Food Society, Darlinghurst

The first time I heard about Food Society was over a year ago when a friend posted photos of a bunch of their sharing plates on Facebook and made me green with envy. At the time I vowed to myself that I would pay a visit, but never quite got around to doing so. Then, earlier this year, I spotted one of its Groupon deals and impulse-purchased the voucher - "High Tea with Sparkling Wine Each for Two ($49)". Once again, a significant amount of time lapsed before making a reservation to make use of them.

Paranoid as I am, I skimmed through some reviews beforehand to mentally prepare myself for anything negative that could potentially have spoilt the afternoon. Gladly, none of the negative items mentioned happened to me, and my overall experience was pleasant! We were running half an hour late due to unexpected traffic on the way to the Bridge. I called ahead and spoke to a waitress who cordially made a note of it. When we arrived, we were settled in, provided with our sparkling wine, and served our courses at a steady pace.
 

It gets dark in there ><

Food Society's high tea is not the traditional sort that comes with tea, sandwiches, scones, jam and cream - though they did serve the first round on a two-tiered plate stand! Instead, its menu is separated into different "canape" categories - savoury, substantial and sweet.

The first savoury canape I tried was a demitasse (small coffee cup) of soup. It was some sort of onion soup with a little sprinkle of parsley on top. It was nice to have something warm to kick off the meal.

Soup

Second was a celeriac custard tartlet with root vegetable salsa. The pastry, filling and garnishing were all light - the epitome of a canape.

Custard tartlet

On the bottom plate lay croquettes and crostinis for two. The croquette consisted of sun dried tomato, provolone cheese, parsley and thyme with horseradish cream. What struck me was how little resistance there was when I bit into it - I wasn't too fond of how the filling oozed out.

The crostini was quite adventurous. It contained trout tartare, capers and watercress, which in itself  wasn't strange, but the external skin of the crostini could be likened to a thin layer of omelette. It made me wonder what their definition of a crostini is...

Croquette and crostini

The next part of the high tea was made up of a mini burger and salad. The burger was a little milk roll that sandwiched some pulled poached chicken, paprika aioli, dutch smoked cheese and baked apple. The slices of apple tied the roll nicely to the salad, which was fruity and sweet (containing walnuts, grapes, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes and a light drizzle of beetroot and mint dressing).

Milk roll with chicken

Salad

The final round was very rich, though presented beautifully on a wooden board. I opted to start off with the lightest looking dessert item - the lemon curd and French meringue tart. The meringue was soft, though lightly torched, while the lemon curd was zesty but still quite sweet - and a little runny.

Lemon curd tart

Second was the fudge brownie sitting in some walnut butterscotch. While the butterscotch was a nice touch and added a little moisture to the brownie, it was still quite dry and biscuit-like.

Brownie

Last to be attacked were the ricotta doughnuts. These were dipped in lemon sugar and amaretto honey. Though I wasn't very full by this time, one of these little guys was enough to bring me to satiation. These little balls of doughnut tasted like crunchy, sugary pancake. Definitely comfort food.

Ricotta doughnuts

What's high tea without tea to drink? Clearly Food Society doesn't boast tradition, but I wanted something to cleanse my palate. I ordered green tea and was provided a monster of a pot. I think it was actually larger than my head. Enjoyed it - though not so much the indigestion that followed because I was too greedy and drank the rest in one go at the end.

Not sure how I managed to get the below photo so bright... I might have forgotten to play around with the ISO until too late. Whoops.

Pot of green tea ($3.00)

For $49 for two, I don't think it was a bad deal. Would I be willing to pay full price for it? Probably not...

Phamish, Darlinghurst

Phamish was recommended to me some time last year, but it was only until about a month ago that I actually ventured there (shortly after my trip to Universal, which was right next door), as I had been discouraged by the location, which seemed inconveniently far from the rest of the CBD. Turns out it's quite accessible by public transport (close to the Oxford St bus stops), and on this occasion, I'd dragged along someone willing to battle the stress of city parking. We got there at 6pm, believing that, as it was a Saturday evening, the lines would be incredibly long, but only a couple of tables were occupied at the time - the lining up commenced around 7pm.

