Beautiful Bather's Pavillion

For nearly six months I've been looking out my kitchen window at a beautiful 1920's art deco style building known as the Bather's Pavilion. It sits right on Balmoral Beach and houses a kiosk (where the kids can get their babyccinos), a cafe (where we've been known to order a basket of 4 pastries when there's no breakfast food to be found in our place) and a fine dining restaurant (which, before last night, we had never set foot in).

We've recently added a weekly date-night to our schedule. You know, we hire a babysitter and go to restaurants that don't have macaroni and cheese on the menu. It's so refreshing! So last night we decided to walk across the street and see if Bathers lived up to its reputation as one of the best restaurants in Sydney.

We weren't disappointed. Like many fancy restaurants around here, Bathers has a set menu. You select one entree (aka appetizer), one main (aka entree), and a dessert (this term is universal around the world) for a set price. They also bring out a little something before your selections to, I suppose, whet your appetite. Last night it was a teeny tiny thimble sized mug of potato and leek something and an equally teeny tiny spoonful of jewfish something or other. It is very hard to understand Aussies when they are speaking about fancy food. Suffice it to say, everything was delicious!

The restaurant also features a vegetarian and a degustation menu. Since I'm not a vegetarian and I had to google "degustation" I just stuck with the standard menu. Everything we had was amazing. Bather's isn't one of these overrated, over the top type of restaurants. The food was "beautiful", the service superb, the location perfect. All in all it made for a lovely date night. And we didn't have to worry about how to get home.

Part of the Club

Recently we drove up to the Blue Mountains (which are more like hills by California standards) to take the kids on the Zig Zag Railway. Predictably, we pulled into the parking lot just as the train was pulling out of the station.

So, we found ourselves in the mountains with a couple hours to kill while we waited for the next train. Since it was freezing cold outside, we decided to take the advice of the station attendant and head to the Workman's Club in nearby Lithgow.



I've been wondering about these clubs since we arrived in Australia. Every suburb seems to have a RSL Club. I assumed (incorrectly) that you needed to be a veteran to go into these clubs. It turns out they are open to the public and are a hub of social activity here in Australia.

The Workman's Club in Lithgow, otherwise known as "Workies" is a combination restaurant, casino, sporting facility, and bingo hall. The place was packed with people (mostly white haired, but plenty of the younger crowd, too) playing the pokies, watching lawn bowling, and eating chicken schnitzel and chips. Televisions offered a variety of viewing options; like Magnum P.I. and The Footy Show.



The best tables were the ones by the windows, where people crowded to see the bowling outside and the greyhounds racing in the distance.



There is really nothing in the U.S. that compares to these Aussie clubs. I think the American Legion, the Elks Lodge, or the supper clubs of the Midwest come close.

If I had to rate our visit to Workies, I'd give it a "C" for food, but an "A" for it's interesting look into Aussie culture.

And, we did make it back in time to catch the last train of the day. To see more about our ride on the Zig Zag Railroad check out the Little Princess's Blog.

Heaven on Earth with an Onion Slice

We found it- right here in Sydney. At The Counter- our new favorite burger joint. And I'm not just saying that because it's an American chain restaurant. The food was mouth watering.



The Counter is a fun take on a classic American burger place. They hand you a little clipboard and a golf pencil and you tick off exactly what you want on your burger. They do it your way. The burgers are huge and yummy and just what you'd expect. They have French Fries on the menu. We had ours with cheddar cheese (not that mysterious tasty cheese typically found in Australia). They serve soft drinks in big glasses with- I almost couldn't believe it- plenty of ice! They didn't offer free refills, but I'm going to ask about that next time. If they have free refills this place will be absolutely perfect.

The Counter is totally kid friendly. It's noisy so no one really noticed our two year old melting down in the booth. He was distracted for a bit when the waitress brought him some RANCH DRESSING to dip his fries in. Are you getting a feel for how awesome this place is?

And if all of that didn't make me feel totally at home, check this out:



See those cool aluminum barstools? They are the same ones I have in my kitchen in California. Miss you, Crate & Barrel.

I just checked out their webpage- and guess what? They have one in Westlake Village! I hope the American version is as satisfying as the Aussie one. We'll definitely be going back to The Counter.

Dining at Quay

Quay (pronounced "Key") is a fine dining restaurant located in Circular Quay- the hub of Sydney Harbor. The restaurant is actually perched over the water at the overseas passenger terminal. The huge cruise ships pull into the harbor there. It is a beautiful spot with amazing views.



The food at Quay is totally unique. They offer a 4 course a la carte dinner menu at a set price of $145. The menu is in four parts- you make one selection from each section and viola, dinner is served!

Everyone who knows me knows I am not an adventurous eater. I'm going to have to change that when we move to Sydney. There really is no other option.

