastries and chocolates.

Milk Hot Chocolate

How cute! There's a chocolate seashell in each cup :) You just pour the hot chocolate in.

Mocha

They were also giving everyone a free chocolate with every drink.

Great place for a chilled casual catch up with a few friends :)

Now excuse me while I go to the gym. Bye guys!

The Good: Friendly service, spacious cafe, no waiting, great location

The Bad: Not much to fault. Just maybe those extra kilos you'll gain..

Azuma Sugarhit

Azuma Kushiyaki Bar & Grill

Sydney International Food Festival- Sugarhit Event

501 George Street

Sydney

9267 7775

http://www.azuma.com.au/kushiyaki/home.php

You've just got to love Sydney sometimes. Not only do we have some of the best restaurants in the world, we also spend a whole month (Yes guys. A whole frickin' month) celebrating food. Food oh glorious food. So if you haven't made arrangements yet, definitely check out the www.cravesydney.com website and maybe try a Sugarhit, Lets do lunch or a pop up dinner. And please tweet me about how it went!

And when this is all over in November we can all talk about how badly we should join a gym.

So on Friday a few of the bloggers and I (the lovely sugarpuffi, misskilicious, vxdollface, ayana, the creamy middles, idreaminchoc) went to check out Azuma's Sugarhit. (This is the one near the cinemas, not the Chifley Azuma btw)

The sugarhit was a selection of Asian desserts served with either Brown Brothers dessert wine or green tea for $20. Obviously I got the dessert wine :)

Anmitsu (Assorted seasonal fruits, tapioca pearls, shiratama rice dumplings covered in kinako powder served with Japanese brown sugar syrup) and Hand-made white sesame ice cream.

The anmitsu was absolutely gorgeous. This was by far the best dessert of the night. The fruits were so fresh and the flavours were light but intense at the same time. Go good! The white sesame ice cream was also good but quite unusual because this was the first time I've tried white sesame ice cream. It also wasn't very sweet.

Sake sample, Japanese green tea tiramisu (shochu soaked sponge fingers layered with mascarpone, fresh cream & matcha powder), handcrafted chocolate (dark & milk chocolate praline with caramel ganache enrobed in dark chocolate with an explosive finish) and sake sponge bliss (bite sized morsels of butter cake soaked in fine japanese sake)

The chocolate was literally explosive. Hidden within the chocolate was little bits of those like popping candy bits.. really fun to eat :) The green tea tiramisu was really indulgent and rich. The only one I didn't really like was the sake sponge bliss.. I wasn't really feeling the bliss with that one.

I had a lovely time and thanks to Betty for inviting me. The SIFF festival only runs for October so if you haven't a sugarhit yet, get booking! Enjoy :)

The Good: Getting that sugar high and then being hyperactive for the next few hours

The Bad: They dont let you share the sugarhit, so everyone has to get one. Lame because one sugarhit is big enough for two people.

ZenQ Desserts, Desserts, Chatswood

ZenQ Desserts

Level 2, Victoria Street Entrance

Westfield Shoppingtown Chatswood

It seems like asian style dessert houses are all the rage.

ZenQ is a Taiwanese dessert restaurant which has launched its first Australian restaurant in Westfield Chatswood. Currently there are 10 ZenQ restaurants in Taiwan, Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau and it is the first restaurant to launch outside of Asia.

There were some pretty strange things on the menu. For example.. tuna salad toast dessert. Weird. If anyone has ever tried this please let me know how it was.. I'm both curious but also slightly disgusted.

Menu

We order the watermelon and mango shaved ice ($8.80) which was probably a bad choice. Thanks A.C! BTW remember to invite us to your future yacht parties when you're CEO ok? :D

How did it taste? Like sugar and ice + hundreds and thousands. Not particularly interesting. Personally I found ZenQ overrated.. but that might have been because we didn't try any of the traditional desserts.

The Good: Taiwanese dessert house and wide variety of desserts

The Bad: Overpriced for whats on offer. The oolong tea drink was around $7.