Archive for the ‘V-ware’ Category
V Rating: V-ware When I was growing up*, eating at a pub meant a counter meal of fish and chips, roast lamb, or schnitzel. Occasionally, the menu would stretch to exotic dishes like apricot chicken or chicken maryland, but that was not the norm. These days a pub meal doesn’t have to be accompanied by beer stained coasters and endless TAB races on television. Some of Sydney’s top restaurants are in pubs, like Bistro Moncur at the Woollahra Hotel and est. at the Establishment. So when I had to organise a pre-Christmas fancy-schmancy business lunch I thought I’d give the Dome restaurant at the Arthouse Hotel a try. Although Dome is tastefully decorated with polished wooden floorboards and long chocolate walls, it sitting on top of a pub (albeit a schmick one) helps it maintain a casual air. I liked this about the restaurant. It kept the lunch relaxed without compromising the quality of the experience. It also helped that the staff were particularly friendly and helpful. Dome does not cater all that well for vegetarians, but then, that’s par for the course with most expensive, Modern Australian restaurants. There was a single vegetarian entree, an artichoke with gruyere tartlet served with baby greens, and a single vegetarian main, handmade linguini with fresh peas, broadbeans, tomato & mushroom. Both dishes were pleasant. The main pasta was down-to-earth, hearty meal. The peas gave it a fresh strong taste, and the serving was generous. My only complaint, as per usual, was that there no choice for vegetarians, so I wouldn’t recommend it if there were multiple vegetarians in your party. *I did grow up in country South Australia in the eighties.
V Rating: V-ware A little while ago I wrote about how much time you can waste trying to find a nice Sydney restaurant for a vegetarian friendly work Christmas lunch. The answer, by the way, is a lot. After much agonising, we settled on the The Wharf restaurant at the Sydney Theatre Company. There were a few reasons for this choice. One was the menu on the Internet, which looked veggie friendly. Another was the recommendation from a fellow vegetarian. The third reason was the view. On this last count, the restaurant exceeded my expectations. It’s at the end of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) on pier 4 at Walsh Bay in a converted warehouse. To reach the restaurant, you walk over creaking railway sleeper floorboards, and posters reminiscing about the stellar stars and shows that have graced the STC boards. The restaurant is in three parts - a main indoor area with two outdoor verandahs on the wings. The large, glass windows that surround the open plan restaurant let the light come flooding in. They also happen to look out on a beautiful harbour vista taking in Luna Park and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The venue was a great choice for lunch, even on the stormy, overcast Friday that we visited. Unfortunately, the menu didn’t quite live up to our heightened expectations. Perhaps we misread the menu that fateful day when we booked. It turned out that there was only one vegetarian main on the menu. Out of ten options. It did not fill me with confidence that the option was a salad. We ended up asking the restaurant to modify the seafood pasta dish. Much like last year. The entrees were more promising. Two were vegetarian, and one was figs with goats cheese. It is hard to go wrong with this dish. The figs were fresh. The goats cheese was tart, and the sprigs of baby mizzuna added a touch of pepper. However, it wasn’t quite as special as the fig and goats cheese entree at Ravesi’s, maybe because the fig wasn’t caremelised. I loved the atmosphere at the Wharf restaurant but am a bit over having issues ordering a decent vegetarian dish for Christmas lunch. This year I’m not leaving anything to chance - I’m booking something in July!
A pox on McDonalds. Forgive me, but I was desperate for a bite to eat today and I dropped into a McDonalds on my way home. I don’t know when it happened but it seems that their vegetarian Deli Choices roll is now no longer available. Once I established this with the bored drive-thru operator, I just kept on driving. There is now once again nothing on the McDonalds menu for vegetarians – unless you are prepared to suffer the indignity of looking like a wuss and eating a cheesy garden salad while your non-vegetarian friends are tucking into their high calorie, spare-tyre inducing “meals”. I know what you are thinking. It is embarrassing that I was near a McDonalds in the first place. Having just watched the movie Fast Food Nation (the one that McDonalds is trying to out-PR with its series of ads showing gullible young workers being shown on “milk runs” of Australian meat packing plants), I shouldn’t have gone near the place. No bull. If you are wavering as a vegetarian and haven’t seen Fast Food Nation, see it. McDonalds may be able to put a thin gloss on their operations in their 30 second TV spots, but it’s impossible to explain away the fact that McDonalds earns its profits from the mechanised mass slaughter of living creatures. McDonalds: V-Ware. GR
V Rating: V-ware Altitude, on level 36 of Sydney’s Shangri-La Hotel, was the venue for a dinner with overseas work colleagues. It was awarded the Australian Hotels Association (NSW) Best Restaurant of the Year in 2005. I naturally feared the worst and decided to check out the menu online. At least there were a couple of veggie options listed on menu. For entrée, Altitude offered a pressed terrine of heirloom plum tomatoes wrapped in basil served with Woodside goat’s cheese ($25) and for main, a “rice less cauliflower risotto” with blue cheese courgette flowers (at a hefty $35). A note on the menu suggested that the daily offerings could differ from those listed on the menu, so I took the precaution of emailing the restaurant. My email went something like this:
A few hours later, I had a somewhat concerning reply:
Hmmmm. This was not a good sign. While I would not expect the average Joe or Joanne to know what the term “ovo-lacto vegetarian” means, I do expect better things of people who make a living out of preparing and serving food. So I decided to chance it. On arrival, the view was spectacular – overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it’s one of the best in Sydney. I followed the lead of my dinner colleagues and ordered a mixed leaf salad with sherry dressing ($10) as a starter. Before it arrived we were served a small complimentary palate cleanser of apple jelly with small salmon chunks. It looked so carefully and delicately prepared I didn’t have the heart to send it back, but nor could I eat it. The salad was fair, and then came the intruiging “rice less cauliflower risotto”. Ha! This appeared to be little more than roughly pureed cauliflower, topped with the ubiquitous deep fried zucchini flower filled with (yawn) blue cheese. So there you have it. The wine list was excellent. Open up the V-ware files. There is still room for Altitude.
