Address:  12 Argyle Street, The Rocks, Sydney

Tel: +61 2 9259 5656

Website: www.sakerestaurant.com.au

Costs per head:   Starters c.Aus$15, mains c.Aus$25-35, sushi c.Aus$10 per 2-pieces, beer Aus$8 per bottle

Date of visit: Monday 19th July

Having been recently featured on the hugely popular Masterchef Australia, my expectations were high when I was told we had secured a table at Sake, located in the ultra-trendy heritage Argyle Precinct in Sydney’s Rocks, close to Circular Quay.

As the name suggests the influence here is seriously Japanese, and Australian ‘sushi guru’ Shaun Presland serves up some exciting and innovative dishes that offer a modern contemporary take on traditional Japanese cuisine. Our very attentive waitress advises that dishes are meant to be shared and that the food is served tapas-style i.e. randomly as each dish emerges from the pass.

My host and I are relaxed with the format, and we choose a variety of interesting-sounding dishes from the folded-up menu, split by hot and cold starters, kushiyaki (skewers), mains, salads, soups, sushi, sashimi and maki (rolls).

First to arrive are some sashimi tacos, one each of salmon and tuna alongside a chilled tomato salsa and washed down with a shot of Kozaemon Junmai sake. The fish is incredibly fresh, succulent and moist, and coupled with the crunchy texture of the taco and the sharp fresh salsa the ensemble is a resounding success – what a great start.

We follow with a selection of sushi, all sea-fresh and divine, and then a couple of maki rolls, one crispy salmon-skin, the other tuna & avocado, both scrummy. Next up some crispy-skin pork belly bites, served with edamame puree and reduced balsamic teriyaki sauce, and then a selection of vegetable and seafood tempura – crispy light batter and with a delightful dipping sauce.

An encore of the wonderful tacos and some miso soup finish us off, with everything washed down with clean-tasting Kirin beer.

The prices are not extortionate, however be warned with this kind of more’ish food, the temptation to eat and eat can easily run up quite a bill. Luckily for me, my host was happy to pick up the cheque.

For quality Japanese food in a great setting, you will have a struggle to find better.

Paul Plant

Address:  116 Queen Sreet, Woollahra, Sydney

Website: www.bistromoncur.com.au

Costs per head: Starters c.Aus$20, Mains c.Aus$40-50, House wines start at $40 per bottle

Address: 40-44 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 3000,Victoria, Australia

Telephone number: +61 3 9671 3151

Website: www.longrain.com.au

Date of visit: 14 July 2010

Approximate cost per head: N/A

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

Executive chef: Martin Boetz

Summary:

From business lunch to business dinner, only this time a little less formal, more like an after-work ‘beer and a bite’ catch-up instead of any deep and detailed discussions around strategy and tactics etc.

Thankfully the offices I am working in are centrally located, and downtown Melbourne offers the diner a smorgasboard of cuisine choices from pretty much anywhere on the planet. If anything there is a bias towards Asian/Pacific flavours with Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese among the more prolific. Tonight we opt for the popular and highly-rated Longrain, which describes itself as a contemporary Thai/Asian restaurant.

The ‘hip and welcoming’ restaurant fills a 100-year-old converted warehouse smack in the middle of Melbourne’s Chinatown. The space is expansive, with a large island bar surrounded by both long and circular communal tables intended to offer ‘banquet-style’ dining (their words not mine). Like many Asian restaurants, and also many other non-Asian restaurants in Melbourne, the emphasis here is on sharing, the intention being that you each order something different, then share the taste experience, ensuring a correct balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet flavours.

So what of the food? Starter choices were limited to just three: oysters, or two variations of betel leaf, one topped with smoked trout chilli roasted gallangal garlic and trout roe, or prawn peanuts mint and chilli paste. There were three of us dining and while one went for the trout, two went for the prawn. Wow! What an explosion of flavour on the palate. I chose the betel leaf with prawn, which was ‘gone in 60 seconds’ – a true taste sensation, and so good we immediately ordered another. At approx 4 GBP a mouthfull however we reluctantly declined the chance to order more.

Abiding by the sharing mantra, we each chose a different main dish, ending up with a fish, pork and duck combination, accompanied by rice, sticky long grain of course. Our dishes came out from the open-view kitchen in reverse order, beginning with a salad of braised duck with sweet fish sauce pomelo ginger and flat leaf coriander, shortly followed by twice-cooked suckling pig with squid ginger and chilli salad. All conversation stopped – this food was far too good to interrupt! Then came the fish, a red curry of ruby snapper with baby corn thai basil and fried shallots, the sticky rice proving an excellent sponge for the red curry sauce.

Judging by the lack of chat and the speed with which the plates were emptied, I concluded that my two dining partners had found the food as tasty and satisfying as myself. We took little persuading to carry on with a sampler plate of the restaurants sweet dishes, and boy were they sweet!

It’s the one thing about Asian cuisine, the desserts rarely match the breadth of flavours and textures that one typically enjoys in say a decent French or Italian eaterie. That doesn’t mean that what we were served in Longrain was disappointing, however you did need to like coconut (included in four of the six), and have a very very sweet tooth. In truth the puddings were fascinating creations, but to have included some sharpness or palate cleansing morsels would have been a better conclusion for me.

The meal was washed down with ice cold Kirin and Sapporo beer, and surprisingly for an Asian restaurant the coffee was beautifully roasted and rich.

