Category: Restaurant Reviews


Colonial Beef Steak Club @ Chophouse

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April 23, 2012

Chophouse (http://www.chophouse.com.au/) and Kingsleys (http://www.kingsleys.com.au/)  (Pacific Restaurant group) run “Colonial Beef Steak Club” dinners for their regular customers and for those who enjoy a great dinner paired with wines/fortifieds. As soon as you walk in there’s a “club” feel to it with everyone there for the same reason (appreciation of food/wine) and chatting along regardless of whether you’ve been coming to these dinners for a while, or it being your first one and coming alone. This event was at Chophouse in Sydney’s CBD, with Aaron as our host. Dinner was delicious, staff were friendly and informative and the atmosphere was relaxing. The theme was ‘Decadence’…

On arrival: Broadwater Rock Oysters freshly shucked in front of us and served fresh alone or with champagne mignonette. Clover Hill Tasmania, Egly-Ouriet Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru Champagne and Pol Roger Champagne.

CLOVER HILL Vintage Brut Tasmania - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Aromas and palate full of delicate citrus and stone fruits, with complexity of toasty, bready characters, and a clean, smooth finish.

EGLY-OURIET BLANC DE NOIRS Grand Cru Champagne - Light colour with a beautiful hint of copper, with very fine beads and mousse. Nose fresh, with very elegant bready/hay notes and a hint of honey. Palate intense with a hint of berry, but very dry, with mineral nuances and lean acidity, showing fine structure – overall very balanced… Finish keeps going. Stunning wine, I really enjoyed it… :-)

POL ROGER Champagne - Pale lemon colour, with very fine beads and mousse. Nose has lifted, floral notes and bready aromas, like brioche (rich, ‘creamy’). Rich, full flavour with fresh, crisp apple and a hint of citrus. Some cashew/toast character. Long, dry length on finish.

The head chef, Eric Tan, then spoke with us about his way of cooking and the way he’s prepared the food for the dinner… One of the interesting things he did was use the components from one dish into the next, so for example, the truffle used to form the terrine, becomes the truffle in the main as well.

Entree: Rabbit Terrine with Shiitake Mushroom, Braised Cabbage and Truffle Oil. Served with CURLY FLAT Chardonnay 2009 - Pale lemon colour. Nose fresh, bright aromas with minerality, stone fruit, and toast with a hint of almond. Palate had full flavour with a smooth creamy edge, seamlessly integrated oak along with stone fruits and a hint of spice, with a beautifully long, elegant, clean finish. 

Main: Beef Rossini with Fois Gras, Truffle & Brioche. Served with Potato Scallops & Lemon, Onion Rings, Grilled Broccoli with Binnorie Fetta. Served with CURLY FLAT Pinot Noir 2007 - Ruby colour. Nose beautifully perfumed (think floral/violets) and full of fresh dark cherry, leather and oak. On tasting the structure is well defined but smooth, with well integrated soft, fine tannins, freshness from good acidity and red fruit characters, and a hint of liqorice and soft spices. Finish is long and keeps up the intensity of flavour. One of my favourite wines! Lovely! :-)

Dessert: Granny Smith Apple Tarte Tartin with Fingerlime Ice Cream, or Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberries and Double Cream. Served with WARRE’S Otima 20Yr old Port, Portugal- Very nice port… Rich, full flavour, but not heavy or overtly sweet, whilst maintaining the caramel, coffee and nutty characteristics. Good, long finish. Beautiful served lightly chilled…

Overall a great dinner and fun night (with very full glasses that never went empty!). Chophouse, nestled (and kind of hidden) in the heart of the city, is worth a visit… I look forward to returning soon. Cheers!

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Becasse "Cellar Night" Wine Dinner

Filed under: Restaurant Reviews, Wine — 3 Comments
July 7, 2010

Last night Becasse held their launch of their new “Cellar Night” wine dinner, in which you can actually bring your own wine (from your cellar) to go with their 8-course dinner (set in advance which gives you time to choose what wine you think you have that will go with the whole course, if you want).

I could see how white wine could go with the dinner, however in my stubbornness I was set on a red, therefore a Pinot Noir, which is one of the lighter bodied reds. I went for a Tasmanian Pinot Noir. http://www.winewithoutbs.com.au/ also brought a Faisan Estate 1998 unfiltered Pinot Noir – DELISH! Really deep aroma of oak, leather and earthiness, and a silky yet spicy palate. Perfect drinking now.

