Tanqueray Bar Hop for Good Food Month: Grain Bar, Gilt Lounge, Grasshopper Bar & The Roosevelt

Despite the name, Good Food Month isn't all about the food. Bar Hop, this year presented by Tanqueray, sees Sydney bars match a Tanqueray gin cocktail with a bar snack, for pre or post dinner snacking or as the name suggests, bar hopping your way around town.

Good Food Month Bar Hop presented by Tanqueray, at select Sydney bars, 1-31 October 2014

With 49 participating venues, you're not short on options for bar hopping, especially in the Sydney CBD, Pyrmont, Surry Hills or Bondi areas.

Rolling into the meat of Good Food Month, bar hopping was high on my agenda last Thursday night with an especially-arranged Bar Hop courtesy of Tanqueray.

Tanqueray Bar Hop transport courtesy of Prestige Chauffeurs

It was rather nice to be picked up from work by a pristine chauffeured car from Prestige Chauffeurs - a family-run business based in the Northern Beaches.

The evening's plan was to hit up four bars around town for their Tanqueray Bar Hop offerings, all very responsibly with thanks to Prestige Chauffeurs picking us up and dropping us at each bar. If that's not bar hopping in style, I don't know what is.

Grain Bar at Four Seasons Hotel, George Street, Sydney

We kicked off the Bar Hop at Grain Bar adjoining the Four Seasons Hotel (in which Sydney's own Pei Modern by Mark Best is opening on 15 October 2014).

Packed to the gills with the after-work crowd, it was a nice and sweet start to the night with the Violette Royale cocktail featuring Tanqueray gin and Creme Yvette liqueur of violet petals and berries, topped with sparkling wine.

Violette Royale cocktail with Hiramasa kingfish with limoncello mayonnaise from Grain Bar 

The girly pink cocktail was matched with a canapé of raw Hiramasa kingfish delicately coiled on a spoon with with limoncello mayonnaise inside.

There's not really any elegant way of eating small morsels from a soup spoon, and so scoffed in one mouthful it was; the creamy mayonnaise being a highlight flavour.

Tanqueray gin martini (left) and Bramble 2.0 from Grain Bar

We managed to squeeze in a cheeky extra round of drinks, including a gin martini (Tanqueray, of course) and Grain's take on the classic Bramble, reinterpreted as a sweet fizz cocktail with great blackberry undertones with the gin.

But nothing beats a good martini to start a night of drinks and food, especially when there's fat green olives in the mix.

Freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters fron Grain Bar

We self matched a little food, being unable to resist the thought of freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters, which are a bargain $1.50 each on Thursday and Friday evenings at Grain (from 5-9pm). Salty with brine and served with lemon and red wine vinaigrette, we demolished these beauties in moments.

Prestige Chauffeurs pick up for next bar on Bar Hop

With our Prestige Chauffeurs car ready and waiting outside for us, it was all a bit posh leaving a five-star hotel after drinks and hopping into a chauffeured car - to head to another bar. I could get used to this.

French 75 cocktail at Gilt Lounge, QT Sydney, Market Street, Sydney

We were dropped off right in front of our next venue, QT Sydney, which boasts three separate bars within the boutique hotel. This evening, Gilt Lounge was our target so it was up the elevator (which customises its song choice based on how many people are in it!), past the quirky lobby, upstairs past Gowings Bar & Grill to the luxe lounge space.

Gilt Lounge's Bar Hop offering is the classic French 75 champagne cocktail, featuring Tanqueray gin, lemon and sugar, topped with sparkling wine and finished with a lemon twist. It's a great, relatively light cocktail that's totally food and canapé-friendly.

French 75 cocktail and snapper ceviche spoon from Gilt Lounge

Gilt's cocktail is paired with their snapper ceviche spoon featuring the fresh diced raw fish dressed with lime juice, super-finely diced red capsicum, baby coriander and shallots on a base of avocado puree - the acidity matching well with the cocktail's light tartness.

Water and spiced peanuts at Grasshopper Bar, Temperance Lane, Sydney

Next we stopped in at seminal laneway small bar Grasshopper Bar, which has recently added outdoor seating and a Chinese-inspired food menu.

As one of the first bars to use jars as glassware, they're forgiven for the water glasses and thanked for the super moreish, salty and spiced peanuts which I felt I ate by the handful.