I really should have chosen the seats indoors, but I was stupid and selected the awkward three-legged stools, which seemed designed purely to facilitate a higher turnover of patrons. There were a few waitstaff around, but their job was to serve the dishes rather than place your order (interesting mix of self-serve and table service). We placed our orders at the front counter, and thankfully there was no one waiting behind us, cos we must've stood there for an age trying to figure out what to order (their only 'menu' is the wall behind the counter).

The duck and prawn pancakes were a given, and I threw in a pork dish, a beef dish, rice and lotus tea.

When I first heard about the pancakes, I was all for them - I'd been imagining peking duck pancakes rather than the ricey ones, so I have to say, I was slightly disappointed when they appeared in front of me. I was also wary of the mint leaves and bean sprouts - too much of either makes me wrinkle my nose in distaste. My qualms were alleviated when I actually sunk my teeth into them - the high vegetable content makes it taste fresh and adds to the crispness of the duck skin. The meat was generously packed inside and seasoned nicely.

Duck and prawn pancakes ($14.00)

With the entree out of the way, we proceeded onto the mains.

Rice ($2.00?)

The caramelised pork was nice - there was a lot of fresh vegetables and dill and the pork fell apart easily. It reminded me of one of my mum's braised pork and egg dishes (perhaps there's a Malaysian equivalent). In any case, I'm not the biggest fan of braised dishes, so I probably wouldn't order it again, but that's not to say a lot of other people wouldn't enjoy it.

Caramelised pork with egg ($18-19... I forget)

I really liked the beef dish - the meat was cut up into bite sized pieces and cooked until a light crust formed outside. There was also plenty of sweet sauce, which was useful in flavouring the rice. It came with a dish of seasoning, a daub of which made each biteful even more enjoyable.

Bo luc lac eye fillet ($19.50)

There were no desserts at Phamish, which was a pity - were Universal still open, I would plan an outing involving both these places in order to satisfy my sugar cravings.

Oxford Social, Darlinghurst

To be honest, I childishly don't want to write about this restaurant. I'd be helping word spread, it'll get even busier, and the prices will be bumped up :( At the same time, these guys are so congenial that you can't help but want this place to take off on the food scene. And take off it potentially could, with its fresh flavours, dynamic menu and cheerful hospitality.

Oxford Social's black and yellow signage can be a little hard to miss (the friend who took me there mentioned it a while back but I could never quite spot it). However, if you're like me and frequent Oxford St on public transport, the landmark to look out for is the Happy Herb Shop a couple of doors down from it.

Once inside, you're greeted warmly, seated (we made a booking in case it was one of their busy days), and served water garnished with a slice of lemon. I reached for the drinks list and couldn't resist ordering a cocktail (see below). I tend to nurse my one glass of alcohol for the duration of the entire meal, so I take care to choose citrus cocktails. This one was not only acidic, but contained floral notes (too bad I can't remember what they put into it!).

"Fiasco" ($16.00)

Oxford Social's menu is made up of specials, entrees/ "grazing" and main meals. My friend and I opted for a number of grazing plates to eat tapas style. Based on my friend's prior experiences, we started off with 4 dishes but later added 2 (which was regrettably 1 plate too many - I was uncomfortably full by the end!).

The grazing dishes are served together, so it felt like a banquet was being set in front of us. It also didn't take long at all for the food to arrive, which speaks highly of their efficient service.

The first dish I attacked was the chicken tenderloin, one of the day's specials. It was marinated in soy, lime, coriander and chilli, and set on a bed of watermelon and wasabi salsa. It sounds a bit adventurous, but the components that stood out the most were the lime dressing and salsa. The chicken was moist, tender and warm, contrasting nicely with the freshness of the salsa. If you're a bit queasy about eating wasabi/ mustard, fear not: the mustard flavour isn't overpowering at all.

Chicken tenderloin ($16.00)

I moved on to the autumn salad, which contained asparagus, pear, goats cheese and semi-dried tomatoes. Once again, the dressing contained mustard, but once again, it wasn't overpowering - the dressing was more cheesy than anything else. The rocket helped to cut through the cheesiness, the pear contributed moisture, and the semi-dried tomatoes added a punch of acidity. I'm not usually someone who will buy a salad costing more than $10.00 (they're often incredibly simple and just as grassy), but this one was definitely more complex than your usual garden salad, and a whole lot more palatable.

