No bones to pick at Pinbone

Posted by Kath

Weekend mornings can be as much of a mission as the weekday ones. I was on a mission of my own one Sunday: to finally experience brunch at Pinbone, where I'd been for an amazing dinner previously.

Sign at Pinbone, Jersey Road, Woollahra

With my brunch expectations relatively high, we headed to leafy Woollahra where there was, of course, a fixie parked out front of Pinbone.

Piccolo

The coffee at Pinbone is decent but it's more about the food of which they certainly have a strong quality focus. Not only are the serving sizes at Pinbone generous but so are the flavours and service.

Club Limbo - turkey, confit duck leg, bacon jam, crispy prosciutto, lettuce, tomato,
mayo and chip club sandwich with fries

Behold the Club Limbo, your not-so-average club sandwich. I was so excited to eat it that I devoured one handful of this amazing sandwich before I could contain myself enough to take a photo.

The sandwich tower of colours and textures comprised three layers of soft white bread holding together roast turkey, confit duck leg, the crispiest prosciutto, shredded lettuce, tomato and potato crisps - all doused in mayo and finished with deliciously sweet and slightly spicy bacon jam.

Served with a separate dish of fries, Club Limbo made for a formidable brunch.

Scones, smoked cheese, sausage gravy and fried eggs

Another stunner from the menu were the flavourful, albeit unphotogenic, scones with fried eggs, American-style sausage gravy and smoked cheese.

Also a generous serve with two portions of scones and eggs, the gooey smokey cheese hits from the very first mouthful, while the creamy sausage gravy just kept me coming back for more. Warning: This brunch dish is definitely not for the faint-hearted or just peckish.

Pinbone signed entrance

Satisfied and sufficiently fuelled up for another weekend, I'm glad to report that brunch at Pinbone definitely lived up to my expectations. With amazing food, friendly service and not even a wait to be seated, there really were no bones to pick at Pinbone.

Three Blue Ducks in a row

Bronte's not really known as a food destination, other than perhaps fish and chips by the beach, but Three Blue Ducks is certainly lifting the game. If the weekend late lunch queues are anything to go by, the one-hatted restaurant/café known for its sustainable approach to food and dining is being well appreciated by the locals.

The venue is split into two parts with additional outdoor dining on the footpath and their famed kitchen garden out the back. Seated in a snug booth right next to the kitchen during a recent lunch visit, it was impossible not to salivate at the tempting aromas from the kitchen while we nursed hangover-friendly fresh juices.

Steamed mussels at Three Blue Ducks, Macpherson Street, Bronte

There are plenty of tempters on the lunch menu so we happily shared among four, starting with a generous dish of gloriously saucy mussels.

Served with crisply toasted sourdough bread, the perfectly steamed mussels swam in a creamy and pleasantly spicy sauce of coconut sambal, dressed with plenty of fresh herbs, cherry tomatoes and extra dessicated coconut.

Steamed mussels with a herb and coconut sambal with chilli toast

The spice and zing of the sambal gave the soft molluscs the most incredible kick, while I could have basically drank the sweet, rich sauce in which we dipped the sourdough. Simply divine – this is certainly a contender for mussels of the year.

Steak sandwich

Declared by a table guest as "the best steak sandwich ever", Three Blue Ducks' steak sando certainly didn't skimp on the steak, with a thick, medium-rare grilled slices of beef sandwiched between a crusty, white bread roll.

The other sandwich fillings were as complementary as it gets: tomato slices, sweet onion marmalade, some greenery in the form of rocket leaves and a colourful red pepper mayonnaise, adding to the overall juiciness.

Spicy chorizo, cuttlefish, chili, tomato and basil with squid ink fettucine

The pasta-inclined will be happy to see the inky black squid ink fettucine on the menu, in a simple sauce of grilled chorizo pieces, tender slices of cuttlefish, chilli, tomato segments and basil. While it wasn't the type of rich, meaty pasta dish I adore having in winter, it was certainly a lunch-appropriate dish.

