Tucked away from prying eyes is the European charm of Bambini Trust Café. One would be surprised to find the hustle and bustle of a main Sydney street on the exterior - probably because one could be justified in thinking that this was a Melbourne location.

Running ten minutes late shouldn’t have been a problem - a courtesy call was put in, seeing as it was around the Christmas lunching season. Unfortunately, we were made to wait for almost another thirty minutes, at which point we were rather hungry, and indeed thirsty!

Finally, a table was ready. Inside, the lights were down low and window shades at full-length. Seated, and with time at a premium. Sourdough roles with a shot of pea and sage soup were swiftly served, and ordered was the spice crusted ocean trout with spring fennel and mussel fumé.

The quality of food was evident - ocean trout one of my favourite types of fish was delicate and moist, however the fumé seemed to be a little confusing, sitting unbalanced with the fennel.

That said, I feel that this restaurant deserves a repeat visit. A location one could stay for several hours, oblivious to the world around, and your boss would be none the wiser.

Returnability: Yes. Seems to be a sleeper on the Sydney scene.
Score: unrated

Entrees $18 to $25. Mains $24 to $33.5. Dessert $12.5 to $15.5
Fully licensed
185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

We headed on down to Glitch at the Scary Canary last night to see Magda get minimal. An interesting new bar-cum-club on the site of the old Genghis Khan restaurant in Sydney. Recently opened and supporting a non-commercial music mindset at this point in time.

With a $5 cover, the only excuse in not getting down was either the need to be back at work the next day, or perhaps an elongated new year’s hangover. With neither of these, we walked down to the Kent St. venue to hear Dave Choe keeping the beat. A couple of drinks and change from $10 and I was certainly pleased. Magda came on around 11.30pm and a decent crowd that was currently drinking would ensure the dance floor would fill.

We stuck it out ’till about 2am - sleep was required. Certainly the best night I’ve been out too all year. Seriously though, great music on offer, a lot of which I hadn’t heard before - solid mixing with the use of Final Scratch and a couple of effects boxes, plus sake shots whilst in the mix. Not bad, for January 2nd, normally one of the quietest nights on the calendar.

Now that summer is well and truly here, salads using fresh produce are number one on our list. Here’s one we did on new year’s eve as a canape. All you need to do is serve it in small noodle boxes instead.

500g dried rice vermicelli noodles
olive oil spray
2 skinless chicken breast fillets
1 large mango
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
4 spring onions
1 Lebanese cucumber
1 small cos lettuce
1/3 cup fresh coriander leaves

For the dressing:
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish Sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
1 small red birdseye chilli

1. Cook noodles in a large saucepan of boiling water until tender.
2. Drain and refresh with cold water and drain well.
3. Spray a nonstick frying pan with oil and heat.
4. Cook chicken over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until browned and cooked through.
5. Place noodles, mango, tomato (halved), sliced spring onions, chilli (diced, seeds optional if you like it hotter), lettuce, cucumber (ribbons with a peeler) and chicken in a bowl.
6. In a small bowl, mix lime juice and sauces. Pour over noodle salad and toss well to combine.
7. Divide among serving plates, and sprinkle with coriander.

Enjoy!

Situated between the Shakespeare Hotel and its sibling restaurant, Mohr Fish isn’t your average fish and chippery. Whilst it does the $7.50 house special fish and chip takeaway, you’ll be best served bringing a long neck or two of Coopers Pale Ale, or perhaps a South Oz Riesling and prepare yourself.

Why? Well, you may need to prepare with a drink at the Shakespeare Hotel - that’s because there’s four small tables and about 6 bar stools, so you might need to add yourself to the short waiting list. If you can slide on in, you’ll need to prepare yourself for the large servings, reminiscent of the dishes at Mohr & Mohr.

The menu is simple, pick a fish and then select the salad and mash/fries/gratin option, or select the fish with one of a small selection of toppings. I tried the cucumber salad with my tuna with a side of pesto potatoes, whilst K plumped for the salmon, fries and salad option. Other toppings on offer include asparagus and hollandaise if you’re feeling a little naughty, otherwise there’s the avocado salsa or pan-fried eggplant. Additionally, there’s mussels, oysters, squid and even a Bouillabaisse to tempt you.

My tuna steak was rare (as desired), the quality high and the texture, like jelly. The accompanying pesto potatoes were indeed flavoursome, but perhaps a little over the top with the amount of dressing. Tartare sauce fans unite - the creamy, dill and gherkin punctuated sauce adding zest to any fish dish.

