Wilbur's Place, Potts Point

Dear Reader, it took me about ten minutes after sitting down at a table outside Wilbur's Place to look up, exclaim loudly and grab Mr NQN's hand.

"Omigod! That's the building where I used to live!" The building smack bang opposite Wilbur's Place on Llankelly Place is where I used to live and rapidly all of the decades old memories come flooding back to me.

Nostalgia aside, I must attend to more urgent matters. Matters of ordering really. Not only are we hungry but as Kings Cross and Potts Point is a sea of one hour parking spots, we've got about 47 minutes in which to order an entree, main and dessert. Luckily, our waitress tells us that this shouldn't be a problem at all. She's absolutely lovely as is all of the staff and she recommends a range of dishes.

Wilbur's Place is named after the owner's favourite book as a child: "Charlotte's Web". It's one of the offerings from the ever expanding Bourke Street Bakery empire. White tiles shine on the outside and there are bar seats, small tables as well as four outdoor tables that seat small groups.

The house made lemonade comes out strong with a tangy lemon and just the right amount of sweetness.

True to their word our food comes out quickly. The school prawns remind me of being on holiday in Europe when bowls of these tiny prawns would come out and I would absent-mindedly pick at them until all that was left were flakes of salt. Served with mayonnaise and fronds of deep fried parsley, they're addictive little buggers and you eat them head and shell and all which just gives them a nice light crispiness. They're well salted and all that is needed is a generous squeeze of lemon.

The beef carpaccio was paper thin and one scoop up with the fork and the plate of fine textured beef, caper berries, reggiano and oil was gone in an instant. I did find that this was quite mild especially in comparison to the salty prawns that came out first.

There are seven pieces of crostini bageutte slices on a very long thin plate. The bread was topped with a broad bean puree, fine shavings of parmesan and fried artichoke pieces. The creaminess of the broad bean puree was delicious against the chewy, crusty bread pieces. I create plans to make something similar at home to make the most of the bounty of spring broad beans.

We decided to share a main, mostly because we we liked the sound of all of the entrees and decided to double up on those. Mains aren't massive in size but they're a good size and perfectly fine for both of us. The lamb comes as five pieces of rare lamb, edged in fat which are buttery soft but for me, like the kid that plays with the box instead of the present, I'm completely sidetracked by the warm kipfler salad. It is made up of slices of kipfler potato fried until crispy. Like a cross between a potato crisp and a chip, it's flavoured with lemon and mustard (how's that for a great potato crisp flavour?) and a salsa verde.

By now our time is running out but we've just got to have dessert. We ordered one of their toasted brioche ice cream sandwiches but also for a chocolate fix, two of the chocolate truffle drops. I pop one of the cocoa dusted pointy tipped truffles in my mouth and it is sublimely smooth and melts on my tongue. It's a Belgian milk chocolate sweetened with honey and the flavour is like honey nougat. They're so good that I order some more to take away with me to eat while I'm writing up this post ;)

The dessert is handed to us and I smile. It looks like a regular sandwich rather than an ice cream sandwich. They regularly change the ice cream fillings and we've lucked out as tonight's is one of my favourite flavours: honey macadamia ice cream. The two slices of brioche are thin and soft and the piece above is spread with salted caramel. Despite the romantic nature of our quick date, I still have to fight Mr NQN for some mouthfuls of this as he is smitten.

Our hour is up and we've just made it back in time to the car. I clutch my little takeaway cup that they've given me with my takeaway truffles like I'm holding precious cargo.

So tell me Dear Reader, what's your record for the fastest non takeaway meal? And do you ever enjoy something so much that you get it takeaway to have later?

Wilbur's Place

36 Llankelly Pl, Potts Point NSW 2011
Tel: +61 (02) 9332 2999
Dinner 5pm-9:30pm Tuesday to Saturday
Brunch 8am-3pm Saturday
http://www.wilbursplace.com/