I had been taken here for my birthday – and the experience was second to none. This had to be in the top 3 for me in 2009!
Run by Justin North, Chef of the Year 2009 (by SMH Good Food Guide), Becasse is quietly located on Clarence Street, Sydney. The first thing I noticed, was the calm welcoming feeling of a fine dinning restaurant with staff who you knew would make you have a comfortable evening.
You didn’t feel that you needed to be your best to enjoy Justin North’s impressively looking and tasting Modern French menu. We were shown to our table, located near a corner with views of the restaurant’s mezzanine level. The interior is comfortably lit with just the right amount of lighting to have a nice intimate dinning experience. With two tones of brown curtains draped along one side of the wall, and the opposite side matched with similar tone paints, all then tied in together with brown matching wooden chairs, gave the entire room a nice warm and expensive feeling. You can’t miss the round chandeliers hovering around the centre of the restaurant.
Our host for the evening I believe was the Sommelier himself and his casual and humorous professionalism made our night even more enjoyable. We ran our eyes fairly quickly over the menu for a bit, given that our intentions were to have the degustation menu ($130 pp). However, after spending a little too much time over the extensive wine list, we decided to go for the degustation with matching wine ($190 pp).
Given my lack of palate for seafood, our host was able to speak with the chef to alter just my courses – which was a treat. I think more and more restaurants are getting better at this, as opposed to ‘Sorry sir, the tasting menu is fixed – here’s our A La Carte menu’ (knob!)
Now do forgive me, as I dined at Becasse back in December – so I maybe short on the details of all ten courses – but more importantly having 9 or 10 glasses of wine didn’t make things easier.
I remember starting off with an Amuse Bouche of some sort after which we received 3 different varieties of bread – rosemary, pumpkin and poppy seed (I think). Then I recall a basil with tomato and olive oil sorbet. And I remember this clearly because of the olive oil sorbet – rich, but cold and yet perfectly matched the tomato and basil concoction. I then recall a course of sliced pork with a little salad and another of a steak fillet of some sort (told you I was hazy with the details). However, one of the dishes that I knew didn’t settle well with me was pork liver – I just couldn’t handle that stuff. A bit too gamey, with a texture that didn’t quite suit.
Also failing to please the palate was dessert, but I think I blame this on the 8 courses of wine before dessert arrived, as well as the bottle of champagne that was knocked off before dinner. I’m not having a go at you Mr. North, I just don’t think my stomach appreciated the consumption of the last 2 hours before dessert was placed in front of me.
Complimentary coffee helped, as well as a short conversation with the host and some of the staff towards the very end. Friendly yet attentive staff, minimalist décor, creative cooking and nicely matched wine made things simply enjoyable.
I definitely intend to head back to Becasse – the next time I’m hoping to remember all the dishes.
Just a wonderful way to celebrate my 26th.
Atmosphere – 8.5/10
Food – 8.5/10
Wine – 8/10
Staff – 8.5/10
Value for money – 8.5/10
Located on Victoria St, Darlinghurst, this Italian restaurant doesn’t have people standing out the front asking people to walk in. It’s not a busy hyped up place like Bar Reggio or a restaurant that you’ll find on St Kilda in Melbourne.
A Tavola is fine dinning Italian with a casual yet modern décor. The interior is very warm and welcoming. It’s not too noisy and a table in the covered courtyard towards the back of the restaurant is a different experience. A second level also exists for functions and a more private dining experience.
After a couple of drinks at Victoria Room, we jay walked across Victoria St and met with the Maitre d’ who checked our name and asked us to follow her to our table. Some of group members were a few minutes late and walked right in, however, the Maitre D’ was quite adamant on knowing who they were with – as opposed to letting them stroll right in.
Now, when I saw our group – I better mention who the group includes. Of course there was myself, Maia Michaelis, Sam Wadsworth, Amy Kwok, Sophie Chappelow, Stuart Pond, and Sophie’s lovely parents from the UK.
As we sat down, we found a piece of paper with the menu for the evening. This is where things took a tumble for me. As an Italian restaurant, I’m sure the owners and the chef like to keep thing very traditional. However, the menu written in Italian with no explanation of each dish, took things a little too far. We had to wait for our waitress to explain not only each dish on our menu, but also each dish on the specials board. 10 minutes later and hoping we hear correctly with her thick accent, we all needed a good 10 more minutes to absorb what was the best fit for our appetite.
