Review: Bistro 80

Last Friday we had another food blogger catch-up, this time in a fancier setting: Star City Casino’s Bistro 80. It was a night of new experiences for me: first time in the casino and first time I caught the light rail on my way back home. Exciting.

The casino is massive. I had to ask for directions to get to the bistro, with a quick detour to leave my umbrella in the cloakroom (mandatory for security reasons, and they charge $2 to non-members). There’s no dress code at the bistro but the decor is on the stiff/fancy side.

A few mocktails started off the evening. I wanted wine but hadn’t decided on my main yet, so I just held the order.

With steep prices some of us had considered having salads as mains. The only issue was that we had no idea of portion sizes. The consensus was to get the salads and other sides to share and a main each.

When the Confit duck & green bean salad with poached pears and hazelnuts arrived, we were glad we didn’t order it as a main. It was great, but tiny. We loved the plate, BTW.

Confit duck & green bean salad ($18.00)

The seared yellow fin tuna nicoise with kipfler potatoes and quail egg was way more substantial and equally good. Apart from the perfectly seared tuna slices it had a few anchovies, a great addition to the classic salad.

Seared yellow fin tuna nicoise ($21.00)

The grilled calamari with shaved fennel salad, basil & lemon olive oil dressing was my favourite shared dish. The calamari was extremely tender and the fennel (one of my favourite vegetables) was a great complement.

Grilled calamari ($18.00)

With all the shared dishes on the table we realised we needed some starch and leafy greens. We ordered a mesclun salad with Chardonnay dressing and chips (which we learned from the bill that were fried in duck fat).

Chips, mesclun salad ($8.00 each)

For main I had the wild river barramundi served with capsicum, olives, mussels, clams vinaigrette, and a glass of chardonnay. The fish was perfectly cooked, with crispy skin and nice flavour. The mussels and clams were tiny but a nice addition to the dish. The chardonnay was generously served in a red wine glass (justifying the $11 price tag) and matched the seafood beautifully.

Wild river barramundi ($36.00)

After seeing a lady’s wagyu beef burger in a nearby table, Rachel decided to order one. It came with Swiss cheese and crispy bacon, which was the best part of the burger according to Rachel, followed by the beetroot relish.

Wagyu beef burger ($22.00)

The slow cooked pork belly with red apple puree, walnuts and Normandy cider jus looked like a dessert and was extremely rich, according to Julie. I bet it was because it took Monica a long time to finish hers.

Slow cooked pork belly ($32.00)

Mel liked her Crystal Bay prawns spaghetti with garlic, basil, chilli and tomato, Laura her risotto of QLD spanner crab with sweet corn and baby herbs, and Mary her penne pasta with chorizo, mushroom, tomato and basil.

Crystal Bay prawns spaghetti ($27.00)

Risotto of QLD spanner crab ($27.00)

Penne pasta ($27.00)

And what’s a foodie outing without desserts? I was determined to resist the temptation but once there I just couldn’t. I did skip the chips and free bread to reduce the damage a tiny bit. There was a brand new dessert menu, so five of us decided to order all of them to share. Because we figured out five desserts would may not be enough, we repeated one of them. I know…

The banana bread & butter pudding served with rum and raising ice cream and toffee sauce was the best of all. Luckily, that was the duplicated dessert.

Banana bread & butter pudding ($10.00)

According to our waiter, the vanilla crème brulee, served with raspberry compote and coconut & lime sable was the best dessert in the new menu. We liked the pudding better, even when the brulee was a good one. The coconut & lime sable had mixed responses, I disliked its “days old” chewy texture, but some liked it.

Vanilla crème brulee ($10.00)

Hot chocolate fondant is perhaps the most overdone dessert ever (equivalent in music to Sweet Child O’Mine and Smells Like Teen Spirit). Not that it matters to me, and this one, served with malt ice cream, was a decent one. While most people found it excessively rich, it was well within my limits.

Hot chocolate fondant ($10.00)

To me the second best dessert of the night was the lemon tart served with chocolate sorbet. The tart had a wonderful texture (not too fluid, not too dry) and flavour, and the chocolate sorbet was a great match.

Lemon tart ($10.00)

We could see why the Eaton mess was a dessert thought for the kids, as our waiter told us. It was a very sweet combination of meringue, chantilly cream and strawberry compote served in a Sundae-type glass. Gave me flashbacks of my (overweight) childhood.

