OK. I was sick of my working week. Tired of the city monotony – the sea of dark suits, mediocre paper-cup-coffees and less than sanitary train rides to and from the daily grind. I needed an escape from the “real world” to the ever ellusive garden of Zen to unwind. To me this is somewhere peaceful and quiet with waterviews and great food in its surrounds – and I think I may have found it just an hour’s drive north of Sydney. It is Killcare.

Whilst many of you may not have heard of Killcare, you will undoubtedly have heard of Italian restauranteur extraordinare Stefano Manfredi best known for Restaurant Manfredi, Bel Mondo and di Manfredi coffee. He now runs the restaurant at Bells @ Killcare – a gorgeous, boutique European style country house hotel (and very much recommended by us for a relaxing weekend!).

I think 9 times out of 10 a chef that serves exceptional produce is automatically destined for greatness. There is no need to complicate things here. Stefano grows his own vegies in a garden at the back of the hotel, he selects only the best produce from around the globe (our goat cheese was air freighted in from Italy) and pasta is made fresh on the premises.

Our first taster was some smoked ocean trout served on some toasted panini rubbed in garlic and drizzled with olive oil. Simple yet delightful, the trout flesh was firm and screamed with flavour.

We were then presented with a salad of goat cheese, radish and garden greens served with what I believe was a crushed walnut sauce. Unlike any goats cheese I had previously experienced, this one had been air freighted in from Italy and is much milder and softer than its Australian counterparts. The salad greens were picked fresh from the garden, crisp and succulent.

Pacific oysters with a simple eschallot dressing - we couldn’t resist.

Thi was intrigued by the seafood and pearl barley stew with prawns, vongole and mussels. A lovely rich and flavoursome broth laden with fresh seafood and soft pearl barley.

Now we get into our mains (no I did not have an entree – while all the starters filled me up, it has left me more than enough on the menu to come back to visit soon – yes, this meal was really good!). I ordered the duck and pork ragu pasta and enjoyed watching the sous chef freshly roll and make the pasta from scratch. This is the type of ragu that my mind conjours when I see it on a menu. Beautifully rich, delicate and “melt in the mouth” tender it blended in superbly with the velvety strands of fresh egg pasta.

Satisfied with the dishes thus far, Thi wanted to see how a real chef does rabbit. Cooked simply over the grill on the bone (yes very fiddly but worth the prize!) with a coating of lemon and olive oil the rabbit was succulent and tasty

A meal without wine? I don’t think so! It was a warm evening so we stayed on the whites. A 2002 Tyrell’s Vat 1 Semillon to start and as I had more time to explore the wine menu I spotted a bottle of French Vouvray for only $50! The 2006 Marc Bredif was soft on the pallete and I’d say it was borderline semi-sweet! Perfect to trail off the meal in preparation for dessert (nope we couldnt fit in dessert but the staff talked us into it – and yup was definitely worth it!) 

 Feast your eyes on our desserts …

Excited and pleased with our stay, we had to get a signed copy of Steve’s cookbook Seasonal Italian.

Thanks to Steve and the great staff at Bell’s for one of our best meals in 2009!

Where: Bells @ Killcare
Location:  107 The Scenic Rd, Killcare Beach (Central Coast)
Opened: Dinner
Dress: Smart casual
Price: Entrees about $24 and Mains about $35 each.

Written by Rob

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a professionally designed webpage banner for a dinner at Omerta. This is the story of how our website logo came to be.

Ellie, our gorgeous and talented friend, offered to give our website a nip tuck job – turning our feeble attempts of graphic design into something worthy of welcoming readers to our site. In return we treated Ellie out to a dinner at Omerta (thanks to @Carmr, @Reemski & @felixexplody for the recommendation)

Something  about Ellie

Who is Eliana Mendes?

E lli e is fun, dramatic, passionate and extreme – all at the same time. Her favourite number … you can probably guess. She is best described as a buzzing ball of creative energy or She-Ra leading the Great R ebellion against Hor dak…I’m not sure which one does her more justice.

