Category: Restaurants


Emmilou Tapas

Filed under: Food, Restaurants — 2 Comments
March 13, 2010

<–Wagyu Beef w Almond Cream and Salsa Verde.

Dined last night at Emmilou tapas restaurant/bar, 413 Bourke st, Surry Hills. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Service was good and staff were attentive but not in your face. Ambience was good too with dim lighting, and inside and outside sheltered dining with cushions. They also have a couple of old fashioned couch/chairs to just have drinks up at the back. Here’s what I ate – 3 larger tapas dishes and a side between two ppl, filled us both up and every bite was delicious…:

Goat Sausage w Red Cabbage Jam… Lovely and tender. Meshed very well with the Red Cabbage jam and some special glaze they had (forgot to take a photo as I hopped into it).

Antipasto… Salami, Roasted Tomatoes, Sheeps milk feta, Marinated Eggplant, with toasted bread. Nice, fresh, all components went well with the feta.

Wagyu Beef w Almond cream and Green Salsa… Looked a little funky but I really enjoyed this. The wagyu beef wasn’t as fatty as I was expecting, but still very tender, and melded very well with the almond cream and green spinach salsa. The almond cream was delicate, but had even more flavour when eaten with the beef. This dish was the most moreish!

Side – Spinach Salad with Shaved Fennel and Orange Vinaigrette… I was surprised how good this simple side dish was, and I really enjoyed it with the Wagyu beef for the leftover sauce or to mop up any extra!

Wine list is good (though hard to read with the fancy pearly paper, but they’re changing it). Could do with a couple more by the glass such as a Shiraz Grenache, or a GSM Barossa blend by the glass, since GSM does have that delicate (although still medium bodied and full tannin) nature that would go with a lot of tapas dishes, and as an increasingly popular Aus wine should therefore be offered by the glass for someone to “try” if they’re not sure about GSMs. Although they did have a lot of overseas wines, which was good, and some equate to the GSM or Shiraz Grenache. And they had some very nice wines by the bottle. Waitress was helpful in her knowledge of the winelist. I tried an Italian red from overseas, somewhat similar to a Tempranillo but with more open fruit and body, and my partner had a 2004 Spanish Tempranillo which I liked too, with a more cooler climate type of palate, good silk tannin and tight mulberry type flavour.
Overall I rate this restaurant well! At about $15-$30 per larger tapas dish, it could be a little expensive, depending on what you order, but it’s a good restaurant and you taste why…

http://www.emmilou.com.au/

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Jimmy Liks, Potts Point

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March 3, 2010

 

Had dinner at Jimmy Liks (http://www.jimmyliks.com), as a birthday surprise for me! I hadn’t been for ages but love coming here, and find it worth the price for fine Asian dining. The food was delicious as always. I’ve always loved their Whole Fish with 3 flavoured sauces. This time we had the banquet… 

Smoked Eel Betel Leaf w Shrimp Galangal and chilli… Oysters Nahm Jim… Salt n Pepper Squid w Viet sauce… Salmon Salad w Watermelon which gave a nice refreshing taste to the Salmon, w Ginger, Lime and Dressing… Chicken and Crab Salad w Basil etc… Steamed Gai Lan w dressing… Pork w Tamarind and Blood Plum Sauce… Salmon Curry with Rice… Green Ocean Trout curry w baby corn, ginger… And Coconut Banana Fritters with Ice cream and caramel-like sauce – Delicious! And the wine list has many delicate varietals to complement the Asian cuisine…

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Victoria Room

Filed under: Restaurants, Wine — 2 Comments
February 15, 2010

This Bar/Restaurant in Victoria St is busy but when you can get one of their old fashioned lounges to sit on, or just go straight to the restaurant and order something to eat, it’s great with friends. Wine list at the bar is reasonable and I’m fine with their wines I’ve tried. The restaurant is a bit expensive, even just for a plate of ham and marinated eggplant to pick at, but people pay for the place as well as the nice food. I haven’t had high tea there yet but I enjoyed high tea in Hong Kong so much I’m not really trying to try it. It does get a bit crammed and hot (the fans above don’t seem to do anything!). I think I would rather go during a weeknight such as Wednesday.

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The Winery Surry Hills

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February 15, 2010

  

   This newer wine bar from Gazebo Wine Bar looks great, is often packed, and yes I’ve tried some good wines there. I like upstairs although you can’t book, but you can book downstairs with the main restaurant area. The food – bit pricey for simple steaks etc. If the place is so focused on being such a groovy wine bar, it should have at least some mind blowing food too. Nice entree selection and Kingfish carpaccio for picking at while drinking, but the Modern Aussie food mains are overpriced for what it is. Perhaps just concentrate on the wines and friends. One thing I didn’t like about the wine list is too many young wines, in which you pay the premium, but they still have the shackles of youth. However if you’re prepared to fork out some more dough, the older wines are very nice and I generally stick to them to enjoy my time there. The space, decor and plants everywhere bring some good ambience.

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Tetsuya’s, Sydney

Filed under: Restaurants — 2 Comments
February 14, 2010

   Very fine Japanese restaurant with a fantastic how-can-you-pick wine list. The last time I went was a while ago now, but of course it’s a great restaurant and still remember it as it took about 4 hours until I finished eating. Though sometimes the tiny morsels of food that came out one by one can feel like taking a long time, especially while drinking a fine wine at a faster pace. They food is absolutely delicious, but I wanted all those little morsels on a huge plate all at once, so I can slowly pick at them as I please in whatever order I want while my eyes feast at all the colours and textures on my plate – although I know that is the fine degustation style it’s meant to be. I had roast scampi (only ever eaten scampi here and at Iceberg’s restaurant), oysters drizzled with their famous Testsuya’s sauce, sashimi (of course) also drizzled with some special oil/vinegar, and duck slices with ginger, among other things. Very high priced, was great the times I’ve went but as a constant I’d personally rather have 4 dinners at 4 other restaurants for a good feed. Of course though, Tetsuya’s have definitely got their high-end dining right, to the tiniest detail.

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Prague Czech Beer Restaurant

Filed under: Restaurants, Wine, Wine Red — Leave a comment
February 14, 2010

This is one heck of a good value, huge portions, yummylicious food restaurant and will make it a frequent visit for a good feed, especially before a night out. I had the Salmon Carpaccio and then Roasted young Duck with sauerkraut last time (I don’t usually mix sea and land meats but when you’re out, meh!) which was way too filling I was so full I couldn’t even dance. But their whole menu is filled with Delicious, Dense things with vegetables. Haven’t tried stuffed mushrooms yet. And good drinks list – basic, but good. Pepperjack Shiraz I’ve always enjoyed, and they have by the glass. Also there’s an Italian Chianti red by the glass which is not bad.
http://www.prague-restaurant.com.au/menu

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