Go west to Atura Blacktown and Skyline Drive In

I'll be the first to admit that I don't go west very often - those inner city and inner west bubble walls can be rather thick.

But a recent Saturday morning event in the west presented me with a unique opportunity to go west the night before - to the rather new Atura Blacktown hotel by the AHL group that also owns Sydney's boutique QT Hotel, and the adjacent Skyline Drive In cinema.

Atura Blacktown, Cricketers Arms Road, Blacktown

For those not accustomed to going west (hi), Blacktown is pretty far from the inner city especially in after-Friday-work peak hour traffic. When you do get to Blacktown/Prospect, don't get too worried when GPS tells you to turn off a dark, rather sparse road that shows very little around for what seems like miles.

You're (probably) on the right track to reach the beacon-like, white-and-yellow-lit Atura Blacktown on Cricketers Arms Road. Opened in late 2013 as a newly-built three-storey structure, Atura Blacktown is the first of a new chain of design hotels by AHL aiming to bring some style and quirk to city fringe, suburban or regional areas where there's still demand for accommodation.

Pool table and seating on the ground floor lobby

Aside from a whole lot of corporates, Atura Blacktown targets event-goers at Eastern Creek (apparently now known as Sydney Motorsport Park) and in the warmer seasons, families and groups headed to Wet'n'Wild Sydney.

The hotel's philosophy is based around "high connectivity" and "low guest maintenance" which means free WiFi and a huge shared space lobby incorporating reception, entertainment, the Roadhouse Bar & Restaurant, and a Grab & Go pantry where quick snacks, microwaveable meals and other necessities are there for guests' grabbing and purchasing convenience.

Bedroom suite

Upstairs the guest rooms are a surprisingly spacious proposition, like a well-planned studio apartment with all the necessary trimmings. Decked out in what I can only try to describe as a modern quirky art/design style, the rooms have a desk, small sofa and table, bed (of course) and the added facilities of an almost-kitchenette.

Kitchenette

There's a kitchenette sink, microwave, kettle and pod espresso machine as well as some kitchen utensils which makes me think there was also some kind of stove implement for basic in-room cooking.

Then, there was the full mini bar with drinks, including booze, snacks and even microwave popcorn for drive in cinema or in-room consumption - the latter a rather tempting offer with the on-swivel flat screen television and free movies on offer - yes, free movies.

Artwork and sofa

Room furnishings

Bathroom artwork

Bathroom furnishings

Roadhouse Bar & Grill dining area
(Image courtesy of AHL)

Of course, for something more substantial to eat there's the Roadhouse Bar & Grill on the ground lobby floor which offers a menu of grill and modern Australian dishes with something to to suit everyone.

The open kitchen at Roadhouse Bar & Grill, Atura Blacktown

The bonus of the open and shared lobby space means that there's plenty to watch for entertainment as you wait for your meal - from cars pulling up out the front, people at reception or the pantry, to people at the lobby televisions or playing pool and in the warmer weather, probably people in the pool.

Aperol Spritz (left) and Dark and Stormy (right) cocktails

The Roadhouse Bar has standalone bar seating while it also services the restaurant with a full offering of beer, wines and cocktails.

I opted for a weather-inappropriate pre-dinner Aperol Spritz, while the Dark and Stormy was also served classically: tall with Goslings Black Seal rum and topped with ginger beer and lime.

Popcorn prawns

It didn't take long at all for our starters to arrive, beginning with battered popcorn prawns that we demolished in minutes.

Served considerately atop a leafy salad with pickled carrots, the not-small golden-surfaced prawn pieces were deliciously easy to enjoy, especially with a sweet chilli lime mayonnaise drizzled over.

Baked beetroot and goat's cheese salad

The friendly waitress' favourite dish of beetroot and goat's cheese salad featured baked baby specimens of both golden and normal beetroots. Pimped up with crunchy pistachio nuts and pumpkin seeds, the salad was a perfect balance of leafiness, tart balsamic vinegar dressing, sweet beets and creamy goat's cheese.

300g free range Kurobuta pork chop, potato gratin and beans

Being the cold night it was I felt like something comforting and winter-appropriate, and so ordered the larger than expected pork chop served with creamy, cheesy potato gratin and green beans.

The huge, well-grilled pork chop came with a glossy, tasty gravy but even that couldn't get me all the way through the quite lean chop, while the potato gratin was irresistibly filling.

200g eye fillet steak, Grassland, NSW

As a grill restaurant it's hard not to go with a steak and the Grassland eye fillet is one of five steak options, all served with fat chips and a choice of sauce.

Cooked to medium-rare as requested, the petite but thickly cut steak was a tender affair that was best with the rich pepper sauce.

