Picture it: the morning after a dinner party. I woke up and switched on the computer and put my on my computer mouse. It was buttery. Now what were the chances of that? Well if you know me, they’re pretty high. I’m often found reading food blogs with one finger on the mouse and the other feeding myself. So a buttery mouse would be inevitable. And then I got on twitter and the conversation turned to people in public with food on them. I’ve walked out with flour on my skirt and lettuce in my hair. I promised that I would keep an eye out for people wearing food when I was going out for lunch that day. I was hoping that it was more common than I thought (really to make myself feel a little better).
I’m always lost when it comes to the Ivy complex and find staff there varying degrees of helpful. The girl downstairs whose job I’m assuming is to direct lost souls such as myself wandering around the complex barely looks up and moves a bored arm indicating “that way” and could not be less interested. Then when I go upstairs to Uccello, well they couldn’t be more helpful. I’m meeting some friendly people from Whistler in Canada and discussing an upcoming return to Canada and at 12pm there is a smattering of other guests. Come 1pm at the eating hour the restaurant will be full of men in suits with the occasional table of pretty young things.
Balmain bug salad, French beans, artichokes, oven dried cherry tomatoes $26
I choose the Balmain bug salad and we warn the Canadians at the table that Balmain bugs are not in fact insects but really delicious crustaceans that taste like tender lobster tail. Here they are served as small, sweet, deliciously tender pieces amongst a frissee, French beans and artichoke salad dotted with sweet, flavoursome oven dried cherry tomatoes. I found the artichoke a bit too tangy for me and overwhelming in the salad and it was a touch oily from them too. And at $26 this is a bit high for the size of the portion and amount of Balmain bug.
Chicken liver parfait, vin santo jelly, toasted fig brioche $24
I tried a little of the parfait and it was smooth and creamy with a strong hit of alcohol in it.
Risotto with baby spinach, mascarpone, grilled porcini mushrooms
Grass fed eye fillet of beef, sauteeed mushrooms, baby carrots, truffle butter, red wine reduction $48
I always have to studiously not order seafood and seafood because I know not all of you want to read about my obsession with it and may occasionally want to order something else. So when I spied truffle butter on this dish I ordered it. The beef, perfectly cooked, is a tender cut of grass fed eye fillet. It comes topped with a rich truffle butter disc, some sauteed chanterelle mushrooms and some sweet tender baby carrots and a red wine reduction sauce. In fact I didn’t mean to eat anywhere near as much as I did but it was too good to give up and I stopped only when the truffle butter ran out (admittedly I put a lot of it on the steak).
Pan roasted fillet of blue eye trvealla, cauliflower puree, cuttlefish, broccolini, rosemary crouton $45
I tried a little of the trevalla and it was delicious although I would have raised an eyebrow at paying $45 for the dish given the serving size and possibly tried to glamour another piece of fish from the waiter for that price.
Oven roasted fillet of snapper, braised fennel and endive, Sicilian green olives and thyme $44
Chocolate mousse, caramelised pecan ice cream $18
I ordered this just for the ice cream as I am mostly nonplussed about chocolate mousse. This one is a bit too rich for me and sweet with milk chocolate and it is topped with a paper thin disc of chocolate. It is also quite firm. There is a creamy centre but I can’t get through more than a few bites of this. The caramelised pecan ice cream is a bit of a disappointment, it is quite watery and doesn’t pack the punch of caramelised pecans that I was hoping for.
Strawberries macerated in Grand Marnier, rhubarb puree, almond praline and vanilla ice cream
Chocolate and hazelnut semifredo, caramel sauce $18
Petit fours
I pop a cocoa dusted truffle in my mouth and it is delectable with the thinnest shell of chocolate enrobing it. The little squares of cookie are studded with fruit and are crumbly and buttery and would make a fitting accompaniment to a cup of tea.
It’s only when I get home that I notice that I had some chocolate mousse in the corner of my mouth. Oops!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever walked out with food on your clothing or on your face?
Uccello
Fourth Floor, Building Two, The Ivy Complex
George Street, Sydney, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9240 3000
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40 Comments | Add your own
Hahaha love your comments about food on your clothes and face
it always happens to me! Mr Bao always knowns when I’ve had chocolate or ice-cream without him hahaa
That lunch looks really good, especially the steak! I haven’t had a decent steak for a while ~ And i agree that fish looks a little dear…
The desserts look delicious! But like you again ahahha i don’t really like mousse either…but I’d love to try the hazelnut semifredo!
oh my – those desserts look wonderful!