Overall the whole dinner was sensational and I was happy with the wine to go with it. I’ve often avoided many “modern”/degustation style courses for fear of feeling anorexic and starving at the end of the meal like has happened before, but this dinner left me feeling extremely full. Every bite was a really interesting complex chemistry of flavours, such as scallops with veal tongue, and tuna with jelly consomme and prosciutto…

Canape – Black Olive Biscotti w Whipped Goats’ Curd. Loved this. I had some gluten free version of the bread, still with black olives, was dense and delicious.

Amuse bouche – Marinated Tuna with Chilled Meditarranean Consomme and Prosciutto. Very interesting array of flavours, with the consomme being in jelly form and fresh raw tuna.
Confit Blue-eye w Roasted Prawns, Cauliflower and Salted Buckwheat. Delicious, Light and slightly crunchy with crumbed prawns. Creamed cauliflower went well and the buckwheat added a good texture to the dish.
Crepe Royale – Seared Scallop and Caramelised Veal Tongue. This would be one of my favourites. The scallop and veal tongue together was good as the scallop gave some really good texture to the thin tongue, like a layer of pork fat, but more delicate. The veal tongue tasted like a cross between bacon and chicken liver.

Caramelised Pork Hock, Forgotten vegetables, Cedar Smoked Potatoes Pork. deliciously tender, Vegies were good (a few I couldn’t identify, I guess hence “forgotten” vegetables), Cedar smoked potatoes were really good and didn’t taste like normal potatoes and as good as or better than duck fat potatoes.

Old Telegraph Road Cheese Selection, Sugared Walnuts and Fig Preserve. Wow those sugared walnuts! No crystallised sugar visible, just golden browned walnuts. Cheeses were good quality. Fig preserve was finished in two mouthfuls, should have asked for more.

Twice Baked Quince Souffle, Spiced Anglaise, Candied Orange and Vanilla Ice Cream. This souffle was so light, fluffy and tender. First two mouthfuls I enjoyed immensely and the flavours went so well together, then I woolfed down the rest so quick I was surprised my plate was suddenly empty. This was the point I got very full.

Also had some little treats after including macarons, mini muffins with a sweet cream on top, gluten free orange friands and some sort of delicate jubes. Oh the macarons had this chocolate fudge filling that was delightful.

Memorable night, impeccable and impressive service and staff knowledge, and intriguing food!

Becasse will have their next cellar night on Tuesday 3rd August at a set price of $150. Usually you would expect to spend at least $200 a head for dinner at Becasse. If you are interested there are places available to book from now.

http://www.becasse.com.au/ 204 Clarence St, Sydney NSW 2000. Tel: (02) 9283 3440.

Cheers!

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TopGear Wine Dinner @ MuMu Grill with Eurocentric wines

Filed under: Restaurant Reviews, Wine, Wine Reviews — 5 Comments
June 2, 2010
Again, Stewart / http://www.winewithoutbs.com.au/ has done another very successful wine dinner (1st July), a TopGear Wine Dinner, at MuMu Grill, with two brand new Porsches including the new 4-seater Panamera, parked on the pavement outside for us to look at, smell the cafe au lait leather and sit in the dreamy technology (and buy if we could afford it!). Wines were all German, to complement Porsche. Included in this dinner were a few videos with Jeremy Clarkson testing and talking about different cars including Porsche of course - all very interesting, entertaining and funny. Dinner overall was memorable, and a smaller group than winewithoutbs’ stampede of people that come to the wine dinners, so it was nice and not crowded, allowing us to put all our focus into the cars ;-)
Wines for the dinner were all supplied by Neville from Eurocentric wines (http://www.eurocentricwine.com.au/), who started the company just two years ago and it’s already proving a great success in many hatted restaurants across Australia. Neville has a wide range of exceptional wines that he imports from Europe across all price points – didn’t think you liked Riesling or a Chardonnay? Think again - this range of wines will prove you wrong.
Many thanks to Trivette Porche who came along to dinner and answered many of our questions, mine probably quite obtuse, although they made me feel perfectly welcome to ask anything.
Craig, head chef from MuMu Grill (http://www.mumugrill.com.au/), also dropped by to see that everything was well, which it was, and briefly informed us about the dishes we ate. All their meat is organic/grass fed, which makes the meat so wholesome. They know the farmers personally (which is important especially in this modern period where many don’t seem to know or care about where their food is sourced from, and also lack a deep appreciation of food). All of the dishes were cooked with great recognition for each particular meat – for example the pork cooked for 13 hours overnight in fennel and rosemary, and then other preparations before plating up, and other twice cooked/cooked overnight dishes.