Coffee and cumin crusted brisket with roast potatoes, radish and apple salad

The brisket dish was the all-out winter lunch experience. Alongside roasted potato skins, filled with potato and other vegetables, was a brick of tender and lusciously fatty beef brisket; slow cooked though a little light on flavour from its coffee and cumin crust. It was some pretty seriously fatty meat so the refreshing radish, apple and coriander salad served with the dish was more than necessary.

We raided the remainders of the cakes cabinet for dessert as the lunch menu doesn't feature any desserts, though after quite the substantial, restaurant quality lunch, I'm not sure we really needed the super fudgey brownie or the raspberry friand.

It's taken me a little while to get my ducks in a row for a visit to Bronte's Three Blue Ducks but now that I have, I'm lining up for another visit real soon.

Step up to La Scala on Jersey

Italian for "the stairs", a flight of stairs is indeed what faces diners heading to La Scala on Jersey, set in a spacious floor above the Light Brigade Hotel in Paddington.

Recent changes to the modern Italian restaurant have seen chef Massimo Mele (ex Hugo's, often seen partnering with Salt Meats Cheese) take over the kitchen and offer a more relaxed, authentic Italian experience.

Bar at La Scala on Jersey, Jersey Road, Woollahra

During the week this end of Paddington undoubtedly has a neighbourhood feel, albeit a posh one, and the refreshed look and feel of La Scala seems right at home with the dining families and small groups, both young and old.

Cocktails at the bright, botanical-themed bar are a good place to start after the hike upstairs, especially with a cocktail list put together by drinks consultant Julian Serna (currently at Eau de Vie Apothecary, formerly The Morrison and The Fern).

Cocktails at the bar: Regal Rogue Rosso (left) and He's in the Garden (right)

The bar top is adorned with fresh fruit and juices while the cocktail list is modern, fruity and tempting all round. The tall Australiano apéritif-style cocktail comprised the local Regal Rogue Rosso vermouth with Campari, grapefruit bitters and a not-too-sweet, house-made creaming soda.

Not on the menu but sold convincingly to me by the bartender was the He's in the Garden - a savoury take on a classic Tom Collins. With Hendricks gin, lemon juice, a slice of cucumber and soda, the cocktail was topped with salt which could be stirred into the drink to taste. With its salted gin botanicals it hinted at a softer and highly drinkable version of a dirty martini with its olive brine.

Dining space

We moved to the dining space for dinner, all dark wood and Bentwood chairs on wooden floorboards; seated with views of the open kitchen as well as the yellow street light-bathed street below.

Long table

Closer to the entrance there's a darker room with a long table to seat 26 diners or to be used as a private dining room. There's no shortage of space at La Scale, and that's before adding the upstairs bathrooms and powder room.

Black Russian, cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, capers, basil, balsamic

We were enamoured by the two weekly specials from a streamlined menu of share plates to start, mains and side dishes.

La Scala's take on classic insalata caprese makes some unexpected additions and improvements even. Creamy buffalo mozzarella came torn over Black Russian and cherry tomatoes; both exceptionally sweet and ripe.

Balsamic vinegar brought new perspective to the Caprese salad while capers added saltiness to the mozzarella which sadly never tastes as good as when in Italy.

Wagyu beef carpaccio with truffled egg, rocket

Another special, the carpaccio of wagyu beef was drizzled heavily with a mayonnaise-like dressing and grated parmesan cheese, topped with a golden-crumbed egg.

The dressing seemed a little overpowering on the thin slices of raw beef but when eaten together with the gooey yolk of the boiled truffle-scented egg, it all made perfect, delicious sense.

Butterflied king prawns, oregano, chilli, lemon

From the share plates menu we couldn't resist the split grilled prawns dressed with oregano, a touch of chilli and fresh lemon juice.

