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)

Tapas seems to be the new Thai in Sydney and we are not complaining! I can think of nothing more enjoyable than trying a variety of small plate “tempters” with a few friends and ploughing through a few bottles of Spanish wine (yes the Ramon Bilbao Crianza Tempranillo is fantastic!)

This is exactly what we did on Saturday night at Catalonia in Kirribilli (http://www.catalonia.com.au/). We were seated downstairs and it was oddly quiet for a Saturday night (a slight cause for concern but it was a very wet, stormy evening). We were far too adventurous to be limited by the set menu so we ordered the following from the selection of ~20 dishes on offer with my thoughts on each…

Zucchini flowers with goats cheese mousse and honey (Texturally satisfying and greeted with the strong yet not overpowering flavour of the goats cheese. The honey didn’t add much for me)

Patatas bravas (Essentially twice fried potatoes)

Chorizo with beans and saffron potato puree (were good but lacked the special kick that makes a dish truly memorable)

Crisp pork belly with lavender sauce, apples and swisschard (Surprisingly the pork belly was done extremely well. Not overly fatty not salty with a perfectly crisped skin. Thumbs up here)

Smoked duck, brussel sprouts, turnips and truffle sauce (I am a big fan of smoked anything however this duck would be more accurately described as cured as it didn’t retain much of the smokey flavour that I’ve come to love. All-in-all it was nice, with the soft textures of the duck working well with the crunch of brussel sprouts and turnips but I would of liked a bit more “smoke”)

Scallops with jerusalem artichoke, medjools date, spinach and curried ’amargo y dulce’ (The scallops were juicy, plump and sweet with a well developed crust – cooked exactly how I’d expect)

Prawns with ajo blanco, sobrassada and ‘rossejat’ catalan fried pasta (These prawns had great flavour and the fried pasta really leant an amazing crispy dimension to the overall dish. Another dish to get my thumbs up)

Pimentón braised lamb, panisse, parsley and olives (I can’t actually remember what this tasted like which is never a good sign.)

We ended the night with some hot churros served with melted chocolate and some coffee.

Overall we had an enjoyable evening at Catalonia however I cannot help but compare it to Bodega in Surry Hills which is by far our favourite tapas restaurant in Sydney.