Balkan Restaurant

Another night and another prepaid online discount coupon saw us meet at 7pm at Balkan Restaurant.

Balkan deems themselves the original Balkan restaurant and approaching the restaurant on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, I looked up at the sign and exclaimed, "Oh, I know this place! It's been here for ages". Indeed, it has.

The restaurant isn't over the top fancy, but makes the effort with chilled water glasses and double clothed tables. It's nice to see the run of the mill restaurant do these easy little things that just give it that extra edge.

Tonight's voucher entitled us to $70 worth of food or a seafood platter for two for $35 (and we had two vouchers between the four of us!) Hungrily, we pored over the double sided one page menu, discussing our possibilities as a group.

"What do you think is in the avocado seafood?" Ash asked. "I want to know what's in the Balkan mixed grill." Colin stated. I for one was most intrigued by the top three dishes on the back of the menu, Raznjici for $23.90, Cevapcici for $24.90 and Pola-Pola for $24.90.

We waited what seemed like an eternity for the waitress to give us even the slightest bit of attention. We had a growing list of questions for her. Including a request to see the dessert menu. I find it very useful in order to determine how large a meal I'll eat! The waitress was incredibly abrupt, so much so it came across as a bit rude. She gave us concise answers to our questions - Raznjici is pork neck, Cevapcici is pork sausage and Pola Pola is half half of the first two!

We forgot to enquire as to the avocado seafood so Ash and Colin just took a gamble with it. It was pleasant, with a ripe avocado and succulent prawns but nothing overly special.

Sam and I shared a garlic bread ($3.50) , garden salad ($7.90) and a bowl of chips ($8) to start. The garlic bread was low on presentation - four slices of baguette in a large wire basket, but the chips were lovely hand cut fries that tasted great.

Poor Ash ordered the risotto marinara for $23.90 and was given a choice of tomato or creamy sauce. She politely asked our waitress which she recommended to which she received a reply of "I don't know darling" in a fed up and patronising tone! (She went with the creamy).

Colin decided upon the Balkan Grill, which had chicken, steak, pork sausage, frankfurt and raw onion. He commented that the steak was on the bland side but apart from that, was content with his choice.

Sam ordered the chicken schnitzel. It was two decent pieces of schnitzel served with steamed vegetables and mash potato.

Ash's risotto was a perfect consistency but in her opinion, the seafood was somewhat lacking with only fish and few scattered prawns. We agreed that a good risotto marinara always has muscles!

My Cevapcici were presented like rays of sun around a circle of chopped raw onion. They were cooked well but looked somewhat unappetising! They were a touch bland but when dipped in tomato sauce, tasted quite lovely. They were quite filling though and I only got through about half.

The Balkan Grill and Cevapcici were both served with a balkan salad - shredded cabbage and boiled potatoes. We all really enjoyed this.

Thoroughly stuffed and a touch uninspired by the dessert menu (tiramisu, pancakes, special pancakes and ice cream), we forwent dessert and called it a night.

Would I go back? Probably not. However, we had a great night and the interesting food stimulated some great conversation.

Balkan Restaurant

209 Oxford St
Darlinghurst, 2010

Open for Lunch and Dinner

Wednesday - Monday (Closed Tuesdays)

Villa in Kings Cross

Tonight we went for an impromptu dinner in Kings Cross and wandered past Villa on Kellet Street.
Beautifully presented from the outside with their menu on display, elegant colours and fonts, the restaurant looked lovely for a quiet date night.

The restaurant was quiet as we walked through, led by our warm and friendly waiter, but we discovered that the diners were all sitting in the enclosed outside area. Whilst the inside was romanticly lit with walls in shades of maroon, the outside was considerably brighter with lights around the walls. Quirky art, such as a distorted Mona Lisa, filled both the inside and outside of the restaurant.

The tables were covered in white paper and as ours had water rings on it, the waiter quickly changed it before seating us.

The menu was substantial, carrying an Italian theme and the restaurant is licenced with a cocktail menu. I asked if they could do a Mango Daquiri (noting another cocktail had mango in it) and they happily obliged.

We started with a serving of bruscetta (which was very large for $10) and was served on a brightly painted, very Italian looking plate. The bruscetta was perfect. A lot of the time I find that with bruscetta you either get too much tomato on two tiny pieces of bread, or all bread and very little tomato! Here, the balance was ideal with six serves on the plate and a good balance of tomato and basil (I also found that as you crunched and munched through it, no tomato fell off!)



Our other entree was a beef carpaccio ($21). Very zesty, the carpaccio seemed to be sitting in olive oil and lemon juice and was served with rocket, parmasan and a side of warm, partially toasted and herbed turkish bread pieces. I loved it!



For mains we ordered squid ink pasta with calamari ($26) and a lasagne. The pasta was lovely and buttery, but this had the effect of making it quite filling (or perhaps it was the turkish bread I had filled up on)! The calamari wasn't quite to my taste though as the thick pieces were a bit soft and slimey!