All descriptions of food and wine below are personal opinions:
    First off we started with sparkling wine while admiring and jumping into the cars – Redholz Sparkling Riesling ’07. There aren’t many sparkling rieslings in Australia, but this was fantastic with a delicate sweet character and crisp, almost cidery taste. Jamon Iberico, and House baked bread and dips were tasty and fresh.

    Crab Salad with asparagus – Asparagus well cooked, Tender crab, lovely starter.
    Paired with the Willi Schaefer Dry Riesling ’08 – Sweet but elegant. This wine has low residual sugar (dry), but with elegant fruit flavours. Light in colour and clear clarity, it displays melon and crisp apple on the nose, with some stone fruit characters and a hint of almonds. On the palate, all the fruit as on the nose is retained and finishing with a mineral acid and good length, with almost a fine fizz on the finish.

    Pork Slow Roasted on an Apple Capponata – Succulent, falls apart like a perfectly cooked lamb shank.
    Paired with Schafer-Frohlich Weissburgunder ’08 (Pinot Blanc). Crisp and fruity. Light in colour and clear clarity, with aroma of hay and melons, highly perfumed with floral notes, but with a zesty acidity that twinkles the nose. On tasting, good fruity lined with elegant structure of acid that doesn’t taste tarty.
    T-Bone Tagliatta with Duck Fat Potatoes and Steamed Greens - Steak, yum, medium rare, with Olive oil and Rosemary. Duck fat potatoes – Delish! Never tasted so much ‘duck’ in them. Roast until crisp but still very soft inside – I’ve had duck fat potatoes before but this was the most I have ever tasted of the duck fat, and it had a slight sweetness to the succulent crispy potato skin. Steamed greens including zucchini, green beans and asian stir fry type greens, cooked well but crisp, with good amounts of butter and being a nutritionist I gobbled them up (butter is healthy too, but that would take another whole blog to write about that – but just quickly here’s one of the quick links: http://www.janethull.com/newsletter/0609/pass_the_butter.php ).
    Paired with Schafer-Frohlich Spatburgunder R ’06 – This was my favourite wine if I had to choose. Pinot Noir, this wine displays many deep earthy characters, but still with “freshness” to it. On the nose, earthy, powerful oaky nose with a hint of mint. Lovely fruit flavour with slight astringency which gives good structure, with young cherries and cinnamon. Good solid length.
    Twice Cooked Duck with Poached Pear and Celeriac Puree – Loved this dish. Duck cooked perfectly, boned out then braised in own stock, and the celeriac puree was useful in separating each mouthful of duck and each sip of wine. Pear added that touch of sweetness that meshes nicely with tender meat.

    Paired with Schmitges Redwine Cuvee No.3 ’08 – Interesting wine. Tasted young and vibrant. Crimson red in colour. Aromas of blackberries, cassis and significant alcohol. On tasting, fine tannins, dark chocolate undertones and spice (similar to Christmas fruitcake), but with crisp red apples. Fresh but long finish.

    Gingerbread Sandwich Mascarpone with Rhubarb, Mandarin and Rosemary - Unique dish, looked like the most delicious sandwiches ever.
     Accompanied by dessert wine, Schloss Lieser Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Auslese Goldcap ’08 – Quite light in colour. Sweet smell of orange blossom and honey, quite smooth with no tartiness. Also tasted of honey, with plenty of fruit and a touch of lime which rounded off the finish quite well.

Was a lovely, entertaining, unforgettable dinner. Will definitely return to MuMu grill again, try more of Eurocentric’s range of wines again, and perhaps buy a Porsche in the distant distant future! Cheers.

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Rambutan Thai Restaurant, Darlinghurst

Filed under: Food, Restaurant Reviews — 2 Comments
May 14, 2010

Rambutan: 96 Oxford St, Darlinghurst Sydney. Tel (02) 9360 7772 http://www.rambutan.com.au/

Have been here numerous times before, and 6 of us last had dinner there on Wednesday. Great Tiki bar downstairs, so is recommended if you have time to have a drink or two down there beforehand – sleek but comfy seating, dim lighting, live tropical fish tank in the wall, stunning, amazing cocktails and other drinks and professional but warm bar service.

Restaurant itself is also dimly lit, creating intimate but casual dining, with simple touches such as flowers and marble, and nice interior with plenty of dark wood. Service is friendly and warm, and always happy to explain anything about their dishes. Food is great. Mains are about $20-$32 per dish, so a little more than many Thai restaurants in Sydney but the food is made well with attention to detail.

