The Olive, Mawson 4 June

 

Present, Karen, Megan, Jim, Ron.  Kim was in Singapore, John was in Germany, Andrew was in San Francisco.

Wine:

Cape Mentelle 2000 Zinfandel

Wither Hills Marlborough Sav Blanc 2011

 Karen and Jim suggested this because their kids liked it and the bread was good.  Do we need any more reasons to try somewhere?

 The Olive is an unassuming little restaurant, in the unassuming Southlands Shopping precinct.  It's clientele seemed like relaxed locals (how can we tell?  I don't know).  The tables were well spaced and had TABLE CLOTHS, the wait staff friendly and knowledgeable.

 
We shared the entrees, but kept the mains to ourselves.  As Karen promised, the bread was fabulous, went superbly well with the dips.  We had soft shell crab, nicely done, still not quite up to Ron's high expectations.

Ron (of course being Ron) had to have the seafood stack, and yes it was stack, but was it worth $45?  Ron was not convinced, he enjoyed the flavours of the seafood but there were no sauce or veges added.

 Karen had the seafood spaghetti, but thought that a bowl rather than a plate would be the best way to serve it, as the sauce disappeared down to the bottom.  The hero of the dish was the seafood, not the spag or the sauce.  Was the spaghetti home made???

 Jim had a great big lump of sirloin which was really nice, but he decided he preferred it without the sauce.

 And I had the pan fried whiting, which was very nice without being spectacular.

 We succumbed to dessert, as always, which was delish.

 

Next dinner we decided to go pollie watching at Kingston, if Parliament is still sitting

Ardeche Civic 21 May

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Present: Megan, Karen, Jim, Ron, Kim, Andrew

I think we went to Ardeche to celebrate Ron's birthday (which was the actual day) and Karen's imminent retirement.  Lots to celebrate so we went a bit upmarket.

 

In the excitement of the evening I forgot to take notes, so not very much to report.  It's a bog standard French restaurant, always reliable, always good quality with many of the standard French dishes on offer.

We had the French onion soup, twice cooked souffle, crepes, duck a l'orange, steak, chicken, all done with lovely rich french sauces.  The seafood crepes were fabulous, as was the steak, the duck was lovely, but just a standard a l'orange nothing special.  But we got what we came for, so that was enough. (Can we go to Asian next time?)

The ambience pleasant, but a bit noisy.  Wait staff good,

 

Chong Co 7 May

Only 5 of us were able to make it, Megan and Andrew not there.  There is a Chong Co in New Kingston, but the group went to the one at the Southern Cross Club.

Ron's report:

The food was fabulous. We had prawn spring rolls, money bags, duck salad, mussaman lamb shank, vegies with lemon grass, john dory with vegies and soft shell crab. Dessert was banana pudding or pumpkin custard. The favourites were the prawn spring rolls, lamb, crab and john dory and the pumpkin pudding. We also had a 2006 bottle of red from their wine list. Jim will remember the details

Sage, Gorman House, 23 April 2014

Chicken

Kingfish

Steak

Dessert

Present: Ron, John, Karen, Jim, Megan, Kim
Topics: Retirement, travel, Food

Ah Sage, you've done it again.  Another excellent meal making it still my favourite restaurant in Canberra.

During April they were offering surprise degustation menus and asking for our comments. They were experimenting with new dishes and were intending to base their new menu on the feedback they got. 

For starters, Kingfish with cucumber granita, korean radish. The kingfish was delicate, superb and worked well with the chilli.  The cucumber granita kind of disappeared, melted into nothing.

The soup, pumpkin with chestnut foam and parsnip strips was superb..  The sweet pumpkin was complemented by the foam.  The cranberries were a bit odd though, and I can see from their current menu that they have taken them off.  The other comment we made was that the parsnip strips were excellent, but more please.

The next up was tea smoked chicken breast with pistachio crust, dried and rehydrated carrot and sesame snow. The presentation was fabulous, first tastes were a delight but after a while it lost its zing, the carrot didn't add much, the carrot mousse okay, sesame foam brilliant but the chicken too meaty and dry.  Why do restaurants insist on using chicken breast instead of the much more succulent thigh?

