Lockdown has put a serious dampener on the fancy food aspect of my life. Whilst there are plenty of good take-home packs being bandied out by the trendiest spots around town, very few of these places are within a distance that I can travel out to in good conscience. However, I did manage to luck out with the Sixpenny General Store, which is once again open from 9am-3pm on Fridays through to Sundays for all your baked goods needs (and a cheeky bottle of wine as well, if that’s what you’re into).
For our annual end-of-year shebang last year, I decided on dinner at Ms. G’s. However there was another strong contender for the occasion, and that was Continental Deli Bar and Bistro. On paper, Continental is pretty much everything I love – a wine bar with a range of clever share plates and charcuterie, all served in a relaxed and decadently European setting. First impressions certainly lived up to my hopes. The beautifully classic interior was jazzed up with the most intriguing and charming range of pieces, including boughs of local greenery, framed retro-styled posters, and an enormous hand-drawn picture of a blue fin tuna. But if you ask me, the most attractive features would have to be the deli cabinet…
I have a personal vendetta against course-based fine dining that Sydney stills seems to be so very fond of. As far as I’m concerned, 4 dishes served in procession is just not a good use of a few hundred dollarydoos, not when there’s the option of a table-full of share plates, or dozens of exquisite nibbles served degustation style. Thankfully, although the high-end restaurants in Sydney tend to prefer stuffy, traditional-styled dining, there are a few places that eschew that old-fashioned habit, and Ms G’s was one of the first in the city to do so.
Here’s to the end of the third year of med school! After some really rather gruelling times, I’ve finished (and hopefully passed!) all my exams, and am keen on making the most of my 9 days off before having to head right back into the thick of it. Sometimes it feels like it just never ends, but I guess I’ve made my bed now so I may as well enjoy it! Like every other even remotely important occasion in my life, this was the perfect excuse for me to splash out on dinner at a restaurant I’ve been eyeing up. This time around I had my mind set on Lankan Filling Station, the one-hatted, somewhat modern taken on Sri Lankan…
Bistecca was originally going to be my birthday dinner this year, but then, y’know, Covid happened. Thankfully once the worst of the first wave was over, not only did Bistecca reopen quick-smart, they also started accepting bookings for groups of any size. This was extremely good news, because apparently smaller parties used to have to show up at 4pm to scribble your name on a piece of butcher’s paper on the door, and hope you get a call sometime later that night.
Up to now, dinner at Poly was probably my favourite upscale dining experience in Sydney, the poor service notwithstanding. Given that I’m currently trying to make one income stretch between two people however, I don’t really have a whole lot of time to be exploring the fine dining scene in Sydney, which is notoriously expensive as it is. But one really nice meal out at the end of the year for Chris’ birthday, our anniversary, and Christmas has always been a constant, and this year I chose Ester, the elder sister to Poly. Ester looks like every other popular Modern Australian restaurant that has ever been, but that’s not a bad thing. The interior is sleek yet warm, the bare…