I treated myself to a fancy staycay a few weeks back, and whilst I was in the area, I decided to check out Chester White Cured Diner. Because what’s a holiday without a good meal? Chester White has always been on my to-eat list, but it was bumped up a few dozen places after my dinner at Buffalo Dining Club. Not only are they similarly-styled restaurants, they were also formerly owned by the same people. So if Buffalo was amazing, then surely Chester White can only do so wrong.
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…
Here’s to the end of 2020 (well, at the time of writing anyway)! Although I can’t speak definitively for everyone, I’m pretty sure most people absolutely cannot wait to bid goodbye to this strange and uncomfortable year. And what better way is there to celebrate the end of this long, hard slog than with a pizza party? I don’t have a whole lot in the way of pizza options around my place, but a quick 20 minute drive towards the city gets me to Pizza Madre, which consistently makes its way onto best-of lists, despite being an entirely vegetarian operation. And although its name suggests something familiar and cosy, Pizza Madre is less of a mother, and more of an…
I’ve said it before, and although it feels a little bit wrong, I’ll say it again – one good thing about Covid is that restaurants that didn’t used to take bookings have now started to do so. Although I’m not unfamiliar with waiting in line for a spot at a good restaurant, it’s definitely nicer to be able to have a table guaranteed before you get there. And if I were to be entirely honest, that reluctance to spend potentially hours in line (plus how much of a pain Sydney is to get around, but that’s a whole other story) is one of the reasons why I’ve yet to visit Buffalo Dining Club. Because on paper, it is everything I…
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.
I love fusion cuisine. When done right, it is such a great opportunity for innovation and excitement, and often offers up new flavour combinations that I never could have thought of, yet leaves me wondering why more people haven’t jumped on board already. Unfortunately, fusion is often done… not right, and you end up with some weird and not-very-wonderful things, such as tuna carpaccio topped with parmesan. However, when it comes to Bar Pesta, I’ve heard nothing but good things about its Asian-fusion pasta dishes, so it seemed like a pretty good bet for a low-key date night.