Simon Food Favourites: Mash Potato

28 October 2010

est: SIFF 2010 Let's Do Lunch, Sydney (5 Oct 2010)

Establishment Hotel

Level 1, 252 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.merivale.com/#/establishment/est

Perfectly cooked fish

The grand high ceiling of the est. restaurant is always a great setting for a special lunch and SIFF 2010 makes the 3 Hatted Restaurant a lot more affordable too. Complimentary bread is good and the $35 lunch deal is a perfectly cooked Pan roasted aoraki salmon with crispy skin and moist and tender meat as hoped which is matched well with a drinkable Brown Brothers Chardonnay 2008. It comes with shaved fennel, asparagus, witlof, preserved lemon and dill oil which all balances well on the palate. The Brown Brothers Shiraz 2009 was also well liked. A glass of wine and coffee is included in the meal price — my cappuccino is good without being too bitter in taste. A bowl of Mash ($10) helps fill the stomach with it's creamy goodness. Petit fours ($4) can be ordered with your coffee which comes with a selection of 6 little sugary morsels. The est labeled chocolate is probably my favourite. It's great to finally see the toilets now use soap dispensers rather than a cake of soap which I noticed in my previous visits.

Other visits to est.:
• 17 Oct 2011 - Let's Do Lunch: Barramundi with asparagus, Sashimi of ocean trout, Salad of spanner crab, Italian buffalo mozzarella
• 5 Oct 2010 - Let's Do Lunch: Pan Roasted Salmon
• 12 Mar 2010 - March Into Merivale: Oysters, Scallops, Veal Parmgiana, Corn Fed Chicken, Mesclun Salad
• 30 June 2009 - Winter Feast: Scallop linguine, Barramundi, Lamb rump, Chips, Cheesecake, Slow poached quince

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Nice decor, Professional and welcoming service, Perfectly cooked fish, Nice balance of flavours, Reasonably priced petit fours

CONS: Might need to order some side dishes to help make the meal more substantial, No entree or dessert specials

MUST TRY: Pan Roasted Salmon, Petit fours as a cheap dessert alternative with your coffee

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Complimentary bread

Pan roasted aoraki salmon, shaved fennel, asparagus, witlof, preserved lemon, dill oil ($35) with wine and coffee

Brown Brothers Chardonnay 2008

Brown Brothers Shiraz 2009

Mash ($10)

Cappuccino

Petit fours ($4)

Bill $158 for 4 people

Table setting

SIFF Let's Do Lunch menu

Sides menu

Seating

Merivale specials promotion — candied scorpion anyone?

Finally have soap dispenser instead of cake of soap

View Larger Map

07 October 2010

Guillaume at Bennelong: SIFF 2010 Let's Do Lunch, Sydney Opera House (1 Oct 2010)

Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.guillaumeatbennelong.com.au

Food hits the spot except service

Upon arriving at my booked table of 14 it's the first time I've stepped foot in Guillaume at Bennelong and it coincides with my 2 year blogiversary. A great way to start the first day of the Sydney International Food Festival. I choose the light and drinkable Brown Brothers Limited Release Vermentino 2009 to go with my main which our waiter is bemused by me taking a photo of the bottle and remarks it's not that special — not something you really want to hear or should actually say to customers I think. We noticed all the waiters are male and this particular one didn't seem that friendly or welcoming — unfortunately I've had better service at McDonalds. But we did know another table group in the restaurant that had a different waiter who was much better and near the end of our meal he looked after our table as well and was thankfully much better. The Let's Do Lunch dish of Roasted free range chicken breast with a tombé of silverbeet on a bed of cauliflower puree, olives and lemon confit jus was a crowd pleaser. Chicken was cooked very nicely and was moist — I would have loved the skin to be more crispy in style though. All the flavours worked well on the plate. To complement our dish we ordered the tasty Salad of baby beans with pistachio pesto ($14) and very buttery Paris mash ($14) which probably had 1 kilo of potatoes to 1 block of butter — hence why it was so yellow. We shared 2 plates of each which worked out nicely for everyone to try.

A few of us stayed for the Pavlova with passionfruit cream, mangoes, mixed berries and vanilla bean ice cream ($15) which was everything you'd hoped for in a dessert. The menu listed coffee with petit fours as $8 extra but the SIFF website clearly says the Let's Do Lunch should be a main with coffee and choice of wine or beer. I mentioned this to the Maitre D' and he kindly offered the coffee for free to our table — I feel this should be corrected though on the menu. Surprisingly we received a selection of 3 types of petit fours as well. My Cappuccino was decent and thankfully not too bitter and I always like seeing the choice of brown sugar cubes.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Nicely cooked dishes and sides, Water views, Pavlova was not too sweet and had a nice selection of fruit

CONS: Coffee not listed as included for Let's Do Lunch, Some of the service was a bit non-friendly and perfunctory, The decor is a bit dated with lots of concrete around, Toilet is outside the restaurant, Normal menu is expensive

MUST TRY: Let's Do Lunch main, Paris mash at least once, Pavlova nice way to end meal

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Let's Do Lunch menu

Complimentary bread

Brown Brothers Limited Release Vermentino 2009

Roasted free range chicken breast with a tombé of silverbeet on a bed of cauliflower puree, olives and lemon confit jus ($35) including wine (and coffee?)