The Apprentice

The Apprentice is a training restaurant up on Level 7 of Building E on the TAFE, Ultimo campus. At $22 per person for a 3-course lunch (Mon - Wed, $24 for Thurs - Fri), it's great value for money - and a bit like hitting the "I'm feeling lucky" button on Google. You never know what you're going to get on any given day. As they don't do walk-ins, you have to call them up to make a reservation and leave your credit card number with them for payment.

The restaurant is decorated simply, with arrangements sent up from TAFE's florists in training (which I failed to snap a photo of).

As I was the first of our table of 6 to arrive, I took the leisure of ordering the mocktail of the day, which consisted of orange juice and grenadine. To be honest, it just tasted like pulp-free orange juice, but it was very pretty to look at.

Mocktail of the day ($5)

Prior to your entrees, the servers come round with white bread rolls (and continue to do so throughout the meal). Being a bit of a bread glutton, I ate 3 buns that day. One of the others on our group was a bread snob and refused to eat bread of the white variety.

There are 4 menu items per course that you could potentially end up with. As they cook up a set number of dishes per menu item, your table seating is what determines your dish. This means if you attend with a large group of friends, you can do a bit of swapping around/ sharing.

Entree 1: Scallops. Someone kindly passed their scallops to me, which were described on the menu to be flavoured with a "spicy sauce". The sauce didn't really have a kick of spice, but the scallops were nice and the sweet potato puree on the side was quite yummy.

Scallops

Money bags

 

Entree 2: Deep fried money bags, thai style - perfect for sharing, generous in portion, and very filling. They were similar to deep fried meaty spring rolls and the sauce was tangy.











Entree 3: Sweet corn chicken soup, which tasted a lot like congee.

Soup

Entree 4: Minced pork salad on witlof leaf - kinda like mini sang choy bows, except with pork.

Minced pork

Main 1: Lamb goulash with cous cous and green beans. The goulash was warm, hearty and chunky. Really nice comfort food that came with (essentially) rice. The pine nuts added a nice touch to the texture.

Lamb goulash

Didn't try the other mains - mine was too filling!

Main 2: Pomegranate balsamic glazed bream fish fillet with polenta - friends reported that this was pretty good.

Fish with polenta

Main 3: Grill rib eye beef with roast pumpkin and tamarind sauce - not the most appetising looking, but it looked okay covered in sauce.

Steak

Main 4: Parmesan and sage crumbed veal cutlet with potato bake and baby carrot. Friends seemed happy with this one.

As with the mains, I only sampled my dessert (by this time stomach space was pretty much taken up entirely).

Dessert 1: Banana cake with vanilla ice cream - the vanilla ice cream was made with vanilla bean, which was a pleasant surprise. The banana cake had an odd springy texture. The smear of raspberry was a nice touch.

Banana cake

Deep fried sorbet

Dessert 2: Deep fried mixed berry sorbet with mixed berry coulis and a macaroon. Sorbet tasted like jam.















Dessert 3: Thai tea creme brulee with tuile - the most visually appealing and reportedly really good.

Creme brulee

Dessert 4: Black sticky rice with taro and young coconut flesh. Don't remember what they said about it, but I'm pretty sure the comments were positive.

12 dishes later, we were practically rolling out.

It's important to remember that your waiters/ waitresses are also in training, so they might appear nervous, drop your fork, spill your water, or perform any number of accidents. Nevertheless, even these instances increase the novelty of the experience :)

Marque, Surry Hills

I haven't been posting anything the past month or so because work (and my social life) has been absolutely torrential. However, I figured I should actually post something before my "Places to blog about" list becomes even more extensive when I head out tonight.

I visited Marque during lunchtime to taste their 3 course Prix Fixe menu. At $45 (+$5 for water), I thought initially that it was an absolute steal to be eating at one of the best restaurants in Sydney. Some might think that it's well worth it, regardless of what they serve (due to the intricate procedures employed for the preparation of the ingredients, etc.), but after my visit I didn't feel tempted to return.

We had booked for 2pm, so the 12pm lunch crowd was still withdrawing when we arrived. The premises are small, but I did not expect the restaurant to be so loud and busy - they were, in fact, so busy that they forgot to give us napkins. I had to attend a meeting that was scheduled for 4pm, so I was worried that I would have to cut the session short - my friend assured me that they normally finish up within an hour and a half, giving me plenty of time. Marque proved him wrong.

Anyway, first up was the amuse bouche - squid ink pillow with Buddha's hand (a citrus fruit with the appearance of a grotesque bright yellow hand) and pumpkin filling. The "pillow" was light and crisp, accompanied well by the sweetness of the pumpkin and zest of the Buddha's hand. Unfortunately, it set high expectations for the rest of the meal, which went downhill from this point.

Amuse bouche

 The entree of cured salmon arrived, accompanied by (very dried up) dill, beetroot and horseradish. It was a really fresh dish and I loved the combination of dill and salmon (almost counteracting my dislike of cold entrees/mains in general). At the same time, part of me thought it was too simple for what a 3 hat would be expected to offer.

