XO Restaurant Narrabundah 21 June 2017

Karen's birthday treat, there was 5 of us, John, Jim, Karen, Ron, Megan

Wine was very special, Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 407 1991, plus a sauvignon from Brown Brothers to start (not so special).

XO is a lively little restaurant in Narrabundah shops, long and thin, fairly noisy but not too much so, because it is long and thin I think.   So us older people were able to hear ourselves talk even though there were quite a few of the younger and hipper generations there.   All of the plates are designed to be sharing plates and are basically variations on Asian themes, with additions of Australian fusion as is the want with modern hip restaurants these days.

We started with a winner, the Pork Baos, cute little buns with pieces of seared pork belly with cucumber and other flavours, absolutely yum, crispy, spicy, tangy and a fabulous start to the meal.

Which meant the second starter had to be pretty good, and it wasn't quite up to scratch, breaded chicken wings with mayo.  They were okay, flavoursome, crunchy but not outstanding.

Next, the strange flavoured eggplant on prawn crackers.  Those amongst us with more delicate palates decided it was a bit too chilli, but the rest of us didn't mind.  There was a strong smokey flavour, with the addition of sesame oil, chilli oil which was complemented perfectly by the prawn crackers.

The sexy squid, fried with sweet chilli sauce was well received over all, but I thought the sweet chilli sauce was a bit odd.  The squid was cooked to perfection though, brilliant.

Mapo tofu with scallops was a bit disappointing.  We felt it depended too much on bought chilli bean sauce plus a bit of szechuan pepper for the flavour without much input from the chef.  Quite nice though.

Duck risotto with a hint of 5 spice was really very nice but some thought it was too salty (are we getting too picky?)

The lamb ribs in sticky plum sauce combination went well, but maybe too much fat.  It could have done with much slower cooking to render down the fat and then the lamb would be more falling off the bone.  We felt we were wrestling it a bit.  (Yes, we are getting picky).

We had a plate of char grilled lettuce, mmmmm, not really worth the bother.

The dessert (which we shared) of chilli white chocolate mousse etc, was divine.

It was an interesting, different meal, some new taste combinations there which is what we look for.  Despite the negative comments, we really did enjoy the meal and will certainly be back.  The service was good, special wine recognised and decanted appropriately.  Recommended