Betel leaves are one of my favourite starters and both of their options – Rambutan miang (betel leaf) w peanut & green nahm jim, and Miang (betel leaf) w smoked trout & grilled chilli eggplant relish - were great. We also has Larb gai of chicken, lemongrass & mint in iceberg cup w spicy dressing & roasted rice – good good. Main dishes all came in good serving sizes. Wagyu beef (Braised wagyu beef w flat noodle Vietnamese mint & black vinegar sauce) was one of the favourite main dishes. I also enjoyed the Wok fried King prawns w pong gari coconut cream baby corn & curry leaf - had just a little kick of spice which I liked. The Stir fried wild mushrooms w ginger, tofu, cashew nut & mushroom soy, and Stir fried roasted pumpkin w egg tofu garlic stems & chilli, both made vegies taste really great.

Overall in the Darlinghurst area for Thai Rambutan would be my preference, as well as Yok Yor (cheaper than Rambutan) Thai on Crown St. Thai Nesia on Oxford st is also good for simple good food. Other good Thai joints are:

Spice I Am, Surry Hills (Eat in/Take Away) - however there’s always people waiting and you have to wait a while if you don’t arrive early. Spice I Am in Darlinghurst is good as well. http://www.spiceiam.com/

Longrain, Surry Hills – pricey but great food. Booking would be wise. http://www.longrain.com.au/

Jimmy Liks, Potts Point - Modern Asian, little on the higher end cost wise, but every meal is delicious! http://www.jimmyliks.com/

Doytao Thai, Waterloo/Surry Hills – Just at the end of Crown St South, great little takeaway joint (there is some room to eat there), and often packed even though it’s so small. Great cheap tasty thai!

Thai Princess, East Sydney – tucked away in a street off William st, good basic Thai, nice restaurant, good service. http://www.thaiprincess.com.au/

Arun Thai, Potts Point – $15-$30 a main, but great modern Thai food and restaurant ambience (authentic, peaceful and quiet) and service. http://www.arunthai.com.au/

Thai Pothong, Newtown - good Thai and fun atmosphere, although too noisy sometimes. Reasonably priced, about $15-$25. Really large restaurant, often packed. You get your “Thai Pothong dollars” at the end of your meal to spend at the Thai gift store next door (that sells Thai jewellry, Thai homewares etc). http://www.thaipothong.com.au/

Doytao Thai, Newtown – Quite a large restaurant with a solid “eatery” style to it – big long thick wooden tables. Often packed.

Chedi, Newtown – Medium priced Thai, tasty food with a modern twist, sophisticated restaurant. http://www.chedi.com.au/

Atom Thai, Newtown – Have heard good things, haven’t been myself.

Nu’s, McMahon’s Point – Fine dining, pricey Thai, one of the most expensive in Sydney, but impeccable unforgettable Thai food… http://www.nusrestaurant.com.au/

MOFU (Modern Oriental For U), Neutral Bay – Tucked away from the main road, a nice little modern dim-lit asian restaurant. Nice completely un-pretentious service.

Khacha Thai, Spice Lovers Thai, and Bai Yok, all in Crow’s Nest – Good Thai joints.

Sailor’s Thai, The Rocks – Tasty Thai but highly priced.

We’re lucky in Sydney to have good Thai/Asian fusion available :-) Cheers!

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Efendy Restaurant in Balmain – A Journey To Turkey…

Filed under: Food, Restaurant Reviews — 6 Comments
May 10, 2010

Had dinner at Efendy in Balmain on Friday – Loved it! Somer the owner was very friendly, generous and of course knew his Turkish stuff. Food was fantastic, very interesting and tasty dishes, all with a heartwarming feel to them. The restaurant itself was lovely too, as was the service – warm, professional and attentive. You walk into the spacious courtyard area where you can sit outside on a nice day, and see the Efendy bar on your right, and then walk into the multi-level restaurant with authentic decor all around.

True Turkish cuisine and atmosphere – delicious cold mezes, hot mezes, main meals and dessert platters, all very unique to the Australian food scene. Fantastic Lamb, Beef, Touches of yoghurt and spices, Aromatic Nutty rice, and accompaniments that stood out, such as the Ahirdagi Salata (pictured) - Finely chopped salad of tomato, cucumber, red onion, walnuts, pomegranate…

At the “Mey” Efendy bar you can enjoy cocktails with a Turkish touch, aperitifs, digestives, cigars and a variety of boutique European and Australian wines by the glass before or after your dinner at the lower floor.

