Alot of fuss about service in restaurants lately. See SMH articles:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/restaurants-that-reject-diners-20120128-1qman.html

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/its-all-fare-comment-20120204-1qycf.html#comments

My thoughts about this in 5 simple points

1) Treat everyone how you would like to be treated yourself

Fine diners may invest more in training and getting little things right – I think it’s reasonable to expect more if you are paying more. However, if you carry on like a douche, you will be treated like one no matter the sum of money involved. If there is a certain level of decency in play, any poor service by the restaurant will be clear like night and day. This leads on nicely to Point #2.

2) If you are not happy with something, address it directly with staff without hesitation and without drama

A restaurant always has a chance to turn a negative to a positive. Be clear and complete when informing staff on what’s wrong and how they can make your experience better. In any scenario, there is never an excuse to speak loudly or cause a scene. If you are unhappy with initial response, escalate to management just like you would in retail or any other service providers.

I’ve had everything from free meals, complementary offers, discounts, apology letters just because I addressed it there and then. In my experience, this combined with Point #1 will see you through 90% of situations improve for the better. The other 10% are just lousy staff.

3) Share your experiences with others

I believe in the power of consensus opinion, contribute and use it to your advantage. Eatability sucks balls (how ghastly is it these days?) but Yelp and Urbanspoon are great. If you’re really crazy, start a blog (or just visit FTLOF – shameless self-plug)!

4) Restaurants need to be crystal clear in managing expectations

If all persons need to be present before they are offered a table, then this should be clearly stated. Momofuku Seiobo is notoriously hard to get in and make no apology for that, but they are totally upfront about it. If the customer is making a big fuss about one guest looking for parking, then the restaurant has every right to take in guests who are ready to go. Restaurants are a business, not a charity.

5) Enjoy yourself

It’s all too easy to get caught up critically evaluating everything especially with MasterChef, celebrity cooks – everyone is fricken lounge chair critic. Just enjoy the food, the company and the moment okay? There are plenty of wonderful restaurants, cafes and bars that deserve your hard earned cash.

Hit me up with your thoughts, fears and deepest dark secrets – Phillip Nom

• A mathematician would calculate a quarter of 21 to be 5.2500 to four decimal places.
• A traveller would be baffled to find that Quarter Twenty One is actually located in Westfield Sydney on Level 5, Shop 5018.
• Even Google (who is never wrong) belts out 5.25 in the search result.

But only the clever foodie would know that its really a fine diner in a swanky shopping center!

Normally the first choice you get at a restaurant is “still, sparkling or el cheapo tap” but the choices at Q21 starts as you walk into a split junction entrance: turn left for the dining room and right for a gourmet food retailer complete with a workshop kitchen for master classes. So it seems you can cook, eat and buy food all in the one place! How ingenious, because I’ve always wanted to buy their refrigerated lasagne, heat it up in their kitchen and eat it on their fresh linen tables. Sometimes I surprise my own trollish self!

Thankfully the kitchen doesn’t serve food in quartered portions, and nor is it confusing. What you do get is rather neat European influenced food that’s produce driven so the chefs don’t go mucking about with tried and tested flavours like chicken and corn, lamb and peas and unadultered chocolate. So it seems, all the confusion up front was all blown away ( rather disappointingly) by the familiar food. When I mean familiar, I meant it harkens back to the days of Becasse on Clarence St at a lower cost and less theatre – Case in point the banana creme brluee & milk coffee ice cream that hasn’t changed a bit. I wish Q21 brought something more fresh and memorable to the experience so that I don’t get so caught up with the name.