Eaton mess ($10.00)

It wasn’t a cheap dinner but a very enjoyable one. Thanks Laura for organising!

Bistro 80
Star City, 80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009
1800 700 700
www.starcity.com.au/Dining__Top_Level-Bistro_80.htm

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Review: Fisherman’s Wharf

Last Saturday morning, strangely sunny for this time of the year, a big bunch of food bloggers met in the Fisherman’s Wharf seafood restaurant for yum cha. The place is located on level one of the main building of the fish markets.

I was the first one to arrive, about 10 minutes early. They had prepared two big round tables for us; I took a seat and watched the huge tanks with live sea creatures waiting to be chosen and cooked. I was thankful we were there for yum cha only and not a seafood feast.

Live seafood

Most of the people arrived before or on time, which was great because I was seriously starving! It was great to see again some of the food bloggers I met in the Christmas picnic, and to meet lots of new faces.

The waitresses wanted to start placing food on our tables from minute one but we kept telling them to come back when the tables were full. Finally, the moment came and we were attacked by steam baskets coming from everywhere to the spinning glass table centres.

Centre: pan-fried prawn with shallot & spice. Bottom: steamed BBQ pork bun

Clockwise from top: Har Gow (shrimp dumplings), scallop dumplings, salt & pepper squid, steamed prawn & chives dumplings, steamed spinach dumplings

Deep-fried meat dumplings, steamed prawn dumplings

Clockwise from top: BBQ pork pastry, steamed prawn dumplings, steamed spinach dumplings, deep-fried taro pie

Egg custard bun

BBQ roast duck

Siu mai (pork and mushroom dumplings)

The best part of eating with food bloggers is that no one gets pissed of for having to wait for the photo ritual in order to eat.

The second best part, of course, is the conversation, which is always entertaining and informative at the same time. Food was good but not the best yum cha ever. I love prawns, so everything with prawns became my top picks of the meal, but I did try a bit of almost everything.

My first plate (of many)

BBQ pork has a special place in my belly “heart”, too, I loved it in its two appearances: steamed buns and pastry.

Steamed BBQ pork bun

My eating philosophy is to try everything at least once before deciding if I like it or not. This time I tried a chicken foot for the first time. Where I come from chicken feet are poor people’s food, but in Hong Kong I learned it’s considered as good (or maybe better?) than any other chicken bit. The way they had cooked it in the restaurant was tasty but because I normally dislike the taste of fatty animal skin, I only had a bite. Not that I hated it but there was plenty of other more appealing stuff.

Chicken feet in black bean and chilli sauce

Another first for me were the steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce. When I think of pork ribs I always think about a beautiful caramel color achieved by marinating and roasting or grilling. In this case, the meat was greyish and pale, certainly not very appealing but I gave it a shot and it was nice. Again, not a highlight for me but good to try.

Steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce

At the end of the savouries we received our green supply: steamed chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. Crunchy and refreshing, just the way I like it.

Steamed chinese broccoli with oyster sauce

The deep-fried prawn wontons were, I think, the only morsel that escaped my chopsticks. They disappeared in a heartbeat but I managed to snap a pic.

Deep-fried prawn wontons

At this stage some of us were already reaching our stomach capacity. But we hadn’t had dessert yet! Luckily, some of the girls made a wonderful selection for the less experienced of us to try. Mango pancakes and custard tarts were the only familiar desserts for me.

Custard tarts, mango pancakes

The mango pudding two ways (with and without evaporated milk) was nice, and reminded me of what I love about Chinese desserts: simple, homely and not overly sweet.

Mango pudding two ways

Another “exotic” dish arrived with the desserts, the pan-fried turnip cake. I heard something about each colour being a different flavour but I only managed to eat a bit of the light-coloured one. It tasted a bit like fried mochi, but more salty. Weird.

Pan-fried turnip cake

The final dessert to hit our stomachs was the tofu far, silken tofu with a sweet syrup. Again, super simple but tasty and comforting in a way.

Tofu Far (silken tofu with sweet syrup)

A million thanks to Wendy for helping me out with the dish descriptions, and of course for the lovely chat during the meal. Also many thanks to Miss Piggy and Laura for organising such a wonderful catch-up.

Fisherman’s Wharf
Level 1 Bank Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009
(02) 9660 9888
www.fishermanswharf.com.au

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