Ever passed by a place dozens of times on the way somewhere, pegging it in your mind for a longer, lingering glance but have never stopped in? That happens to me a lot in Sydney where a new, bright, shiny restaurant or cafe seems to emerge from the restaurant ether every few days or weeks or so. And whilst I have walked past The Winery many a time either in or out of Thomas Dux next door or on my way to another appointment I never quite made it in. Which meant that the suspended peacocks and Elvis room hadn’t excited me until today. And well of course taxidermy always gets me excited.
The Elvis room
Having a business meeting is always made that much more pleasurable when there is lunch or food involved. And when the people you are having the meeting with don’t mind you whipping out the camera and taking photos of the food well, all the better. Who am I kidding? I used to do it even before the blog 
We’ve ordered a selection of food to share among the six of us.
Crispy little fish White bait, chipotle & lime mayo $18
The entrees come out before long and little fishies are coated in a crunchy, light seasoning like a fine polenta and deep fried and served with a spicy chipotle and lime mayonnaise. They’re not bad and the fish flavour is quite pronounced on these and remind me of whiting (as opposed to the smaller whitebait that you can buy sometimes called nanata that are served in fritters).
Stuffed roasted mushrooms with ricotta, pinenuts & pesto $18.50
The stuffed roasted mushrooms are simple but well executed with a nice balance of flavours. There is milky, creamy ricotta and the pesto mushrooms are juicy and slightly addictive.
Brandied chicken liver pate & toasts $19
Click here to read the full story
| January 26th, 2012 by Not Quite Nigella
There could probably be reams of paper wasted on how hopeless I am at following directions. Even though the eatery 13B has the very street number in the lane, I was the person looking around confused and scowling with a facial expression that reads “Where is that damn place?”.
I finally figure out where I am and enter the black walled and small eatery with some quirky, whimsical touches. The lunch menu has a total of 14 items including some version of pizzas and sandwiches which do sound awfully good. But me I’m just besotted by the current slider and mini burger trend and the fact that the burgers come with fries (which I feel all burgers really should). Formerly called The Safe House it has been renamed to 13B because of course that is the number where it sits on Burton Street in Darlinghurst (not that that helps me). There are black walls and ornate gold candlesticks and the atmosphere is welcoming and warm.
Chai $6
The chai tea comes in a teapot with a milky loose leaf Elmstock chai tea. I had to ask for the honey which was quickly furnished and a teaspoon was all I needed for a sweet, aromatic cup of milky chai.
Mini burgers $13
The burgers come out on toasted slightly hard buns with a herbed pork and veal mince which is moist and juicy like a sausage mince filling with a good amount of garlickly aioli sauce, caramelised onions for sweetness, tomato, lettuce and melted tasty cheese. They’re very good and even though I only meant to eat one of these I ate both quite happily. The only thing that I would possibly change is the buns to be a softer bun as they were a little harder to bite into. The chips are more oven baked wedges which have just the right amount of seasoning via some rosemary and salt on top.
Prawn risotto $18
Click here to read the full story
| October 30th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
The LPs on this wall all have a wine theme to the name
I’m having a deju vu moment. I look around and my mind appears to be spinning and my surroundings melting. I remember I used to dine in this space way back when it was a Hyatt Kingsgate hotel and it used to be a Japanese restaurant. In fact I have just walked past where 20 years ago my friend Miss America and I used to sit down and have chawanmushi and sushi way back when it was somewhat of a new cuisine. Yet 20 years later it is nothing like it used to be. Now it is a wine bar called Time To Vino run by sommelier and owner Clint Hillery who was the recent winner of the Electrolux Young Restaurateur of the Year award.
She’s a bottle opener if you can believe it!
Part of the Diamant hotel for whom they also provide the room service meals it is a place full of quirky knick knacks, many with the wine theme such as this buxom lass who in her spare time is a bottle opener. Clint tells us that they have a lot of fun scouring ebay for pieces and the waiter is kind enough to bring me a little nesting table to put my camera on, the table being another ebay purchase!
Wine corks a plenty everywhere!
The bar snacks are a comforting cut above with bangers and mash and a glass of wine for $20 or a Sunday roast with pudding for $30. And last but not least is the legendary toastie which changes regularly. Darren tells us that the toastie’s fillings change regularly and can feature fillings such as duck rillette and truffles.
Every Thursday night for the rest of the year they will also hold a wine and charcuterie plate tasting with 5 courses of nibbly style food and matching wines for $60. Their point of difference is that they do their charcuterie in house including an incredible venison morcilla (blood sausage) using New Zealand venison. While we are standing around a divine guinea fowl pate and cassis jelly eclairs are passed around along with a glass of NV Louis Roederer “Brut Premier” champagne. The guinea fowl livers used have a mild, less gamey and lovely flavour.