Quarter Twenty One Interior

Amuse Bouche

Salad of beetroot & endive, Bellingham blue, hazelnut & pear

Lightly cured snapper, king prawns, heirloom tomato, cucumber & vanilla

Roast skate wing, crab & scallop stuffed courgette flower, fennel & courgette

Glazed Kurobuta pork belly, plum, boudin noir, celery, & spiced pork jus

Slow cooked poussin, cracked pepper spaetzle, sweet corn, prosciutto, basil & vin jaune

Rib & rolled loin of Milly Hill lamb, peas, mint & balsamic

Salad for the table

Pineapple sorbet & coriander mousseline

Warm 68% Alto Beni Zokoko chocolate pudding, orange & tonka bean ice cream

Banana crème brûlée, salted peanut brittle & milk coffee sorbet

Fashion models are curious creatures. Powered by celery sticks and carrot juice, their wafer thin frames parade around objects of consumerism that enslave wallets around the globe. Cara&Co Concept store is just one of those outlets that’s flogging off fashion which claims to “showcase intellectual fashion at a luxe level” (read: expensive). Despite being expertly dressed by Tarocash, walking into Cara&Co is like walking into a luxurious abattoir, you couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. Dodging the consultants of doom, I push on to my destination deep in the depths of the Cara&Co compound to find what I was searching for, The Restaurant.

So how does a restaurant end up here and why isn’t there much press about it? The Restaurant is all part of the concept store’s appeal to the ‘senses’ and I suspect most foodiephiles have died from overspending their credit cards before setting foot into the joint. What shocks me the most about the restaurant is that there’s not a celery stick in sight. Perhaps I’ve uncovered a conspiracy: models actually like real food.

The menu is rather peculiar in describing typical model food like a salad such as the “Caesar in disguise” with a Green gazpacho, glazed chicken oyster, parmesan crisp, mustard ice cream, lettuce hearts and anchovies. The aesthetic appeal continues with stunning plating, little canapés before entrees and fresh baked madelines to finish. The most impressive bit about the food is how punchy the flavours are from familiar ingredients, remixed into new and unusual textures. My conspiracy theory was cemented when you check out those model-esque portion sizes delicate enough for that size 6 dress outside.

Swanky enough for your Prada people

The first Canape

Another (but welcome) Canape

Could it be duck - Duck tartare, black olive, mango, chilli, crispy rosemary

Caesar in disguise - Green gazpacho, glazed chicken oyster, parmesan crisp, mustard ice cream, lettuce hearts, anchovies

In tune with tuna - Textures of tuna, all kinds of tomato, cream of verbena, puffed wild rice

Fish united - King fish ceviche, preparations of cucumber, dill, sushi gel

Smoke a crab cigar - Crab cigar, spinach cream, basil oil, parmesan jelly, nitrogen grapefruit

Beef story (part II) - Fillet tartare, slowly cooked sirloin, glazed potato, lettuce, pickled tomato, Béarnaise sauce 2012

Perched on cous cous - Silver perch, hand rolled cous cous, baby fennel, sheep’s yoghurt, apple confit, shallot jus

Patatas Flamenco - Hand cut chips with home made tomato sauce (count the number of chips!)

The beauty of rose - Lychee, raspberry, white chocolate rose

Nutty lemon - Hazelnut and lemon

In rhubarb we trust - Rhubarb, yoghurt and lime leaf

Freshly baked Madelines to finish

Food behind the fashion

Cara&Co Restaurant

Shop 4001 Level 4
Westfield Sydney 188 Pitt Street
Sydney, NSW 2000

+61 2 9226 9999

Summer is finally here in Sydney, and with all that greasy BBQ food over the holiday season, what would be better than japanese cuisine with a stunning view of the Sydney Opera house to start the new year.

Located on quayside, you’ll find a modern japanese restaurant called Oceanroom. Doesn’t sound Japanese but once have their dishes, “oishi” is all you can say. One of the most memorial dishes, would be the Tuna creation. Five different ways of cooking tuna with five different condiment. I wish, I could have more.

Make sure that when you make reservations that your table is at the window as well as making sure a P&O cruise isn’t covering your view.

Tasting menu – $95.00 per person.