The beef lasagna was wonderful with a creamy tomato sauce. Villa seems to really master the art of clean food as the lasagna didn't fall apart, as many lasagnas do and was easy to eat.



Moderately priced and fully licenced, Villa is a great little restaurant for a night out with friends or a romantic date.

Limoncello

Limoncello is a semi-regular for Friday night family dinners for my family. It offers a nice meal in a pretty setting without being overly expensive or pretentious.

The menu has a strong focus on seafood, but those who aren't fond of it can definitely find something substantial to order from the other choices, which include, pasta, pizza, calzone, veal, lamb and duck.

The restaurant itself is light and airy with a bright feel to it, generated from the colour scheme of yellow and green. We sat in the outdoor section, at the back of the restaurant, which is still entirely enclosed and really lovely. The colours are carried through to the outside where the chairs are of a yellow/green colour and match the cloth serviettes.

Limoncello has a touch of flair, offering free shots of their signature drink - Limoncello, to the adults after the meal. It is also child-friendly, with a dedicated kids' menu with the likes of spaghetti alla bolognese and penne al pomodoro.

Open for lunch and dinner, but closed on Mondays, prices range from $25-35 for a main course.

I ordered the capesante con trio di caviali: seared scallops served on a bed of cauliflower puree and a trio of caviar to start. The scallops were served warm and the taste of cauliflower was quite mild. This allowed for the salty flavour of the three types of caviar to really come through as they gave a lovely popping sensation and complemented the soft scallops.

This was followed by one of their daily specials, a piece of salmon prepared with salt and peppercorns and served with a prawn salad. When the dish arrived it wasn't entirely what I expected as I thought the prawn salad would include whole prawns and perhaps a vinaigrette. Instead it was more a mashed version - think egg salad. I found the salt and pepper to be a little strong in the salad, whilst any other flavour was slightly lacking. The salmon was well cooked but had to be eaten delicately due to the amount of little bones.

Limoncello is good for a smart-casual meal - nothing over the top but definitely not slumming it! (It is Double Bay after all!)

Cafeish - Australianish and Asianish produces a hell of a dish!

Upon the recommendation of a friend, I visited Cafeish last weekend with my aunt. I always enjoy dining outside of the usual two suburbs and all of four cafes I usually go to, and finding true gems. Cafeish is one of them!

Jenna was right, cafeish was fantastic! A cross of traditional Australian fare, including Crocodile and Emu produce with some Asian dishes and an entire menu of Sake, Cafish really is a mish mash of a little of this and little of that. The result is nothing short of fantastic.

Our waitress was sweet and bubbly and the cafe and a definite buzz to it, with intimate tables, large tables and people popping in and out for take away.

After some deliberation, we decided to order two dishes off the brekkie ish menu and share them. The menu was extensive with so much variety, ranging from a twist on the big breakfast: 2 eggs, bacon, tomato, croc sausage, mushroom, beans, toast and fried mochi ($20.50), to Japanese dishes: Aburi salmon, rice, miso soup, Kangaroo Island egg and house made pickles ($19.50) to simple dishes: house made toasted and buttered banana bread ($4) and Organic White or 7 grain, wholemeal, fruit toast ($3/$5).

We requested the Emu eggs, which consisted of 2 scrambled eggs, emu prosciutto, tomato relish and toast ($14.50) and the Veg ish, which was sautéed Japanese mushrooms, scrambled tofu, baby spinach, tomato relish and toast (14). For each toast we were given a wide selection and opted to try the grain sourdough and the home baked bread. Both were lovely.

The tofu scramble was great, well complemented by the tomato relish, whilst the emu eggs were strong in flavour and though nice with the relish, could be eaten without it.

Cafeish is all about the little touches, from a small biscuit served on your spoon with a coffee, to witty comments on the menu advising that the fruit tea is the best fruit tea you’ve ever had (and it was). A fantastic cafe in a more secluded area of Surry Hills...with metre parking on the street! I’d say it was wonderful ish...but really it’s just plain wonderful!

The tea menu

Cafeish

82 Campbell St Surry Hills
Dishes generally $15-25

Zest @ City Tattersalls Club

Sometimes we become swept up in the supposed savings of coupons and end up buying things we don't particularly need and never would have wanted without the coupon. However, used wisely, coupons can at times open your eyes to new and exciting places (and save you a bit of money while you enjoy them). Such was my experience with Cudo’s $50 for $100 worth of food and a bottle of wine at one of City Tattersall’s Club’s restaurants.

We opted for Zest, the cheaper of the two of City Tatts’ restaurants and purchased two vouchers for the four of us. This of course meant that we could enjoy roughly $50 worth of food each and had two bottles of wine to share for the table.

Zest is a simple restaurant that serves great food. It does not go over the top in interior design but the waiters were charming, service was good and the restaurant catered well to both large and small groups, having our table for four at one side of the restaurant and a table for over 12 down at the other end.

After much consideration over the menu and calculating which dishes we could ask for in order to keep within the included price, each couple decided to share a plate of bruschetta – which included two pieces of crunchy thickly sliced baguette with zingy diced tomatoes, Spanish onion and basil ($7.00).