Golden Axe cocktail

Grasshopper's Bar Hop offering was the Golden Axe cocktail of Tanqueray gin and Amaretto - my least favourite liqueur (for the "almond" flavour) - shaken with passionfruit and fresh apple juice. Thankfully, for me, most of the amaretto flavour was hidden beneath the passionfruit, while it did give the cocktail a nice weight.

Golden Axe cocktail and crispy pastry, duck breast

The sweet cocktail was paired with Grasshopper's fresh take on Peking duck pancakes featuring a beautifully cooked slice of duck breast presented on crispy pastry with cucumber, pickled vegetables and a sweet brown sauce.

The concept was great and the flavours fantastically modernised, but structurally the crispy pastry had nothing on traditional pancakes; basically disintegrating on first bite and necessitating the need to either shove it all in in the one mouthful or let it fall to bits on the wooden board.

Cocktail shaker collection at The Roosevelt, Orwell Street Potts Point

Back in to our chauffeured car we made the jolly drive to Potts Point and The Roosevelt Bar & Diner, which at this late-ish time of the night was full with a combination of couples and noisy groups at the end of their drinking nights.

The Roosevelt's gorgeously-presented Bar Hop cocktail and canapé came as one, the salmon gravlax sitting on a concave glass dish balanced atop the vintage glasses.

East Side Peach cocktail and salmon gravlax from The Roosevelt

The East Side Peach cocktail was probably my favourite and the least sweet cocktail of the Bar Hop drinks. With Tanqueray gin and a beautiful array of fruit and aromatics, namely ginger poached peaches, pink grapefruit, honey, lime and bruised mint, the cocktail was a star on its own.

It was served with house-cured Tasmanian salmon gravlax (we were hitting all the raw fish canapés it seems) with a tiny bit of roast kipfler potato and beetroot in a pretty, artful composition that didn't last long.

Bar Hop completed, it was a comfortable and safe ride home thanks to Prestige Chauffeurs, who have a fantastic service and certainly made bar hopping in heels much easier. The Good Food Month Bar Hop is a great way to discover Tanqueray gin cocktails in Sydney bars, both new and old, near and far (especially if you've got a chauffeur).

Food, Booze and Shoes participated in the Bar Hop presented by Tanqueray with thanks to Leo Burnett Sydney. Special thanks to Sean and Prestige Chauffeurs.

Disclaimer: Food, Booze & Shoes is acquainted with staff at Gilt Lounge and The Speakeasy Group.

  

  

Cho Cho San emerges from her cocoon

In one of the hottest restaurant openings of the year so far, Cho Cho San in Potts Point has been met by a blaze of publicity while the paint on the walls is still fresh.

Open to the public just last week Cho Cho San, named after Madama Butterfly's main character, has emerged from The Apollo's Sam Christie (also of Longrain) and Jonathan Barthelmess. It's a Sydney-fied - and indeed very Potts Point - take on a Tokyo izakaya under the modern direction of head chef Nic Wong (ex Ester, The Apollo, Bodega, Billy Kwong).

Cocktails and pickled cucumber at Cho Cho San, Macleay Street, Potts Point

In the prime Macleay Street venue that was formerly Shogun Japanese restaurant, Cho Cho San's interior is a study of restraint with expanses of quite plain white allowing the long bar/communal table to feature through the narrow restaurant front, while more relaxed small tables and booth seats fill the back near the open, secondary cold kitchen.

Industry-beloved wine guy Charles Leong joins Christie on the floor of the buzzy but not overly loud venue. However, I'm in for the cocktails and sake; the latter of which fills a page with easy-to-comprehend tasting notes like "cooked white rice" and "banana lollies".

We started on a Melbourne Gin Company martini, aptly named Trouble; served garnish-less with vermouth and a seasonal infusion of mandarin. Meanwhile, the negroni-like Nippy Rock Shop of Tanqueray gin, sake, Campari and orange made for easy drinking alongside the vinegary pickled cucumbers.

Eggplant and miso dip

The not-particularly-photogenic eggplant and miso dip is a new take on nasu dengaku miso grilled eggplant; dressed up with microherbs, shallots and wonderfully crisp, thin rice crackers that handled the warm, mushy eggplant surprisingly well.

The sweetness and umami of the miso on one of my favourite vegetables was completely addictive and it didn't take long for the sail-like crackers to scoop up every bit of eggplant.