Cured salmon

 They came around with bread. I picked sourdough. It was soft and did well to mop up what little sauce there was.

White sourdough

The second time they offered bread, I went for the rye, which contained what I think tasted like cumin (it looked like cumin, but it could have been caraway for all I knew). Sadly, the butter was still chilled and difficult to spread.

Rye

 Next we had a beef short rib dish with boudin noir, broad beans, pickled pear and hazelnut. The beef was slightly rubbery, though at least it was far from dry. The broad beans, pickled pear and hazelnut surprisingly went pretty well together, though I would have preferred the pear to be a tad less crunchy (the generous amount of hazelnuts contributed plenty of that already). The boudin noir provided a nice amount of salt to the dish - I personally have a gag reaction to anything involving blood and offals, though, so there was only so much I could swallow.

Beef short rib with boudin noir

Having been forced to face one of my fears, I was looking forward to a comforting chocolate dessert by the time I was done with that second course. It wasn't that comforting. If the impression they were aiming for was that of a clump of soil/ rock with bits of grain, I guess they succeeded very well. It certainly looked better than it tasted - although "Chocolate, malt and mandarin" sounds alright, the mandarin was intensely bitter and the chocolate wasn't much better.

Chocolate

 By this time, it was nearly 4pm and I was desperate to leave. We asked for the bill and were given custard. I shovelled its entirety into my mouth and hurriedly paid. It tasted like my mum's creme caramel, except with a hit of alcohol (hence named after the dessert wine, Sauternes). Not the biggest fan of creme caramel, but it was uniquely presented and a whole lot better than the chocolate dish preceding it.

Sauternes custard

Based on my above experience, I'm not inclined to re-visit to sample their degustation menu. I might return in 6 months to give their Prix Fixe menu another go, as (according to one of the friends eating with me on the day) their food is normally a lot better.

And yes, I just managed to make the meeting.

Diethnes, Sydney CBD

Diethnes is situated in a basement without reception or wireless. In any other situation, fears of isolation from watching too many Hollywood movies would kick in, but I was there with friends and there were a few groups of other diners inside. It probably wasn't purposeful, but the lack of mobile phone usage actually helped to perpetuate the atmosphere of being a guest at someone's home and sharing a meal with their family.

The decor is quite old-fashioned and the lighting is dim, but the person serving us was warm and friendly. Given we satisfied the minimum requirement of 4 for the banquet menu, we opted for the $35pp menu. When I think of Greek food, I think of feta cheese and moussaka, but that's about it. It was interesting to have a broader experience of Greek cuisine.

Bread basket

Greek salad

The loaf of white bread and Greek salad were standard - not great but not bad either. They were accompanied by grape vine leaves stuffed with sticky rice and herbs and tzatziki. I'm not a big fan of dips, but the cool grape vine leaves were soft and tasty (with a sour tinge from the lemon).

Taramosalata with grape vine leaves

 The entrees to ensue were placed directly on our dinner plates by the waitress with pairs of metal thongs. The spanakopita was spinach and cheese sandwiched by soft pastry. It was probably not the most authentic version, as you're supposed to use crisp filo pastry (or an equivalent crunchy pastry) while this one was soft. Nevertheless, it was quite enjoyable to eat.

Spanakopita

  The pan fried eggplant arrived with a very light skin of batter on the outside. It was immensely hot when it arrived, so I had to wait a bit for it to cool after burning my tongue. The eggplant inside was soggy and it reminded me a bit of eating tempura.

Pan fried eggplant

 The tiropites involved more filo pastry and cheese - a recurring theme that night! This course was crispy.

Tiropites

 I had no idea that pan fried calamari (kalamarakia tiganita) was a Greek dish. It was sadly disappointing, as the batter was not crispy when it arrived. The calamari was not that tough, though, which I was happy about.

Pan fried calamari

 By this time we were all feeling pretty full. Then the lamb came. The bits of roasted pumpkin were sweet and really delicious. The roasted potatoes weren't so tasty - there was a bit of lemon juice that raised its head after swallowing each mouthful. The lamb itself was made well - tender, juicy and falling apart. Probably the highlight of the banquet.

Baked roast lamb

 While eating the moussaka, you could really taste the nutmeg. It came with rice, which I thought pretty odd. I was pretty disappointed, because I think the mousakkas that I have eaten in non-Greek restaurants tasted better.

Moussaka

 After we finally had our fill of the main meal, we awaited dessert. The dessert was filo pastry around cream cheese with cinnamon on top and a lot of syrup soaked through. It was pretty heavy, but thankfully our slices weren't too big. It was nice with coffee.

Dessert

Flat white

The quantities here are definitely generous, but the flavours are a bit hit and miss. Considering the other nearby Greek restaurant, Xanthi, is hatted and therefore a fair bit more expensive, Diethnes is a great venue for having dinner in a group.