Continuing our quest to eat as many Fast Festival Feasts as possible this month, Caliban and I went to Crossroads at the Swissotel before seeing David Sedaris at the State Theatre (sidenote: David Sedaris is just the coolest person ever).
Seated at 6.45, we had our meals (grilled Atlantic salmon on bean and citrus salad) by 6.55. To some, this might seem worrying, but we had to haul butt to the Theatre in less than an hour, so we took it as a welcome development.
The Stoneleigh sav blanc worked so well with the salmon, which was perfectly pink. The crispy skin lacked the flavour we saw at the Garden Court earlier in the week, but it was still good. I loved the bean and citrus salad - segments of grapefruit, orange and even lime were mixed with fresh, crunchy green beans and tossed in a basil and shallot dressing. Great summer fare.
Like all good customers, we also ordered a side of roast potatoes with garlic and rosemary. I love potatoes, and these were among the best I've ever had. Scratch that - they were the best. Tiny new potatoes that were fondant-like on the inside and crispy on the outside. So damn good. Luckily for Caliban, the meal was so filling that I had to forgo some of my little nuggets of starchy bliss. He ate them willingly.
We got the bill quickly and expected our Ferrero Rocher chocolates to come with it. We pointed this out to the waitress.
"Oh, we don't have any left. I can see if the chef will make you come petit fours. Would you like that?"
We agree that yes, we'd like the dessert we're entitled to, and I notice other people around us getting bread before their meals. You know my drill - treat every customer with the same respect. Don't get me wrong, it was a beautiful meal, and one we thoroughly enjoyed, but it would have been nice to be treated like the other customers at the restaurant. Add to that the fact that the waitress had just forgotten about our chocolates...and, well, I was less than pleased with the service.
I do realise that I've spent the better half of the last two posts complaining about service - which possibly makes me look spoiled and ungrateful. Sorry. I do intend for this blog to be a place to rave about food I love, so I promise this will be the exception, not the rule. Apologies in spades.
Crossroads Bar and Restaurant
Level 8, Swissôtel Sydney,
68 Market St, Sydney
02 9238 7082
Showing posts with label sydney festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sydney festival. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20
Saturday, January 16
garden court, sofitel
January means a lot of things to people. In Australia, it might mean music festivals, days spent in cossies and thongs, barbecues and beer. In the Northern Hemisphere, it means pretty much the opposite. And in mine and Caliban's little world, it means the Sydney Festival is here.
This is our third Sydney Festival together, and while we're not seeing as many shows this year, we're definitely putting our money where our mouths are with the Fast Festival Feasts. In short: fancy restaurants offer $30 main meals between 12-1pm and 6-7pm during the festival. Your $30 also scores you a glass of Stoneleigh wine or a Little Creatures beer, and a Ferrero at the end of the meal.
On Monday, we visited the Garden Court at the Sofitel Hotel to try their FFF. We took friends Jake and Jess along - and I have to say that it was amazing.
The meal on offer was pan-fried ocea trout with pommes puree, zucchini flower and asparagus, but before this showed up, we were treated like actual guests of the hotel and served bread, oil and butter. You might think bread is a fairly cheap commodity (along with butter and to a lesser extent, oil) and therefore one that should be served no matter where you are, but a lot of FFF restaurants simply serve you the meal, without affording you the niceties they would to a patron who's paying upwards of $40 for their main. My problem with this is that FFFs attract people who wouldn't normally go to these restaurants. With that in mind, the restaurants should be doing everything they can to make the meal special and memorable - both so the customers love it, and so they come back. Simple, no?
So we ate the bread (we even got a choice - sourdough, multigrain, olive or rye). And then we ate the complimentary amuse bouche of watercress soup, which was amazing and nothing like what I'd imagine supermodels must eat all day (rumour has it Liz Hurley scoffs watercress soup when she needs to squeeze into safety pin dresses). It was creamy, rich and peppered with a little olive oil. Amazing.
Next, of course, came the main meal. The trout was gorgeous. Bright pink flesh that fell apart with the touch of a fork was soft in texture but big on flavour. So yummy. The crispy skin was a great touch, and I loved the pommes puree. We'd ordered chunky fries as a side, and these were almost the highlight. More huge than chunky, more chips than fries, they weren't oily at all, and had a generous smattering of salt and rosemary. Yum.
Garden Court
Sofitel Wentworth
5/61-101 Phillip St
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9228 9157
This is our third Sydney Festival together, and while we're not seeing as many shows this year, we're definitely putting our money where our mouths are with the Fast Festival Feasts. In short: fancy restaurants offer $30 main meals between 12-1pm and 6-7pm during the festival. Your $30 also scores you a glass of Stoneleigh wine or a Little Creatures beer, and a Ferrero at the end of the meal.
On Monday, we visited the Garden Court at the Sofitel Hotel to try their FFF. We took friends Jake and Jess along - and I have to say that it was amazing.
The meal on offer was pan-fried ocea trout with pommes puree, zucchini flower and asparagus, but before this showed up, we were treated like actual guests of the hotel and served bread, oil and butter. You might think bread is a fairly cheap commodity (along with butter and to a lesser extent, oil) and therefore one that should be served no matter where you are, but a lot of FFF restaurants simply serve you the meal, without affording you the niceties they would to a patron who's paying upwards of $40 for their main. My problem with this is that FFFs attract people who wouldn't normally go to these restaurants. With that in mind, the restaurants should be doing everything they can to make the meal special and memorable - both so the customers love it, and so they come back. Simple, no?
So we ate the bread (we even got a choice - sourdough, multigrain, olive or rye). And then we ate the complimentary amuse bouche of watercress soup, which was amazing and nothing like what I'd imagine supermodels must eat all day (rumour has it Liz Hurley scoffs watercress soup when she needs to squeeze into safety pin dresses). It was creamy, rich and peppered with a little olive oil. Amazing.
Next, of course, came the main meal. The trout was gorgeous. Bright pink flesh that fell apart with the touch of a fork was soft in texture but big on flavour. So yummy. The crispy skin was a great touch, and I loved the pommes puree. We'd ordered chunky fries as a side, and these were almost the highlight. More huge than chunky, more chips than fries, they weren't oily at all, and had a generous smattering of salt and rosemary. Yum.
Garden Court
Sofitel Wentworth
5/61-101 Phillip St
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9228 9157
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