Orto Trading Co

Orto Trading Co is a funky new restaurant in Surry Hills. Orto is Italian for vegie garden but there isn't particularly Italian about the menu. I'd call it Modern Australian. We sat outside at trestle tables made from the old SCG scoreboard. Very funky. Great food too.

Not a bad spot nestled in the smaller back streets of Surry Hills. Perfect for a mild August day.


Scotch Eggs with house made pork sausage and pear piccalilli.


Can't remember what this was. Pork on witlof with quail eggs and something... else. Quite delicious though.


Georgia enjoyed her little outing even if she was just eating blended up muck.


They had White Rabbit!


Another one I can't recall quite what it was but I think it was lamb done three ways including confit. Very rich.


Salad of radicchio, blood orange, beet root and goats cheese.


Chocolate and pear tart with walnuts.


Man, I should take notes. Here, I think, is their take on the classic trifle.


So this is where old score boards come to die. Neat way to re-cycle the old boards I my humble opinion.

Orto Trading Co is at 38 Waterloo Street Surry Hills.

Marque Restaurant

Georgia's grandparents flew up from Melbourne for a couple of days so we thought, fine, you can baby sit while we go out. So we did. To one of Australia's best restaurants - Marque. It has been a while since we've been here, 2009 I think, and it has been 7 months since just the two of us have been out for a meal. There was no way we weren't going to go he whole hog and not have the full degustation menu. Michelle took it easy on the wines but, hey, I'm not breast feeding so I went for the full complement of matching wines too.

Marque, according to Australian Gourmet Traveller, is the number one restaurant in Australia. It is indeed mighty fine. As fine as the delicate and totally scrummy dishes chef Mark Best dishes up. Starting with..

Bonito with Foie Gras & Potato


Almond Jelly with Blue Swimmer Crab, Almond Gazpacho, Sweet Corn & Avruga
2009 Niepoort 'Tiara' Codega/Rabigato/Donzelino, Douro, Portugal


Warm Oyster with Braised Abalone, Citrus Salad & Cocoa
2008 D. de Belliviere, Chenin Blanc, Jasnieres, Loire Valley, France


Poached Calamari with Lardo & Black Radish
Toro Albala, 'Olorosso Viejo' Pedro Ximenez, Montilla-Moriles, Spain


Duck Egg with Globe Artichoke, Mint & Radicchio
2010 Farr Rising 'Saignee' Pinot Noir, Geelong, Vic


Luscious isn't it.


Pigeon with Mullet Roe, Sauteed Lettuce, Cucumber & Dill
2009 Beatrice & Pascal Lambert 'Tradition Graves' Cabernet Franc, Chinon, France


Grain Fed Wagyu Sirloin with Onion, Black Tea & Stem Salad
2008 A.A. E. Piro & Figli, Barbara d'Alba Superiore, Piemont, Italy


We arrived for the final sitting so by the time we finished we were the last ones in the restaurant. It's kind of nice having a restaurant to yourself.


Pre dessert cocktail that for the life of me I can't remember what was in it.


Sauternes Custard served in an egg. One of Mark Best's signature dishes is an amuse bouche, Chaud-Froid Free Range Egg (Alain Passard 1998) - Egg, cream, sherry, maple syrup & grissini for dipping, but when it didn't appear this time I was slightly disappointed. But this custard egg almost made up for it.


Roast Pineapple with Szechuan Pepper & Manjimup Black Truffle
'Greedy Hunter'


Salted Caramel Chocolate, Lemon Drops & Bitter Bon Bons

According to Marque due to environmental concerns Marque no longer use bottled mineral water. They've installed a chilled, filtered, carbonated water system and, as far as water can be, it was delicious. A very light carbonation like the best Italian or French mineral waters. Five bucks a person is a small price to pay for this exquisite water.

Marque Restaurant is at 4/5 355 Crown Street Surry Hills and has been awarded 3 Hats by the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.

El Bulli

Nah, don't get excited. It isn't that El Bulli. I wish. Just a night out our local tapas joint in Surry Hills. Bastards kicked us out before dessert though. I was so looking forward to churros. Not our fault they didn't give us time to eat a proper meal. What we did have was pretty good though.

Ah, happy times before we were asked to leave

Cafe Sicilia in Surry Hills

A new Sicilian restaurant and cafe has opened in Surry Hills. It's only been there a couple of months. The site was formerly a Thai restaurant. It had always been a Thai restaurant till now. I lived upstairs up until 15 years ago went it was the Thai Orchid. More recently, say the last 10 years or so, it was Yai. Let's just say living over the top of a Thai restaurant has its benefits. And cockroaches. But now it looks to be a fairly decent traditional Sicilian restaurant. The panini are great and so are the brioche, doughnuts and biscotti. Can't wait to have a proper sit down meal there.


