FineDiner’s posterous

Tapioca - Sydney

It is great when the head chef of 10 years from Sailors Thai decides to open her own restaurant in your suburb. Tapioca opened on Sept 1 on Military Road in Neutral Bay (ex Banana Blossom) and we were invited to their opening night. Great modern sleek renovation and friendly new staff and a menu with some similarities to Sailors Thai but also with its own new touch. 

Smoked trout, roasted coconut, peanuts, chilli, lime, ginger and caramel sauce served on betel leaves. A number of restaurants now do this dish but some are hit and miss. This one was nice and crunchy with a great blend of crunch and spice. Good amount of filling too. Nice one

Home made curry puffs served with cucumber relish.

Deep fried rice ball salad with chicken mince, fresh ginger, fried chilli and lime sauce - a new dish we have not tried before. A bit heavy but nice balance of crunch and fresh salad.

Braised wagyu beef with chilli and galangal sauce - I didn’t expect a dry dish but the sauce was really nice

Green curry barramundi with thai eggplant, heart of coconut tree and thai basil

Stir fried chicken and snake beans with red curry paste. Spicy and crunchy beans.

Strawberry and lime sorbet with berry compote

Black sticky rice and tapioca pudding with coconut cream

Universal - Sydney

Christine Manfield is a legend. From her beautiful cook books to her exotic food tours to Asia, we Sydneysiders were very fortunate when she decided to come back to Sydney from the UK and open the Universal. Universal is a beautiful restaurant. Situated in the courtyard of the Republic 2 building in Darlinghurst it is all open but still warm in winter with big heaters all around and above the tables. The service is totally outstanding with very friendly, well informed and long standing staff. The Asian inspired menu is not really a la carte or degustation. Just a selection of 14 all same size dishes. The recommendation is to order 2 to 3 per person and then dessert. The food is amazing. Every dish we ordered was a stand out. Perfect balance of flavours  - spice and sweet and sour. Mix of creamy and crunchy textures…warm and cold…just divine. It is no wonder that Universal continues to win awards every year - best food and wine matching, 2 hats by the GT and SMH and best dessert restaurant in Sydney in 2010. Love it…cant wait to go back again! 

Christine with some of the girls...

Sticky rice and salted duck egg cakes, snow pea, pomelo and roasted cashew salad

Special broth of the day with squid

Cumin, chilli and ginger steamed blue-eye travella, green mango, mint and cucumber salad

Crisp shitake mushroom and bean curd sandwich, chilli jam, sweet and sour yellow beans

Slow braised wagyu beef shin, sichuan spiced eggplant and prawn floss

Spice roasted duck, steamed turnip cake, star anise broth, XO chilli

Original Sin - quince, lemon curd, quince jelly, lemon granita

Black beauty - Caraibe chocolate mousse, chocolate sacher cake, perdo ximinez jelly, candied cumquats

Gaytime goes nuts - honeycomb icecream, caramel parfait, chocolate crunch, salted hazelnut caramel

Raspberry ripple - vanilla yogurt cream, raspberries and meringue

Double take - saint agur, bosc pear and walnut pastry, spiced pear relish, dukkah

Bel Mondo - Sydney

Italian cuisine at the rocks with head chef Andy Ball. Great location and an interesting menu of a blend of Modern Australian cuisine and Italian food. The service was exception and very friendly even though we were a large group. The food was good tonight and I would consider going back again to try the a la carte menu.

Confit duck leg risotto with fresh peas and mint, pangratala

Pan fried barramundi with vanilla potato puree, shaved fennel salad and anise jus

Slow braised beef cheeks with sweet potato puree, roast button onions and red wine jus

Chocolate fondant with vanilla bean ice cream and lemon curd puree

Sailors Thai - Sydney

Sailors Thai has been a Thai institution in Sydney since the 90s and still serves one of the most amazing Thai foods in the city. David Thomson has of course gone onto bigger and better things such as his Michelin starred Thai restaurant in London Nahm and Sailors Thai has grown to Potts Point and Ivy and also soon in Neutral Bay. The original restaurant in the rocks is still elegantly presented in a gorgeous old sand stone building and the food is amazing. Great blend of flavours and presentation and choices that are hard to decide from. We had a great dinner and thrilled that a sister restaurant is opening just around the corner from home.