My partner and I ordered two mains to share and our guests decided to do the same. We sampled the lemon, garlic and oregano marinated spatchcock ($29.50) and the certified Black Angus rump steak ($24.00), whilst Ashleigh and Colin ordered the pork belly ($24.50) and the salmon $25.00).

The spatchcock was crispy and juicy, served with thickly, rectangular cut potatoes and accompanied by a jus and béarnaise sauce. I much preferred this dish over the steak, which we ordered medium rare and also came with the potatoes, jus and béarnaise sauce. The steak was on the dry side and we would have preferred it to have been served with a mash or some steamed veges.

The soy braised pork belly with soba noodles, crisp shallot, mint and coriander salad shone through as the best main course. It was splendid and delightful, cooked perfectly, with an Asian infused flavour to the consommé. The only criticism possible was that it had slightly too much mint.

The oven roasted salmon, served with crushed kipfler potatoes (how much better does that sound than mash!), confit garlic, caper berries, olives and parsley was moist and well cooked but could have been improved by a sauce.

When it came to dessert, we ordered one dish on the safe side and one more adventurous dish. Ashleigh and Colin decided on the same choices, which were a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate soil and hazelnut icecream ($13.50), and a white chocolate, basil and strawberry parfait with fresh strawberries and pink peppercorn syrup ($13.50).

“It’s yum, I love it!” exclaimed Ashleigh upon trying her first spoonful of the parfait, and it was. The dish was beautifully presented, sitting on its side amongst pools of green and pink. The table was split on whether we thought the basil went well with the dish or not. We did all agree thought that there was slightly too much pepper in the syrup but as a whole, the dish worked in an interesting way.

I definitely saved my favourite for last with the chocolate fudge cake. It was moist, warm and almost melted in my mouth. I could have had multiple plates of the cake on its own, but the ice cream and chocolate soil was a nice touch.

Overall, we had a fantastic night at Zest and would recommend it as a restaurant. It wasn’t until I was almost done with my slice of chocolate heaven that I realised that though we had been guzzling down our bottles of wine, we had not been offered water throughout the entire meal! I found this a little strange.

I was happy with my voucher purchase and am eagerly looking forward to my next successful bargain dinner!

The Basement

There's nothing like a midweek lunch to break up a week...or a Monday lunch to start the week off!

This Monday I took lunch at The Basement, which is conveniently located across the road from my work, at Circular Quay (next door to Customs House)

Apparently this place goes off at night with jazz and much entertainment downstairs...in the basement! Today, we were just there for a quick lunch to squeeze into my one hour break.

The menu is extensive enough with a mixture of wraps, salads, burgers and asian inspired hot dishes ($11-$18). Both in a salad mood, my guest and I and chose the Thai Beef Salad and Smoked Salmon Salad, which was served with avocado and tiny pieces of fetta.

The Thai Beef was on the spicy side but must have been good as my friend devoured it in next to no time after she ooh-ed and aah-ed over how good it looked.

The smoked salmon salad was fantastic - light but filling enough for a good lunch with a generous amount of salmon and a faint drizzle of zingy dressing over a variety of different lettuce leaves.

The atmosphere was cool and laid back but somewhat quiet in the people department (though it was 2pm on a Monday!). The music pumped through the speakers made up for this though and actually became quite loud at certain points.

The service was friendly and polite, the waiter putting up with me as I asked 20 questions before deciding what to order (I was also contemplating the Caesar Salad).

Good food and an affordable place in Circular Quay to grab a cafe style lunch without the huge price tag.

Lunch@The Basement
Monday-Friday 12-2:30pm

7 Macquarie Place
Circular Quay

Killa Burger

With a group of friends mostly made up of boys who like to eat copious amounts, I'm constantly on the hunt for all-you-can-eats and large portion sizes. Well, this time I found the two in one - a burger of epic proportions that really was all one man could possibly eat (and more).

After only a mere hour drive from where we live, we arrived at Killa Burger, home of the 30cm diameter burger, wicked fries and monster nuggets. If that hasn't satiated your appetite feel free to dig into their desserts: icecream with a variety of toppings or Killa bombs fried ice cream.

Ideally, the 30cm Killa burger $20 (and meal $25) is shared between four people, and so the burger is cut into quarters and served with plates, cutlery and multiple cups.

My male friends with their big eyes decided that they could tackle the killa burger alone (note that burgers are also available in regular and large sizes for those with normal sized appetites). Included in the Killa meal is a large serving of steak cut fries and either a 1.25 litre bottle of soft drink or two 600ml bottles of water.

The cake sized burgers, which fittingly are served in a cake box, are available in beef, chicken or vege. There is also a 'booty burger' option which is beef, coleslaw, tomato sauce, mustard and chips.

Of course no one's stomachs were as big as their eyes and all boys admitted defeat somewhere between half and three quarters of the way through. This in itself was a notable effort!

Not knowing much about Carramar and what else there is to do there, Killa Burger alone is reason enough to make the visit.

Open
10am - 9:30pm 7 days