Once again, like Mohr and Mohr, one can’t complain at the value, nor the serving sizes on offer. We left full – sans the oft mentioned lemon tart - one of three desserts on offer, alongside a rhubarb and apple crumble and chocolate tart, and certainly appreciated the walk home.

Returnability: Yes, and a mental note to try the take-away fish’n'chips at $7.50
Score: 13/20

Entrees $10.5 to $14.4. Mains $16 to $22. Dessert $7.5
BYO - no charge
202 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills

I’m certainly not intentionally going on the search for the worst pizza in town. That prize is possibly held by the either the greasball fast food joint on Darlinghurst Road in Kings Cross or another one of the same variety on George Street. However, neither of those places would consider themselves as restaurants, more like 4am post-drink pre-taxi cab haunts for the drunkards who would not know what they are consuming at that point in time.

A late night at work and some pizza was on order, tonight from Dimitri’s on Crown Street. Half an hour later and one of most anaemic looking pizza arrives at our door. Perhaps looks aren’t everything? Perhaps they may help. Anyway, this would go on record as one of the worst pizzas ever. The best part was the base, and even that wasn’t great. Prawns - ahh yep, that’d be frozen shrimp and there’s was about 6 of those on the whole pizza. Pineapple - I think they must have run out, since pineapple is such an unusual ingredient. Zero taste and a $20 pizza that would be better served lining a cat litter box. That’s one place we wont be going back to!

So.. have you got any recommendations for pizza in the Surry Hills area?

There’s nothing better than being taken out for meal. Oh hang on, there is one thing better and that’s being taken out somewhere for a great meal. As a birthday treat, Kel was taking me to Omega, Peter Conistis’ relatively new basement setup on King Street in the city. Having been to his old restaurant Eleni’s several times I was keen to try the offerings from this venture.

Named as last year’s ‘Restaurant of the year’ by the SMH Good Food Guide certainly piqued my interest, and so the booking was made.

Decsending down the stairs with sounds of Jazzanova playing and quite an interesting lighting arrangment, it was more like entering a slick bar than a restaurant. We were greeted and seated at the bar and ordered a couple of drinks to start the night off. One thing that many have who have visited this restaurant is the decor - I suppose you either love it or you hate it. Moulded plastic chairs that snugly fit your posterior, panels of mirrored bulbs across the far wall - I was in the group that loved it.

Anyway, since we’re here to eat - on to the food. It’s not often that I’m confronted with a menu that simply says “Eat me!”. I simply wanted to try everything tonight - however I did start with the anchovy baklava, which was accompanied by a salad of marinated sardines, fennel and tomato whilst Kel had the herb crusted seared Hiramasa kingfish on a bed of tomato kibbeh with basil tzatziki and fetta fritters. The baklava was sweet with a wafer thin pastry that was melt in the mouth.

Again, the selection for main course was just as difficult. Kel had the Humpty Doo Barramundi with ras el hanout, scampi, nicola potatoes, cherry tomatoes and baby fennel whilst I had the herb crusted king George whiting in kataifi pastry with a blue swimmer crab, cavalo nero and savoro sauce. And again, the dishes were just as good as the entrees. The pastry was most unusual - I have only seen a sweetened version used as a dessert item, however this gave a crunchy texture to the whiting with a hint of almond.

The wine list was excellent, a wonderful cross section of Australian wines with a support cast of NZ sauv blanc’s and even a couple of Greek reds. By the glass there was 4 bubbles, 4 white and 5 red varietals to select from - by the bottle, the selection is almost endless. The only thing that felt lacking on the night was the lack of suggestion strength from the acting Sommellier on the light. However, it would have been the only (minor) flaw of the experience; the wait staff were otherwise knowledgable and friendly, without being apparent.

Having eaten so much, dessert was a shared affair, plumping for the bitter chocolate, rosewater and Turkish delight ice cream slice with Turkish delight fillo cigar. The fragrance of the dessert was divine, and more than ample for 2 people. This, with two glasses of dessert wine (thrown in as a ‘birthday present’ from the restaurant) capped off a splendid meal.

Returnability: Without hesitation
Score: 16/20

Entrees $22 to $28. Mains $30 to $38. Dessert $17 to $21
BYO ($10 corkage) plus extensive, impressive winelist
161 (Basement) King Street, Sydney

Isn’t living in Surry Hills grand? Well, I certainly think so! Only minutes away from a massive selection of restaurants of different cuisines, some wonderful and some terrible. Tonight, we toddled off to Mohr & Mohr for a very casual meal. I’ve been sick with the ‘flu all week and it was nice to get out of the house.

