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
Eating at Bennelong makes you feel like a celebrity or a socialite to some extent. You feel a little special to have a meal in a restaurant that has the same roof as the Sydney Opera House. More importantly once you do get a booking (which isn’t easy) – you tell your friends about dinner plans and you hear this “Whooo” sound coming out of their jealous lips – well maybe not, but you feel a little excited about the evening before it has even started.
Located near the main entrance of the Opera House (towards the left past the cloak room), Bennelong run by head chef Guillaume Brahimi, has an amazing warm welcome as you are seated to your table. The view is spectacular, and during your booking you can make a request of what aspect you want your table to face (if available).
Once again, I’ll re-iterate, booking is essential and it showed throughout the course of the evening as there weren’t tables free.
We had got a table which was part couch and part chairs for six of us. Some had views of the bridge, while the others made do with the view of the city. After being presented with the food and wine menu, we had to get cracking on choosing our wine. The white wine was a bottle of 2005 Hugel Gewurztraminer ($85) and a recommended bottle of Burgundy wine ($165). However, note that are over a 100 bottles of wine to choose from – some ranging as much as $6000 a bottle. As a sommelier to assist and if you can be upfront about your budget, be honest or face the embarrassment of him/her recommending a $600 bottle of wine that you then have you retract yourself from selecting.
We were offered a selection of bread to choose from. I tried the buttermilk roll and then had a rosemary bun – both were warm and fresh and once you spread the French butter, you felt like you could have them as main course.
We were presented with an amuse-bouche of duck foie gras, spread in between crusted gingerbread. This was simply fantastic – the rich texture of foie gras with the crustiness of the ginger bread was very light as your bite through, however then the heavy feeling of the foie gras gets to you. A very nice palate opener for the evening.
To start off, I had quail cooked two ways ($40). While it did look small on the plate – I’m actually glad as it gave me enough room to accommodate the rest of the evening’s delight. The plate contained a piece of smoked quail breast and another of fried quail leg. A quail egg that was covered in breadcrumbs and fried served over a bed of greens (almost a nest looking) was a clever touch to the meal. All flavours matched very well – along with the egg which had the inside york nice and runny. The wine too worked very well with the entree and it was pleasantly light and flavourful.
A nice of piece of cheek for mains ($55 – available on the specials menu), and mine was soft and tender where the meat just fell apart as soon as the knife met it. Again the red wine was nice and light for this meal. There isn’t too much to comment on the dishes themselves. Chef Brahimi has kept things very simple yet the taste and texture of his plated food is simply wonderful.
Finally for dessert, I couldn’t go past the chocolate soufflé. As it arrived, the waitress asked if I would like to follow the chef recommendation of dipping the spoonful of coffee ice cream into the soufflé and top it with a hot chocolate sauce. Bare in mind, this isn’t a small soufflé – so if you’re keen to have this for dessert, be conservative during entree and main.
Dessert was simply brilliant, a sensual play of that soft airy texture with the sweetness of the chocolate and slight bitterness of the coffee ice cream. Along with dessert, you are surprised with a selection of petit fours which include salty caramel, passionfruit jelly, dark chocolate tart and macaroons.
Overall, Bennelong is fairly versatile where you can have that romantic moment in a quite table near the window or have a group of friends on bigger table in the centre of the restaurant. Staff can be a little up themselves but attentive, food was simplistic but beautifully flavoured, wine wasn’t cheap but matched well – you can see where this is going. Bennelong isn’t cheap, don’t expect a $100 per person. Double or triple that for an enjoyable evening. Save up and wear your best suit for an amazing dinning experience.
Atmosphere – 8/10
Food – 8/10
Wine – 8/10
Staff – 7.5/10
Value for money – 8/10