Eye fillet steak served with fat chips and sauces

Meanwhile, the metal basket of super fat chips with fluffy innards were great with the bacon-and-garlic-scented mushroom sauce; an inadvertent second steak sauce.

Roast vegetables

A side of roast vegetables was a wintry celebration of sweet, softened root vegetables - pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato and the ever-delightful parnsip.

Queue at Skyline Drive In, Cricketers Arms Road, Blacktown 

Unfortunately we didn't have time to try desserts at Roadhouse Bar & Grill as we were due for a movie at the neighbouring Skyline Drive In - the only permanent drive in cinemas in Sydney, and with two screens.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks of Grease at the sound of a drive in and it's all the fun you imagine and more. Drive in, queue up in your car, pay per person at the entry then park in one of the many designated spots.

Watching a movie at the drive in!

Then, tune in to the right radio frequency and voilà - surround sound in the confines of your car. Note that it can get pretty chilly in winter so rug up, take a blanket or work out how to keep the heating (and radio) on without the car lights on.

Grab and Go pantry at Atura Blacktown

If dinner and popcorn weren't enough to stave away hunger pangs post movie, a quick visit to the Grab and Go pantry late at night would have done the trick.

Roadhouse Bar, by day

The next morning we returned to the Roadhouse restaurant area for breakfast. As with many hotel restaurants, the space doubles as the buffet breakfast area with the kitchen pass getting covered in vessels and food dispensers.

Cereals, milk, yoghurt and fruit at the breakfast buffet

Healthy options include yoghurts, fruit and cereal - and weirdly, I can never resist tinned peaches at a hotel breakfast buffet.

Yoghurt, fruit and juices 

Bread station

The bread station offers a decent selection of white, brown and super thick raisin bread as well as English muffins and a range of spreads including Lurpak butter and Birch & Waite honey.

Next to the breads is the conveyor belt toaster machine which warmed my English muffin though I wouldn't have called it toasted. I think I need more practice with those machines.

Scrambled eggs

From the hot food selection were heavy enamel pots of scrambled eggs, not quite crispy bacon and the best whole, buttery, button mushrooms of which I could have had seemingly endless helpings.

Bacon

Mushrooms

Buffet breakfast plate

However healthy the intention, this is what my buffet breakfast plates tend to look like. With the addition of crisp hash browns and mini chicken sausages, this big breakfast was completely appropriate for a day when the consumption of alcohol commenced before noon and not long after check-out.

The pool at Atura Blacktown

Once the weather warms up, I can imagine the pool and pool bar just outside of the restaurant dining area will become highly coveted spots for those staying in the hotel and not in the area for water park queues. Given this was the view from our room, bikini parades and people watching are also likely to be popular.

Chairs by the pool

Atura Blacktown brings some city pizazz and quirk out west with a unique offering at an affordable price point. With the Roadhouse Bar & Grill and the Skyline Drive In next door, it's a bit of an attraction in itself - worth going west for.

Atura Blacktown exterior by day
(Image courtesy of AHL)

Food, Booze & Shoes was a guest of Atura Blacktown, Roadhouse Bar & Grill and the Skyline Drive In.

Glass Brasserie: Breakfast to see you through a day

Porridge as breakfast just doesn't do it for me, especially in the colder mornings. Those pre-flavoured sachets are tasty but the sugar content and other stuff in them doesn't seem appropriate for that time of the day. And plain oats are just plain.

I'd much rather have breakfast at Hilton Sydney's Glass Brasserie everyday but failing that, even once in a while is pretty special. Looking out onto the Queen Victoria Building facade one Saturday morning, I felt a little like a tourist in my own city, which I keep meaning to try one day.

Fresh juice mixes at Glass Brasserie, Hilton Sydney, George Street, Sydney

Glass Brasserie offers a la carte or buffet breakfast options daily. It's been a very long time since I was faced with a breakfast buffet and Glass strives to impress.

Start with a specialty 'Juice Master' cocktail - booze-free, of course, at this time of the day (although bubbles for breakfast are an option!).

Cappuccino

A lazy weekend breakfast is hardly complete without a cruisy coffee, rather than one gulped in front of a computer, with the espresso coffees made to order and specialty teas available.

Steamers feature more hot options, including Asian breakfasts

While there's cereal and museli and all, I'm all about the savoury breakfasts and there sure are some interesting choices at Glass to cater to the international hotel guests. Anyone for congee, fried rice or steamed dumplings for breakfast?

Cold cut meats and cheese buffet options

Or, would you rather cold cut meats and cheese in proper European style? I definitely would have gone back for this if I had time or stomach space, as the last time I had salami for breakfast was years ago in Munich.