Efendy Restaurant http://www.efendy.com.au/
Corner Elliott St (no. 79) and Darling St, Balmain. Strongly recomended if you’re in Sydney, check this place out and get a real taste of Turkey – you won’t be disappointed :-)  Fantastic vegetarian selections as well :-) Also open for Lunch and Breakfast. Tel: (02) 9810 5466. Also another Efendy review by a friend http://simonfoodfavourites.blogspot.com/search/label/Efendy
First up on Friday was Turkish bread, Olive Oil and Dukkah, along with Saksuka – Traditional sauteed potato, zucchini, eggplant with mint yoghurt. Turkish bread was excellent texture, moist and tasty. Saksuka was delicious combination, great starter especially when drinking. Also had some Beef medallions sprinkled with Spring Onions on something really nice containing egg, mayo and onion.

Main dishs: Kuzu Tandir - 7 hour brasied Bultarra Saltbush Lamb shoulder, aromatic baldo rice, currant and pinenuts pilaf, pickled winter vegetables. Everything yum, aromatic rice was lovely, lamb cooked well but not overdone or dry at all. And another meat dish (couldn’t remember the name), but equally delicious with yoghurt, potato and spices underneath. Accompanied by Ahirdagi Salata (pictured) – Finely chopped salad of tomato, herbs, cucumber, red onion, walnuts, pomegranate… Quite refreshing, but also brought out the flavours of the main meals. Pomegranate was a lovely addition, giving astringency from the fruit with a subtle hint of sweetness - Perfect with meat.

Dessert (picture courtesy of SimonLeongDesign) - consisted of Burnt Cinnamon Mastic Pudding, Nut Ice cream and Turkish Fairy Floss, which is slightly thicker and heavier than normal machine-at-a-fair fairy floss – really nice! Ice cream was Delish! Nutty and delicate (not pictured). Mastic Pudding was very interesting, thick, gum-like texture, that just dissolved in the mouth, really enjoyed it. Also accompanying was Strawberry Pomegranate tea – I was slightly skeptical at first thinking it would be sweet and sugary, but it wasn’t. Really delicate astringency with the strawberry flavour. Will be back for sure!
Cheers!

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Rockpool Bar and Grill, Sydney

Filed under: Food, Restaurant Reviews, Wine, Wine Red, Wine Reviews — 4 Comments
April 17, 2010

4 of us had Dinner @ Rockpool Bar and Grill (Sydney) last weekend (http://rockpoolbarandgrill.com/). Service was great, attentive, warm and knowledgeable. High ceilings and architecture were a major plus. Food was Good, up to expectations of a Neil Perry restaurant, and really liked the Extensive and Clear menu with Plenty of Interesting Options. Also genorously received more than enough complimentary dishes/meals which filled us way more than we were expecting. Would also like to come here next time just for dessert…

Started w Drinks in the bar – really enjoyed the ambience and dark decor, although took a little while to receive drinks we ordered.
The bottle of red wine we ordered for Dinner was 2005 Drouhin-Laroze ‘Les Craipillot’ (Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru), $194 a bottle, apparantly one of the least marked-up-in-price wines in the restaurant, and was a spectacular wine. I thoroughly enjoyed it, for it’s length and elegant, very refined, but not tight (due to some age of 5 years?) structure. Some fruit and a touch of spice although mainly oak driven on palette. Although, in the end, the bold blousiness of Australian Red wine from South Australia is always going to have a stronger place in my heart - But of course every country has it’s great unique style of winemaking.
To start, a mixed platter of cold meats such as Prosciutto, Wagyu and Chorizo- tried a few unique things, and quite liked it. Came with Pickled vegies (carrot, cauliflower etc) which I loved – Tasty and very crunchy.
Had the Blue Eye fish for my main. Came with a lovely herb/red onion salad that complimented perfectly. Was a very small serving but I have a big appetite and there was plenty of food overall. Also this small serving surprisingly had some filling capacity as it was a thick, fleshy meat.

Barramundi Fillet. Also came with Herb Salad. 
Mushy Peas with slow cooked egg – I enjoyed this combination, and it has a noticeable amount of spice.
Warm Salad of Wood Fire Grilled Quail with Smoked Tomato and Black Olive – Stunning. Loved it.

