Pei Modern Sydney (The Rocks, Sydney)

For SH's birthday dinner this year, she chose Pei Modern. It opened in the latter part of 2014 at the Four Seasons Hotel near Circular Quay.

Mark Best, the renowned Sydney chef, opened his first Pei Modern in Melbourne a few years ago and when news filtered through of a Sydney opening, the foodie world was abuzz!

We initially booked to meet in January but I got so sick we had to postpone until late February.

Bread was served in a rustic mini sack. Interesting...

We decided to start with something 'Clean and Green' - Cucumber and young coconut salad. I don't think I have ever had young coconut flesh on a salad but I did like its sweetness and bite. It was a fresh and rather summery salad. There were bits of jellified coconut water which offset the crunchy cucumber.

We then had the Tiger prawns, vadouvan and caramelised yoghurt. It was beautifully cooked. There was a smoky flavour and the prawns were sweet. I didn't think we needed the yoghurt but I think it's a personal preference.

The Governors Table (Sydney CBD)

The name of this restaurant intrigued me when I first saw pictures of its food on Instagram. After realising where it is located (at the Museum of Sydney) I had a better understanding of the principles of not only the name but the touches of Australian native herbs, floral and fauna throughout its menu and decor.

I loved the openness of the exterior connecting to the interior. How perfect it would be sitting there on a balmy evening looking out to the busy street from the inside.

When we were seated at our table, my friend, the lovely LA, asked the front of house how his day had been. I think it threw him to have a guest asked how he was as opposed to the other way round! I unwittingly proceeded to explain we were here to celebrate LA's birthday.

As we were perusing the menu, he served us 2 glasses of bubblies in celebration of her birthday (on the house!). What a lovely and generous surprise!

Confit salmon, blood orange curd, soy bean, tomato and roe. Wow! This dish was seriously good. The salmon was practically melting in my mouth and soft as butter. A beautiful blend of flavours with the salmon the star of the dish.

Spiced lamb ribs, binnorie feta, and pomegranate glaze. Tender, smoky ribs with delightfully crunchy pomegranates scattered through the dish.

Grilled king prawns, mojo verde, with black garlic aioli. Firstly, I would like to say that we did not order this dish. Once again our suave front of house presented us a free dish because of LA's birthday. We couldn't believe it, another generous gesture! Irrespective of whether we had paid for it or not, I found the prawns to be succulent, sweet, nicely grilled and the back garlic aioli had a slightly smokey yet sweet flavour. Very interesting combination.

Tiger prawn linguine, black garlic, citrus mascarpone, nasturtium, and chilli crumb. It was a light, fresh and subtly spiced pasta. Remember, we ordered this dish before we were served with the surprise king prawns. But in my opinion there is no such thing as too much prawns! :)

Tomislav

It's the time of the year again for my Christmas catch up with DD. We racked our brains for dining options and chose Tomislav. It was such a last minute decision but we managed to get a booking for a Saturday dinner. I was looking forward to an interesting dining experience and based on the reviews I have read, I didn't think I would be disappointed.

Firstly I must say that it is located at a very convenient spot, literally walking distance from Kings Cross station. From where we were sitting, I could see the traffic on Darlinghurst road and I could also see snippets of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We chose an outdoor table as it was quite a humid evening, and it was lovely to sit outside and feel the breeze.

I was surprised at how much smaller in size the restaurant was than I anticipated. We had two menu options, the 4 course meal or the 8 course degustation. We opted for the 4 course meal. The next challenge was to decide which of each dish we wanted for each course. There were some interesting dishes and we wanted to be a little left centre with our choices.

Before the dishes were served, we had some beautiful bread which were presented with a Wattleseed burnt toffee butter. The butter was beautifully presented on a stone block. The bread, by the way, was from Iggy's.

Course 1:
Venison tartare with a poached yolk, mustard crumbs served with poppyseed toast.

Fried chicken wings with cauliflower cream, anchovy juice and raw cauliflower.

Verdict: The venison tartare was so smooth and creamy. It did not taste like raw meat. DD had not had steak tartare before so this was a first time for him. It was surprisingly good, but for DD a smaller serving would have sufficed. The presentation of the venison tartare was a work of art, really lovely plating.

My chicken wings were deboned, it had some interesting flavours but I felt the anchovy juice was just a tad too strong and the other flavours got lost in the midst of the the savouriness of the anchovy.