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

Longrain

"It's nice. It's actually very nice." Any exclamation of praise is rare from my father but this double statement is right on the mark. The 'very nice' subject he's referring to is Longrain's Eggnet filled with pork, prawns, peanuts and bean sprouts and served with a cucumber relish. This was the dish we started with and what a start to a meal! Surprisingly cold, the dish has a superb flavour and texture. It definitely warrants its position on Terry Durack's top 50 dishes in Sydney.

Sitting across from each other at one end of the long wooden table (one of about 4 tables in Longrain, which stretched all the way down the length of the restaurant), I was slightly giddy with excitement to be finally dining here, Longrain being on my 'to do' list for quite some time.

With wooden tables, wooden floorboards and wood on the walls, the decor of the restaurant was stripped back and our focus was solely on the food. This happened to be a good thing as the service was in no way incredible (or what I expected from trendy Longrain). At one point, the waitress instead of asking me to move my bag, or picking it up and moving it for me, pushed my bag closer to the table using her foot. Fortunately this odd behaviour didn't put me off.

Our next dish was the trout, served warm with cool herb like vegetables. Again, we were hit with bursts of flavour - both sour and sweet.

So far, our dishes were large enough to share amongst the seven of us but the chicken dish was significantly smaller. The little drumsticks were crispy on the outside and tender and moist inside but the sauce they were served with was slightly too sour for my palate.

The sliced beef, served with crunchy green beans was steaming hot in temperature and very juicy.

The squid was another favourite. It cut like butter and was served with plenty of speck and crunchy snow peas in a sweet plum-like sauce.

Our last savoury dish was the silken tofu. The large hot cubes were lightly crunchy on the outside and very soft inside (and also very hot).

Whilst Longrain's lighting was a nightmare for food photography, it was very pleasant to dine by and bright enough to easily read the food menu, specials and extensive bar list.

Not completely full yet, we decided to order two dessert tasting plates to share between the six of us. It worked well, allowing us to try a little of everything. The tasting plate was a treat with some different and interesting dishes along with some more traditional desserts and a good mix of hot and cold. My personal favourite was the warm taro cake with peanut ice cream and coconut.

Unfortunately, Longrain doesn't take bookings for parties under 10 and recommended that we arrive at 6:00 to ensure we were seated, and seated together. It was lucky we took their advice as by 7pm, the place was full.



Lovely atmosphere, great food and indeed, the trendy place it was talked up to be.

Longrain Restaurant & Bar
85 Commonwealth St
Surry Hills, 2010

Price
$28-48 per main course share plate