Fantastically large and fairly meaty specimens, the prawn's crisp legs and shells could have been eaten too while the oregano made for an appetising match to the set of crustaceans.

Strozzapreti, oxtail ragu, pecorino, gremolata

For mains, I had to try one of the house-made pastas and with both strozzapreti and ragu being some of my favourite pasta types and sauces respectively, it had to be the dish featuring oxtail.

This strozzapreti was bit like long spiral pasta with shreds of oxtail meat in an unexpectedly light ragu sauce, topped with grated pecorino cheese and refreshing gremolata of parsley and lemon zest.

It went quite well with the reservedly fruity 2010 Scagliola "Busiord" dolcetto from the Piedmont region of Italy, listed under 'Old World Reds' in the wine list and selected with a bit of help from the waitstaff.

Grilled organic spatchcock, olives, lemon, prosciutto, broccolini rapini

I was glad that the mains were served to share because the spatchcock dish was impressively large, featuring a whole butterflied and grilled bird. The charred skin and herb dressing on the spatchcock enhanced the beautifully juicy flesh within, making it worthwhile to suck the bones clean.

Beneath the bird was an interesting array of supporting ingredients including silky prosciutto, salty olive segments, a bright green herb sauce and wilted leaves of lemony broccoli rabe that provided every bite of spatchcock with a different highlight.

Witlof, radicchio, pickled beetroot, candied walnuts, sour cherries, goats curd

Our mains were supplemented with an elaborate side salad of bitter witlof and radicchio paired with baby beetroot segments, sweet candied walnuts and cherries, and hidden beneath it all, creamy and tangy goat's curd.

Polenta chips, parmesan and truffle aioli

And we couldn't help but order the polenta chips too, and thank goodness we did as they may well be some of the best I've ever had.

Finished with parmesan cheese and served with a truffle-flavoured aioli, the crispness of the polenta chips with hot, light and fluffy insides made me reach for one after another and momentarily forget how full I was getting.

Tiramisu "modo mio" (left) and gelato (right)

But we couldn't leave without trying dessert; both our ordered options of which were thankfully on the petite end of the scale. The tiramisu "modo mio", presumably chef Mele's way, was served layered in a tall shot glass with chocolate mousse amid mascarpone and coffee-soaked sponge which had a good kick.

The gelato option proffered three scoops: chocolate, fig and raspberry with the latter being the refreshing highlight while the chocolate was a lovely and rich finish.

While chef Mele's menu is clearly Italian, there's a modern sensibility to it that is light and fresh yet unpretentious; making you want to eat it over and over again. Meanwhile, the upstairs restaurant space is simply fabulous: airy yet intimate, cosy and classy, and a place you're happy to linger over coffee or digestifs.

As we went to descend la scala, it seemed clear that the Paddington and Woollahra end of Oxford Street are stepping up the dining game to an approachable yet refined offering for locals and food lovers alike - and that's worth taking the stairs for.

Food, Booze & Shoes dined at La Scala on Jersey with credit, thanks to Agency G.

The High Table at Hotel Centennial

The very recently renovated and revamped Hotel Centennial, opposite Centennial Park in Woollahra, has seen former fine dining chef Justin North head up the pub's restaurant kitchen.

His high-profile return to the restaurant game has attracted as much media attention as the relaunched posh pub itself, which targets the well-heeled locals with a modern approach to comfort food.

The High Table meal at Hotel Centennial, Oxford Street, Woollahra

Having not been your average, dingy pub in recent times anyway, Hotel Centennial's new look exudes a luxe casual feel, spanning several large, airy spaces.

The main dining room and bar, which will soon serve weekend breakfasts, are light and bright, with leather furniture and modern art upping the comfort factor.

Pre-lunch dining room at Hotel Centennial

Here, the extensive menu reads of pub classics with a modern touch, joined by Woollahra's must-have salads. The kitchen's grill and wood fired oven is put to good use especially across the mains and share mains, not to mention the flat breads/ pizzas and pre-ordered roasts (currently whole suckling pig, pheasant(!) and Indian spiced goat - 48 hours' notice required).