Wood Fire Grilled Pork Sausages with Grilled Peppers and Soft White Polenta.
Seared King Prawns with Goats Cheese Tortellini, Burnt Butter, Pine Nuts and Raisins.
House Chopped Salad – Good basic salad. Sweet style dressing.
Potato and Cabbage Gratin – Looked attractive for a potato/cabbage dish. Tasty cheese layer.
Pavlova was good, but could do with some more fresh fruit as I found it too sweet and needed more refreshment after a large meal, although perhaps they steered away from this so as not to be ‘typical’.. After dessert, came encrusted nuts and some fancy marshmallows.
In the end, was pleased with the restaurant - extensive wine list, food, attentive service, and the knowlegde of the waitpersons and sommeliers was impressive. But as I said I would like to come here just for a dessert session next time, you can do that :)
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Nostos Greek Restaurant, Leichhardt

Filed under: Food, Restaurant Reviews — 5 Comments
April 16, 2010
Had dinner @ Nostos last night in Norton St, Leichhardt (http://www.nostos.com.au/) due to reviews I heard, and was thoroughly impressed! Great Greek Food, Great but not annoying service, Pleasantly Surprising Enough Complimentary Dishes, and Fantastic Value.

The place itself looks small but nice at first with a little corner for Greek bands to play at certain nights (which I’m glad not to have last night as I was seated close enough to it, and enjoyed being able to chat) but there was much more Space upstairs and out the back with a courtyard too. I like the place in that it has a lot of smaller, more intimate, segments.

I had the Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir by the glass which was good and not too young, but you can byo too.
First up we had complimentary Olives, Sundried Tomatoes/Chillies, Olive Paste, Olive Oil/Balsamic Vinegar, with lightly toasted bread. Olive Oil was good quality, and it all tasted nice and fresh.

Then we had another complimentary dish from the restaurant owner, Haloumi and  Grilled Mushrooms – Haloumi was fantastic, not very salty and great texture, and the caramelized Balsamic vinegar and a bit of oil on the plate was perfect w the Haloumi.

Then our entree came out, BBQ Octopus in Lemon, Olive Oil and Oregano. Stunning! Luscious and chewy texture with enough crispyness on the edges of the tentacles :-) And really tasty shredded cooked onion (I think) tossed through the octopus.
For mains, the Peeled Prawns in Garlic & Lemon Sauce w hint of chilli, on top of a small amount of rice cooked tender ans soaked up the remaining garlic lemon sauce. Again, luscious, good flavour, and great texture. And the Moussaka w Eggplant, Beef mince, Potato and Bechamel Sauce - good hearty flavour and mouthfeel, good size too. Perhaps a little too much potato. Always accompanying the mains were the Lemon Garlic Potatoes and Green Beans with Dill (potatoes could have been a bit more on the crispy side instead of soft, to contrast w the flavoursome and sometimes oily food, but hey I aint complaining!).
Then we had Dessert – Photo is already messed up by me already starting to eat it, but it was delicious!! Ice Cream, Glace Cherries in Dark Chocolate Sauce, Black Nuts and Turkish Delight prisms. Ice Cream was Unique Flavour, Fig and something else with nuts and other crunchy bits. Glace Cherries and Dark Choc Sauce was beautiful and went perfectly with the unique fig ice cream. Black nuts were good, couldn’t figure out what it was at first. And Turkish Delight I just love.
When the Bill came out I was pleasantly surprised while having a very full and happy belly! The people of the restaurant were really lovely, attentive and warm – along with fresh wholesome quality Greek food and great value. Definitely coming back here. Everyone else’s meals looked good too… Cheers.
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Rockford Basket Press Shiraz

Filed under: Restaurant Reviews, Shiraz and Blends, Wine, Wine Red, Wine Reviews — 9 Comments
April 15, 2010
Rockford’s Basket Press Shiraz, 2006, Barossa Valley:

Had this at dinner @ Sean’s Kitchen (http://www.seanskitchen.com.au/) on Tuesday. http://www.winewithoutbs.com.au/ chose this Rockford Shiraz and I got to say it is honestly One of the Best Shiraz wines I’ve tried! Absolutely delicious velvety flavour, plush plums, soft but significant tannin. Length was spectacular. I would have guessed this wine to be slightly older in age but I guess the well-rounded body comes from the Barossa old vines. Delish!!

Before dinner I also tried an 06 Shiraz which was too young and underdeveloped; the “sommelier’s choice” Riesling which was very aromatic and sweet; and an 08 Amisfield Rose from Central Otago (NZ) which I was impressed by as I hadn’t really enjoyed Rose wines – it had good body and aroma and sat very nicely in the mouth, however I’d still stick with my red wines.