Autumn salad ($14.00)

The bruschetta was up next, and done amazingly well. The bread was toasted until crusty, soaked in olive oil, and served with a mix of semi-dried and fresh tomatoes. I could also taste balsamic dressing, which tends to go well with these sorts of vegetables, and I was surprised that, considering the amount of liquid soaked up, the bread still retained a lot of crunch.

Bruschetta ($7.00)

If I had to pick, the highlight of the evening would have been the scallop dish - paired with Serrane ham and a puree of celeriac and leek, I couldn't have enough of it. The scallops were very lightly grilled and that puree was so addicting I wanted to lick the plate. Pity we didn't order bread to go with it.

Grilled scallops ($16.00)

The arancini balls and prawns were added on afterwards because I was greedy. 4 courses would have left room for dessert, but after those arancini balls, I couldn't think of eating a 7th course.


Ahhh prawns. I do love my seafood, and just as with the scallops, the prawns were cooked very lightly. The prawns were laid out in garlic pernod (liqueur) cream sauce with braised fennel, which upon first glance we thought was pasta.

Prawns ($15.00)

I wasn't a big fan of the arancini balls (they were deep fried and contained leek, mint, chilli, fontina cheese and semi dried tomato. They tasted better after rolling them around in the lemon beurre blanc, but it was nevertheless a bit of an effort eating 2 of them because they were so carby and filling. The interior of the balls was rice-like in texture, reminding me of risotto balls which are so often served at cocktail events. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't the best thing to eat at the end of a meal. It was also kind of jarring to eat something lardy, having been consuming lighter food for the first 2/3rds of the dinner.

Arancini balls ($15.00)

Were I to consume the exact same dishes again, I would probably rearrange the order of eating to go something like this: salad, bruschetta, scallops, arancini balls, chicken tenderloin and the prawns. However, when I return to Oxford Social (and I most definitely shall), I plan on tasting their mains and desserts!

Universal, Darlinghurst

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Universal restaurant, which has graced Sydney with flavours from all over the globe (and, of course, its fancy twist on the Golden Gaytime), will no longer exist as at the end of April. It is thus why I responded enthusiastically in the affirmative when a friend invited me along on a last minute weeknight venture there.

 Located in a little open square that I didn't know existed, Universal visually stands out from the other restaurants with that distinct orange glow. The random brass statue right next to it is also a great conversation filler. Gravitating towards the light, we claimed our table and perused the menu. Our waiter explained that unlike other restaurants, Universal does not do degustations, but that people order a number of dishes a la carte. The list of savouries are arranged such that the lightest dishes are at the top and the heaviest are at the bottom - with a separate one for the vegetarians.

The recommended number of dishes per person is 3 savouries and 1 dessert, but being a small eater, I stuck to 2 savouries and a dessert. Wise choice in the end, as I was feeling pretty stuffed after the second savoury.

Universal has a pretty extensive drinks menu, but I settled on a detox virgin (mocktail) they called "Ruby Baby". Containing raspberry sorbet, grapefruit, cranberry and lemonade, it was sweet, tart and useful for clearing my palate throughout the night.

Ruby Baby ($9.00)

Next came the complimentary bread, which looked and tasted like brown rye. The accompanying olive oil had a light, bitter aftertaste.

My first savoury dish was the lamb rump, served with roasted pumpkin, saffron rice and spiced chickpeas, smoked almonds and bits of juicy pomegranate. I loved the flavours of the spices, but the lamb was quite rubbery. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the portions were also really small for the price charged - I know saffron is expensive, but it's not that expensive.

Lamb rump ($31.00)

My second course was roasted snapper immersed in a curry gravy and accompanied by cubed tomatoes, spanner crab (sprinkled on top), mint salsa and spiced coconut. The curry was spicy, slightly creamy, and slightly sour. The spanner had a nice flaky texture, made flavoursome on top of its bed of sliced young coconut.

