End of October means the end of the Good Food Month for another year. This year, I planned ahead and managed to squeeze in 4 "Lets do Lunch" outings. First one was at Forty One, and here are the other three:
Quadrant Restaurant
First up, Quadrant Restaurant by Circular Quay. Before we even ordered our dishes, they bought out a little starter of Three Cheese Tartlet with a Caramelised Balsamic sauce:
The restaurant was offering a choice of:
Choice of Crispy skin duck breast with duck parfait, sauteed witlof and pink lady apples or Grainfed beef tenderloin with jerusalem artichoke and truffle ravioli, sauteed spinach, red wine sauce or Steamed mulloway, shao xing braised squid, snow pea leaves, xo chilli or Grilled field mushroom topped with persian fetta, spiced eggplant and tomato salsa.
My workmate went for the Crispy Duck whilst I went for the Beef Tenderloin, mainly because I don't like witlof much and was expecting it to be really bitter even though they way they cooked it ensured it had a subtle sweetness to it so you didn't even notice the bitterness.
I have also never tasted jerusalem artichoke before and thought it was a great chance to try it out, and I loved it!
Tenderloin unveiled!
Bécasse
We also managed to get one of the limited bookings at Bécasse. Again, a lovely little hor'dourve to start with.
This little bitesize morsel was utterly amazing. It was a warm parmesan cheese biscuit base with a slice of cherry tomato topped with a quinelle of goats curd. If all they had served me was a platter of this, I would've died happy. This was sooooooo good!!
A lovely sour dough roll in a twisted floral shape
We also opted to try their entree, which was $15 as a part of the GFM special. This was a duck parfait with a herb and gerkin salad. REALLY REALLY good. I could feel my arteries clogging up with every mouthful, but we couldn't stop!!
Entree
For the main, we had Slow roast rump of Rosé veal with crushed potatoes and a warm vinaigrette of Spring vegetables.
The mash was actually half mashed potatoes half crushed potatoes mixed with herbs and a lightly seasoned with lemon to give it a bit of a tang. I've never had a citrus potato before, but it actually went really well with everything.
The rest of the group stayed behind for coffee, tea and dessert (Which takes a minimum of 20mins to make). But since I had a meeting, I had to skip all of that and run back to work.
Hyde Park Barracks Cafe
Bloody Google Maps! When I booked a seating at the Hyde Park Barracks Cafe, I was wondering why Google Maps had put the address on the corner of Bridge and Macquarie St. Lets just say, ITS NO WHERE NEAR THERE! Luckily my workmate new the address and after a 20min power walk, we got there without much drama.
The Hyde Park Barracks Cafe was offering a choice of Grilled King prawns served on a bed of saffron infused linguini in a lobster and tomato concasser sauce or Veal escalopes filled with provolone and baby spinach on a bed of creamy parmesan polenta with a cherry tomato jus.
My workmate's partner, decided to join us at the last minute, so we took her order over the phone. So infront of the poor waiter, who spent a good 2 minutes describing the dish to us in great detail such as what I wrote above, he asked "Did you want the prawn pasta with a lobster soupy thing, or a stuffed veal thing on porridge?". I think the waiter's heart broke a little when he heard that.
My prawn pasta with lobster soupy thing
Stuffed veal thing with porridge
Quadrant Restaurant
First up, Quadrant Restaurant by Circular Quay. Before we even ordered our dishes, they bought out a little starter of Three Cheese Tartlet with a Caramelised Balsamic sauce:
The restaurant was offering a choice of:
Choice of Crispy skin duck breast with duck parfait, sauteed witlof and pink lady apples or Grainfed beef tenderloin with jerusalem artichoke and truffle ravioli, sauteed spinach, red wine sauce or Steamed mulloway, shao xing braised squid, snow pea leaves, xo chilli or Grilled field mushroom topped with persian fetta, spiced eggplant and tomato salsa.
My workmate went for the Crispy Duck whilst I went for the Beef Tenderloin, mainly because I don't like witlof much and was expecting it to be really bitter even though they way they cooked it ensured it had a subtle sweetness to it so you didn't even notice the bitterness.
I have also never tasted jerusalem artichoke before and thought it was a great chance to try it out, and I loved it!
Tenderloin unveiled!Bécasse
We also managed to get one of the limited bookings at Bécasse. Again, a lovely little hor'dourve to start with.
This little bitesize morsel was utterly amazing. It was a warm parmesan cheese biscuit base with a slice of cherry tomato topped with a quinelle of goats curd. If all they had served me was a platter of this, I would've died happy. This was sooooooo good!!
A lovely sour dough roll in a twisted floral shapeWe also opted to try their entree, which was $15 as a part of the GFM special. This was a duck parfait with a herb and gerkin salad. REALLY REALLY good. I could feel my arteries clogging up with every mouthful, but we couldn't stop!!
EntreeFor the main, we had Slow roast rump of Rosé veal with crushed potatoes and a warm vinaigrette of Spring vegetables.
The mash was actually half mashed potatoes half crushed potatoes mixed with herbs and a lightly seasoned with lemon to give it a bit of a tang. I've never had a citrus potato before, but it actually went really well with everything.
The rest of the group stayed behind for coffee, tea and dessert (Which takes a minimum of 20mins to make). But since I had a meeting, I had to skip all of that and run back to work.
Hyde Park Barracks Cafe
Bloody Google Maps! When I booked a seating at the Hyde Park Barracks Cafe, I was wondering why Google Maps had put the address on the corner of Bridge and Macquarie St. Lets just say, ITS NO WHERE NEAR THERE! Luckily my workmate new the address and after a 20min power walk, we got there without much drama.
The Hyde Park Barracks Cafe was offering a choice of Grilled King prawns served on a bed of saffron infused linguini in a lobster and tomato concasser sauce or Veal escalopes filled with provolone and baby spinach on a bed of creamy parmesan polenta with a cherry tomato jus.
My workmate's partner, decided to join us at the last minute, so we took her order over the phone. So infront of the poor waiter, who spent a good 2 minutes describing the dish to us in great detail such as what I wrote above, he asked "Did you want the prawn pasta with a lobster soupy thing, or a stuffed veal thing on porridge?". I think the waiter's heart broke a little when he heard that.
My prawn pasta with lobster soupy thing
Stuffed veal thing with porridgeSo that's it for the year. Thank GOD! I don't think my wallet can handle much more of this lunch splurging thing.
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