Regarding the restaurant itself there was a funky lounge area with big leather chairs w armrests printed/painted with high contrast colourful art, a little like Ed Hardy’s style of vintage colourful tattoo style clothing. Food was good, reasonably priced. Started w Crab leg w Melted butter and Lemon, only about $12 and tasty moderate sized starter (which I refused to have a white wine with, as the Rockford Shiraz was So delish! and in my opinion the butter can help to separate the light taste of crab w shiraz anyway). Main was Pork w Pear, celeriac mash (or something similar) and Jus – Pork was cooked well and hadn’t lost any moisture. Sides were Almond Butter Broccolini (cooked well, crisp) and Duck Fat chips (couldn’t notice the duck fat, but chips were ok). Dessert was their Cheese selection w Truffle Honey, Walnut Quince, Raisin/nut type thinly sliced toast and crackers – I really enjoyed the aged Goat’s cheese, and Truffle Honey which I hadn’t tried before! I got to see how to make Truffle Honey as the deep fungi-type flavour from the truffle went splendid with any cheese.

Anyway back to Rockford Shiraz – Somehow I’ve missed trying this wine before, but Rockford is definitely a bechmark of Australian Shiraz and red wine in itself. Very high quality, traditional, boutique-style wine from what tastes like some of the best old-age vines that Barossa has to offer (which is a lot!). It doesn’t seem like you can see any website from them, and it seems like contacting Rockford is on a very exclusive basis – if you want to buy their wines eg online, you have to contact someone else to contact Rockford. Anyway, very lovely Shiraz that I tried. One of those wines that bring an ”experience” with tasting it…

Cheers.

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Fix St. James Wine Dinner

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April 2, 2010
A Wine Dinner last night was organized by www.winewithoutbs.com.au/ , at Fix St. James Restaurant/Wine bar (111 Elizabeth St, Sydney http://www.fixstjames.com.au/) - lovely restaurant, not large in scale but definitely sleek with good ambience, good food, and fantastic service and knowledge from the staff there (but not overly imposing). About 24 winos/foodos gathered for this dinner. For $69 a head, everyone I spoke to felt it was great value – Food Stuffed the Stomachs with some left over, and Plenty of Wine, which even somehow wasn’t quite finished (after more than full glasses of each “tasting”, it does get a little hard).
Also present was Brendan Hilferty, who provides great value wines in “cleanskins”, choosing wines that reflect their terroir most so, eg. Shiraz from McLaren Vale, straight Grenache from Barossa etc. Winewithoutbs led the blind tastings, and by the end the wines (except the final Muscat) were revealed to be Brendan Hilferty’s “TheWinePoint” wine range – all above-average cleanskin wines at a fantastic price http://www.thewinepoint.com.au/ Brendan’s wine store is located in Birkenhead Point – The Wine Point gets straight to the Point with personalised service and wine specialists.

There were the White Hunter Semillon and Yarra Valley Premier Brut Chardonnay/ Pinot Noir wines to start with, and the rest were Red Wines followed by a Seppeltsfield Grand Muscat (provided by Fix St. James’ Stuart Knox) with dessert. Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the “Coal River Valley” Pinot Noir (from Tasmania, 2009), “Dry Grown” Tempranillo (McLaren Vale, 2006), and a straight Grenache (Barossa) which many people hadn’t tried before. The Shiraz (Barossa) was a little too much for some, but it was a big boy and I just thought it needed a little more age before drinking – I found it was good, just a wee little young and suitable for ageing at least 3 more years. In fact, I think all the wines on the tasting can age well. The final Muscat was beautiful deep colour and everyone enjoys a sticky! My personal favourite was the Tempranillo – on the nose, had berry beautiful fruity notes but very earthy at the same time, and based on cool climate oaky tones. On the palate, beautiful balanced flavour and neat structure, with a touch of black pepper cool-climate spice and some other warmer spices. Strongly recommended as a big bold flavour, smooth wine. And it’s $12 a bot!!