No wines by the bottle, not even a BYO tonight, it was a simple one course and “we’ll see if we need dessert” kind of night. Perusing the menu, the influence being largely German. We settled on the hearty cassoulet with duck, sausage and Kassler, and the braised lamb shanks with broad beans and cherry tomatoes. Also spotted on the menu were the influences of the sister restaurant Mohr Fish - salmon with green peppercorn beurre blanc and rudder fish with mango salsa.

The food was decent without being special - however I should note that the serving sizes are huge! It was just as well that we didn’t order an entree! The shanks weren’t melting off the bone, and the cassoulet nothing to write home about - the duck was dry and whilst the sausage was tasty, I was still feeling it digest at 11pm!

This is the sort of restaurant I could see a rugby team getting stuck into the meals without complaint simply due to the serving sizes. A good local bistro, relatively inexpensive and quick - we were in and out in an hour - and we certainly didn’t need dessert!

Returnability: Perhaps, in the middle of winter.
Score: 13/20

Entrees $8.5 to $25. Mains $18 to $23. Dessert $6.5 to $12.5
BYO ($5 corkage) plus small winelist
Entertainment Book discount available
204 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills

With the recent rating of Sydney’s favourite Asian restaurant, usurping longtime darling Longrain, we thought it was well worth another visit to Spice I Am. Set in what doesn’t go too far beyond the stock standard dining room for your average Thai restaurant, the variety of the menu had us interested from the get go. Harking to its more expensive neighbour, items such as pork Pad Prik King Crispy Pork Belly appear on the menu, infused with a slightly fired up blend of chilli. Fish cakes weren’t the oh-so-typical rubbery pads of fish composite, instead whitebait shreds with a hot and somewhat sweet chilli sauce. Did you say firey? Watch out for the Larb, this time with chicken and proved to hot for one of us (well it wasn’t me!) - yet those fresh flavours kept me wanting more.

This time around we got one success and one hmmph.. but we’ll be back, probably because the Papaya flower salad the first time around was wonderful (and truly reminiscent of a dish we ate in Hoi An!). Just remember they don’t do bookings, and we waited 40 mins for a table on a busy Friday night. Come with a small group, and don’t be afraid to order a few dishes.

Returnability: Yes. Bring a handkerchief to mop the brow! And extra beer!!
Score: 14/20

Entrees $6.5 to $10.9. Mains $10.9 to $24.9. Dessert $6.5
No bookings. No cards
BYO (no corkage)
90 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney

Updated review - August 2006.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards for 2006 were announced at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay last night. Drumroll please…

Restaurant of the Year: est
Chef of the Year: Mark Best
Best New Restaurant: Pilu at Freshwater
Best Regional Restaurant: Collits Inn

Claude’s, est, Guillaume at Bennelong, Marque, Quay and Tetsuya’s

Aria, Bilson’s, Bistro Moncur, Buon Ricordo, Icebergs Dining Room & Bar, Longrain, Lucio’s, Omega, Pello, Pier, Pilu at Freshwater, Restaurant Balzac, Rockpool, Sean’s Panaroma and Yoshii.

The Bather’s Pavilion Restaurant, Bistro Lulu, Bistro Moore, Catalina Rose Bay, Fish Face, Flying Fish, Forty One, Galileo, Golden Century, Grand National, Hugo’s, Il Piave, Lotus, Manta, Milsons, Otto, Perama, Post Seafood Brasserie, Restaurant Atelier, Ristorante Riva, Sea Treasure, sushi e, Three Weeds, The Wharf and Ying’s.

Good Food Guide Editor Picks
Favourite Asian: Spice I Am
Favourite Bistro: Tabou
Favourite Mediterranean: Perama
Favourite Seafood: Pier
Favourite Yum Cha: Marigold Citymark
Favourite Bar: Bridge Bar
Favourite Café: Bertoni Casalinga

Carlton Draught’s Big Ad wont be launched until August 7, however more than half a million people have already seen the advert, as it moves virally across the Internet.

Whilst it’s a little way of Subservient Chicken and 20 milltion views in its first week, it still illustrates the reach achievable with the medium, something simply not attainable through more traditional means.

Foster’s General Manager for Regular Beer Matt Keen says,

“The advertising arena has become more fragmented. TV is still the way to market but the digital arena is becoming increasingly important, it’s also a way of engaging with drinkers personally. When they watch a television commercial there will be a number of other distractions … it’s shown among other ads and there’s generally a lot of noise about, but when people are sitting at their computers we know they’ve taken the time to see the ad; they’ve engaged with it. And that’s important.

And you can now watch the ad if you’ve not already seen it.