Wild Abalone with pork sausage served with 2010 Robert Oatley Riesling (Great Southern WA)
The wild abalone and pork sausage is a fresh sausage and Clint explains that the sausage only has a short life of one or two days because they cannot use a preservative as that will turn the abalone tough. The oyster and Swiss brown mushrooms are cooked in an abalone sauce which is made from the off cuts of abalone and the mushrooms have a slightly Asian flavour while the abalone and pork sausage pieces are packed full of flavour and to top it all off is a baton of crunchy, airy, lacey pork crackling. And the wine it has to be said is an excellent match. I’m not a wine writer, not would I ever claim to be but one thing that everyone has in common is knowing when wines match and this one softens the acidity in the wine and makes it smoother.
Burrawong Chicken Liver Parfait, poached quail egg, walnut remoulade and pickled mushrooms served with a 2009 Robert Oatley Chardonnay (Margaret River, WA)
Click here to read the full story
| September 6th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
I am not particularly claustrophobic (I used to sit in my cupboard for ages looking to get into Narnia as a child) but I say to myself “This is one small, dark place!” And like my Narnia journey that never was, I am totally lost when finding it and it’s only when I ask at a neighbouring restaurant am I told that 121 BC is actually not on Holt Street but on Gladstone Lane and the sign doesn’t actually say 121 BC but it says Cantina Enoteca with 121 BC written in tiny letters near the door. Of course. I might have had better luck trying to find Narnia.
Named 121 BC as that was said to be when the first great wine harvest occurred (said to be the vintage of a lifetime), this is one of the three places owned by the people that own Vini and Berta also in Surry Hills. And there is one common thing: they are small with 121 B.C. seating 25 people on a long communal table and they are dark which means that I need my dining buddy Alison from delicious. magazine and her iphone to shine some light onto the food (she kindly helped me through the Singapore trip by providing the light there too). Before we arrived, I didn’t intend to blog it as we didn’t know how much food they would have but after clocking the wall menu the food sounds rather good. Before you know it, I’ve got the camera out.
I seem to have caught the flu that everyone else in Sydney is currently suffering through and so I nurse a ginger drink which is truth isn’t particularly gingery and just tastes like chinotto. The focus here is on Italian wines, 250 or so, that are served in 100ml tasting glasses and the sole occupant on the cocktail menu is the bellini. Bartender Giorgio checks on Alison’s wine choice. When she finds one a bit too dry he offers her a taste of another which she likes a lot better and then goes on to order.
Pork ribs $10
Our first course is the pork ribs which come out on a board sprinkled with salt at one end. The ribs are flavoured with balsamic and have a slight tanginess that helps offset the richness of the pork ribs. The meat has a lovely texture, a little chewy and crusty on the outside but falling off the bone too.
Kingfish $10
The sashimi or carpaccio of kingfish is paired with pomegranates and celery leaves. I’m not a huge celery lover but when you get a bit of everything it isn’t too bad although I always find that celery tends to dominate all of the other flavours and if you take a bite with just the pomegranate and kingfish then the flavour changes vastly.
Mozzarella en carozza $7
Click here to read the full story
| April 21st, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
Going to a wine bar and not having any wine might seem like a silly thing to do but allow me to plead my case. This wine bar, The Wine Library on the Woollahra end of Oxford Street reportedly has some very good morsels to eat on offer. These delicious sounding bites also come at some very reasonable prices too – and Woollahra is not an area known for value particularly in boutique shopping or property prices! I was also on the verge of a cold so I say no to a glass of wine which I know is kind of like going to a steak house and not ordering steak but sometimes a girl just wants to eat. My buddy The Second Wife reports being very pleased with the wines that she had. And this post is a combination of two visits, the first with the fabulous The Second Wife and the second with the lovely Petrina from Donna Hay.
And where is the kitchen? Well it is right behind the bar! The open kitchen where food is prepared is a tiny area and the chefs tells the other customer about how different it is cooking out here whereas in a kitchen they never see much action. Case in point, a tipsy customer comes up to the chef and complains about the toilet door loudly and then lurches back to her seat. The chef look bemused by it all.
“Hmm chicken baguette with fennel pollen mayonnaise” I say drooling. The Second Wife, who it must be said is the perfect partner in crime ( we can get up to so much food mischief!) readily agrees to both the lobster roll and the chicken baguette, a serve of sweet potato chips and a witlof salad.
Chicken baguette with celery and fennel pollen mayonnaise $10
We start with the chicken baguette which has been cut in half for us. It is generously filled with tender chicken and mayonnaise and the bread is a white sourdough baguette. I end up eating the filling out of this as the bread is quite thick.
Lobster roll $15
The lobster roll is next. It is filled with tiny morsels of real lobster meat. It’s not bad but I think I prefer the chicken roll more as the lobster morsels are very small and appear to be more of the leg meat than the larger tail meat. Unusually, there isn’t the fennel pollen mayonnaise on this, it tastes like regular mayonnaise here. We check the menu and indeed, this one is supposed to have the fennel pollen mayo but the other one does. In between visits the price has gone up a few dollars from $12 to $15.
Sweet potato chips $5
The sweet potato chips are well salted and paper thin and crispy and very good and moreish!
Witlof salad $9
Click here to read the full story
| April 10th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
What is NQN up to now? 
NQN on Facebook
RSS