If I am not walking around with food on me, I am walking around with hay in my hair.
Hah, I thought everyone did that!!!
Explains a lot of funny looks I’ve gotten over the years…
Happy New Year sweetie!
xxoo,
RMW
Uccello means bird in Italian. It is also slang for penis. The food looks very good. The snapper has my vote. Ice cream here is never as good as in Italy.
I’m not an apron wearer so I frequently wander out of the house with a light dusting of flour on my clothes after baking. Maybe that should be a new years resolution for me – to keep myself a little tidier.
I hope that you and Mr NQN have a happy and safe new year, Lorraine.
I’ve heard about Balmain bugs many times and have always been intrigued–we have various crustacean varieties in the States as well. They always sound so good. Nice menu.
Oh,I hate to think of the times I might have left restaurants with food in unwanted places…hate to think of it.
Isn’t it funny that we don’t want to embarrass someone by pointing out their food wearing (giving them the opportunity to remove said food), so say nothing and let even more people witness the teeth-greenery, floured skirt, or mousse remnants.
My three-year-old ensures that I regularly wear food. She isn’t so bad these days, but I have been known to sport a variety of dishes on my sleeve
Most of the time it’s the chocolate moustache after having dived into the obligatory mocha that usually ends my meal (if the tea selection does not grab me).
But I remember a red-faced moment in the ‘teething’ stages of my dining-out experiences when in an effort to look sophisticated, I stabbed a monstrous green olive on my plate, which immediately catapulted across the entire room – over the heads of all the other unsuspecting diners to land unceremoniously at the feet of a waiter.
The food looks nice but for those prices I think I could find somewhere else to spend my money.
Happy New Year to you and your followers. Love what you do but am having trouble reading the script over the photographs. Many other food mags are doing the same, find myself not reading the page.
Flour on the dress does not seem too bad. Could be a lot worse.
The food looks really nice. Its strange to see expressions like “grass fed beef” but then reality strikes. Normal cattle used to be grass fed but these days normal beef is a luxury. I wonder if any restaurant is brave enough, or has sense of humour to write “corn, antibiotic fed beef”:)
All the best for 2012 and looking forward to more interesting posts
As a mother of a small person i’ve often walked out of the house with food on me
My biggest paranoia is food in my teeth – I hate eating out & discovering an hour later i’ve been smiling at people with seeds or spinach in my teeth!
Gorgeous gorgeous food!
This all looks so beautiful, the pate looked amazing, as did the chocolate dessert.
I am sure I have walked out in a similar state after devouring desserts.
The best story I heard was a chef who used to make a squid ink dish, the black used to colour customers teeth but they would be smiling and raving about how gorgeous the dish was as they paid at the front desk. LOL, that is embarrassment!
I wear a big apron to avoid such situations as far as possible.
My kiddies like to guess what I’ve been cooking by smell rather than sight. I get a lot more hugs, for instance, when I’ve been deep frying ‘mmm mummy, you smell like chippies’ and a lot less on the days we cook off boxes of lobster carcasses for sauce!
Risotto is my weakness and that one made me drool.
I have a dimple in my chin and when I was a baby my family used to laugh about how I would keep some milk in it for later. Personally I think they were just too damn sloppy feeding me
I do hope plans to come back to Canada come through for you Lorraine, Whistler British Columbia is indeed a marvellous place. You should try to come in the winter and do some skiing, it has some of the best skiing in North America! The food looks quite lovely and I was surprised that the bugs aren’t really bugs. No, I can honestly say I have not walked out of a restaurant with food on my clothing or on my face, thank goodness. I doubt I would ever hear the end of it.
Loving the blog as always Lorraine, what a job:) Apart from a bit of detritus in the teeth I’m not aware of wearing any food away from a restaurant; however I once worked out of a restaurant with a large brown napkin tucked into my belt. I didn’t notice it until I got to the car. Ooops:) All I could do was laugh.
I must admit I’m a keen wearer of aprons, as I’ve ruined countless expensive tops with various fruit juice squirts, and fat splatters, often wearing for the first time!
Actually walked out of the restaurant not worked. another oops!
All of this food looks delightful – I bags the hazelnut semifreddo. I thing everyone at some time or other has walked out with food on their clothing or face – it is one of the vissicitudes of life.
Happy New Year!
My family always used to visit a very upmarket restaurant, and our standing joke was to put parsley or spinach, or anything green, right in the middle of our teeth, and ask each other: Have I got something stuck in my teeth? It used to be our little thing, and we still replicate it from time to time.