The cocktail bar, past the warm open kitchen where chef North holds charge, has a gentlemen's club and lounge feel, and more leather, with an extensive menu of bar food on offer, while the front room features The High Table.

The High Table

Seating 30 diners on one continuous, custom-made table, The High Table concept aims to bring people together to sit down and share a meal - whether it's with friends, family, workmates or complete strangers.

The High Table is offered from Monday to Wednesday nights where at 7.30pm the kitchen serves a daily full course for the entire table for $24 per person (an additional $10 gets dessert and tea/coffee and $2 from every diner at The High Table is donated to the local Holdsworth Community Centre).

With a changing menu, Mondays are 'Meat and Three Veg', Tuesdays themed as 'Favourites' and Wednesdays are 'By Request' where chef North will cook up a diner's dinner suggestion for the entire table.

Marinated tuna salad with miso & toasted  sesame

Inspired by the perhaps increasingly alien idea of eating at a dining room table, and in the days of everyone's overly busy lives and the emergence of mobile technology - everywhere and all the time - it seems that Hotel Centennial wants us to remember the ritual and sense of sharing food at the dinner table.

At a preview lunch, we got a peek at Hotel Centennial's dining room menu in The High Table style, shared amongst a large group. We started with flutes of Chandon Rosé NV and an additional small entrée of raw, marinated tuna slices with a soba buckwheat noodle salad, served on custom Hotel Centennial plates.

Whole roast John Dory

For mains, we were treated to three of the menu's main dishes designed for sharing, all emerging from the wood fired oven.

I dug straight into the whole roasted John Dory, bones and all but served headless and prettily with a lemony herb butter. The thick, succulent fish flesh was well cooked, with plenty to go around.

Wood roasted Holmbrae chicken, roast gravy, greens

The aroma of the wood roasted chicken was the epitome of comfort food, served with the best roast gravy and wilted greens. Served pre-cut into portions, the tender chicken was so full of flavour, all the way from the bronzed skin down to the bone, it was one of those dishes I could have for dinner every night.

5-hour slow cooked lamb shoulder

When the roasted lamb shoulder came to the table, it was hard not to draw comparisons to another restaurant in the same suburb, not that any one restaurant 'owns' a cut of meat.

Falling from the bone with ease, the lamb was a hearty dish that would certainly please several carnivores (although it's listed on the menu as serving two) and was lovely with Cloudy Bay pinot noir.

Royal blues roasted in duck fat

We had a range of sides to complement our shared mains, with the easy favourite being the crisp, duck fat-roasted royal blue potatoes, followed closely by the creamy and surely naughty potato puree.

Aromatic wood roasted vegetables, cardamom & goats' curd

The wood roasted vegetables presented baby beetroot and radishes as some more unusual roast specimens, with a delightfully creamy addition of goat's curd to the colourful vegetables.

Salad leaves with classic vinaigrette

The classic leaf salad apparently paled in comparison to a broccoli and almond salad that I'll have to try next time, as with all the passing and sharing of plates and dishes I seemed to skip it.

And that's the thing about communal dining like this, there's chatter and hospitality between diners that is perhaps, more and more, missing from our dining tables at home. Indeed, things and times change but it's nice to see the intimate act of breaking bread between humans conserved in some way, shape or form.

Raspberry frangipane tart with crème fraîche Chantilly

Our dessert was probably something I'd request again next time: a slice of crumbly-centred raspberry frangipane tart with lots of sauce, served with the most perfect quenelle of vanilla bean Chantilly crème fraîche, whipped lighter than any cream I've ever had.

The High Table at Hotel Centennial

Good food, good wine, shared with good company - it's the makings of a great meal, and chef North doesn't seem to be aiming for anything less at Hotel Centennial. See here for more details and bookings.