Snapper ($32.00)

 With my whole table ordering the Gaytime Goes Nuts, I decided to deviate from the norm and ordered the Mocha Bomb. Which led to extreme sugar overload. The mocha bomb was a cube of cakey chocolate mousse, espresso ice cream (sandwiched by more dark chocolate), and 2 or 3 balls of chocolate hidden inside. It was probably better to share this one with someone (with a light dessert to balance out all that cocoa).

Mocha Bomb ($20.00)

Interior of chocolate bomb

I sampled bits and pieces of what the others had (including the Gaytime Goes Nuts, of course). Here's what they consumed:

Rabbit ($29.00)

This dish was slow braised rabbit with chorizo, swiss chard and a gruyere cloud. It was encased inside potato and leek pastry. I refused to eat this one because my brother's "children" are rabbits. If you're like me but want to have the cloud, they do have a vegetarian equivalent.

Risotto balls ($28.00)

 This was one of the vegetarian dishes - 3 sizable risotto balls covered in an avalanche of roasted cashew salad.

Duck ($32.00)

I had someone strongly recommend this duck dish to me, so I couldn't resist and stole some. It was sichuan spiced duck with a giant seared sea scallop, asparagus, lychee and smoked eggplant sambal. My forkful didn't contain any eggplant sambal or scallop  but the duck was crunchy and moistened by the fresh lychee.

 

Venison ($31.00)

This was rare roasted venison with beetroot and horseradish spelt risotto and a goats cheese cigar. I really liked this dish because of the tender but substantial texture of the venison. The risotto was also really tasty. Had a bit of food envy.

Gaytime goes nuts ($25.00)

 The famed tower of gaytime. They really boosted up the price on this one, but considering it won't be around for much longer they could charge $30 for it and heaps of people would still order it. I think what makes it so distinctive is the hazelnut caramel inside and the crunchy tuille skirt. I only had a spoonful and really want to go back and have a whole dish of it, but I was told that after a while it's too sweet and rich. Probably another dessert for sharing.

Little miss sunshine ($20.00)

 The little miss sunshine was a really light dessert, consisting of passionfruit banana and yoghurt sorbet, coconut cloud, papaya, pineapple and passionfruit. It was overall nice and summery, but as much as I love papaya, it was the sore thumb of the dish - too dense and distinctive to match everything else.

Overall, Universal has good flavours and friendly service, but the food is kind of really overpriced.

Boon Chocolates, Darlinghurst

Note: This post is short but will probably be continually updated - as I do intend on returning (and maybe eventually sampling the entire menu, provided they don't run out of mousse next time).

Boon Chocolates is an artisan chocolate store that believes in creating small batches of chocolate and indulging in a chocolate experience. Boon offers a number of different chocolate drinks with different characteristics, including floral, fruity and woody notes.

The site is small and consists of 2 levels. The ground level is the retail portion, where customers select from a range of homemade chocolates to take home. Sit-in patrons are directed upstairs, which is a small, cosy lounge area with a lot of artwork. It was a little awkward finding that there was a group of people already upstairs, and they had taken up the armed lounge chairs. We perched ourselves on the low stools a distance away from the other group and eventually we resumed our conversations.

The really friendly owner (presumably) escorted us upstairs and talked us through the drinking menu. He suggested that "first-time" chocolate drinkers stick to the dark or milk chocolate drinking sets - making the visit feel like a wine tasting course. It was explained that the chocolate shots were very intense and thick, suitable for more seasoned hot chocolate drinkers.

We followed his advice and selected from the range of normal hot chocolate drinking sets. Although normally accompanied by a piece of chocolate and chocolate mousse, they were out of the mousse and so we were given another piece of chocolate to make up for its absence. Hopefully it's not a common occurrence, though I suspect it might be considering we weren't late - we visited them in the early afternoon and they close at 8pm on Saturdays.

Boon

I had the milk chocolate drinking set. I should have probably ordered the dark chocolate set, as I thought that it was a bit too light and milky for my liking. As a drink, it was smooth and creamy, complementing the (dark) chocolates quite well. The chocolates literally melted in my mouth - one was red wine flavoured and the other was rum and raisin. I couldn't detect any red wine, but the rum and raisin had a stronger flavour. Regardless, both pieces of chocolate were full of cocoa and very tasty.

