Location: 18 Argyle St Sydney
Phone: 02 9247 7785
Price: OK / Slightly high
Service: Pass
Score: 6.5/10

Ate: Pork Knuckle

Antiblog (ZL):

On this sitting the pork knuckle was surprisingly massive and overall tasty. The skin was crispy but it was dry in parts.

Overall it's not bad however we've been many times over the years and find it extremely inconsistent. It's a bit like playing sushi roulette... sometimes you get away well other times you come out crying.
 
For the price we'd probably go somewhere consistently good (but if there were vouchers involved then spin that sushi wheel...)

Location:32 Belgrave St Manly  Phone: 02 8065 4805
Price: OK / Slightly high
Service: Pass (only one waitstaff but he was fine)
Score: 7.75/10

Ate: Pictured

Antiblog (ZL):

Overall each dish was tasty and portion size was decent. Meats were good (surloin probably marginally better than the beef ribs). Even though it was tasty the curry was probably the least tasty dish, reminiscent of Pie Face's Thai Curry Pie with less curry flavour.

The Key Lime pie was more like Key Lime cheesecake but thinking back it worked well with the Banoffee Pie. This was the first official Banoffee Pie we've had and despite a slightly thick crust we suspect it's one of the best you'll find. Tasty base, salted caramel and just enough banana and cream. Normally we find salted caramel is added just to menus to pretend to be chic but this one was actually good.

It's rare for us to like tapas (see our views on tapas and Movida Sydney) so for Miss Marley's to score so well is a testament to the Chef. Not as "inventive" as Movida but certainly still an unusual fusion and much more fulfilling.

Location: 132 Military Rd Neutral Bay,NSW Phone 02 9953 5853
Price: OK/Slightly High
Service: Pass
Score: 7/10




Ate: Boar Pasta (not pictured)
        Summer stonefruit Melba - raspberry sauce & mascarpone
        Doughnut - cookies n’ cream ice cream & butterscotch
        Dulce de leche ice cream sandwich - with choc fudge sauce

Antiblog (ZL): Formerly Neutral Bay Bar and Dining and with a sister restaurant "Glebe Point Diner" too. We hadn't been here for over a year so thought we'd revisit.

Boar pasta was good, fairly certain (95% confidence interval) that they use hand made pasta as opposed to packet pasta.

The website says they change the menu frequently. Whilst this looks true for entree and mains, desserts look to have been the same since they opened a few years ago. Perhaps they should change one every few months just to keep things interesting? Having said that the existing desserts are good, good enough to hypothetically go back twice within 6 months but not sure if they're good enough for a hypothetical third visit.        

Location: 400 Military Road Cremorne Phone: 8969 6060
Price: OK / Slightly high
Service: Pass
Score: 5.5/10

Ate: Pictured

Anitblog (ZL):
When we pay more than $10 for food "fresh" is a given otherwise we may as well cook it ourselves. Aranccini was bland, barra and prawns didn't taste of quality, risotto not cooked properly.

Dessert? Mango and peach rainbow jelly. Tasted ok, the ganache tasted way too strongly of dark chocolate and no coconut. Do you see the rainbow? We don't.

Thought we'd take them up on the "chilled souffle" since we didn't think it was possible (unless you're reading the Kraft website). It's not...this was more a semi freddo or praline parfait.

Overall, pretty average pub food dressed as fancy.

Location: Level 2, 455 George Street Sydney  Phone: 02 9283 7279
Price: Slightly High / High
Service: N/A (wedding)
Score: 7/10

Ate: Pictured

Antiblog (ZL):
Taking a risk here and reviewing someone's wedding food...
Luckily for them (or if you knew this friend maybe luckily for us) the QVB Tea Rooms is the best of the major wedding venues we've eaten at to date. We've been here during normal food times as well and whilst there's a price premium for being in the QVB it holds up well.

Location: Basement, 66 King St Sydney Stair entrances from both King St & York St
Phone: (02) 9262 3277
Price: dinner: OK / Slightly high 
            lunch: you'd get away with Cheap but not too cheap
Score: 7.5/10

Ate: Pictured

Antiblog (ZL):
Part of the Gallagher Hotels group which includes the P.J. Gallagher chain (haven't eaten there) and The Union Hotel (have eaten there, worth a visit), Le Pub is headed up by ex-Union Hotel Exec Chef Ronny Ghantous.

Pork Parfait -  wasn't overly meaty... more a pork after taste and everything else on the plate tasty.
Steak - great, the Cafe de Paris sauce tasted like pate so we asked to swap it for mushroom sauce - swapped with no issue or charge. Chips nice and crispy
Duck - slightly salty but tasty and soft, don't remember eating fois gras but maybe it's on the top left of the plate in the photo.
Chocolate and Peanut Tarte - more like chocolate semifreddo in a chocolate pastry shell but still tasty. Caramel nice and elastic.