Cafe Sicilia, 628 Crown Street, Surry Hills

Porteño or how we got out to a restaurant in the evening with Georgia for the first time

It can be done. Feed and change Georgia before we leave and choose somewhere nice and close to home. Porteño is only 10 minutes walk away so if we have any disasters it is a short trip home and everything will be hunky dory.
Weeell, sort of. Georgia did get a bit grizzly a few times during the meal but not enough to be major pain. It was only after we'd ordered dessert she needed to be taken outside for some settling. I quickly wolfed down my share of dessert and left the rest for Michelle while I took Georgy outside to chat with the doorman. I settled Georgia, Michelle settled the bill.

We had to take turns nursing and eating a few times. It was worth it to get a decent feed. Last time we were here I raved about the suckling pig. This time, if anything, it was better. The Morcilla, blood sausage, was decadently rich and creamy.

CEVICHE PERUANO
Kingfish Ceviche, corn, cucumber, sweet potato and bottarga

ENSALADA PALERMO VIEJO
BBQ Eggplant, Tahini, Pearl Barley and Preserved Lemon

Spanish cider

CHANCHITO A LA CRUZ
Woodfired Suckling Pig

MORCILLA
Blood Sausage with Red Peppers in Garlic

REPOLLITOS DE BRUSELA FRITO
Crispy Fried Brussel Sprouts with Lentils and Mint

I was wearing my new Grinderman t-shirt and one of the waitresses was a fan (of Grinderman - not just my t-shirt) and she said the night of Grinderman's Sydney gig at the Enmore the band ended up here at Porteño for dinner and drinks. And speaking of celebs. Celebrity patissier Adriano Zumbo was eating here tonight too. Obviously man can not exist on macaron's alone.

So we haven't been totally scared off doing it again. As a matter of fact I can't wait.

Porteño is at 358 Cleveland Street Surry Hills.

Note for Grandparents and interested persons. Click HERE for new Georgia photos.

Longrain

Best Thai in Sydney. 1 Chef's Hat from the Good Food Guide. We love the place. 'Nuff said.

You can't make reservations so we arrived right on opening. Lucky to get a seat eh? Minutes later the though the place is jumping.

Freshly shucked oyster with red chilli lime juice & deep fried eschalots

I can't recall the name of the lovely lip smacking cocktail above but it was made from 3 or 4 varieties of rum and pink fruit juice of some sort.

Eggnet filled with pork prawns peanuts bean
sprouts & sweet vinegar

Caramelised pork hock with five spice & chilli vinegar

Braised lamb shoulder with ginger Asian celery & chilli

Salt & pepper silken tofu with soy & lime

Taro & coconut pudding with roasted peanut ice cream

Longrain has been awarded one Chef's Hat by the Good Food Guide and is at 85 Commonwealth Street Surry Hills.

Porteño

From the same guys who brought us our favourite tapas restaurant Bodega we now have the very new and very popular Porteño. Porteño is a stylised as an Argentine grill house. As far as I can tell that is true but that is like saying Bodega is only a tapas joint. Terry Durack gives it a score of 16 out of 20 right off the bat. That will be enough for them to be awarded two Hats in the next Good Food Guide. It will be well deserved too because some of the stuff being served here is as good as it gets. The suckling pig for example is as about as good as I've ever had. Pilu at Freshwater and a restaurant in Madrid that claims to be the oldest continually operating restaurant in the world were the previous champions for suckling pig. Now I think we have a three way tie.

The lamb was divine as was the veal tongue and pork pate. We didn't try the morcilla blood sausage this time with Michelle being in the family way and all but next time... It isn't all about the meat though. Argentine grills are renowned for their meat, and Porteño is no exception, but most of their vegie dishes are excellent too. A couple of the vegie dishes are down right sublime especially the deep fried brussel sprouts. The egg plant was yummy too.

We'd heard the team from Bodega were going to be opening a new restaurant here some time ago so we had fairly high expectations. We were confident enough to even drag along the in-laws to a place we'd hadn't been before and that had only been opened for about a month. It didn't help matters much knowing they had the same no bookings policy they have at Bodega. That meant we had to rock up early. We got there at 6.30 and the place was already pumping but they managed to find us the last table for four available and right under the gaze of a portrait of Eva and Juan Peron.

Sarah, our hostess and co-owner of Porteño, is as delightful and cheerful here as she was at Bodega considering she probably has to deal with three times as many punters in an area you could drop four Bodegas in. She probably sets an impossibly high standard for her staff to follow but having said that our waiter was pretty good. So with great service and awesome food and it is only 7 minutes walk from home will we back? You betcha.

My pictures of the food are crappier than usual - in the words of the immortal Homer Simpson, "Can't talk... Eating"

Porteño is at 358 Cleveland Street Surry Hills.

Terry Durack's SMH review.