Milk chocolate drinking set ($8.50)

Dark chocolate drinking set ($8.50)

Sel et Poivre, Darlinghurst

'Sel et poivre', when translated to English, means 'salt and pepper'. It's a humble name for a humble French bistro. However, where that French bistro is situated outside of its country of origin, its status is elevated and high expectations are drawn - that one will come across actual Parisian fare eaten by real French people. Considering that thus far I've had better experiences eating French food in restaurants situated outside of France (my last expedition in the Parisian food scene did not yield much satisfaction), my biggest motivation in visiting Sel et Poivre was to reminisce over escargots.

Having spent part of my childhood in Malaysia, I grew up appreciating Western food cooked well, as when done poorly in an Asian country, it can taste very very wrong! Some of my fondest memories include visiting Lafite in Shangri La KL on special occasions and gorging on breadsticks, slices of baguette, escargots and fresh sorbet in between courses. While the style of Lafite tends towards fine dining, the largest impression that it left on my young palate was this equation: Snails = Yummy.

So what does this have to do with Sel et Poivre? Well, escargots are a bit of a rarity here in Sydney. It's hard to find them in groceries, and almost as hard to find them in restaurants. This meant I was all excitement at the prospect of seeing a dozen snail shells sitting on a silver platter immersed in garlic butter sauce.

Sel et Poivre is situated on that strip of Darlinghurst that everyone visits to eat at Gelato Messina, the Victoria Room, Wow Cow, etc. We were greeted by a friendly waitress who gave us the option of selecting where to sit. We decided on outdoor seating, facing the street.

Exterior

Watching the world go by...

Using my peripheral vision, I eyed the basket of baguette and was just about to open my mouth to order it, when the waitress preempted me and asked if we wanted bread to go with the escargots.

And so our orders were taken and the escargots arrived, bathed in parsley and garlic butter sauce. I was pretty disappointed that they came without the shells - though serving only a decorative function, part of the fun in eating snails is extracting them with tongs and miniature prongs! The texture was slightly chewy, as it should be, and the sauce didn't overpower the seafood flavour of the snail meat. Nevertheless, there was something missing - maybe there was too little garlic? I can't really place my finger on it.

Escargots - 1/2 Dozen ($9.90)

 Our basket of baguette was served with standard packets of melted butter. The bread was lightly toasted, crunchy on the outside and soft, dense and warm on the inside. It was a pretty nice filler and went well with both the escargot sauce and our mains.

Basket of 1/2 baguette ($3.50)

I'd ordered the beef cheeks, which were immersed in Burgundy sauce, soft carrots, a bit of diced tomato, and mushrooms. The Burgundy sauce was incredibly rich, so I couldn't really eat too much of it. The highlight of the dish was definitely the marinated beef itself, as it was tender and fell apart with a slight motion of my knife.

Beef cheeks ($23.90)

 As my friend had also ordered something that attracted a side of fries, they combined both of our servings of fries into one basket. They weren't limp, but they weren't very crunchy either - though they became pretty addictive after dipping it in the Burgundy sauce!

"Frites"

I sampled the steak tartare that my friend ordered, which had the option of being uncooked or seared. She chose the seared option. It was served at room temperature, which was surprising at first, as we'd figured that the searing would have created more heat. The accompanying sauce was Bearnaise, a rich combination of butter, vinegar and egg - tasting a lot like mayonnaise.

Steak tartare ($19.90)

Afterwards we took a look at the dessert menu and were amused to see that Sel et Poivre had self-proclaimed their creme brulee to be authentic. Nevertheless, we decided to pass on partaking of the sweets there, as we were planning a dessert crawl through Boon Chocolates and Gelato Messina.

All in all, Sel et Poivre is worth a try. The decor is charming, the service is friendly, the food is alright and the portions are generous (and I think I actually heard some French being spoken on the premises). However, from what I've tasted, it's not so memorable that I would actually revisit it (particularly with all the other tempting restaurants nearby).