This isn’t a typical restaurant review, because this wasn’t a typical evening! As part of an office Christmas party, we enjoyed the show El Circo at the same time as a multi-course meal.
Other venues might let the standard of food slide, shall we say, when the focus is the entertainment, so I was really impressed with how good the food was. Appropriate for a Christmas party, they’d themed all the food around Christmas.
The level of entertainment was fantastic. Having just seen (and enjoyed) the very excellent show, Velvet, currently playing at the Opera House, I thought that the acrobatic acts were of equal quality.
But the way the show is constructed was also very smart: the inimitable, glamorous and sharp-witted Verushka Darling was the emcee, introducing not only the acts but each course of food; I’m not sure I’ve ever seen 
that integration of food and show before!
I particularly liked the lobster and prawn bisque. The scallop was tasty, as was the pork. The only miss was the chocolate brownie/fondant as part of a selection of desserts. None of seemed to manage to eat that one after a big meal, and the other desserts were delicate mouthfuls in comparison.
The wait staff were upbeat, energetic and welcoming: obviously part of the whole package. The show ends by bringing the audience up on stage to dance… we slipped off at that point, but that Slide sure knows how to make sure everyone is having a very good time.
A table for two, right by the door, and the vibe is Sydney cool, a big old warehouse with neon lights transformed to wine bar and food by one of Australia’s most prominent chefs.
With a glass of wine, and some Mangan-branded water, served up by a series of young European wait staff, friendly and efficient, it was a great place to grab a bite after seeing an art exhibition opening at a Danks Street gallery.
The Carrington has reopened. Hurrah. I really liked the previous incarnation, in fact, both of them, injecting Latin American cuisine and drinks into the Sydney local. Now, it’s back to basics with burgers and schnitzel. But of course, these days the burger is grass-fed (yup, that’s what the menu said, I like that idea of eating a burger that eats grass) and the schnitzel (my choice, delicious) was kurobata pork neck.
The mains come with delicious thin fries, and though the Chardonnay was the cheapest on the list ($35 a bottle), it was excellent. All of this in a buzzy atmosphere in the bar area, and various other places with different noise levels to hang out. It’s now order at the bar rather than the previous configuration where the restaurant area really was a restaurant.
That quieter area did lack a bit of a buzz or ambiance on a Wednesday night, but being able to talk comfortably with old friends was a treat (as compared, say, to the terrible acoustics at the Hotel Palisade).
What better thing to do on a pleasant sunny, not-too-hot, not-too-cool Sydney afternoon but sneak out for lunch. Llankelly Lane in Potts Point is filled with amusing restaurants; we chose the quietest of them for a light lunch.
My pal, Freddy, who works in the neighbourhood, took me to this little Polish cafe and deli in Woollahra on Queen Street. ‘Maybe you get a free coffee if you can pronounce the name right,’ he commented, though we wouldn’t have won, even if this had been on offer.
I couldn’t go past the perogis, which I fondly remember from my Canadian youth where various Ukranian entrepeneurs sold frozen versions, or a perogi maker (which I loved, where is that thing?), and a handful of Eastern European restaurants in Vancouver served them (along with cabbage rolls and borscht and other delights).
Some yummy peas and corn (again with a charred, smoky, grilled theme) was particularly liked by our group of three; oh, and the wine list is really good. We had a very interesting orange wine, and a lovely, almost effervescent bio-dynamic white. It’s not a cheap wine list, but it’s a goody. Treat yourself.
Seems like Chippendale is the new Hippendale in Sydney, with new restaurants and a gallery and residents moving in. And Ester’s obviously led the way.
Molecular gastronomy: well! Gastro Park’s Liquid butternut gnocchi in a rich mushroom consommé was so absolutely spectacular that I’m already thinking about my next visit. Made famous by appearing as a challenge in last season’s Masterchef, it had an amazing texture: the thinnest membrane (of seaweed/agar, I understand) around a purée, a small strange egg yolk that bursts in one’s mouth. Immersed in a rich mushroom broth, this was incredible. I love food that surprises me, and this was it.
As a close second in a consistently delicious five-course meal, a special event put on by Gastro Park, Mount Pleasant Wine and the Entertainment book, was a chocolate sphere filled with vanilla ice cream, on top of white snowy pebbles that taste of cardamon, saffron 
and ginger, along with two larger pieces of honeycomb. They were likely treated with liquid nitrogen, steaming and icy. A showy dish, and a delicious one. It was served with a 30 year old Mount Pleasant Tawny, a lovely sweet port and I was sad to see so many people had eaten and drank so much that this was what they left on the table afterwards. If I was twenty years younger, or was sure no one would see me, I would gone around guzzling the leftovers… Classy, huh?
The pork belly was perfectly done, with a few slivers of smoked macadamia (which I couldn’t really taste much of) and a rich mixture of spanner crab and pork ‘pebbles’ which tasted like the crackling had been cut up into crunchy little stones; it had a richness which reminded me of a fine XO sauce and was served with a 2013 Mount Pleasant ‘Leontine’ Chardonnay from Hunter Valley which was my wine highlight of the night.
The main was interesting: 48-hour slow-cooked Riverina short rib. Because of the cut, it didn’t really fall apart. It was very tender but still had a springiness, and held together. It was served with smoked eggplant, some peas, a pod and some charcoal-black mixture of capsicum which was colour as much as anything: we couldn’t figure out whether it was anchovy or olive or something else until the waitress told us. It was served with two rather fancy shiraz’s though for some reason, neither of us could detect why one would cost $50 and the other $125 a bottle. Not our grape, perhaps.
The chef himself served some of the dishes and made himself available to say hello, and the staff were all bustling and welcoming. I had always been interesting in the building 
from the outside, it’s not quite as interesting on the inside, but still stylish and chic, though with a fishbowl effect, and the locals from Kings Cross passing by 
outside in, let’s say, casual attire. All in all, a really incredible night. I’ve learned when the Entertainment Book puts on these events that they sell out pretty much within the hour that the email goes out, so I’m rather pleased that we got to try a restaurant that’s been on my hit list for a while, on such a special night.
An interesting concept, and you know, I think they’ll do just fine. Recreating an Asian hawker alley next to the Central Park complex is a fun idea. They’ve somehow taken over a whole row of tiny worker’s cottages, painted them, and put out ample seating for people to hang out. It’s a little bit Disneyland, a bit food court, but with a huge student apartment closeby and all the apartments being occupied in the neighbourhood soon, it’s a good addition. And Kensington Street looks like it will have other cool restaurants moving in, so this could be quite an interesting place.
In the meantime, this alley offers a range of cuisine and with a higher quality than usual. There’s Malaysian and Singaporean, a Thai street food place, Vietnamese too, and the Hong Kong Diner.
for ice cream from Passionflower.