Simon Food Favourites: Crème Caramel

Showing posts with label Crème Caramel. Show all posts

19 July 2012

Sydney Harbour Marriott Icons Brasserie: Seafood Buffet, CBD Sydney (9 July 2012)

Level 2, 30 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.icons.sydneyharbourmarriott.com.au

Eating your money's worth

A tempting $29 Seafood Buffet Lunch promotional special available Monday and Tuesday brought me to try Icons Brasserie. The key in my books to getting your money's worth is to hit the seafood hard and avoid the breads, salads and too much of the hot dishes although I usually try and sample everything. I managed 36 Sydney rock oysters, 12 prawns, 2 salads, smoked salmon, 5 hot dishes, 1 chilli prawn stir fry, half a slice of bread with butter, 11 desserts (shared), 4 pieces of cheese with crackers and a few jelly beans. The oysters were very small and missing most of their brine you'd hope for but still sweet and quite nice. Timing is everything with the oysters so I recommend waiting for the tray to be replenished then swooping in to get the best pick of the tray. Prawns were surprisingly decent sized and pretty fresh. There was quite a good range of salad to choose from or make your own but seriously who makes friends with salad at a buffet although it's good to probably fit in a few greens. The cooked fish and chicken were my preferred hot dishes of the day and for dessert the Panna Cotta with berry compote, Crème brûlée and Double choc mousse cups were the favourites I'd happily have again. Table service was friendly and polite (Michael) and the shell bowl and dirty plates were taken away in a timely manner. Wine by the glass was expensive so I think the wine buffet could be a better option for diners thinking of having more than two glasses.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Promotional Lunch Special is reasonably priced, Good range of dish options, Quality was better than I expected, Nice decor and open space, Table service was friendly and polite (Michael), You can eat as much as you like, Dishes were replenished in a timely manner

CONS: Eating too much can cause indigestion, Oysters were very small, Wine by the glass is expensive, Only one hand bowl provided on the table (not the nicest thing to share)

MUST TRY: Avoid eating bread and go straight for the oysters and prawns but don't forget to leave room for desserts

VERDICT: A better than expected experience that suits small or larger groups looking for a pleasant dining experience that provides lots of dish choices — and no arguments about bill splitting

—

Matua Valley Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, NZ ($11/glass) — quaffable but not cheap

Dish 1: I always start with oysters and prawns. Oysters are very small but sweet and quite nice although mostly missing brine. Prawns are large and easy to peel and pretty fresh.

Dish 2: A second lot of oysters and prawns is my usual tactic with a bit of salad to tick the healthy box.

Dish 3: If the oysters and prawns are pretty good I'll go another round but the hot dishes tend to make an appearance too.

Dish 4: I spotted a fresh batch of oysters replenished so thought I'd pick the best ones at the time.

Dish 5: I spotted the stir fry station with Chilli Prawns as the special of the day. Already peeled for easy eating and were quite flavoursome.

Dish 6: Now that I've tried all the hot dishes I wanted I usually go back for another plate of oysters before dessert. It's one of those moments where I get my money's worth I think.

Dish 7: Dessert time — the cannoli was a bit dry and crumbly but the Panna Cotta with berry compote, Crème brûlée and Double choc mousse cups were good.

Dish 8: All steam ahead with desserts — jelly as expected, carrot cake quite nice, pavlova good but more ratio of meringue would have better and cheesecake surprisingly nice and not too heavy.

Dish 9: Final run of dessert with a nice enough Chocolate croissant pudding with creme anglaise, too firm Crème caramel, quite rich but decent Chocolate mud cake helped along by freshly whipped cream. Not sure why I got the jelly beans — maybe because they were just there.

Dish 10: For those that don't like desserts they usually go for the cheeses. The brie was the best of the lot while I found all the other cheeses quite uninspiring on flavour. No sign of a blue cheese — perhaps too expensive for a buffet.

Little oysters just means you can eat more of them

Decent sized prawns

Smoked salmon, anti pasto and salads

Salads and bread — probably the stuff I tend to avoid at an all you can eat buffet

Hot dishes — the cooked fish was very nice and roast tender enough

More hot dishes — the chicken tulips in teriyaki sauce were tasty but the pie was a bit short on meat and the potato gratin not as flavoursome as hoped

Desserts

Breads and cheeses

Bread and butter — sometimes you just have to try it, but not too much or you'll get too full from it and then they have won!

Shell bowl — was collected and emptied quite often which was a good sign service was doing their job properly.