Hope this New Year’s is better than the Whie Bathrobe incident year.
I’m pleased to read that others also wear food. I don’t drink red wine in public because of the mustache. Cappuccinos always seems to leave chocolate around my lips and don’t mention green stuff stuck in my teeth.It is not so bad when I’m out with my adult daughters but I’m not sure that my husband always notices.
Happy New Year Lorriane. I only discovered your blog this year and I have enjoyed very much.
Since I really and truly mean it when I wish you and Mr NQN a most wonderful year to come and you all the success in the New Year, it ill behoves me to say I’m not all that impressed with the menu or the humongous prices of Ucello
! The steak looks moreish . . . Well, I believe I more-or-less do ‘brush myself down’ ere going out, but have a nighttime ‘secret’. WELL, if I wake up in the wee small hours, I oft get a yen for my fave dark chocolate and wander into the pantry to get a few squares. Wander back, half asleep, and obviously am so in a matter of seconds. Wake up in the morning hours with a delightfully chocky smell around me: huh!!? Well, I would not mind having to wash the pillowcases etc, but looking at my streaked chocolatey face and all that wretched stuff in clumps t’out my long hair . . . yuk! you think it has happened once ??? . . . 
!
I am usually pretty good at keeping myself tidy when I’m out. The same cannot be said of my dear mother, who always manages to wear either food or drink on her ample bosom! Then she rubs at it and usually makes it worse! Happpy New Year to all!
The other day i ducked across the road to pick up a few things for baking after getting half way through a recipe only to realiese that i was missing the key ingrident (thank goodness the store is right across the road). it wasn’t until i was paying that i realised i still had on my apron complete with flour and god knows what else, whoops. I also bake while i am at work (benefit of living above where you work) so i’m constantly serving customers while covered in flour and chocolate
Oh yes, all the time, and as a mother, sometimes with someone else’s food on my clothes! I must admit, I struggled to find the pieces of bug in that dish – love my bugs. (The seafood variety that is!)
Whoa, $44 for entrees there. Pricey! I know that the gratuity is sort of included in Australian restaurant menu prices, but wow, that’s a lot for a piece of fish that size. But I must say, it did look tasty.
Spinich between my front teeth is not a good look.
So I always avoid any dishes with spinich in it for a first date.
Teehee, Spay Lady synchronicity again! I almost always eat while reading food blogs (and I read food blogs a lot, which means I eat a lot….), and would have ordered the mousse for the ice cream and left the mousse mostly alone too
Happy New Year (again), gorgeous friend!
I literally just finished my lunch and you’ve got my stomach grumbling again.
I often have flour on me but don’t think I’ve ever left the house covered in food, well not that I know of anyway.
I seem to be always covered in something. Archie has a few female friends who work downstairs at The Ivy!!!
Oh, I could happily wade in the truffle butter.
And to make the experience last, I would dab a little chocolate mousse behind each ear, on the way out of the restaurant.
Happy New Year, Lorraine!
Ah, i remember the good old days when Italian restaurants (checkered tablecloths, empty chianti bottles with candles) had serviettes the size of a mini tablecloth, to be draped bib-style – now, i make sure i NEVER wear a light-coloured top when twirling my fork
I find it quite hard to believe that you would have a buttery mouse! YOu clean everything!! Lols.. but very funny!
Thanks for a great 2011 and I can’t wait to read more in 2012!
i once had rose apple juice on my dress shirt while i was munching on it (too juicy) and the stain would not go away despite washing it three times.
T_T
I can seriously related to the whole “buttery mouse” thing! Happy new year!
You should look at my computor monitor. I think it has food samples to everything I cooked for the past 30 days. Ewww
What an incredible display of food. I’m starving right now.
Happy New Year 2012!!
I’d forgotten about Uccello’s Italian, so thanks for the reminder. Happy New Year!
Ooooh! I might check this place out with my girlfriends who have never been to the Ivy before!
And don’t worry – post-Halloween party at my workplace, I had fake blood on my mouse and phone.. and plenty of black nail polish everywhere!
That chocolate mousse dessert looks so good…too bad the taste wasn’t perfect!
Haha, I completely relate to being a messy eater. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, inexplicably starving, and wolf down dark chocolate while still semi-asleep in bed. The next morning there are chocolate stains EVERYWHERE. Face, pillow, quilt…I’m such a pig xD
Goodness me – I nearly choked on my sandwhich when I read those prices! I don’t mind paying for something special, but there was nothing too special on display there.
Speaking of on display- my iPad is my recipe book. Poor thing gets pretty grubby!
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