Now for food! First of two things that came out were Pork Belly Salad – was great, not a big fan of salads but the Pork belly and crisp thin shreds of salad made it everything, and a Thinly Sliced Radish Salad – refreshing, cleansed the palate excellently with the red wines coming out (Pinot Noir and Tempranillo, as well as the white wine starter).
There also came out was a dish of Marinated Capsicum (Peppers), Tomato, Red Onion, Buffalo Mozzarella drizzled with something based on olive oil – a little too oily, but the vegies were marinated.
Ocean Trout Tartare in some sort of Dill based marinade w lemon – Loved it!
Beef Carpaccio w Pickled Radish - Beautiful and Tender.
Whole Rainbow Trout w Fennel and Egg Salad – soft cooked egg yolk went well with the Trout. It wouldn’t have gone well with a white-fleshed fish.
Cape Grim Scotch Fillet Tagliata – covered in salad leaves with crisp potatoes accompanying. Cooked Medium rare, which is good.
For dessert we all got chocolates from the WineWithoutBullShit Bunny, as well as the restaurant’s Macchiato Granita w Hazelnut accompanied by Seppeltsfield Muscat – really deep honey tone with stunning orange blossom flavour. Mmm Mm!
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SumBar Wine Dinner with Michael Datta and his New Wines

Filed under: Food, Restaurant Reviews, Wine, Wine Red, Wine Reviews — Leave a comment
March 26, 2010

   Michael Datta, winemaker (MDV wines, http://michaeldatta.com/) was keen to crack open some of his new wines with a few of his friends, so I joined in after a meeting w him on a wine dinner last night at SumBar, Randwick, Tapas/Wine bar(http://www.sumbar.com.au/). I hadn’t been to this little gem before – this bar looks neat and narrow at first, with a funky warm friendly feel, but actually has a lot of sections such as a courtyard and an upstairs area with good quality old fashioned furniture. Mark the owner of SumBar was a nice chap, and sources his own wines that the restaurant provides, and aims to find wines that people probably haven’t tried yet, as opposed to just getting commercial wines that are available everywhere. The list still includes a few great Aussie wines that are more well known. I didn’t know many wines on the list but they did look good – good variety of vintages and different wines from many different regions such as Australia/Tasmania, Spain, Italy and France…

Michael prefers to support small wineries and small wine businesses, which is great. He appears to have a good network of people interested in the business side of wine, and especially also always open to new businesses looking for “what’s next”. Mich has just brought NZ wines into his range – Two Sisters Pinot Noir, and an unlabelled Sauv Blanc which was typical Sauv Blanc style that’s popular in Australia. He aims to pack a lot of fruit across all his wines.

MDV Grenache – good spice and plenty of fruit on the nose. On the palate, if the bottle was just opened, the alcohol could definitely be felt going down the throat but as it was left to “air” it changed a lot, over an hour especially. A bit young, but has good cellaring potential, and therefore needed more time. – you could tell on the taste it was all there but just needed age. Could age well, 4-6 years.

Two Sisters Pinot Noir, Central Otago NZ -plenty of fruit on the nose and nice smooth silky tannins, could have done with another year. Oak was good and lasted long after wine left the mouth. Could age well, 5+ years.
MDV Riesling – Upon hearing about this wine beforehand, I was pleased on trying it. Still could do with another year of age, but the refined structure with fruit and acidity was good.
Unlabelled Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough – Typical passionfruit on the nose and stone fruit flavours with crisp acidity on taste.

Now onto Tapas! Stewart from http://www.winewithoutbs.com.au/ basically ordered all the tapas on the menu, and every one of the tapas dishes were really good, at a normal upmarket tapas price from about $9-$13 per dish. Some of what I enjoyed (and recommend) were:

Haloumi Cherry Tomatoes and Red Onion -Delicious! The Haloumi came out really hot but almost crispy on the outside for a cheese, and the cherry tomatoes tasted caramelised, it all mixed very well in the mouth;

Moorish Moroccan Inspired Lamb with mint yoghurt, on crisp baby spinach salad – Lamb cooked nicely, savoury yoghurt and baby spinach with it’s dressing was good and meshed well together. This was my favourite (as pictured);

Chorizo – Thick slices. Was scrumptious;

Tender beef chunks in some creamy sauce and garlic – was lovely and warming, reminded me of a stroganoff. Beef could have been a little more tender but perhaps that’s what it’s meant to be like. It wasn’t any tougher than meat in a stroganoff;
Spanish “Poor Man’s Potatoes” with Aoli. Potato chunks cooked well with crisp skin, Aoli with it was creamy and divine;

Grilled Chicken with Black bean, capsicum etc salsa, and white wine – Chicken was very moist, I just had it by itself and the salsa after, both were good on their own…

Overall dinner was fun, starting from 7pm until quite late. Everyone launched into Mich Datta’s wines to the point of constant laughing. And the good food complemented the oaky wines well. I also remember Mich mixed two of his red wines together in a jug, and by his face I thought it was a joke, but it turned out good! Will return to SumBar for drinks sometime…

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