Food, Booze & Shoes dined at Hotel Centennial as a guest, with thanks to Drysdale Communications.

PaperPlanes' Ramen Nights fly in for winter

Posted by Hendy

Returning for its second year, the Ramen Nights menu from Bondi Beach contemporary Japanese restaurant and bar PaperPlanes is set to warm up the the oncoming winter chills. Landing from tonight and throughout the winter period, PaperPlanes has its ramen game on with a broad menu and $5 specials nights.

PaperPlanes Restaurant and Bar, Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach

Head chef Jin Kung and her team have crafted a unique menu for the beachside restaurant, morphing traditional Japanese dishes with the ideology of the often eccentric and vibrant Japanese pop culture.

Inside the restaurant, there is an extensive ceiling installation of 500 skateboard decks and hanging aluminium origami cranes, while the long bar lit with a purple-y neon light takes inspiration from vibrant Tokyo areas such as Shibuya and Akihabara.

The eccentric ceiling made of skateboard decks and hanging origami

Jin and her team have managed to simplify, albeit quite well, a ramen menu with a two-step ordering system: choose your topping first and base broth second. Three toppings are available: slow-cooked chashu roast pork, crispy karaage chicken and crunchy tempura prawn.

All three topping options are joined with a soft boiled egg, bamboo shoots, naruto cured fish cake, sweet corn kernels, shallots and nori seaweed. There's also a vegetarian ramen option without the soft boiled egg and naruto, and with tofu and cabbage instead.

There are four varieties of broth: PaperPlanes house broth, PaperPlanes spicy house broth, vegetable and konbu seaweed broth (vegetarian option), or the spicy vegetable and konbu broth.

Edamame with chilli salt

We had some starters ahead of our ramen feast, starting with edamame soy beans with chilli salt. The beans were firmer than I had expected, with the chilli salt spicing up the furry bean pods, giving them a salty hit with lingering heat.

PaperPlanes pork belly bun with jalapeno mayonnaise

Braving another spicy offering, we ordered the increasingly ubiquitous pork belly bun with jalapeño mayonnaise and pickled vegetable. Slightly bigger than the average bun, this combined two generous slices of pork belly chashu, turmeric pickled daikon and cucumber slices topped with jalapeño mayonnaise and shallots.

The steamed bun was soft and velvety, and wonderful to hold with the fillings surprisingly fresh on the palate, with just a touch of heat from the jalapeño mayonnaise.

Slow cooked pork chashu ramen with PaperPlanes house broth

To the main game, we had the slow-cooked pork chashu ramen with PaperPlanes house broth. The house broth is made from a combination of chicken and pork, and is simmered for over ten hours. The broth had quite a unique, clean flavour; not as salty as a tonkotsu broth and quite thin.

Immersed in the broth were thin, soft wheat noodles and toppings including half a soft-boiled egg still soft with a semi runny yolk, a slice of the pink-swirled naruto, bamboo shoots, a nori seaweed sheet and two slices of the slow cooked pork chashu.

It was quite a flavourful bowl of ramen; one that did not weigh on you and one that allowed each of the topping to shine through.

Crispy kara age chicken ramen with PaperPlanes spicy house broth

We had the PaperPlanes spicy house broth for the crispy karaage chicken ramen, which uses the same house broth with the addition of spice paste. We found the spicy broth to be light on heat; unlike the lingering heat from the chilli salt.

With similar toppings to the pork chashu ramen, plus corn kernels, the karaage ramen arrived with a separate plate of karaage fried chicken pieces.

Kara age chicken pieces

Definitely a highlight of the night, the light and fluffy batter of the chicken karaage had a subtle light crunch while remaining tender and moist on the inside.

Tokyo POP Plant

To finish on a slightly different, sweet note, we ordered the Tokyo POP Plant; a freshly potted mint sprig in an Oreo chocolate cookie and popping candy "potting mixture".