We ordered several entrée dishes to share. A bowl of warm olives, meat stuffed olives, a couple of salad dishes – including one with buffalo mozzarella with prosciutto and some focaccia bread. The salads were the highlight for me. The cheese was brilliant, rich and worked perfectly with the prosciutto and lettuce leaves topped with a well balanced Italian dressing.
My main course had to be in my top 10 list of 2009. I had veal, slow cooked in milk (and a tomato base), placed over freshly made pappardelle. The veal was cooked to perfection. Tender, gamey and full of flavour. It was one of the most satisfying meal for dinner.
Dessert for me was a complete let down – I ordered a chocolate fondant which turned up to be an overcooked cupcake. I did however give a good go at some deep fried ricotta served with marsala ice cream. The waitress was kind enough to ask what was wrong with my fondant, and after mentioning to the chef they took it off the bill – nice touch. I wouldn’t say dessert was brilliant, so I’d recommend to skip that course and after a cup of coffee or go across the road to Gelato Messina.
In terms of a dent to your pocket, A Tavola is what you would expect to pay. It’s not overly expensive, but it’s not your average pasta take away. You have to appreciate your food to justify the bill, and I enjoyed my entrée and main to justify the expense.
Overall, I would give A Tavola a thumbs up – well cooked food, great staff and a good place to catch up with your mates. I’d definitely visit this place in 2010.
Thanks for introducing us to this place Sophie! =)
Atmosphere – 8/10
Food – 7/10 (a let down because of dessert)
Wine – 7/10
Staff – 7.5/10
Value for money – 8/10
I think I’m way overdue for a blog post.
So what have I been doing since my last post? Aside from dinning out and creating a backlog of restaurant reviews, I bought a new house in June last year (yay!) along with a new car (double yay!).
I have moved out from the CBD, where I rented for over 4 years, and now live in a much quieter and close to some new favourites down at Waterloo - rated 2009′s #5 in Sydney on RP Data’s list of ‘hot suburbs’ – (triple yay!)
Let’s start first about why I decided to move?
Rent in the city wasn’t bad and I admit, the apartment was absolutely convenient, 24-receptionist meant that security wasn’t an issue, it was close to shops, transport and a walk to work. However, interest rates were good and the government grant was quite appealing – which made it easier to repay (when comparing to how much rent was in the city!). And, of course I based my calculation on interest rates going up and factored to about 14%.
So, aside from rent as a motivator, the other reason was noise. I faced Castlereagh and Liverpool streets, which have fire brigades screaming down every few hours – not ideal for relaxing at home after work. The apartment was also fairly small, and I felt more space would be a much more satisfying feeling. And worse of all was the ridiculously small outdoor area – and I have been craving for a proper outdoor setup with furniture for a very long time.
So why Waterloo?
It’s one of those suburbs that is not very much heard off – it’s like when you say “I live in Waterloo” – people give you that look of “Where now?”. It’s not far from Surry Hills, Redfern and Zetland – I bet now you’re thinking – “ohh, I know where that is!”
More importantly though, was the apartment itself. It’s one of the those places that you walk into and go ‘Aaah – this is what I want to buy’. The apartment is completely open planned - you enter on the top level where the living, dinning and kitchen areas are and then walk down to the bottom level which has the bedrooms & bathrooms – keeps it nice and private when you have guests over.
So with the location and apartment selected, I must say I didn’t have a bad experience with the bank (St George) nor the Agent (Raine & Horne) nor my solicitor (Philip Soo, Westside Law). All were absolutely helpful - making settlement a breeze.
The day I settled (on a Wednesday), the following day all the furniture from Nick Scali arrived – dinning table, chairs, centre table, sofas, and a bed. On Friday came the mattresses, as well as the fridge and washing machine. On the weekend I moved. By Sunday night I was settled in and prepared for the old place to be handed back to the owners.
Moving out from my old apartment wasn’t bad either - 4 trips in my new Mercedes A170, and I was all done. Yep, the A170 has a fair amount of room when you drop down the back seats – more importantly my previous rented apartment was fully furnished, so I had no furniture besides a little shelf from IKEA.
I must admit that buying a house during the end of financial year sale was perfect for loads of bargaining power – including the negotiation power when I bought the car too.
Do I miss the city? A little, but the advantages there are now replaced by others that makes me feel a lot more comfortable about my new home.
I’ve got some restaurant reviews backlogged – so I’ll make sure to post them soon. A sneak peak at the list includes:
- Tetsuya
- Becasse
- Marque
- A Tavola
- Le Pelican
- Toko
- Wah Wah Cafe