Per Se (Manhattan, New York City)

My 'to eat' bucket list is not a list which I have written down but one that is mentally in my head. The experience of dining at a Thomas Keller restaurant has been on my bucket list since I don't know when! I have tried in vain to get a table booking at Per Se during the few trips I made to New York over the past few years. This time I was determined to get a table, no matter what!

How about the fact I set my alarm clock to 2.00 am on a Sunday morning (when I was in Sydney) exactly 30 days before the reservation date? Does that sound too desperate? Or better yet totally determined? :)

And when I finally did get through (the line was engaged for 40 minutes) my booking was for 10 pm. Aargh! But there was no way I was not going to accept that time slot.

On the night we were due here, we arrived around 9.30 pm at the Time Warner centre. What a lovely building filled with up-market brands and some lovely Christmas lights. When we arrived at Per Se, I was sure we would have to wait for our table but they assured us our table was ready even though we were 1/2 hour early.

We were lucky enough to have a table next to the window and I could see Columbus Circle in the night lights.

The food experience started with a couple of amuse bouche.

Cheese gourgere - yummy cheese balls.

Salmon cornet - smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill served in a mini cone. Sorry, the image of this dish was so bad! :(

Then the Chef's tasting menu dishes were served.

"Oysters and Pearls" - Sabayon of pearl tapioca with Island Creek oysters and Sterling White sturgeon caviar.

Butter  - salted and unsalted. There was a story for each of them which provides an interesting facet to the butter. Both were delicious in its own way and went well with the milk bun.

"Salad of Caramelised Artichokes" - Parmigiano Regiano, saffron pickled garlic, salsify root and Romaine lettuce.

"Sauteed Fillet of Chatham Bay Cod" - topped with a Pommes Maxim's, caramelised cauliflower tapenade, and clam chowder sauce.

Vincent (Woollahra, Sydney)

I do enjoy a good French meal every now and then. This one was in Woollahra, a suburb I don't frequent much. But after hearing quite positive reviews about it, it was time to visit.

I was surprised to discover Vincent is actually located in a boutique hotel. The only way into the restaurant is through the main doors of the hotel.

As I sat down, I looked around to try and gain an impression of the surrounds. It did feel quite French, which is good. I also had a peek at their cheese fridge, is that even the right word? Hmmm....

We started with entrees.

Seared scallops and leek, soubise, and vadouvan spice. The scallops were perfectly cooked, the leeks were beautifully charred and had a nice smokey flavour. A rather delicious entree.

Baked cantal soufflé with fine herbs. We had to try this as it was highly recommended by the waitress. It was light, fluffy, and super cheesy. A classic French dish.

Our mains were:

Steak frites with 'beurre Vincent'. It was plated interestingly enough on a metallic dish over the top of a small gas burner. The small fire was for the butter to slowly melt over the grilled steak which was to my surprise not a complete piece of steak but neatly sliced. The steak was medium rare with a touch of pink.

Antoine's Grill (Concord, Sydney)

Wow! I cannot believe this will be my 250th post. 3 years on, my blog is still very much alive! Here goes...

I felt like a good piece of steak and when it came time to organising a catch up with some dear friends of mine, I started looking at restaurants which offered quality steak.

Antoine's Grill caught my eye. A French restaurant located in Concord that had a rather nice menu was our choice. Antoine Moscovitz is the chef with a CV filled with having worked under Alain Ducasse, was private chef to the House of Roderer Cristal Champagne, and in Australia had worked at Salt and Bather's Pavilion. Not too bad I say!

Majors Bay Road in Concord is certainly getting busier and busier. And it looks like there are a couple of other restaurants I should bookmark to check out.

When we stepped into Antoine's Grill, I had a sense of being in an European restaurant. The front of house and wait team all had French accents, bar 1 Aussie lad. The tables were square and made of roughly hued wood. Quite rustic but not out of place.

We were seated at a table which looked out to the front and would be considered a private little nook. And little bits of decor accented the French theme.

We started off with an appetiser and entrees:

Toasted sourdough with aged olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The crustiness of the French style bread came through.

Confit diver scallops, green papaya and pickled asparagus, served with beetroot and sweet leek, and preserved Calypso mangoes. I cannot resist scallops and these were perfectly cooked. Succulent, sweet and beautifully offset by the julienned green papaya and asparagus. In terms of balance of portions, I felt there was a lot more of the beetroot puree than was necessary but the colours sure popped on my plate!

Crispy pork belly, sweet capsicum puree caramelised apple, lemon myrtle honey glaze. It went down a treat, NF finished off the plate and throughly enjoyed the dish.

Our mains were:

200g Eye fillet with green peppercorn sauce. The beef was from Darling Downs in Queensland and was 200 days naturally pasture fed. It definitely had a creamy, buttery texture. I had it medium rare and it was beautifully cooked. A very good piece of steak indeed! I forgot to take a picture of the middle of the fillet to display its lovely colour, sorry!

CHISWICK Restaurant (Woollahra, Sydney)

It was a perfect day to have lunch at Chiswick. Sydney was at its best behaviour and the glorious summery weather made our lunch all the more perfect.

I met up with a few of my friends from my NYC trip. As I was waiting outside in the gardens for them to arrive, I couldn't help but fall in love with the garden and the lovely building that was Chiswick. A perfect surround for a summer lunch (even though it is still spring).

Chiswick has a 2 seating time policy for lunch and we decided to have lunch at 12 noon. This meant we would have to finish up by 2.00 pm. The restaurant quickly filled up and before you know it, it was full house!

As I walked around the restaurant, my thoughts were images of an English summer! There was a colonial feel to the restaurant and a large of number of the guests were young, affluent and trendy. So not me! :)

For our lunch, we decided to share some small plates and have the Chiswick signature dish of the Wood roasted Moran family lamb.

Rosemary flat bread

Snow crab slider served with lettuce, kewpie and gherkins

Heirloom tomatoes, feta and crumbed bread salad (one of the specials of the day)

Ceviche of kingfish, chilli, lime and coriander

OneSixEight Restaurant and Bar (Sydney)

You think you know all the new kids on the block 'restaurant wise' but a few slip through the cracks occasionally. Especially if the media does not talk much about it/them. Well, this one slipped through the crack for me but what a nice discovery I had while enjoying my meal there.

The restaurant is called One Six Eight and the only reason I found out about it was because the chef Leigh McDivitt is related to my boss. They are cousins! A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to join an after work dinner by my boss with a few other work colleagues and I was only too thrilled to accept the invite.

Leigh was previously at 3 Weeds and I recall having dined there once and remembering the food was delicious. The restaurant is located at Kent Street at Millers Point and it is located just below the underpass to the Harbour Bridge. A great location for business lunches and dinners. It had an executive feel when I stepped into the restaurant.

We had a drink at the bar area before adjourning to our table. The menu looked really interesting. And we dined on the day when the new spring menu was presented.

Our taste buds got going with Ceviche kingfish with horseradish ice cream and lime chilli dressing. The flavours were popping in my mouth! Yum!

Entree
Seared scallops with torched prawn, nam pla jam and pork dust. It did look good and NL commented on how fresh and succulent the scallop was. She thoroughly enjoyed the dish.

Duck prosciutto with smoked octopus, blood orange cloud and shaved duck yolk. The majority our group chose this for entree, including me! The thought of having duck prosciutto intrigued me so I had to try it. It was a lovely dish, there were intriguing flavours of duck, combined with the octopus and the duck yolk. A really good dish!!

Mains
Seared bonito, heirloom carrots, shellfish pearl barley & squid ink reduction. NL once again broke from the majority and was enjoying this delicious dish.