Digging deeper into the pot, we discovered a layer of lemon cheesecake and crumble. The dessert gave off the energy and vibrancy of the Tokyo pop culture with its bursting popping candies, slightly overpowering tangy lemon curd, and dark but sweet Oreo soil.

Sake, soy sauce on table

To kick off the PaperPlanes ramen adventure, PaperPlanes is offering $5 ramen (with a drink purchase) across the two opening nights of Monday 5 May and Tuesday 6 May, and also on the first Monday of every month.

The $5 ramen special nights include all ramen options as well as a host of other PaperPlanes temptations including lettuce cups, sushi rolls, sashimi, ceviche and PaperPlanes' signature salmon tartare nachos - more details here.

Food, booze and shoes dined as a guest of PaperPlanes.

Two faces of Fish Face Double Bay

In Sydney dining, the only constant is change. After many years in Darlinghurst, Fish Face has spawned two new versions of itself: a rebirth of the fish-centric restaurant in Double Bay and a fish-and-chippery in the former Darlinghurst restaurant.

Owner and chef Steve Hodges has recruited chef Joshua Niland (ex Grain and The Woods) as head chef at the Double Bay restaurant, which itself comprises two separate offerings. Fish Face Double Bay is the more casual, fish cafe-style venue in the front, while Fish Face Dining in the back is the higher-end restaurant offering.

Sushi and sashimi plate from Fish Face Double , New South Head Road, Double Bay

Sat at the front end one Sunday lunch, it was a choice between small high tables or counter seats facing the footpath, with the former seating a maximum of four diners and just fitting four main meals with one side dish (the dining setup in the back is normal, low seats and tables).

To start we shared a sushi and sashimi platter as an entrée. Slices of tuna, salmon and I think, kingfish and snapper, sashimi (it was served sans explanation) were served atop thinly sliced pickled cucumber, along with five petite nigiri sushi pieces.

Crisp skin cobia, radicchio, currants, fried polenta cake

With fish-appropriate Asahi beers and a dry riesling accompanying our meals, we moved straight into mains, with eyes only for the fish items.

Cobia isn't a fish I see on many menus around town and at Fish Face, it was served interestingly, if not unusually, as three slices with crisp polenta chips and radicchio cooked with raisins for a bittersweet-ness.

Blue eye trevalla on potato scales, fresh ricotta, grilled kale

My pan-fried blue eye trevalla was a generous fillet of the firm, white fish, topped with a thin layer of crisp, golden potato slice "scales" in yet another a sophisticated, innovative version of fish and chips.

Completely surprising as a match, the house-made ricotta was a creamy, textural delight while the kale brought super-veg to the plate.

Battered black flathead, hand cut chips, malt pickles, tartare

The must-order and barometer of any decent fish joint probably has to be the fish and chips, even though we weren't at Fish Face's dedicated fish and chip restaurant.

On offer was the perennial favourite of flathead tail fillets, lovely and boneless in a crisp and airy, dark-fried beer batter. With house-made tartare sauce and cucumber pickles on the side, it was a complete dish with excellent hand-cut, skin-on, thick potato chips served in a paper cone.

 Leaf salad

The side order of a leafy green salad was for the benefit of the fish and chip eaters, with butter and iceberg lettuce nicely dressed and garnished with fresh chives, parsley and dill.

They're decent sized mains, no doubt, but the small tables and high seats certainly change the dining feeling into something quite casual, despite the prices hovering towards the $40 mark for mains.

Crème brûlée, nutmeg biscuits

Nonetheless, it was made into a full three-course meal with a shared dessert of classic crème brûlée, presented in a ramekin with a fabulously burnished toffee top.

The short, buttery nutmeg biscuits served atop would have made for nice coffee partners, although they were just as good with the vanilla-scented custard in the pot.

Fish Face frontage

It's early days for Fish Face in Double Bay, with the back restaurant launching most recently while the casual front has probably just shaken off its new-ness. With two faces on the go in the one space, Fish Face should be making double the waves in Double Bay.