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

View Larger Map

Hannibal (Surry Hills)

By St

Invite: Lyly and Karen’s joint 25th birthday at Hannibal, 7pm. I had to google the restaurant because the name was freaky. What are we eating? Humans? I know vampires are all the craze atm and I like Tru Blood but… Oh Lebanese food! I can stomach that.

So at 7pm, Jo and I were led downstairs to the special red cushion room. Since we were on time it was easy for us to step over the empty Persian cushions to sit against the wall. This later becomes a pain because you cannot escape to the bathroom unless you inconvenience your neighbours to get out, or you could step across the table but not recommended for the skirts and dresses. 

Red cushion room

We were finally placing our orders at 8 with the majority opting for the Hannibal Feast ($38 pp). Twenty minutes later out came baskets of Lebanese bread and dips: hommos, baba ganouj and tatziki. The hommus was of the rough, nutty kind; tatziki had a lot of garlic and slightly sour but the favourite of the night was the smoky baba ganouj.  

Lebanese bread

Hommos

Baba ganouj

Tatziki

The tabouly came out next but we were waiting for a replenishment of bread so just ate the tabouly on its own- fresh but wanting more juice and lime. 

Tabouly

The shish kebabs had big chunks of delicious soft lamb. Cyndi’s grilled shish tawook was fine but I found the chicken to be on the dry side and perhaps slightly burnt as the skewer kept on breaking when trying to slide the chicken off.  

Lamb shish kebab

Chicken shish tawook

The falafels were crispy and soft on the inside. I didn’t try the fried kebbe but with nobody being Lebanese at the party, the consensus was that they tasted similar to the falafel.

Falafels

Fried kebbe

Finally some sweets! I was telling everyone how nice lady fingers are as many were starting to get full and weren’t as willing to try things. First cut of the fingers made a liar of me. They were savory and contained mince, similar to spring rolls but not as crispy

Lady fingers

Rounding up to 10pm, the poor cabbage rolls kafta remained largely untouched. Cyndi and I braved the satiety and digged into the rice and spinach fillings- good with strange tangy saltiness, but definitely too heavy at this stage of the banquet. 

Cabbage rolls kafta

We didn’t care to notice on the night but we didn’t get the majadra as part of the feast. Instead listed as an extra $3 dessert, we were given baklava. Very sweet and I love my sweets so I had two pieces even though we were going to have some black forest birthday cake.

Baklava

A big low for the night were the uncomfortable seated cushions. I lost life in my left bum and had to resuscitate it with constant shifting. This was tricky as we had ~30 ppl packed shoulder to shoulder or legs over legs under low tables without much free room. Because people sat opposite to you across the table, you had to be conscious of your legs (footsies) and you couldn’t straighten them to stretch it. Pins and needles were the order of the night. 

Many thought the service was poor as we had to ask a few times for more bread and water to several different waiters. Having said that, there were 30 people and I couldn’t fault the delivery of the food- when they food came out. It was constant and quick and finding empty plates to discharge was no mean feat. It was usually 1 dish to share between 5-8 people, but they do bring second rounds for most dishes.  

The night would be incomplete without a 20 minute performance from a belly dancer. I warn you, if you choose to sit on the outside of the tables, you have a high chance (1 in 3) of being picked (in some cases pushed) to dance and of course suffer from pals who video record it :)

Birthday girls doing some belly dancing

A very festive and entertaining night with plenty to eat. The food was average-good. I have had better Lebanese food. You come here for the atmosphere and entertainment, making Hannibal a great venue for celebrations. Hooray, it’s BYO. 

Wokking rating /5:

Hannibal's Lebanese

557 Elizabeth St

Surry Hills

02 9698 8288

View Larger Map

Marque (Surry Hills)

By St 

Boing! Boing! That’s supposed to be the sound of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh jumping in excitement. That’s how I felt eating at a 3 chef’s hat restaurant. Not only that, a few weeks after dining here, Marque was named the 2011 SMH Good Food Guide Awards Restaurant of the Year. Boing!

It’s hard to spot classy Marque on Crown Street but look for Bill’s and Billy Kwong and you will find Marque smack bang between them. Only recently did they start opening for Friday lunches so Timmy and I sacrificed a working day (oh, the things we do for food) to try out the lunch prix fixe ($45 pp).

Wow, a h'orderve to open up the palate and it presented itself in such simple elegance: a semi-poached egg. Chaud-Froid free range egg to be exact. It has two temperatures: the warm yolk and chilled whipped cream. Three flavours come from: salty grissini, sweet cream and sour from some vinegar. The idea is to dip the grissini into the runny egg to experience all three flavours at both temperatures all at once. Of course! I could have dreamt of that in my sleep. You could also smell the subtle aromas coming from the clove, chives and nutmeg. 

Chaud-Froid free range egg

Hmmm… the entrée looks like a science experiment. Despite the tremendous greenness, this experiment was a success! The incredibly big chunks of fresh kingfish, swimming in the green pea sea with bursts of lime was marvelous. Having been to Japan and drinking their matcha latte like it was water, I am going to say I am a matcha expert (green tea). For those who don’t like it, never fear as the matcha in this dish is so subtle, I the expert, could not detect it :(

Kombu cured kingfish with pea, matcha tea and lime

I don’t have duck much (except the fatty ones with my pad thai) but I’m telling you, this was one super soft and silky duck. The green flowers are nasturtium, used to pretty up the plate but also edible (just tastes like chlorophyll). The duck was incredible but teamed up with the fried quinoa, which added flavour and crunchy texture, this dish transformed from model to supermodel. Tyra would be thrilled and it also took a fierce photo.