Tofu cooked in tomato water

The individual serves of silken tofu seemed a bold yet very traditional Japanese addition on the menu.

Served with plenty of tenkasu fried tempura batter bits and shallots in a clear pool of tomato water that was both tart and sweet with ripeness, the pure flavours of the earthy tofu came through beautifully, albeit a bit overpowered by the big, pungent slices of raw shallots.

Fried chicken

The order of fried chicken was a no-brainer for us, served up karaage style with a crunchy batter fragrant with sesame. The juicy chicken within was perfectly seasoned so that the creamy and quite spicy chilli mayonnaise became optional.

Hokkaido scallops, corn & house-cured smoked bonito

The 'raw' menu reads excitingly of untraditional sashimi accompaniments such as the creamy corn puree with the raw, sliced Hokkaido scallops.

The sweet corn is paired patriotically with an eye-opening nori seaweed puree while the soft, delicate scallops came with chives and a shower of grated house-made katsuobushi cured and smoked bonito. As much as I adore raw scallops and their silky texture, the mollusc's natural sweetness seemed lost in this interpretation.

Raw beef short rib, crispy wild rice & citrus dressing

But there was no chance the scallops could compete with the dish of the night anyway, featuring ribbons of thinly shaved raw beef short rib, richly marbled and edged with fat.

Just about the most amazing raw beef I've ever had, the fatty short rib was velvety soft, like the most luxurious of prosciutto - except plainly raw and beef. The citrus dressing on the somewhat crisp wild rice and diced cucumber beneath the raw meat made for a perfect balance in cutting through the short rib's richness.

Chicken yakitori & pickled lime

I hadn't expected a chicken steak for the yakitori but there it was, a sliced thigh fillet with beautifully rendered and crisp chicken skin under liberal shakes of togarashi chilli spice mix that had some serious, serious kick to it.

A puree of pickled lime was served with the chicken, giving it an interesting lift with its zesty preserved citrus funkiness which was rather nice with the chilli.

Hibachi grilled prawns with kombu butter

A trio of large hibachi grilled prawns arrived dramatically in a huge white bowl, with heads on and half the bodies peeled, drizzled with a delectable, umami-rich kombu seaweed butter.

It's hard to go wrong with prawns and butter, especially with the clean-tasting, floral Amanoto 'Junkara' junmai ginjo sake from the Akita prefecture alongside.

The prawn shells were quite edible with great char flavour from the hibachi grill but the best part was undoubtedly sucking out the prawn heads for all the creamy, flavour-packed innards.

Soy glazed Angus beef

Probably one main dish too many between two at dinner, the Angus beef steak arrived sliced revealing innards closer to medium than medium-rare, though requests weren't taken.

Tender and juicy in a sweet soy glaze, the beef was served with a trio of spicy condiments: togarashi, hot English mustard and wasabi - all adding a different type of heat kick to the beef for the indecisive spicy condiment eater.

Mushroom & egg brown rice

The sides options comprise two carbohydrate choices and three vegetable ones; the latter of which didn't particularly catch my interest.

We went with the mushroom, egg and brown rice which was more like a nasi goreng than anything Japanese. With a sunny side up egg atop fried brown rice and shiitakemushrooms, it was served with plenty of togarashi again so the chilli-averse will need to order it without.

Steamed yuzu pudding

I couldn't bear the thought of dessert after all the food, so instead opted for the 'banana lollies' in the Tamagawa nama unpasteurised sake from Kyoto. It was completely appropriate as a dessert sake as it's actually quite sweet with the aroma and faint taste of, yes, banana lollies.

I did manage a mouthful or two of the steamed yuzu pudding though, which again wasn't the most photogenic. Served with a dollop of sour cream, the warm, airy pudding was comforting for the cool weather with a big marmaladey hit.

Cho Cho San is clearly the hotspot for the moment, with both media and industry clamouring over it in its first few days. While the menu tends to flit like a butterfly across the izakaya concept, there's a strong sense of modern cuisine techniques with several high notes - the raw beef short rib, fried chicken and sake list in particular.

The emergence of Cho Cho San from its Potts Point cocoon signals a new maturity and style of Japanese cuisine that's created locally for the locals - and I wouldn't trade it for an American any day.

Disclosure: Food, Booze & Shoes is acquainted with staff at Cho Cho San.