Overall, a superb meal, innovative menu, beautifully presented food, with wonderful flavours, and very attentive but not over-the-top service. I would definitely recommend.

Paul Plant

Address: 80 Bourke Street,Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia

Telephone number: +61 3 9662 1811

Website: www.grossi.com.au

Date of visit: 13 July 2010

Approximate cost per head:  N/A

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

Summary:

Whilst on business in Melbourne I was fortunate enough to be taken to lunch at what is widely considered by the local food afficionados as the city’s quintessential Italian restaurant.

Located in the Central Business District (CBD), in the vibrant Bourke Hill Precinct, close to Chinatown, the restaurant endures an iconic local and country-wide reputation. Followers of the Australian food scene together with celebrities, captains of business and visiting dignitaries jostle for a table in order to enjoy the fabulous food and enduring Italian Hospitality served up by celebrity chef Guy Grossi and his expertly organised team.

The service is slick yet unhurried, conscious that some business diners do have to return to their desks in the afternoon, although there were plenty of diners around us who clearly had no such intention. The menu offers a broad range of options across as many courses as you have time, appetite or budget for. For us it was just entrees and mains, which was plenty for a business lunch.

The homebaked grissini and breads, served with beautifully aromatic olive oil soon got the tastebuds worked up in anticipation for my starter of oxtail risotto. The portion was a decent size – it could have easily satisfied many people as a main course, however it set me up perfectly for my main of grilled crispy-skin hapuka with braised shallots and salsa, served with a side of steamed spinach. Hapuka is a member of the grouper family and is common to the waters of New Zealand. It has beautiful white flesh and a flavour not too dissimilar to sea bass, although the cut is slightly thicker. The skin was delightfully crispy, almost a fishy equivalent of pork crackling, and the salsa accompaniment really worked well.

We accompanied the meal with a deliciously refreshing South Australian Riesling (sorry, but the name escapes me), deliciously dry yet with plenty of depth and nice, clean fruit.

I wasn’t paying the bill, yet from a glance at the menu the prices, whilst not extortionate, suggest that this is somewhere you come to celebrate, to reward yourself, to impress, or just to pay homage to a chef with an obvious passion for excellence. The restaurant prides itself on its sustainability philosophy, together with a commitment to source best ingredients produced by like-minded local suppliers. There was plenty of Italian flair and technique on show, accompanied with some nice innovative touches.

Definitely a place to return to, only next time I fear I might be the one who’s paying!

Paul Plant

PS The restaurant is open from 7.30 till late

Coming soon:

Christmas gifts and another Food Market Review. Recipes etc and improved index.

Announcements:

Mr Michael Le Brocq is the winner of the November competition – Breakfast in Winchester. He wins a bottle of Krug 1990.

For Dec, we are offering a bottle of Dom Perignon 1990.

KEEP those emails coming in ! 

We now have 300 regular users every week.

 I have to admit upfront that I don’t like Shiraz but I like Hermitage. Ok its the same grape. Let re-phrase myself – For a number of years I have tried to experiment outside the golden brotherhood of French, Spanish and Italian. In fact, I can honestly claim that I have spent thousands of pounds trying to educate my taste buds with “new world” wines but my conclusion is that I still prefer old world wines.

This week, I have put up 14 different bottles of shiraz from my cellar at a tasting at Reading University. The purpose is two fold: to see what people think and secondly, to get rid of some of the excessive stock I have.

The story goes something like this: In 2003, I was in Australia following England in the Rugby World Cup. Like most tourists, I went for a walk around “The Rock” where David Campese owns a “shirt” shop. As I walked towards Circular Quay, I noticed that there is a wine shop cum wine bar opposite the ferry terminal. I walked into the shop and looked around. The manager and I chatted and I said to him that I didn’t like Shiraz. Well, I left 30 minutes later with 10 cases to be shippped to England.

For the past 6 years, I have struggled to consume these 10 cases. Well, there are wines I began to like e.g. Two Hands but the vast majority was : I would drink it but I would not buy it again. As a nearly a bottle a day man (for the past 30 years), you can tell that its not my favourite drink.

The winers on show this week are:
2002     Bella’s Garden,
2002    Lily’s Garden, Two Hands Wines, McLaren Vale, Walkerville, S. Australia   

2002    E&E Black Pepper Shiraz, Barossa Valley Estate, Marananga, S. Australia   

2001     Oscar Semmler Shiraz, Dutschke Wines, Lyndoch, S.Australia   

2000    Estate Shiraz Special Release, Paringa Estate, Mornington Peninsula, Victora

1999    The Octavius Edition X, Yalumba, Angaston, South Australia

1998    Ampelon, Bowen Estate, Coonawarra, S. Australia

1998    Lawson’s Padthawy, Orlando Wines, Rowland Flat, S. Australia

1998    Metala, Langhorne Creek, Saltram Wine Estate, Angaston, S. Australia   

1998    Petaluma Coonawarra, Piccadilly, S. Australia

1998    Rosehill Shiraz, Mount Pleasant Wines, Pokolbin, New South Wales

1998     St Andrew’s Shiraz, Taylors Wines, Clara Valley, Auburn, S. Australia

1997    Eight Songs Shiraz, Peter Lehman Wines, Barossa Valley, S. Australia   

1994    Stonewell Barossa Shiraz, Peter Lehman Wines, Tanunda, S. Australia

I’ll tell you what everyone thinks later this week.