Friendly service at the stir fry station — Would be great if they could add a Salt & Pepper Squid to the menu

Glasses of wine start from $10 which isn't cheap

Wine buffet is $24 at lunch and $29 at dinner so if you're thinking of drinking more than 2 glasses of wine this would be a winner for the drinkers

Not much of a view outside but it's a nice light and open space

Tables aren't too squashed together giving ample room to stack on a few extra kilos during the feasting

Table supports get a tick from me — nice and flat

Impressive open foyer space

View Larger Map

30 August 2011

The Little Snail: French, Pyrmont (29 July 2011)

50 Murray Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009 
Phone: (02) 9212 7512
http://www.thelittlesnail.com.au

Menu isn't quite all French

Thanks to Nina Howse from Our Deal for providing two vouchers ($69 each) for the ‘A Three Course Gourmet Dining Experience for Two. Value $139’. I’m not sure how $139 was worked out since a 3 course dinner menu is $56 and an Aperitif is $9 each which comes to $130. Lunch is even cheaper at $35 for 3 courses. The offer is valid between 22 June – 22 Sept 2011 in case you have bought one. My expectations weren’t particularly high with bruschetta, salt & pepper squid, kangaroo fillet, risotto and sticky date pudding on the menu — I’m pretty sure you won’t find those in France. To start the pre-determined Aperitif provided by the restaurant was so light on alcohol I thought I was drinking straight orange juice. The Garlic bread ($4.50) was quite nice but comes at an extra cost. The restaurant promotes its signature dish as escargot so I had to try. I remember trying these for the first time when The Little Snail was in Bondi. The Escargot de Bourgogne was oven baked in herbs and garlic butter which comes with two tiny slices of bread. The snails weren’t too chewy and quite flavoursome but I’m no expert on what a good one should be although more bread would have been appreciated to soak up the sauce.

The Ravioli of Blue Swimmer Crab, Prawns and Salmon with a lemongrass and chervil veloute looked nothing like a ravioli but more like a snowball croquette. Sauce was quite nice although the dish was a bit on the luke warm side. The Paté Maison was quite generous and more Plain baguette ($2.50) was ordered to help finish it. It was fairly smooth but a bit on the firm side. I think keeping the ingredients more simple and having cornichons instead of the champignons would have been more to my liking. A decent amount of seafood was found in the Bouillabaisse de Marseille although the sauce was more like an Italian Neapolitan pasta sauce and didn’t have the same depth of flavour like I had at Flinders Inn or the prawn bisque soup at Chase Oyster Bar.

Corn-Fed Chicken Roulade was also served a bit luke warm and unfortunately had a meat loaf processed consistency — we wondered if it was made in house or bought in. Wasn’t particularly appetizing I’m afraid and the vegetables soon became the best part of the dish. The Citrus Marinated Tasmanian Salmon had an overly salty skin and the Magret de Canard with a cassis and raspberry sauce became a strange combination of flavours for our French dining guests to stomach. My Seafood Plate takes the cake for perhaps the most non-French dish of the night complete with sweet chilli sauce. The soft shell crab was actually cooked quite nicely and the crumbed calamari pretty tender. Having no patriotic crème brûlée on the dessert menu the Classic Crème Caramel had to do which was quite good. A non-French Warm Sticky Date Pudding was also good and the Handmade Profiteroles with crème patisserie was served singular rather than living up to its plural description. The Kahlua Infused Chocolate Mousse (spelt Cjocolate Mouse on website) was equally satisfying and didn't contain any mouse that I was aware of.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Quite nice décor and ambience, Friendly staff although don’t expect the majority to be French including the kitchen I’m suspecting, Desserts were better than the entrees and mains, Lots of seating and roomy spacing, Probably good for large groups

CONS: It's more of a Modern Australian café menu than a pure French restaurant menu, Some of the dishes were unfortunately served a bit luke warm, Aperitif was extremely light on the alcohol, No crème brûlée — how very non-French

WORTH TRYING: Desserts, Garlic bread and I guess the escargot if you’ve never had them before

—

Aperitif with deal - very light on alcohol, Lemon, lime and bitters ($4)

Winter Creek Riesling Traminer 2009 ($40)

Aperitif and Cocktail menus

Garlic bread ($4.50)

Escargot de Bourgogne - Dozen snails marinated in herb-infused court-bouillon, oven baked in garlic butter

Ravioli of Blue Swimmer Crab, Prawns and Salmon with a lemongrass and chervil veloute — doesn't look like a ravioli to me

Paté Maison - Armagnac flavoured duck liver pate with marinated champignons, date chutney and port vinaigrette

Bouillabaisse de Marseille - Traditional French seafood soup with mussels, fish fillets and prawns, served with garlic baguette — was more like Neapolitan sauce but decent bits of seafood