The staff suggested we have the potato puree with grand cru butter (extra $14) with the main. It was creamy, not too heavy, and went well with the duck. 

Roast Muscovy duck with baby leek, quinoa and nasturtium

The pre-dessert was a sauternes custard and crème caramel. It was very bitter due to the wine and so I ended up scraping off the caramel and having the custard on its own. Like the egg earlier, I think this was to clean the palate but I would have preferred something else like sorbet. 

Sauternes custard

The smell of the violets and caramelized pastry was so heavenly. The entire plate looked so divine with the violet touches that you did not want to break and eat it but inhale, inhale. The apple and bayleaf icecream filling was good but mild, nowhere as tasty as its exterior. 

Smoked vanilla mille feuille with apple and violet

They must sponsor all the top restaurants around but again, Aesop soap in the bathroom!

I know a few people who were strongly disappointed when they went to Marque, vowing not to come again. These comments can’t be a coincidence. Maybe they were there for dinner and so I can’t judge but my experience from the food to professional service to the bathroom was very enjoyable.

Wokking rating /5:

Marque Restaurant

4/5 355 Crown St

Surry Hills

02 9332 2225

View Larger Map

Toko (Surry Hills)

By Boo_e

To celebrate the end of my annual vegetarian month, my partner and I decided to go to Toko Surry Hills for dinner. This place has got to be one of my favourite Japanese restaurant, they seem to do everything Japanese with extra gusto, including the price tag. Despite the slightly higher price range however, a night of dining at Toko is almost always sure to please even the most discerning of patrons.

Being deprived of all things meat for a good 30 days, I was more than ready to test just how many different types of meat I can eat in one sitting, so to start we had Tuna sashimi and a very small bowl of soba miso with slivers of duck breast and a poached quail egg. These were great starters for the feast we had coming. The sashimi was as always of the best quality, I guess when you’re paying $10 for 3 incy wincy little slivers of fish, you'd want it to be of good quality. The soba miso was really quite delicate and subtle; the soft poached quail egg was the best part of the dish for me. Our next treat came in the form of sushi maki, we ordered California and white fish tempura. The former is made using spanner crab mixed with Japanese mayonnaise, this gives the sushi a distinctly different flavour to your run of the mill California roll which is usually done with seafood extender or "crabstick". A refreshing sweetness that accompanies most fresh seafood dishes comes through with every bite. I was very much impressed with this simple but effective dish, the white fish sushi maki however was really lacking in oomph, the flavour of the fish did not come through so it was just like eating seaweed flavoured rice. 

Tuna sashimi

Soba miso

California rolls

Kingfish carpaccio is a dish that we like to order whenever it appears on any menu. So I feel that I was extra discriminating when it came to this dish, I found that the while the dressing was spot on the kingfish itself did not taste as fresh as I would expect for a place of this caliber. Very unfortunate indeed as this is usually one of my favourites. 

Kingfish carpaccio

Agadashi Tofu is another dish that features a lot in our Japanese dining experience so again I feel that Toko had a lot to live up to in this dish, and I have to say they did not disappoint. These very appropriately sized cubes of deep fried tofu was coated in a well seasoned batter and topped with tiny pieces of marinated eggplant, they were delectable and I could've made a meal out of these little things all on its own, but alas I was committed to the rest of our order for the night. This then leads us to the last 2 types of meat for the evening. The pork and the good old chicken.

Agadashi tofo

Our pork dish for the night was the marinated ribs, done of course, right before our eyes on the Robata grill. It was tender and tasty. The meat melted off the bones and the bonus part was that the ribs were cut into individual pieces, each with enough bone space so as to not get our fingers too messy. Not that I would've had too much trouble licking the mess from my fingers. It was, simply put, delicious.
 

Marinated pork ribs

Our final savoury dish for the night was the Nam Ban chicken, this dish packed a punch when it came to flavour, for me I felt that I needed some rice to have with this chicken, without the rice, the flavour was almost too overpowering. But by that stage of our dinner, we weren't going to fit in any carbs so we just ate the chicken on its own. The ginger dipping sauce that came with it was very nice, but the chicken did not need anymore flavour added to it so we didn’t end up using much of the sauce at all. 

Nam Ban chicken

For dessert I had the Ginger pudding. This pudding was served hot with a fig caramel topping and a scoop of white miso ice cream. The ginger flavour was definitely present but was not overpowering as is the usual case with ginger desserts. The fig caramel was really just caramel flavoured and not at all "figgy" and the miso in the ice cream was just as non-existent, although thats not neccassarily a bad thing. I’ve also had the trio of crème brulee here previously and was left with an unsatisfied dessert belly. So long story short dessert is not Toko's forte.

Ginger pudding

The service on this particular night was unusually slow and we found that we had to work to get the attention of staff. This can be quite annoying when you want to have another glass of wine or even just to get the bill. We have sat at different spots every time that we have been to Toko and on this particular night we were placed just in front of the Robata grill, and even though there was a glass panel separating us as well as a massive range hood we still left smelling a little like smoky ribs, so the prized seats for me are the ones right in front of the sashimi bay. Here you can watch the mesmerizing hands of the sashimi chefs slice, dice and knead food into artwork. After having dined at both Sake and Sushi Choo I found that for similar prices and menus, Toko leads the pack in Japanese fine dining.

Robato grill

Suggestions: Arrive early between 6-7pm if you don’t want to wait up to 90 minutes for a table. Toko does not take bookings so you’ll just have to chance it. They do have a very nice bar that does great cocktails right next door called Tokonoma. Great place to go and wait for your table.

Wokking rating/5:

Toko Restaurant & Bar

490 Crown St
Surry Hills 

02 9357 6100

View Larger Map