Hot breakfast buffet options

The 'standard' breakfast options looked pretty enticing too: plenty of roasted bacon, mini sausages, eggs, hash browns and mushrooms, looking fresh and appetising - which is not always the case with breakfast buffets.

Selections from the breakfast buffet

We somehow managed a buffet selection without bacon or sausages; instead drawn to the vivid orange smoked salmon at the buffet, and also featured in the signature a la carte breakfast dish.

The smoked salmon shared the massive plate with a generous helping of creamy scrambled free range eggs, crunchy potato hash browns, sauteed mushrooms with spinach leaves and a bit of cheese.

In-house cold smoked salmon

Claiming to be Sydney's best smoked salmon, I don't think they're off the mark at all. Made in-house the Tasmanian farmed salmon is cured in salt and sugar for 24 hours and then rinsed, marinated in vegetable oil before being cold smoked.

The smoked salmon has an actual texture and flavour beyond mush and salty smoke, which is what some of the commercial packet stuff can taste like.

This glorious smoked salmon comes from Hilton Sydney's new-ish executive chef Carl Middleton (ex Lilianfels in Katoomba) and his own killer recipe with a new smoker installed at Glass.

Yoghurt pot with bircher museli

For a healthier turn, cute little yoghurt pots with what I think was bircher museli and nuts do the trick.

Buffet fresh fruit selection

As does the fresh fruit selection from the buffet, where cubes of melon and pineapple, but especially the passionfruit, add a sweet and light touch to the morning.

Chinese style congee with toppings

Curiosity got the better of me and I just had to sample the congee and steamed dumplings - possibly a bit of a controversial addition to the buffet line-up given Chinatown is mere minutes away.

The plain congee was that variety which is made with just rice and water, so my failure to add soy sauce as a condiment - in addition to the fresh and fried shallots - was a major error. In any case, this type of congee is meant to be plain and cleansing. For the dumplings, go to Chinatown.

Breakfast omelette from the a la carte breakfast menu

If there's not enough enticement in the buffet or for those just too lazy to get their own, Glass offers an a la carte menu, priced separately to the buffet, where the likes of omelettes are cooked to order with a choice of fillings.

This fluffy, folded-over and perfectly golden specimen enveloped diced ham, mushroom and cheese in a still-wet and stringy-with-cheese classic combination.

Signature dish of beach wood house smoked salmon with English potato scones, pan roasted
asparagus, free range scrambled eggs and baby watercress  from the a la carte
breakfast menu

And starring the aforementioned 'Sydney's best' smoked salmon, Glass' signature breakfast dish is a fresh, pretty construction.

This brightly coloured dish is quite a substantial breakfast of scrambled eggs, roasted asparagus and hidden beneath it all, an English potato scone that was more like a buttery, pan-fried hash brown than the afternoon tea style scones I know.

Chocolate croissant and guava danish

To finish on a sweet note, I returned to the buffet - although breads and pastries are located in a different area, closer to the entrance. The stunning mini guava danish was irresistable and had to be on my plate, along with a flakey, buttery mini chocolate croissant.

We took leave of our gorgeous QVB vantage point completely and utterly sated and ready to take on the day. Indeed, this epic breakfast at Glass saw me through the entire day with lunch admittedly skipped.

Food, booze and shoes dined at Glass Brasserie courtesy of Hilton Sydney.

A Flavour of Moscow comes to InterContinental Sydney

My experience with Russia and all things Russian is pretty much limited to a Moscow Mule. Which is an appropriate introduction to 'A Flavour of Moscow'; a Russian experience at the InterContinental Sydney which is on now until 31 January 2012.

Cortile Lounge, InterContinental Sydney, Macquarie Street, Sydney

Celebrating the opening of InterContinental Moscow Tverskaya, the five-star InterContinental Sydney hotel is adding a taste of Russia to the lobby bar cocktail menu and the Cafe Opera buffet.

At the airy, light-filled Cortile Lounge on the ground floor, Russian-inspired vodka based cocktails feature alongside mojitos; with a two-for-one offer ($25) on cocktails from 5.00-7.00pm every day.

Moscow Mule at the Cortile Lounge

The refreshing Moscow Mule is packed with ice, a 'black' vodka, lime and ginger beer and is the ultimate summer cocktail, which makes the Russian connection a little contradictory.

Russian Mule

A close relative, the Russian Mule, comes from the same line of vodka, lime and ginger beer with the addition of mint leaves, and has a lot more flavour for it.

From Russia With Love cocktail

The third Russian inspired cocktail is more aptly a dessert cocktail, featuring vodka, Chambord, cranberry juice and cream. Not exactly pretty unstirred, this rich and saccharine-sweet drink was an unexpected winning flavour combination.

