Bentley (Surry Hills)

 By St

Tapas are small and usually served with drinks so today's review on Bentley Restaurant and Bar will consist of small portions  and hopefully you're reading it with a glass of wine in hand.

You are usually surrounded by men and women in smart suits having lunch at Bentley so of course Timmy and I rocked up in tees and jeans. Bentley is contemporary with a chilled-out vibe whose European inspired food has won many critics including the SMH and Gourmet Traveller. It opens for lunch Tuesday-Saturday so we took the opportunity to try the lunch tapas menu ($55pp).

Kingfish ceviche. Very refreshing with its vinegar and acidic taste and ended up being Timmy’s favourite from the lunch. One mouthful is not enough.

Kingfish ceviche with pickled diakon & yuzu mayonnaise

Jamon serrano. Means dry cured Spanish ham so think prosciutto. 

Jamon serrano

Smoked eel parfait. The parfait was smooth and tasted like a tofu mousse. The kombu and seaweed are great so take a leap and try out new food. The celery powder on the side was very mild, an unnoticeable taste, so its main role is for the aesthetics making the dish look like a funky artwork in line with Bentley's modern setting.

Smoked eel parfait with white soy, kombu and seaweed

Parmesan custard & asparagus. Slighty thick and heavy, and quite rich so thank goodness for the light lavosh.  I loved the crunchy asparagus!

Parmesan custard with truffled asparagus

Soft shell crab. How many times at work have we encouraged our colleagues to be a bit daring and try some soft shell crab. This would be a good starting point as the shell is so soft it doesn't feel like you're eating crustacean making it easier to eat it whole. The salsa was disappointingly not hot and I would have been content with the crab alone.

Soft shell crab with green chilli salsa

Poached egg. Timmy read that this is Bentley's signature dish. Apparently they cook the egg at a high temperature for over 1 hour to give it a thicker oozing texture without being running. Despite me reading that many other diners enjoy this dish, I found the yolk overpowering with the harissa and chickpeas relegated to the sideline. 

Poached organic egg with chickpea, preserved lemon & harissa

Black sausage. From the seaweed eel parfait creation we now move into the period of cubism. I like some of my fruits with salt but I found the saltiness of the sausage a bit too much. It's very crusty on the outside and airy and porous inside. One good thing to counterbalance the saltiness were the sweet mandarin and peach puree. 

Black sausage with prawn & mandarin

Chocolate ganache. Chocolate lovers won't understand but I found this ganache to be on the heavy side! Yes, me who loves dessert, sometimes eating them for morning tea. I like my sweets and Timmy doesn't so no surprise he finished the ganache praising its darkness and subtle saltiness.

Chocolate ganache with orange oil

All and all a very enjoyable, artistic lunch with my favourites being the smoked eel parfait and kingfish ceviche.

Wok rating /5:

Bentley Restaurant & Bar

320 Crown St

Surry Hills

02 9332 2344

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SIFF- Becasse (Sydney CBD)

By St

Let's talk about lunch baby, let's talk about you and me. Actually, let's do lunch!

October is an exciting time for foodies because it marks the start of the Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF)! You might be scratching your head going, "really?", "have I been living under a rock?", but chances are that you have been to one of the many events rolled out such as the Night Noodle Markets at Hyde Park or a Sugar hit.

One event is "Let's do lunch", where some of top restaurants listed by the SMH, offer a lunch main and matching Brown Brothers wine, Coopers beer, San Pellegrino sparkling bottle or Acqua Panna still mineralwater for $35. I called in September to make a booking with Est. and it was already booked out. Next was Aria, and they only had Mondays left. It was third time lucky with Bécasse.

You might have seen Bécasse's head chef and owner, Justin North, on the most recent Masterchef season- Jonathon had to butcher a pig and cook North's suckling pig and cutlet in a cook-off. North, whose philosophy centres around selecting the freshest produce from farmers and growers daily and combining that with clever technique, won SMH Good Food Guide's "Chef of the year" award in 2009. His restaurant was the 2007 "Restaurant of the year" and runner-up in 2009. And for all the lads, at GQ's Men of the Year awards, Justin North was crowned "Chef of the year". Gosh, he is like the Johnny Depp of cooking.

Now back to food. Bécasse's "Let's do lunch" menu consisted of organic grass feed Gundooee Wagyu bresaola with smoked hazelnut and confit beetroot as an entree for an extra $15. Timmy and I decided to share this and he also had an oyster. It was different to other Wagyu I've had- I expected it to be more steak-like in taste but it was more salty like prosciutto. This shouldn't have come as a surprised if I knew what bresaola meant. Timmy loved his oyster, confirming that they do seek out the freshest at Bécasse.

Organic grass fed Wagyu bresaola $15

St Helens Pacific oysters $4

Before the food came out, along with with bread and butter, we were presented with Bécasse's own sweet biscotti with goat's cheese and black olive- c'est magnifique!