I didn't recognize most of the things on the menu- like confit of pig belly or green lipped abalone. Some of the things I did recognize didn't sound like something I'd want to eat- like smoked eel and jellyfish. So choosing something from each section was a challenge for me.

I chose:
Salad of green figs with goat's curd cigar (what???)
Poached Lobster with lobster and tapioca dumpling
Black Angus beef fillet (no, not "fil-ay", "fil- LET")
8 Texture Chocolate cake

When the food arrived it was beautiful. The presentation is obviously very important to the chef at Quay. Everything was arranged perfectly on the plate. Garnishes included lovely little fresh flowers. And I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty a salad of green figs can be. One thing I noticed though was that most of the food seemed to be somewhat gelatinous. The textures were just not what I'm used to. Lots of poaching and pureeing. The word "confit" appeared on the menu no less than four times. I've never even seen that word before.

I do want to mention that the eight texture chocolate cake was not really cake at all. It was more like a chocolate mousse on top of a cookie with self-serve chocolate sauce on top. The waiter kindly explained that the sauce was in fact, the 8th texture. This dessert was tasty. But it was so rich I couldn't finish the whole thing. (You read that right- I could not finish a chocolate dessert- shocking!)

Interestingly that led the waiter to ask if everything was okay, didn't I like it? Apparently, not finishing your entire meal is taken as some sort of sign that you were unhappy with it.

Dining at Quay was an experience. The view was lovely and the food was interesting. It's the kind of place you go to on a special occasion. And I guess our visit was a special occasion since it was my first visit to Sydney.

G'Day Mate

It's time for the weekly restaurant review.

The G'Day Cafe
Location: The Rocks



The G'Day Cafe is a quick, inexpensive place to grab a bite to eat. There is a small outdoor patio in the back where pigeons love to hover and grab discarded chips (translation: french fries).

On each table is a large box of Kleenex. I guess facial tissues are an acceptable substitute for napkins here. Never mind that they stick to your skin and disintegrate when wet. It is made from paper and you can wipe your face with it, right?

The menu featured burgers and sandwiches so it seemed like a pretty safe place for a quick lunch. But things aren't always how they seem in Oz.

When the waitress finally arrived to take our order, I had a couple questions about the menu. The conversation went like this:

Me: "What kind of cheese is on the roast beef sandwich?"

Waitress responds with blank stare.

Me: "Is it cheddar or swiss?"
I thought if I presented the question in an easy to understand, multiple choice format I might be more likely to get a response from her.

Waitress: "It's just normal cheese."

At this point my man steps in to come to my rescue. He moves on to cheese colors.
Him: "Is it yellow or white cheese?"

Waitress, clearly exasperated by our complete lack of knowledge about basic normal cheese finally responded: "White cheese"

When the food arrived the roast beef did, in fact, have some variety of sweaty white cheese on it. It also had huge raw mushrooms on it, which was a bit surprising but not completely unappetizing.

We were also surprised to see that the burgers are topped not with tomatoes but with sliced beets. Interesting.

Overall, I would avoid the G'Day Cafe. I'd rather make my own sandwich with not so normal cheese and wipe my face with a real napkin, thank you very much!

Let's Eat

Eating out in Australia is . . . interesting. I'm a bit of a picky eater in America, so adjusting to Australian food will be a challenge for me. I've decided to write a weekly restaurant review for my blog. Even if I don't enjoy eating the food I'm sure I'll enjoy writing about it.



Swagman's Post Courtyard Cafe
Location: The Rocks

This restaurant is in a great location in the heart of The Rocks. There is a large shady courtyard in the back surrounded by sandstone walls. They serve breakfast all day and that's what we ordered.

I chose scrambled eggs- well done with "brown" toast. I've never ordered scrambled eggs well done before but I have discovered that if I don't specify this the eggs will be served runny and half cooked. I also ordered an apple juice with ice. Again, if you don't ask for ice in your drinks you won't get it.

The service was good and the food arrived quickly. The eggs (although still undercooked IMO) were pretty standard breakfast fare. I was even willing to accept the slightly burned and over buttered heel of bread presented as toast. What really took me by surprise was the apple juice. I've never seen anything like it. It was opaque, with an inch (I mean 2.5cm) of frothy foam on top. I have no idea if there was ice in there or not as I could not see through this concoction. I guess it was fresh unfiltered juice- but not exactly what I had in mind.

Since I couldn't get excited about drinking thick juice I asked for water with ice. The waitress promptly came back and presented me with a glass of water. Floating on the top were the three smallest ice cubes I have ever seen. I had to laugh. Is ice expensive in Australia? Is there some conspiracy to prevent Americans from enjoying an ice cold drink? Why are they so stingy with the ice?

Bottom line on Swagman's Post: If you're looking for a no frills breakfast or lunch it's a good place to stop. I wouldn't bring out of town friends here, but I wouldn't cross it off the list either.