Harajuku Gyoza: Happy face dumplings

I love the way the Harajuku Gyoza menu gets diners in the mood: "You are like a hungry salaryman in a Japanese izakaya. You are thirsty and your appetite is big like Godzilla." All Japanese quirk and just a little bit of sense.

Harajuku Gyoza logo, Bayswater Road, Kings Cross

From Brisbane's Fortitude Valley comes this cute-as-a- button dumpling and beer joint, specialising in all manner of Japanese gyoza dumplings in the heart of Kings Cross, a couple of doors down from Hugos Bar Pizza.

While more a cutesy, recognisable name than anything representative of the Harajuku area in Tokyo, the Sydney outpost of Harajuku Gyoza has a fittingly fun fitout that’s all wooden furniture and colourful plates and service that hint at the sometimes crazy Japanese pop culture.

Sake being served

One unnamed type of sake is served chilled, with great ceremony and noise, traditionally into a glass sitting in a masu box to catch the overflow.

There's also Kirin beer on tap, beers by the bottle (including the pricey but one of my favourites – Hitachino Nest White Ale), Kirin's new Fuji apple cider and a few select wines.

Cucumber and miso salad

Food arrived pretty quickly after ordering, and you get the feeling it's really not a place to sit and linger over drinks.

We started, healthily, with a small salad of peeled, raw cucumber dressed liberally in a sweet, strong yellow miso soybean paste, sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Gyoza condiments

Seated at the counter, we had a direct view to the gyoza cooking stations – both poached and grilled versions.

Made daily and then frozen to avoid sogginess, the meat and vegetable fillings wrapped in dough were either dropped into a boiling pot or lined up into a custom gyoza grill press with a fair bit of oil for crisp bottoms.

Grilled lobster tail gyoza 

We sampled the special of lobster tail grilled gyoza: thin, chewy and crisp wrappers with a coarsely chopped filling that somewhat resembled lobster in texture though less so in taste. From the condiments selection, I added vinegar sauce and chilli oil.

Poached duck gyoza 

From the regular menu we went with poached duck gyoza and traditional grilled pork ones – both versions unexpectedly meaty.

The duck gyoza were ideal poached, with a slight gaminess to the filling differentiating it from usual styles and quite tasty with the condiments.

Grilled pork gyoza 

Pork gyoza are about one of my favourite things in the world and it was probably high expectations that let me down.

As odd as it may sound, I found Harajuku Gyoza's pork variety too meaty, with insufficient cabbage and other seasonings – minced pork overload, if you will. The dough wrappers though, I adored and could eat on their crisp lonesome.

Tenpura eggplant

To more substantial but still izakaya style dishes, we started with "tenpura" eggplant: lightly battered, pre cut into wedges for easy eating. Soft and squishy within, the oily fried eggplant was served in a pool of a vinegary sauce.

Pork belly kakuni

An impressively-sized serve, the pork belly kakuni comprised four blocks of rich, braised pork belly in layers of fat and meat, the latter unfortunately dry.

It was heavy eating, even with steamed rice on the side, while an acidic condiment, mustard even, would have helped cut through the fattiness.

Harajuku Gyoza exterior 

We ended up having to take leftovers of the pork belly home, and it turned out a little better the next day. There wasn't room for dessert gyoza on this occasion, but that joins the basket I'd rarely touch anyway, along with dessert pizza.

They make no apologies for being an eat-and-run venue, and I can see a fair few spontaneous meals and dumpling cravings getting sorted at Harajuku Gyoza, despite there being better dumplings around town.

"It must be perfect or we get your sad face. We want your happy face," says the menu. It's gyoza and it's pretty darn adorable – you get the happy face.

Food, booze and shoes dined as a guest of Harajuku Gyoza.

Fratelli Paradiso: A classy brother act

I've found myself venturing into the poshness that is Potts Point a fair bit recently, and while I may not feel like I belong at all, the suburb does have a nice village feel to it despite neighbouring Kings Cross.

Fratelli Paradiso is the decade-plus veteran Italian eatery in Potts Point, not be be confused with the numerous Fratelli Fresh and their eateries, Café Sopra. Well known for its all-day Italian offerings, Fratelli Paradiso has garnered scores of local and other fans over the years of their casul, laidback yet sophisticated café/ trattoria offerings.

