I did think that I'll become a little better and update the blog a little more often , then every 1.5 mths... but, I've just been so busy this month. I haven't stopped eating in the past month, but I have baked a whole lot less.
This week however, has been a full pig-ness filled week.
Starting off with Alio
Alio
5 Baptist St, Surry Hills
Alio is celebrating their 10 year anniversary, by having the "Greatest Hits" dinner. This was a 10-course dinner, where each dish was the best dish from the past 10 years. And given the fact there was a voucher on jumponit.com.au for it, even better reason to give it a go.
Hand made foccaccia and grissini with parmesan and olives
This was one of the most oily foccaccias I've ever eaten. It did taste good fresh, but too bad it wasn't warmed up! The olives, however, were warmed up, and that's the way I like them!
Air dried beef with truffled baby green peaches and parmesan
Not sure whether air-dried beef just means prosciutto, but they taste like the same thing, and prosciutto has a nicer sounding name compared to "air-dried". I would think if i ate something air-dried, it would be when I'm an astronaut, and having my meal in space. Overall, dish is good, but not overly creative or unusual. But, until I typed in the dish's name, I had no idea that it was "truffled baby green peaches", because I could not taste either of those ingredients. Honestly, I thought it was an aoli / mayo sauce.
Char grilled eggplant with buffalo mozzarella drizzled with 25 year old balsamic vinegar
Given that I don't like eggplant, it was going to automatically be on my black list. But, the taste of the mozzarella did overpower the eggplant taste and texture. It had a tomato salsa on top of the eggplant, so it did taste quite nice. But I didn't eat any of the eggplant if there wasn't any cheese left. The balsamic vinegar was beautiful. It worked really well with the combo on the dish, but I do not know what a normal balsamic, and a 25 year old one diff. Remind me to do a taste test of the differences.
Hawkesbury calamari with fresh chilli and lemon
I only found out this week, that when squid is cooked, its callled calamari. (This is after the whole psychic octopus world cup fiasco). So, this dish... extremely unimpressive! Calamari was not cooked well, a little chewy, and the sauce.. was like a lemon-y version of a sweet chilli sauce. We concluded, 2003 must have been quite an unimpressive year!
Next dish .. wait for it
My overall rating: 6/10.
6 is to represent the fact that the restaurant had survived 10 years, which is a sign that they must be decently good for people to return and for business to survive. The service was nice and attentive, however, the serving of each of the dishes was way too slow, given that by the 3rd hour into the meal, we were 1 out of the 3 tables left in the restaurant.
Red wine, pancetta and radicchio risotto
Well... I'm not sure whether I can properly describe my facial expression when I saw this dish plated in front of me. But, really, if I was a chef, I would consider presenting this dish differently! The risotto was quite nice, had quite a strong parmesan taste, so was quite cheesy, which made the red wine flavour a little to subtle. The dish was served from behind, so once it was laid in front of me .. wow, I was definitely shocked! That's about all I can say about it
Barramundi baked in a bag of mussels, thyme and vermouth on cavalo nero
I usually love barramundi, as I consider it one of the smoother fish other than john dory. But, I think mine was overcooked, and given that mussels are my least favourite crustaceans, it made the fish very fishy tasting. There's a chinese term to describe fishy-fish, seang. Others thought that this was a good dish, but considering 2 people out of the 6 suffered from food allergy rashes, I would blame this dish compared to the others. Then again, not sure whether they can blame the food! Hahah..
Lightly beaten char grilled black angus beef with fresh peas and potato al forno
This was a long long meal, we started at 7:30 and I think this dish came out around 11pm. So, everyone on the table was very tired, and some of the boys were still very hungry. This dish was good. Steak cooked perfectly (not that they asked how we liked our steak) but the potatoes were a nice touch. Sorry, can't give an opinion on the peas. But, peas are peas, and they don't taste good! By the way, please excuse the fact that I had already started eating the dish prior to taking the photo. Given my eyes were slowly closing up, I wanted to get out of the restaurant asap. Hence, eat the food asap.
Finally... dessert and the end of the 10 dishes
Panna cotta with fruit salad and mint
Prior to this, we had a blood orange sorbet to cleanse our palate. Then finally, what I was waiting for... dessert!
Panna cotta is always a favourite of mine, especially after eating the one at Jonah's. A and I always have fun eating them, and yes, we do admit we are immature, but noone is judging!? The panna cotta was smooth, not too rich and was complemented well with the berries, and other fruits (which I have already forgotten what they were).
That was a long night for a school night. We were all so glad that we had a voucher for the meal, and we had all decided as well, that we probably would never return to the restaurant. Not sure whether they gave us a good representation of their best 10 dishes, because we were not impressed. Some dishes did taste nice, but it was more to do with personal preference of the ingredients in the dish, rather than how the dishes were cook.
My overall rating: 6/10.
6 is to represent the fact that the restaurant had survived 10 years, which is a sign that they must be decently good for people to return and for business to survive. The service was nice and attentive, however, the serving of each of the dishes was way too slow, given that by the 3rd hour into the meal, we were 1 out of the 3 tables left in the restaurant.
xoxo
Michelle
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