Oyster Duo - pacific oyster with fresh chilli & lemon vinaigrette, rock oyster with shiso basil sorbet and konbu

Tuna Cornet - marinated blue fin tuna tartare in wrapped nori comet Anchovy & Sorbet - marinated anchovy with smoked tomato sorbet

Soft Shell Crab Taco - seared soft shell crab, pickled vegetables in a taco shell, Wasabi Prawn - cripsy king prawn with wasabi aioli petit wasabi croquette

Sake Jelly Bar Cod - seared bar cod with sake & plum jelly, sheer konbu

Tuna Creation - Bottom to top - 1. marinated with truffle salt 2. Fresh Raw with black salt 3. Seared with Soy Salt (3 yrs aged) 4. Fresh Raw with soy salt light 5.Oil Blanched with chilli salt

Sakiyo Miso Cod - sweet miso marinated cod fillet with ginger scented risotto. Prawn Sizzle - pan seared green king prawn with coriander citrus sauce

Sansho Pepper beef steak - grain fed rib eye with sansho peppercorn jus

Sushi Collection - three nigiri sushi

Ocean Room Assiette - selection of intense miniature desserts

Ocean Room
Ground Level, Overseas Passenger Terminal
Circular Quay West, The Rocks Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.oceanroomsydney.com/

+61-2-9252-9585

All this recent talk about the government installing gambling limiters on pokies to stop chronic losers got me thinking. They have it all wrong! If anything needs a limit, it’s my absurd spending on plastic surgery. Ms Gillard look no further than Fairfield RSL to observe the devious master plan to attract a new legion of punters, whilst clutching onto the old and hooked.  It is called “La Tratt”.

“La Tratt” is possibly the most strategic restaurant you will ever encounter. It is deceptive in appearance as you step inside and take in the swanky fireplace, white linen, floor to ceiling wine racks and vases full of (get this) REAL flowers! It’s like walking into a port-a-loo to discover a jungle waterfall and is simply uncanny for an RSL.

But wait, “La Tratt” ain’t all show, it also has well trained wallet assassins (waitstaff) that know how to push your buttons by asking well crafted questions like:

“how are you this evening?”

“sparkling, still or tap?”

“care to enjoy a glass of wine?”

“another glass?”

…

“another glass?”

“I think you’ve had too many”

And after a dismal attempt to ask the waitress whether she found me or Brad Pitt more handsome, I concluded service of this standard is: SUPE-RSL-NATURAL.

But like the dealer of a rigged blackjack table, the house always wins: a 3 course dinner, sides, bread, coffee/tea, petit fours and a glass of house wine for $45*?! Surely the chef worked on the casino tables because I struggle to comprehend the odds of eating well-crafted Italian inspired cuisine using quality ingredients at this price. Think fragrant porcini mushroom soup, crispy seared barramundi and a silky pannacotta to finish. It’s a far cry from a dingy pub schnitzel doused in gloopy gravy that’s for sure.

So if you don’t lose money on the pokies as you exit the club, you will be forking out at La Tratt because it would probably be the only jackpot you hit on the night and many nights to come.

I’ve yet to encounter Foodie Helpline…

* Mid-week dinner offer offered Wednesday and Thursday nights only.

IT'S A TRAP!

Zuppa di Funghi e Castagne - Porcini mushroom and chestnut soup with goats cheese parcels and white truffle oil

Fiori di Zucca Fritti - Fried zucchini flowers with caponata, goat’s cheese cream, pine nuts and basil

Contechino Salsiccia - Contechino sausage with white polenta, pickled baby beetroot and salsa verde

Arrosto di Pesce - Roast Western Australia Cone Bay barramundi fillet with wild mushrooms, artichokes, garlic, parsley and white wine

Osso Buco di Vitello - White River veal osso buco with tomato and vegetable braise, white polenta and basil

Side of mixed vegetables

Semifreddo Croccante - Almond praline semifreddo with coconut, hazelnuts and butterscotch sauce

Bombolini - Italian doughnuts, with vanilla bean ice cream, cinnamon sugar and dulce de leche

Pannacotta Alla Vaniglia - Vanilla Bean pannacotta with poached rhubarb, moscato zabaglione and coconut biscotti

La Tratt

Fairfield RSL

14 Anzac Avenue
Fairfield NSW 2165
(02) 9727 5000