Blackboard menu at Fratelli Paradiso, Challis Avenue, Potts Point

In the evening, the tables and chairs spilling onto the footpath are the first to fill, while the dark, intimate settings inside get packed throughout the night. The locals and regulars seem to know the drill and the restaurant seems to have little issue at all with its no reservations policy or Italian-only blackboard menu.

Prosecco (front) and bellini (back)

The weather wasn't so cool as to refuse a prosecco or bellini to start as yet; the none-too-sweet Spanol 'Col del Sas' Prosecco di Valdobbiadene from the Veneto region. The peachy bellini was reminiscent of a summer we never had and seemed to also feature vanilla.

There's a large selection of wines by the glass, mostly Italian, but two-and-a-half full A4 pages of wines by the bottle - an impressive selection for a relatively small venue, but with plenty of help available from the waitstaff.

Bread rolls

As we perused the blackboard menu and asked waitstaff for reminders of Italian translations, a basket of bread rolls was brought to the table.

Served in a completely rustic fashion in a banneton basket, the equally rustic bread was wonderfully flavoured and only improved with the extra virgin olive oil at the table.

Calamari

We settled on three entrées to share as the menu seemed just a little too appealing. I'm not sure what I was expecting when we ordered the calamari, but I don't think I expected some of the most tender squid I've ever had.

Lightly battered and deep fried, the rings of squid (and nice to see tentacles included for a change) were perfectly seasoned atop rocket leaves and a balsamic vinegar dressing - a sublimely perfect example of how calamari should be served.

Crudo di pesce - kingfish

The kingfish crudo looked an absolute treat with its cubes of raw, pink fish, Spanish onion and chilli. However, it seemed to be missing its citrus dressing which in turn, emphasised the fishiness of the kingfish of which I'm particularly sensitive to.

The fresh lemon juice from the wedges we requested helped a little, but a glass of the deliciously medium-bodied La Distesa 'Terre Silvate' Verdicchio helped greatly (described on the wine list as "crunch, pop, apple, white flowers in the desert" - what fun).

Salumi misti - mixed cured meats

I've tried resisting cured meats and have just not succeeded. This salumi plate featured some excellent prosciutto, bresaola, chunky and fat-dotted salami, char-grilled eggplant and soft goat's milk stracchino  cheese which I haven't had since I was in Italy.

Pasta scampi

As soon as the daily pasta dish of spaghetti with scampi was announced from the blackboard, it was an immediate order as one of our mains.

It featured one whole, split, grilled scampi and a pile of spaghetti with a few pieces of scampi without its shell - all sweet, well-cooked and savoured in small bites.

Spaghetti with scampi

The spaghetti was simply tossed with olive oil, garlic, cherry tomatoes, chilli and parsley, and all the better for its simplicity.

With mains, we went with the recommendation and special by the glass of Bricco Maiolica Diano D'Alba which was entertainingly described as "old man new, smoke and wild cherry".

Stinco d'agnello - braised lamb shanks

Feeling like something more rich than pasta, I ordered the lamb shank cooked in tomato with pine nuts and peas; the latter giving the dish a slight Sunday roast feel.

The incredibly thick tomato sauce stuck to the lamb, which would have been cooked for several hours at least given my dinner knife was completely redundant. I'd definitely recommend ordering a vegetable side dish with this meaty main.

Panna cotta

Desserts are kept simple at Fratelli Paradiso, much as the rest of the menu is as well. The panna cotta, served spooned out from a larger dessert, was presented with fresh figs, crumbled pistachios and a honey sauce that added sweetness and brought it all together.

This was probably one of the more delicate yet full-flavoured panna cottas I've tried, despite its unusual presentation.

Tiramisu

I couldn't resist that Italian classic, tiramisu. Again served from a larger dessert, this epic hunk of tiramisu was dusted heavily with chocolate powder with plenty of not-too-sweet mascarpone. Although the Savoiardi fingers could have spent a couple more seconds in their coffee bath, the flavours overall were spot on.

Inside Fratelli Paradiso

The buzz in the restaurant was exactly what you'd be looking for on a late weekday night: one could tell that both diners and staff were in a happy equilibrium of food, wine and enjoyment.

Fratelli Paradiso is easily one of those places where you want to return to time and time again, and indeed, become a regular. It looks like there are more Potts Point visits on the cards for me.

Food, booze and shoes dined at Fratelli Paradiso as a guest, with thanks to Maria Farmer Public Relations.