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!