I got a few people asking me where to have dinner on Valentine’s day in Sydney.

Well, I’ve compiled a list of various types of restaurants mainly favouring Italian, French and Modern Australian – but I’ve added a few others.

Astral Restaurant
This would have one of the best views compared to the others in the list. They have a special Valentine’s day thing happening, so you’ll have to give them a call. But don’t be surprised if they’re all booked out. This restaurant styles Modern French and chef Sean Connolly would present a very well cooked meal for the evening. From what I hear, try the Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich for dessert.

I would suggest pre-drinks at the Astral Bar (and maybe a few cheeky cocktails after dinner too).
http://www.astralrestaurant.com.au/

Summit
Up on Australia Square on level 47, this restaurant boasts Modern Australian and also has a special for Valentines day. Various packages are available for dinning that evening – ranging from $185 to $500 for either a 4 or 5 courses each being a selection from their menu. Additionally, each package includes red roses on the table – a nice touch.
http://www.summitrestaurant.com.au/

Essence
Located on Lime Street near King St Wharf, this restaurant also serves a Modern Australian cuisine. You have views of the water towards the maritime museum. From here, you can either carry on to the Wharf Bar, or head down for a boogie to Cargo Bar or the Loft. Haven’t heard of anything special happening for Valentine’s night
http://www.essencerestaurant.com.au/

L’etoile
Yes, this has to make it on the list as it is one of my favourite French restaurants. They are doing a special at $85pp for a 6 course degustation or $125pp including wine – which honestly, I think is quite impressive. However the only catch is that you can make the reservation for either 6pm or 8:45pm. Call them up to get an idea of the menu. Feel free to as the waiter for their cocktail list – there are a few that aren’t bad.
http://www.letoilerestaurant.com.au/

Coast
This Modern Italian/Australia restaurant at Darling Harbour (next to Chinta Ria) is also doing a special for the 14th Feb, $95pp for a 3 course meal with a cocktail and you can order your wine separate. Unfortunately no matching wine to their food. However, you can make a special request (for a fee) to have roses on the table.
http://www.coastrestaurant.com.au/

Kobe Jones – Teppanyaki at The Rocks
This would be the top of my list favourite if Astral is booked out. They have a great variety for either a Set or A la Carte menus. The only let down is that the dinning experience can sometimes be with a few other people in each cooking room – however, that shouldn’t affect how you enjoy the food. The chef will cook and prepare the food right in front of you – and I would suggest your splurge a little on this night. For pre/post drinks – head out to the Blu Horizon bar at the Shangri-la (try booking early for a window seat with views).
http://www.kobejones.com.au/

Still need more options? Leave a comment below and let me know what you’re looking for.

French food is brilliant, but for a guy like me who doesn’t like snails or seafood, I can be a tough patron to please. Fortunately L’étoile solved that problem.
 
L’étoile is located in Paddington near the Five Ways. It’s a little hard to find as it’s not overly lit up like Vamps and other restaurants near by. However, the atmosphere is perfect for a quite dinner.
 
I reserved a table, however based on the crowd I don’t think it was necessary. There were no more than 4 or 5 tables out of 20ish that were full at any given point of the night. They also have an outdoor section at the back of the restaurant, but that looked empty too. I assume it was the Friday summer nights that got most of Sydney in bars and after work drinks. Regardless, we had a nice table next to the window with a view of Glenmore road (OK, not so exciting).
 
The waiters spoke with a strong French accent and were very courteous throughout our dinner. The minute you sit down you feel like everything is taken care of. The menu is simple yet mouth watering. The wine list has a variety of both Australian and French wines, though not as extensive as Tabou. We had a bottle of chenin blanc, beautifully flavoured wine (approx $65 a bottle). My entree was spinach salad with warm goat’s cheese and sliced pear. The bitterness of the cheese and spinach was perfectly balanced by the sweetness of the pear. At the end however, I had hoped for an extra slice or two to sweeten my taste buds. Maia had a twice cooked Moreton bay bug and gruyere soufflé which looked very soft but was advised of its seafood flavour.
 
We ordered the sautéed lamb rump with beans and garlic confit. However, the kind waiter advised that they have 2 lamb racks from the previous night’s special if we liked. I was up for it!
 
What I got back was a perfectly cooked lamb rack of 4 cutlets, served with a side of beans. The 4 cutlet rack lamb was sliced in the middle and presented as 2 pieces. It looked quite rare the middle, however once you start to cut through there is only a fine line of rare meat. It was soft, succulent and very flavoursome. The side of beans again perfectly complimented the meat.
 
All throughout our meal, there was constant attention to have our wine filled and glasses of sparkling water kept up. Good customer service and attention.
 
Time for dessert, and I went for the apple tatin (see image) and a glass of French dessert wine. A few minutes after we placed our dessert order, we got a glass of what looked liked crushed red ice flakes. The waiter announced them as frozen vanilla vodka and creme de cassis ice which were to help clean our taste buds for dessert. I expected to taste the alcohol within the first teaspoon full, but it tasted like berries. Perfect I thought and my buds were refreshed.
 
Dessert topped the night off. Nice warm baked slices of apples on top of a pastry that wasn’t fully crisp but still had bite. The syrups and juices were warm enough to just melt the ice cream a little bit. Each spoonful of the tatin reminded me of winter, and each spoon of the ice cream gave a taste of what’s ahead in summer.
 
Overall, a beautiful night at L’étoile – good service, great food, great wine and a lovely setting. I’m definitely going back!

The first impact of this French restaurant was that it was busy – very busy! We had a booking for 4 made days in advance (just to be safe) and I recommend you do the same, don’t just turn up.

The staff immediately attended to you once you stepped in and we were seated pretty much in the middle of the lower level. The upper level has more tables and a bar.

The menu was perfect with not too much variety, but just enough to make your selection easy from 6 options for each course.  In fact, you can view it here – http://www.tabourestaurant.com.au/menu.pdf

We ordered some white wine, and if memory serves me right, I believe we a 2006 Andre Kientzler, Pinot Gris – actually, we had 2 of those!

To start, I had the cheese soufflé – which was perfectly cooked. I was told prior to coming to Tabou, that this could be quite a heavy dish. It wasn’t too heavy, but then again – I had a good appetite built up before leaving home. With each spoonful, the cheese just melted in your mouth and the taste was exceptional, I could do it again for mains.

My mains contained slices of roast lamb loin served with aubergine (eggplant), courgette (zucchini) and anchoiade (?). The lamb was cooked really, medium-rare – just how I like it. The vegetables and sauce however, was quite bland – a bit too simple in my opinion. The vegetables had a nice bit and complimented the lamb well – without them, it would be a plain meat dish with tomato paste. Might try the pork next time.

To top it off, I had another soufflé, but this time it was chocolate and I can’t say that this was my favourite dessert. While the soufflé itself was very nice, the surrounding chocolate sauce was quite bitter – almost tasted of coffee, not what I expected (or maybe I didn’t read the fine lines of the dessert description). But the dates flavoured ice cream served beside it, saved my tongue. We also had a bottle of dessert wine to leave a sweet taste on our palates.

Overall, I enjoyed dining at this restaurant. Yes, it is expensive – especially when 4 of us order 3 bottles of wine at $60 a bottle. If you get a 3 course meal alone, be prepared to fork $70 out. If you have French bottle of wine or two, you’ll soon be looking at 3 digit figures per head. Overall for the quality of food, I may have preferred elsewhere (like Vamps). But the overall experience in itself, was well worth it.

Atmosphere – 8/10
Food – 7/10
Wine/Cocktails – 9/10
Staff – 8.5/10
Value for money – 7/10