Professionally, she has been in the design industry for over 8 years. With an impressive portfolio of print and web design under her belt, she specializes in typography and visual communication. Her extensive client list includes 42 Below Vodka, Coca Cola. L’Oreal, RSPCA (and the list goes on). For more about Ellie… check out her website for a full range of her portfolio.

Something about Omerta

What better restaurant to return the favor than Omerta – its’ literal meaning a code of honor amongst the Italian Mafia.

Omerta, located in Darlinghurst, has life bursting out of its front doors - literally. We had a sampling of 8 tapas dishes which included Salt Cod Fritters, 24 month aged Prosciutto, Swordfish with capsicum salsa, Grilled eggplant, buttered Mushroom and lamb cutlets with pesto dressing.

Highlights for the night included the lamb cutlets (the meat was tender and the pesto topping was refreshing) and the mushrooms (delightful buttery little mushrooms, crunchy at the bite but soft and juicy in the inside).

Overall, this was a satisfying night out and always great fun to catch up with old friends. The food was authentic, the variety on the menu vast and the service was friendly (if you can get hold of a waiter).

Where: Omerta
Location:  235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst, Sydney 2010
Opened: Mon-Fri 6-11pm, Sat-Sun 5-10pm
Dress: Casual
Price: $12-$22 per dish (recommend min 2 dish per person)

It all started with my girlfriend who overheard the complaint of one friend to another – A restaurant in Surry Hills, near impossible to get into. We were curious.
It is described as neighbourhood dining. A dinner shared amongst friends and strangers lucky enough to get a reservation (which is only available by SMS). The concept is unlike anything else we had encountered in Sydney and instantly conjured imagery of some kind of underground, urban “food club”.http://www.tablefor20.blogspot.com/. The blog reads: “So here’s the deal – We do a 3 course set menu every night, you can BYO or drink mine. The cost is $60 Wed, Thurs, Fri & Sat.”

You won’t find this restaurant in your Good Food Guide. In fact you will find very few references to it anywhere outside of its own blog

Our experience.

After months of trying, we were fortunate enough to be given the seats of a last minute cancellation on Friday night. We arrived at about 7pm to allow us some time to have a drink at their bar Sticky and to suss out the wine options. The low-key entrance was via a quiet back alley in Surry Hills – in what felt like the loading entrance to a cool room. A piece of paper was stuck on the door “SMS the following password and wait patiently for entry. Password = Turtle”….

After walking up 3 flights of stairs we were pleasantly surprised by the bar. It was fairly busy and filled with the typical Surry Hills crowd. The wine list was exceptional having been split into Good, Better, Best wines to make selection easier. The barmen were knowledgeable and allowed us to taste a variety of wines before making our selection.

At 8pm we were seated at one of the 2 long tables that sat around 20 people each. With the gentle push from the restaurant staff neighbouring parties introduced themselves to get the conversations flowing. An introduction was then made by the host of Table for 20 “I wouldn’t expect a menu if I came to your house for dinner, so you will find no menu at mine.”

First course was handmade pappardelle pasta with shaved truffle and truffle oil. The aroma of the truffle oil created desire amongst those seated. The flavour was simple yet delicate and the slightly chewy texture of the homemade pappardelle was exquisitely perfect.

The main course was veal backstrap served with baked parsnips and potatoes. This dish again was quite simple and was reminiscent of something my grandmother would make. My only complaint would be that the veal while still pink was overcooked and dry to the taste.

The dessert that came out was simply superb. Caramel and pine nut torte served with homemade honey ice cream. The torte was similar in flavour to a traditional pecan pie (although with pine nuts) and the ice cream brought the perfect balance to the sweetness of the caramel.

All-in-all we had a fun. The food was decent (and for $60 great value), the concept was extremely fresh and fun and the overall social experience is something that I’d recommend.