We've harped on about Sydney's improving "bistro" scene for a while now - longer than we've had the antiblog - and Le Pub is a welcome addition.

Location: 6 Burlington Street  Crows Nest Phone: (02) 9439 7888
Price: Slightly high
Service: Pass (although suspect recommendation for dessert)
Score: without error and poor recommendation 6.5/10. With error and recommendation 5/10

Ate: Pictured (this is a long post so we won't bore with details)

Antiblog (ZL):
This would be our third or fourth visit over the years. The Burlington was "something a little fancy" but with the increase in bistro style food recently it has slipped to "ok". Overall it was still pretty good but a few stuff ups detracted from the experience and made us question the price.

Entree (scallops) was good.

Half the steak was cooked medium but the other half was rare (different to what usually happens where the steak is less well cooked in the middle...this was "left half" cooked, "right half" not quite there). We risked having our food dropped or spat on and asked the second half to be cooked a bit longer and it came back out cooked well and presented "as new" but for some reason the new potato gratin was cold... quite unusual.... at least it was still soft.

Pork shoulder was very soft but they unforuntately used similar spices to McDonalds so that's what it tasted like.

The pavalova was recommended (always wonder if it's a real recommendation or if they're trying to clear stock). It failed. You could make that at home. Also we're not sure what it means when pavalova is chewy...is it old or is it some special way of making pav. Nothing like their Eaton Mess which is worth a recommendation.

Luckily the fondant was worth it.

Location: 50 Holt St, Surry Hills Phone: 02 8964 7642
Price: Slightly High
Service: Pass (watch out for the odd hipster)
Score: 7/10

Ate: see pics for description. Not pictured was the "Spicy Pork Ribs on Charcoal".

Antiblog (AH): It's hard to fault the food as the dishes were mostly tasty and well prepared, although there wasn't much "impact" - my jaded taste buds weren't taken by surprise nor were they pleased enough to draw wild praise. Have you tasted these flavours before? Probably. Have you had them consistently well prepared in the one place? Probably not. MoVida Sydney is an enjoyable dinner with friends and of course, sangria. If you can get a table that is.

A major down point of our dinner was the un-pictured spicy pork ribs. Steer well clear of this folks. If you enjoy tasteless (well) cooked meat you can queue up at Porteño.

(ZL): It's ok...had a McDonald's double cheeseburger beforehand having learnt our lesson from Movida Next Door. Some nice flavours, slightly salty at times. Would need about $70 to get full but menu items didn't inspire us to order. Once again walked out hungry.

Location: 33 Bayswater Road Kings Cross Phone: 9380 8307
Price: Ok / Slightly High
Service: Pass (but understaffed on this visit)
Score: 6.5/10

We visited here for a work Christmas party. $60 for a three course lunch was pretty good value although they have a $48 3 course Sunday lunch which is even better value. Entrees and mains were good the tuna simple but tasty, the lamb slightly small for a shoulder but very tasty.

Two out of the three desserts failed (didn't eat the chocolate cake but it looked like a fail). I originally ordered the vanilla panna cotta the strawberry and rhubarb thing and the basil ice cream were nice but the panna cotta itself had too much gelatine.

Luckily one of my work mates donated their parfait to me and that was good. One of the better parfaits we've eaten to date.

Location: 18 Argyle Street, The Rocks Phone: (02)9259 5668
Price: Slightly High
Service: Pass
Score: 7/10

Ate: As pictured plus chateaubriand Fillet with Crispy Béarnaise, Pommes Allumettes

Abtiblog (ZL):
Well priced, high quality, tasty, good food.

The Cured Salmon was probably the thickest slice of cured meat we've encountered to date, being cured it ended up tasting a bit salty after halfway.

Mains were both very good.

Desserts - the ananas ravioli was refreshing but still satisfying. Snickers 2012 used a number of techniques but tasted so much like Snickers one wonders if it was worth all the effort.

It's situated on top of the Lowenbrau so if the polka band is playing downstairs you can hear and feel it...

Note: We ate under the reign of original Head Chef (Jerome Lagarde) who had an impressive pedigree (not that we had eaten at Sens & Bund) and truthfully his reputation was what "tipped the bucket" in our decision process to eat there. Since eating there and writing this Antiblog we've learnt that as of November 21 2012 James Privett (formally at The Cut - another Argyle venture, Light Brigade and Bistro CBD) has taken over as Head Chef. Suspicious.