We headed up to Cafe Opera on Level 1 via the antiquated elevator that was as much fun to operate as the cocktails. The regular buffet option at Cafe Opera has been given 'A Flavour of Moscow' in addition to the seafood and hot roasts, with lunch starting from $55 per person and dinner from $65 per person.

Fresh seafood at the Cafe Opera buffet

Considering the buffet features daily-changing fresh seafood such as Sydney rock oysters, tiger prawns, New Zealand mussels and spanner crab, the price isn't too much to ask.

The Russian inspired buffet additions are inspired by the InterContinental Moscow Tverskaya’s executive chef Olev Chesnokov, and change daily with the buffet.

Cold food options

There's also an exciting, seafood-heavy array of cold salads with more dressings than I probably knew existed, as well as sushi and cured seafoods and meat.

For the 'A Flavour of Moscow' feature, separate to the rest of the buffet and aside the bread served with Pepe Saya cultured butter, there were interesting and uncommon foods spread across a deli set-up

Smoked sprats

The prettily arranged headless smoked sprats were much like sardines with a divine smokiness that added a sweetness to the oily fish.

Russian stuffed egg

The stuffed eggs were irresistably beautiful, with a creamy egg yolk mixture piped in to refill emptied boiled egg white sections. There wasn't really anything interesting taste-wise, but the gorgeous piping made up for that.

Moscow salami

While I've yet to meet a salami that I don't like, I struggle to really tell the difference between, for example, Hungarian or various Italian salami. So, I can say I liked this salami just as much as I like other salamis - which is plenty, and particularly with cornichons.

Russian cheese

We couldn't get an identifying name for this Russian cow's milk cheese, but it was unlike any other I've tried. As salty as a salty feta cheese, but with a texture almost like margarine, this holey cheese was lovely spread on fresh, crusty white bread.

My buffet plate with 'A Flavour of Moscow'

And with the addition of Russian pickles - tomato, gherkin, celery and squash, all wonderfully fragrant with dill - this was 'A Flavour of Moscow'.

There was nothing scarily alien to me about the Russian food experience here, although I was hanging out for some blinis (about the only Russian food item I previously knew).

Seafood salads and cured meats

Of the rest of the Cafe Opera menu, we happily went to and fro to collect the likes of smoked salmon and a scallop salad from the cold salad buffet; the latter consisting of scallops, minimal vegetable and dressing.

Fresh seafood

I may have been seen at the fresh seafood buffet several times in the night, but I can't be blamed. Blame the oysters or me wanting to try fresh spanner crab, which was as much work as normal crab but unfortunately didn't have the sea-sweet flavour of mud crab or even blue swimmer crabs.

Sydney rock oysters

But the oysters, oh the oysters. Pretty much the best I've had all year, these Sydney rocks had it all going on. Impeccably fresh, plump and so very creamy, even the occasional bit of shell didn't deter me from heading back for more.

While I usually like a red wine vinegar dressing on my natural oysters, these needed nothing at all but a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. These oysters and a glass of Kilikanoon Vouvray, and all was right in the world.

Scallop salad (left) and crab salad (right)

The sheer quality of the buffet was impressive as it's obviously quality over quantity. The crab salad, for example, was predominantly picked crab and not much else. The seafood was super fresh and the Pepa Saya butter probably topped it all off.

Roast turkey (back), lamb skewers (back right), baked sweet potato (front)
and baked ham (front left)

In time for the festive season, the carvery featured both roast turkey and baked ham - both of which were done very well, full of flavour and moisture and irresistable a few days before Christmas.

Dessert buffet

By the time dessert was on my mind, I think I'd eaten more than my fair share of oysters and turkey, and couldn't really fathom anything more than a mouthful or four of ice cream from a self-serve section.

The refrigerated dessert section looked like a sweet tooth's fantasy land, but for me it would have to be another visit's sweet ending. I was completely done, in my typical buffet style, and having had 'A Flavour of Moscow', would definitely be up for a visit to Russia to sample more of those pickles, smoked fish and vodka, of course.

Food, booze and shoes dined at the Cortile Lounge and Cafe Opera courtesy of InterContinental Sydney, with thanks to Starr Public Relations. 

Available exclusively to InterContinental Sydney’s exclusive Club lounge guests, a complimentary menu of Russian vodkas and vodka-based cocktails will be served at twilight, accompanied by Russian canapés, such as Ukranian potato pancake, salmon kulebiaka and Crimean mussel pilaf. Guests can also enjoy a selection of Russian a la carte dishes while overlooking the harbour and Botanic Gardens.