So, new kid on the block is Loluk Bistro, charmingly named after two brothers from Nice, Luc and Loic. I vaguely recall dining at the Pelican bistro many, many years ago. It’s in a good location, tucked behind Taylor Square, and we headed here for Sunday brunch on the Easter weekend. It’s only been open two months, and is gathering some dinner trade, though it’s a great place for a weekend brunch too.
We loved our travels to the South of France, so it’s great to find a little bit of the South of France has moved in Darlinghurst. The decor is light and bright, like a beachside bistro, with inspirational phrases about achieving dreams and drinking wine written high on the walls. Appropriate, as owning and running a restaurant would be the dream of Luc, the owner.
The menu has regional specialties from the south of France, and inspired by their mother’s kitchen, the food has a home kitchen vibe, casual. Also: they carry my favourite bottle water, Badoit. 
My better half opted for the ‘perfect egg in a jar’, ratatouille with tasty lamb and a perfect soft-boiled on top (and homemade brioche toast). It looked small but I was informed it was very filling, and I tried some. Tasty indeed. 
I opted for the Croque Madame, the classic. Nicely presented and nice balance of flavours and textures. 
We had a look over the dinner menu, which looks great, and a drinks menu filled with French wine and liqueur. The couple next to us (for breakfast!) had these amazing looking desserts (profiteroles and pannacotta). They have a commitment to making things from scratch (the profiterole pastry, soup stock, brioches). Future looks bright for them, if they can just manage to find their people in the tough Darlinghurst and Sydney market. We’ll be back to try the dinner menu too!
Oh my god: this breakfast. The middle eastern ‘cigars’ filled with lamb mince, with two poached eggs, pine nuts, greenery and some sauce.
Hidden under the Connaught Building on the corner of Oxford Street and Liverpool Street, across from Hyde Park, is the new OHBAR Thai Cuisine. We had a casual meal here on a rainy Monday night.
So, it’s tasty with some unusual flavours. Not as good as the fantastic Muum Maam, Chat Thai or Home Thai, but better than the average Sydney Thai restaurant.
So, it was great to be invited along one Friday evening by 
Our destination: Platia. Located in the Top Ryde City Shopping Centre, it’s a bit of a strange contrast in that it’s got such a nice, homey feel to it, and a family-run operation, that it feels like it should be your neighbourhood Greek place, or in a Greek area of the city, or in Greece! On the other hand, it’s lovely to sit in the open courtyard and the mall makes the place feel appropriately modern and contemporary.
Moussaka, a particular favourite of mine, but I think it gets lost a bit when there are so many other dishes.
Dips.
Stuffed mushrooms…
A few new menu items were on offer such as this chicken dish.
The plates were rather interesting: made of plaster and made me to be broken.
You’d have thought that the ouzo shots were the reason for the dancing but in fact were offered kindly as a farewell gesture.
I remember eating at this Peruvian restaurant, about a million years ago, when it was in Newtown. Moved to Darlinghurst, it’s in a brightly lit space that reminded me a bit of a living room or function hall, but with a family feel to it, and not without charm
One of my dining companions was Chilean and she provided us with guidance for the menu, which is relatively short. A few appetizers. Two choices of ceviche. Four mains and two specials, and some sides.
We started out with causa, a strange sort of potato mixture inside a soft crepe with some sauce and inside some prawns and vegetables, served cold. It was delicious. We liked it, though it was somewhat mysterious.
The ceviche was beautifully done. Very tasty. Bright flavours. Loved the dried corn with it.
We split three more mains, some lamb, perfectly nice; a generous paella sort of dish with prawns, and a quite delicious chicken curry.
Ah, and we had yucca chips. My favourite.
Ah, and we all started the meal with Pisco Sours (yum, a most excellent contribution to the world from Peru and Chile) and finished with a dessert called Trés Leches, some sort of soaked cake with whipped cream and ice cream. Tasty! It cost us about $75 each and we were nicely filled and hydrated…
Located in San Telmo, the corner restaurant has a cool and modern feel to it, and from the moment we stepped in the door, it felt like it would be a special meal.
Enmore Road is chock-a-block with new bars and cool restaurants these days. I will be back to try some of the new ones I spotted, but was very glad to catch up with my excellent friend Mary to go to Stanbuli, which perhaps was one of the heralds of the new, hip Enmore.
So good. We did order too much. Seven dishes from the left-hand side of the menu (mezze) and one from the right-hand side (grill). For the two of us, we really should have ordered one or two less dishes… We thought that the smaller dishes would have been smaller than they were!
Cuttlefish over some sort of potato salad. Lovely.
Not sure about the long counter seating system. The woman next to me couldn’t seem to figure out how to eat without knocking into me so we shifted down. But the service was perfect, the sort of knowledgeable and efficient service by friendly young folks that Sydney seems to be specialising in these days. And I love that they kept the original store frontage of Mary Louise’s Hair Salon.