The eye fillet with mushrooms, spinach crust, foie gras had great flavours, the mushrooms and foie gras worked well.  The spinach crust tasted great but it looked a bit odd, a lump of green stuff on top of the beef.  I note it is still on the menu, hope they've done something about the presentation.

And the dessert got top marks from us, pear with a chestnut cookie crumble, burnt cinamon icecream, caramal glaze.  Perfect, but I note that it is not on their current menu, so the dishes that made it must be pretty good!

Ambience in Sage is good, but there was some thump thump music in the background, we could only hear the bass so it didn't add too much.  Didn't take away much either.  The service was good, waitress chatty, almost too chatty.  There is no corkage of your own wine if you buy one of theirs, and we received complementary dessert wine which went down well.  A memorable meal!

Morks, New Kingston 9 April

Present: Megan, Karen, Jim, Andrew, John, Ron, Kim

Morks is now in new Kingston, that new area next to the lake teaming with new apartment blocks.   It's a bit hard to find if you are not familiar with this area.  It's on the canal, that part nearest to the Lake.  But fear not, you will be able to find it because of the noise.  Yes, it's one of those restaurants that want to drown you out with noise, goodness knows why.  Is it because they want you to leave as soon as possible so that the table is free for the next guests?  Anyway as I approached Morks I had that sinking feeling, oh another place where I will have to shout and won't be able to hear anyone.

At least that means the place was full, which means that the food is good.

Wine:  2013 Tatara Sauvingon Blanc Marlborough

Jelka Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 McLarenVale

Food:

For the entrees, we had the scallops, prawns, salad and chicken and crab claws.  The scallops were delicate, beautiful.  The texture of the pig's ear complemented the scallops perfectly.  The prawns had a lovely lime leaf spicy flavour.  The salad was quite chilli hot.  The meat was a bit indistinguishable but the rice cakes were nice. The crab balls were okay, interesting, different but not outstanding.

Of the mains, we could detect that some were straight down the line Thai, and others were a bit more imaginative, more fusion inspired.  We had the mussaman beef, tofu and vegetables and barramundi (Thai) and  pork, duck and chicken (fusion).  All were tasty, beautifully presented, best to be shared.

The desserts were delicious and rich.

Other comments (apart from the noise) were that some of the dishes were hard to divide up; some of the servings a bit on the small side; service a bit slow but overall food was delicious.

 Topics of conversation?  Oh the usual, retirement, super pensions, money, families.

Artisan, Narrabundah Shops, 12 March

 

Present: Jim, Karen, Ron, Kim, Megan, Andrew

 

We decided to have one of our special dinners, to mark Ron’s retirement, so Artisan was it.

And of course we had the degustation, which we always seem to do because Ron likes them.

We started off with an “amuse bouche” (I think that is the current term for them), a neat little spoon with figs and nectarines, a cute, tasty little temptation.

 The first of the degustation options was oysters, which I was the only one to take up, the others turned up their noses and chose scallops.  The oysters were brilliant, the presentation was quite spectacular, and the oysters sublime.  The others found the scallops to be “wonderful”, the waygubeef and combination of flavours was brilliant.  One comment was that the scallops were not well cooked, a bit rubbery.

The ocean trout was not fabulous, the flavours were a bit odd.  It came with air dried tomato, gin compressed cucumber and quail egg.  It didn’t quite work.
Next up were the zucchini fritters, with crisp zucchini flowers, butternut pumpkin and goat cheese with nettle sauce.  Um, not really impressive, it came into the category of  “I could have done this at home”.  The pumpkin came in tiny little dots, the goat’s cheese added something but it still needed a bit more to make it more interesting.

The pork, ie pork jowl and gruyere croquettes with coriander mayonnaise and apple slaw, were  okay.  The were very light, crumbed and with the crispy apple a great juxtaposition of flavours. 

The veal was interesting, came with sake marinated mushrooms, radish and snow pea tendrils. Interesting but a bit bland.The lamb (gremolata brushed with parsnip puree, broccolini, baby carrot and jus lie) was great, tasty, cooked perfectly, we all enjoyed it.

 The desserts (donuts and chocolate something) were sublime.

 

Overall, not really sure that this was their best night.  The menu sounded great, but some of the dishes just missed out a bit, and they didn’t quite work. While it was nice, it was more suitable for a restaurant that isn’t trying to sell itself as gourmet, top of the range.