V Rating: V-ware On Wednesday night we went to Aussie Stadium to watch the Socceroos take on Kuwait in Asian Cup qualifier match.
I’ve never been to a The crowd was boisterous and comparatively witty compared to their cricket and AFL counterparts. Aussie Stadium was a great venue - small enough to offer a great view of the pitch without diminishing the feeling of being part of a crowd. The game was a bit scrappy, and the A-League Aussies gave us a bit of a scare by waiting until the 76th minute to score. However, they soon found the net again, downing Kuwait 2-0, much to the delight of the crowd. The only downside to the night was the food options for vegetarian. I don’t think it’s a good sign when your soccer team scores more goals that you have options to eat. I guess I shouldn’t complain. I know from painful experience that bastions of masculinity (aka sporting stadiums) are not vegetarian friendly places. Perhaps they think serving vegetarian food impairs the part of the brain that regulates beer snake construction, Mexican waving, and sledging. Still, it kind of sux when you line up for twenty minutes at ‘Stadium Food’ and your only choice of dinner is a $4.20 bucket of hot chips. I know hot dogs, meat pies, and beef burgers are de rigueur at the footy. I just question why the only sandwich choices are ‘chicken, beef or ham’ and the only soups are ‘chicken’ or ‘beef and vegetable.’ Looking forward to seeing the Socceroos take on Bahrain at Aussie Stadium in October, but will make sure to pack my own dinner.
V Rating: V-ware Surry Hills is the one part of Sydney that reminds me of Melbourne. There’s funky designer shops, left-leaning arts and music festivals, and slinky laneways hiding a multitude of great bars and restaurants. It’s the last part that Sydneysiders struggle with. We’re not big on subtlety, and don’t understand why you’d locate a place to be seen somewhere that people can’t see it. Perhaps that’s why half of my dinner group, including moi and my taxi driver got lost trying to find Lo Studio (why would it been down a deserted street opposite a vacant lot??) Even when I was standing in front of the address (literally) I didn’t trust my eyes. It looked like the front doors of an understated New York apartment block , and there was just a staircase without a hint of a name, or restaurant, in sight. Upstairs it’s a different story. There’s a slightly formal lounge bar to the right, and a spacious fine dining restaurant on the left. The restaurant has an oblong shape and has a lot of floor space. The decor is minimalist. The walls are painted stark white, interrupted only by large dark windows overlooking the small, dark street. The floor is carpeted, keeping noise levels in check, and there are comparatively vast stretches of space between the tables. Along one wall is a huge wooden bar, well-stocked with good wines and a range of liqueurs. I went to Lo Studio for a farewell dinner. Because we were a large group we had a set menu, which included one vegetarian entree and one vegetarian main. Neither are vegan. I don’t know if this is indicative of the usual menu - probably best to call ahead and check. The vegetarian entree was a caprese salad with fresh tomato, thick swathes of milky boccocini and ribbons of basil. This is one of my favourite salads - I love its simplicity, and the contrast between the rich, warm taste of the tomato, and the almost bland, soft boccocini - and Lo Studio did it well. My main was risotto with asparagus, peas and shaved, salted ricotta. The sauce was creamy and filled the bowl, giving the risotto a light, liquid consistency. The set menu also offered vegetarian sides like rosemary roasted pototaoes, of which I had Based on the set menu I wouldn’t recommend Lo Studio to a party of vegans or vegetarians, but as the solo vegetarian I had plenty of food to line my tummy.
V Rating: V-ware Cafe Sydney was the venue for a dinner with work colleagues this week. At the high end of the Sydney restaurant scene, it boasts beautiful views of the Sydney Opera House and harbour from the top of Circular Quay’s renovated Customs House. Enjoy the view because there’s little by way of choice for vegetarian folk. A quick squiz of the menu revealed no vegetarian entrees and a single choice for mains. After explaining my predicament to an attentive waiter, he suggested the cured meat and roasted pear salad with the meat removed. I’m not a big fan of modified meals. Meat eaters don’t have to ask for their meals to be modified when they go out for dinner, so why should I? But mindful of the need to eat, I took the waiter’s suggestion and also ordered the “roast garlic gnocchi with pumpkin sage and cashew pesto, taleggio and nut brown butter” for main course. The pear salad was dressed with a reduced balsamic vinegar and was tasty enough. The gnocchi though was ultra-rich and a little oily. I put my plate aside after a while and filled up on naan bread and steamed greens instead. The wine we chose from the extensive wine list was excellent. But typical of the top end of town, the meal was very disappointing as despite the best efforts of the waiting staff, the menu made no effort to cater for vegetarians. V-ware. Barry R. Reviewed 12/07/06. |
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