Subsolo (Sydney CBD)

I first heard of Subsolo about a year ago. Someone I knew had dined there and was enjoying telling me about the great Creme brûlée she had that night. So it went on my 'to dine' list!

Subsolo is located a block away from my workplace. Recently on one weeknight I took the opportunity to check it out when a good friend was in town on a work trip.

It is a Spanish restaurant and had a cavernous look and feel to the surrounds. It was quite dark and felt quite spacious. After thoroughly perusing the menu, we decided on sharing all the plates.

Sardinas Fritas - fresh fillets of flash-fried sardines with saffron aioli. Normally I wouldn't have even looked at ordering this dish but AK was keen and I thought why not! Well, I am glad I did agree to it. It was a lovely dish, the sardines were lightly fried and lightly salted and went well with the aioli.

Croquetas de Manchego - cheesy Manchego croquettes. These croquettes are not for the faint hearted. If you are not into strong cheese, I would suggest staying away from it. But we love good cheese and I really enjoyed how cheesy it was. Yum!

Filete de Cadera con Pimenton - paprika rubbed sliced rump with chimichurri butter. There was a slight theatre when the dish was about to be served to us. The young waiter flamed grilled the rump right in front of us with a small blow torch. Sorry, I wasn't quick enough with my camera. But all I can say is that the meat was perfectly cooked, slightly pink and oh so tender.

Sakura Kaiten Sushi (Melbourne CBD)

I think I have said before that sometimes unplanned things turn out to be delightful surprises! Well, this dinner at a little sushi bar in one of the little lanes in Melbourne was a surprise hit!

Sakura Kaiten Sushi is located on Little Collins Street closer to the Parliament end of town. We had no plans on where to dine so we just walked and walked and over time DD must have had a idea of where to go and we slowly but surely headed to this tiny sushi bar that was packed to the rafters!

I wasn't even planning on blogging about it as I wanted a night off and was feeling slightly stressed about the next day's big demo. But I couldn't help myself, the food looked good, it was packed and obviously very popular. So the blogger in me succumbed and out came my camera! :)

Unfortunately as we did not book we did not get seats at the actual bar but had a side table instead, thus the bad lighting of my photos! :(

Grilled salmon

Soft shell crab roll

Edamame

Salmon with lobster

Chez Dre (South Melbourne, Melbourne)

Recently while I was in Melbourne, I had the opportunity to meet up with my friend AK for lunch and a couple of my work mates joined us. I had not been to Chez Dre before but having heard about it I obviously did some research on the web. What perked my interest were the cakes and macarons!

It was a lovely cafe tucked away in a quiet lane off Clarendon Street. And as it was a lovely sunny afternoon we sat outside basking in the sunny warmth. I love that it had an al fresco area.

We had the following:

Croque Monsieur - smoked ham, emmental cheese grilled sandwich with bechamel sauce. MC said it was lovely!

Yellow (Potts Point, Sydney)

Yellow is located in an iconic and historical building in Potts Point. You can see the character of the building, not only at the exterior but also the interior. And I completely get why this placed is called Yellow! Don't you? :)

The previous Yellow was a lovely cafe run by Lorraine Goldsmark who now runs Lorraine's Patisserie in Palings Lane in the CBD (part of the Establishment group). This new Yellow is a slightly different kettle of fish. It is after all the brainchild of Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt (from Bentley and Monopole). As such my expectations were quite high!

We decided to come for brunch on a Saturday and was informed bookings were not necessary. And true enough we managed to get a table as soon we walked in but I did notice it started to get a tad busy around the 1.00 pm mark.

We decided to share our dishes:

Cured Bonito, Buttermilk, Celtuce and Pickled Cashew - a light and fresh dish. There were subtle flavours and left me with a clean palate. The bonito was beautifully cured and had a nice texture.

Poached Eggs with Charred Onion Consommé, Mushroom and Peas - OMG! I am such a sucker for eggs and I fell for this one hook, line and sinker! Perfectly poached eggs with a delightfully light yet wholesomely flavoured consommé. Yum to the power of 10! More please! :)

Hutong Dumpling (Melbourne CBD)

I have visited Melbourne so many times over the past few years and this is one dumpling place I have yet to try. Believe me it was not for lack of trying.

I have tried a couple of times when in Melbourne to get a table and every time I get told it would take 1/2 hour up to an hour. Well, I wasn't going to wait that long especially since I was starving! This time we only needed to wait for less than 10 minutes and we took it! The only condition was we had to vacate the table by 8.30. No problemo! :)

After a day of travelling to Melbourne and a rather full work day, we were quite exhausted so we decided to choose light dishes, rather than full on mains.

Xiao Long Bao - their famous dumplings did not disappoint. Lovely thin skins which was quite translucent. Perfect with the black vinegar and thinly sliced ginger.

Mushroom Prawn Dumplings with Diced Water Chestnut - another lovely and quite flavourful set of dumplings. They didn't look too flash in the photo but were definitely tasty.