Everyone’s toque-ing about it..
The results of both the Age and SMH Good Food Guide are finally out. A few surprises, good and bad. In the SMH Forums, the editors, Simon Thomsen and Catherine Keenan were met with some criticism regarding decisions that had been made this year. How, for example, could Bilsons be a three-hat restaurant, and why was Restaurant Balzac demoted to a one-hatter. The standard response was that unfortunately not everyone’s dining experiences are the same. This is something that those who work in the hospitality industry try hard to prevent. Consistency is the name of the game, but sometimes you’re just unlucky enough to have it all unravel under your nose.
So I think (and hope) that it was just bad luck that Mir had an unimpressive time when she recently went to Sambal, a restaurant I had visited and loved. Undercooked rice is a definite no-no! While I have heard similar criticisms of the place before (such as the service – a point acknowledged even by people I know who frequent it because they love the food), the one time I was there, I had great food and no trouble with the service.
Reading about the various restaurants however, brought back to mind some good dishes I have tasted from places B and I have visited in Sydney and Melbourne this year. Here are a few of them :
1. Yabby Gazpacho at Pier Restaurant.
The waiter pours the gazpacho at the table. Take in the cuteness of the micro leaves perched on top of avocado cream, taste a spoonful of the fresh gazpacho, look up at the view out the sunny windows and you can’t help but smile.
2. Seared swordfish at Pier Tasting Room
3. Truffled poached egg on soft polenta at The Botanical.
A warm poached egg sitting on top of the softest, creamiest polenta, with a curl of parmigiano hiding a bit of shaved truffle. Very very more-ish. Jaci had a meal here with her parents and was unimpressed, but I really like the space, location and food of this restaurant.
4. Pain perdu at Circa
5. Sea urchin at Shoya.
Four floors of eating. Plus karaoke rooms, as I discovered later – I kept wondering why random people were accessing a door up a set of stairs near us, and had to ask the waitress. (Silly me, I thought it was just a bunch of people with strong coke habits or something). It’s a bit overwhelming to order from the menu without guidance, but I think we managed to choose an assortment of dishes that worked well for us – even though we kept seeing dishes go past that looked even better. They proudly state on their menu that the restaurant was visited by an Iron Chef and he thought it was so good he returned the next day.
S said,
September 6, 2006 @ 6:24 pm
In this case I gotta agree with the SMH – my memory for the specifics of a meal isn’t generally that good, but my recollection of Bilsons (mmm…air-dryed Angus Beef) vs. Balzac (umm…dancing cake?) points to the difference between a memorable meal and just a meal 🙂
Mir said,
September 7, 2006 @ 3:59 pm
Thank you for creating a list of must visit restaurants to experience. The yabby gazpacho reminded me of Totoro for some reason.
Unfortunate about Sambal, but I’m still keen to try it out for dinner, maybe for mum’s bday.
Y said,
September 8, 2006 @ 1:56 am
S, you might be interested in this, if you’re looking for another memorable meal :
http://www.food4media.com/australia-pacific/pressrelease.php?id=14447&mo=3&referencekey=867cce315164de5dede0334d770638f1
Mir : Would the little leaves be his umbrella? 🙂
S said,
September 16, 2006 @ 2:54 pm
Cool! Thanks for that – I may even go this year…