Yamba prawns, peanuts, chilli and lime with palm sugar dressing on betal leaves

Shredded chicken, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf and fresh coconut wrapped in egg net

Stir fried asian mushrooms with silken bean curd, yellow beans and garlic chives

Caramalised pork hock with chilli and vinegar dressing

Red peanut curry of venison shanks

Spicy southern curry of fish

Quay - Sydney

This year Quay came in at # 27 in the worlds best 50 restaurants and # 1 in Australia. Peter Gilmore and Quay have consistently won every award in Australia as well for years. After watching Peter make his famous Snow Egg dessert on the Master chef finals - we had to book in and try it for ourselves. The snow egg was totally amazing and divine. Well worth a trip just for that as well. However you cant go wrong with anything from Peter's menu. Each dish seems exotic with a combination of flavours and textures you wouldn’t even imagine would go together. The presentation, the service and the amazing view - all adds to the great dining experience at Quay. I am going to start with the last course of the menu as those who know me would know that that is my fav part of any meal - the dessert. Today we tried the two most famous desserts. The snow egg and the 8 texture chocolate cake. Both totally to die for. The Snow egg this week was a jackfruit one. This is really a poached meringue egg with ice cream and a crunchy praline shell on a bed of granita. Sounds so simple but the texture and flavours were divine. Could have had a few of them. The 8 texture chocolate cake is Peter's signature dish. He has been making it for over 10 years now and moved from 5 textures to 8 over the years. The amazing element to this dish is the different textures and flavours of each chocolate in this dish. Dark to caramel flavours and mousse to crunch. The eight chocolate texture is actually added at the table which is a hot chocolate sauce poured over the tempered chocolate disc. This makes a little hole in the centre and a great element of theatre and surprise to the presentation. Sensational experience. Cant wait to go back. 

Sea Pearls: sashimi tuna, sea scallops, crab, smoked eel and octopus. This is another of Peters signature dishes and a beautifully presented one.

Mud crab congee: Hand shelled mud crab, palm hearts, Chinese inspired split rice porridge.

Crisp confit of pig belly, green lipped abalone and cuttlefish, handmade silken tofu, Japanese mushrooms, chive flowers

Butter poached partridge breast, chestnuts, truffle, bitter chocolate black pudding, milk skin, walnuts

Loin of red venison, beetroot, banyuls, cherries, olive crumbs, chard

Poached milk fed Riverina veal, young spinach, kabu turnips, tasmanian wasabi, morels

Eight textured chocolate cake featuring amedei chocolate

Jackfruit snow egg

La Brasserie - Sydney

La Brasserie is a true Parisian dining experience in downtown Sydney. This is one restaurant where you feel like you have walked into a small bistro off the streets of Paris. Staff with gorgeous French accents, a great French wine list and a traditional French menu that is just too hard to choose from. We had a great evening the week of Bastille day. Could have done without the dancing girls though!!!

Saucisson Sec - Traditional French sliced air dried sausage with cornichons and pickled onions

Escargots a la Bourguignonne  -12 snails baked in their shells with garlic parsley butter and sliced baguette. Hot and succulant and garlicy...nice.

Souffle au Fromage - Twice baked goats cheese souffle with walnuts and frisee. This souffle was perfect. Soft, creamy and cheesy...

Rabbit with mushrooms - probably my fav dish of the night. juice rabbit with a great smokey flavour.

Bouillabaisse - not the traitional style

Pot au feu - perfect winter stew with oxtail and bone marrow

Venison perfectly cooked

Fondant au chocolat - soft centered dark callebut chocolate pudding with coffee foam and pistachio ice-cream

Crème brulee

Rockpool Bar and Grill - Sydney

Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar and Grill in Sydney's CBD is not only known for it's amazing steaks and fresh seafood but also for the best wine list in the country and the most elegant and beautiful dining room. All of them are so true. The art deco room is grand. Soaring green marble pillars and chandeliers of Reidel glasses and a huge open kitchen with more chefs than you could imagine. When you see the vast menu - you know why. There is something for everyone. Cold bar menu with caviar, oysters, jamon and Alaskan crab. Hot starters and salads including a truffle omelet with truffles toast. Pasta, charcoal oven grilled seafood and dry aged beef from the wood fired grill. A long list of sides and condiments and a dessert menu that was hard to chose from. Wait till you have a look at the wine list that has been awarded Australia's best wine list. It is huge and you can find any wine you could ever dream of from anywhere in the world. 3500 different wines ranging from 1795 including a 1945 Romanee Conti. The wine rooms are stunning. Different wine rooms for the different price bracket wines. Could have stayed in the main wine room for ever. Service was very professional and friendly. Food simply stunning.
 