Bécasse biscotti

Onto the main focus of lunch- risotto of king prawn and prosciutto, with baby gem lettuce, leek and fine herbs. I never really thought risotto was all that. You hear more than often of people butchering their risotto attempts so I was never too keen. Fortunately Timmy was keen which was the deciding factor in choosing Bécasse over North's second restaurant, Etch. After eating this risotto, it is going to be difficult for other risottos to compete. Woah! They were not frugal with the prawns which was a delight because they were so plump and meaty. The risotto itself was like eating a warm, wholesome chicken and garden vegetable soup. Our plates were spotlessly clean afterwards. 

King prawn and prosciutto risotto $35

Part of the deal, we had the Brown Brothers Pinot Grigio and Tempranillo.

Brown Brothers wines from King Valley

This was such a wonderful opportunity to experience one of the best, fine-dining restaurants Australia had to offer. The icing on the cake was that it was all paid for by my winnings from the Girra NRL tipping comp hehe. We also got to witness the wait staff iron the table sheets ohh la la. 

We were too full to try Bécasse's cafe next door, Plan B, but I know I will be staking out there and Etch in the near future. 

Wokking rating /5: 

Bécasse

204 Clarence St
Sydney

02 9283 3440

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Matteo’s (Melbourne)

North Fitzroy

Retro-review from February 2010 by St 

Situated in North Fitzroy, Matteo’s looks inconspicuous alone on Brunswick St. Having taken the bus to get here and walking pass residential houses, I expected to see a string of restaurants but it was just a quiet restaurant and a fish and chips shop across the road. I thought to myself, could Timmy have chosen to celebrate an anniversary with fish and chips? If so, damn we are overdressed!

Being a Monday night, there was only a table of three dining. What caught my attention were the voluminous teal drapes, decorative wallpaper and large lights casting a warm glow to the spacious room. This transformed the restaurant from unassuming to elegance and tres romantic.

Matteo’s started off with an European menu but has definitely evolved with strong Asian fusion, in particularly Japanese.

We started off with the seafood plate consisting of : Hiramasa kingfish, prawn remoulade,  ‘shiso’ Japanese basil sauce; Petuna ocean trout tataki, yuzu miso sauce, Yarra Valley salmon roe; Teriyaki glazed smoked eel on rice crusted tofu, pickled plum and bonito mayonnaise. Everything was fresh with the sauces complimenting each fish perfectly.

Japanese seafood trio of kingfish, ocean trout and smoked eel $24

Being who we are, we had to try the baked Asian pie. Consisting of minced chicken, pork belly, shiitake & eggplant and crushed wasabi peas It was tasty (yummy pork belly) and had a distinct Asian flavor to it, similar to those char siu pork pies you would find in an Asian bakery. Having said that, I would give this a miss next time and go to Harry’s for pies- there’s probably more appealing starters than this on the menu.
 

Baked Asian pie $22

Listed as a side, the tatsoi salad was freaking out-of-this-world! This to me was the stand-out of the night. I might not remember the other dishes well but the flavours in this dish were powerful. The freshness of the nashi pear combined with the hot hot hot wasabi mayonnaise was addictive. I can usually take chilli but I had to take the wasabi mayonnaise in small doses. I should have stopped and spared my nose and throat but it was too good.

Tatsoi salad $8

For the mains I had the suckling pig with green bean salad with peanut satay and tonkatsu bbq sauce. Timmy had the seared wagyu beef, asparagus glazed with oyster sauce, potato mash with caramelized onion and black bean sauce. Great job as you would expect from a restaurant of Matteo’s calibre. My favs here were the accompanied sides of potato mash and caramelized onion and peanut satay beans. 

Chinese style Western Plains suckling pig $42

Seared wagyu beef sirloin $44

Other notable mains we would have loved to have tried if only we had more stomachs were: the five spices roast duck breast and the Balmain bug tails with king prawns and sea scallops shredded in Asian coleslaw.

All night the waiter was top class and very professional. A special thanks goes to the man himself, Matteo Pignatelli, who responded within hours on a Friday night when I emailed for the summer menu as I had forgotten the descriptions to give his dishes justice. You won’t be finding the Matteo’s menu online as it changes with each season.

I didn’t know it when I was dining there, but I am no way surprised that Matteo’s is a 2-hat restaurant. I always have trouble recalling the restaurant’s name but here’s some advice- think of Parra eels player Feleti Mateo. (However this advice might make you unattainably crave for the tatsoi salad when you’re stuck in Sydney watching Friday night footy.)

Classy place to dine out or take your fussy friend who only eats salad cos the Tatsoi salad is breath-taking. Wokking rating/5:      

Matteo’s restaurant
533 Brunswick St 
North Fitzroy
03 9481 1177