The famous reidel glass chandelier at the bar  - over 2000 glasses that are not for use but cleaned periodically. beautiful

The grand room with soaring atrium

Sautéed spanner crab and globe artichoke with soft white polenta and fontina. delicate fragrant and soft flavours. the polenta was creamy and warm. Would have this dish again for sure.

Charcoal roast squid and pork belly. very spicy and full of flavour

Tuna Tartare, Moroccan eggplant, cumin mayonnaise and harissa

Wood fire grilled Prawns with beans, hummus, croutons and yogurt

Cape grim dry aged 36 month old grass fed T bone 400gm 32 days

Seafood stew with spicy mussel and saffron broth

Seared king prawn with goats cheese tortellini, burnt butter, pine nuts and raisins. Soft and beautiful and perfect burnt butter

Wagyu chuck braised in red wine with gremolata and potato puree. Amazing. Beautiful aroma and beef that just falls apart. Everyones fav dish of the night.

Warm rhubarb, strawberry and almond pudding with vanilla sauce. This was amazing and a real surprise. it was soft as a souffle with crunchy bits in it. yum....

Dark chocolate Bark with cashews and sesames

Black forest trifle inspired by The Fat Duck's BFG - big dish with layers of elegant flavours.

The open kitchen

Après - Sydney

Après is one of the latest to enter the Sydney French restaurant scene. The team from La Grand Bouffe have opened this great restaurant in Potts Point. The restaurant was beautiful. Dim lighting, tables well spaced out, amazing wine display and a semi-open kitchen layout. The staff were extremely friendly and service flawless. Nothing was too hard for Josh and his team. We were given the private dining this night and it was perfect for our group. We stared off with a lovely crusty and warm French bread - perfect for a winters night. The menu was exciting and there was just so many things we would have liked to order...

Amuse bouche of snails with garlic butter - perfectly cooked.

Twice baked goats cheese soufflé with walnut and radicchio salad - I am a huge cheese soufflé fan and if it is on the menu - I always order it. However I must say that this one was a bit too spicy for me. I guess I was not expecting the spice so it probably caught me by surprise.

Duck liver parfait with cornichons - this was divine. Soft and creamy and a beautiful texture. Perfect with our pinot...

Whole Roast Duck with pommes fondant - This dish was to share for two people and was huge. Each of us got two pieces of the duck. One was beautifully cooked and we cleaned it off the bone. The potatoes were divine.

Chocolate Gateau Ménage a Trois with Crème Fraiche Sorbet - Yum :)

Lavender Crème Brulee with Poached Pear

Claude's - Sydney

You need to ring a doorbell to enter this small restaurant on Oxford street in Woollahra which has been a highly awarded institution in Sydney since 1976. Claude's has had four owners since and the current owner is an ex-lawyer Chui Lee Luk. We dined there when she first took over the kitchen and the food was very different to what we had this time. The flavours were more delicate back then with soft little touches of flowers and exquisite aromas. This time it was a lot heavier, more asian influence and truly - not really what I expected. It was good but not stunning. I must say though that both the desserts were fantastic. Would like to go back just for the desserts if we could.
 

Saffron and chestnut broth - saffron biscotti

Spanner crab, celeriac griddle cake, chicken with black truffles

Angus fillet cured with mignonette pepper - mushrooms, onions, capsicum

Yellow fin tuna and salt cod

Pork en crepine, fish fragrant sauce

Roast aylesbury duck

Champagne and elderflower vacherin - this was just amazing and everyones fav dish of the night. Beautiful textures and flavours. Want more...
 

Bitter orange souffle

Chocolate hazelnut macarons

Macaron Masterclass @ Baroque Bistro - Sydney

The Baroque Bistro at the Rocks not only does great French cuisine but is well known for its amazing macarons. They have just started running a macaron masterclass with Chef Jean Michel Raynaud. It is an all day affair but there is just so much to learn. Jean Michel is amazing and shares every detail of the process with you while you work hands on to make your own macarons to take home! We made dark chocolate and salted caramel macarons today. Made the ganache and the macaron shells, learnt to pipe them, cook them and assemble them. Wow - it takes hours to make them and about 10 secs to eat them. They are amazing though and the masterclass was just fantastic. Worth the experience. Sydney weekender were filming on this day hence the cameras...
 

                       
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