Sydney Food Diary

Tagine

One restaurant that didn't find it's way into the Good Food Guide but that we think is a real treat is Tagine at the Republic in Easy Sydney.

Hidden away just beyond Pizza Mario at the base of the Kings Lane stairs, Tagine is a cute little spot serving delicious "modern moroccan" food mostly centered on, you guessed it, tagines.

It's tables, lit by candles and glass lanterns, spill out of the small space into the square making it a perfect spot to while away an upcoming summer night.

For us, the star is their delicious dish of housemade sausages...

...but the tagines are also excellent, alive with spice and the perfect size to share....

....that is lamb above, and fish is below....

....cap it off with some sticky date with butterscoth sauce (which tastes far better than it looks)...

....and then sip away on the rest of your Woodcutters and relish the summer.*

Tagine is at Shop 40, King's Lane (off Palmer, between Burton and Liverpool Streets) in East Sydney Tel: 9357 7577

*I know this post comes on a rainy weekend but summer is a state of mind

What's your hat quotient?

We'll give you our favorites soon to go with the "Editor's picks"

But just for fun we thought it might be interesting to calculate an HQ or Hat Quotient that is the number of hats you've collected divided by the number you are left to collect (city only of course).

So for example our quotient would be 24+22+25 / 13 = 5.5 (rounded)

Hopefully that makes sense.

Top Hat

Well the hats are out (err on?) and there are a few eyebrow-raisers but on the whole things settled in more or less as expected. There was also less movement than usual (except in the upwards direction) but more than enough room for strong newcomers (Bentley, Lo Studio, Bird Cow Fish et al)

We were pleased to see Justin North's Becasse take the covetted Restaurant of the Year title (and Championship Belt) except that we dread trying to get a booking there for the foreseeable future.

And naturally, we loved seeing Bentley walk away as this year's Best New Restaurant (though arguably being called Michelle's official favorite restaurant is more prestigious :P ).

We were personally disappointed to see Balzac slip from two hats to one but we've never been for the regular menu (though it's hard to imagine it's anything short of excellent) only for the monthly degustations. And we were surprised to see that Bilson's was elevated to 3 hats since our experience was that it stumbled on two (though admittedly it's also just not really our speed).

Here are how the rest of the hats settled: (a record eight)

Three hats
Bilson's, Claude's, est., Guillaume at Bennelong, Marque, Pier, Quay, Tetsuya's

Two hats

Aria, Becasse, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Bistro Moncur, Buon Ricordo, Iceberg's Dining Room & Bar, Lucio's, Omega, Pello, Pier Tasting Room, Pilu at Freshwater, Rockpool, Sean's Panaroma, Yoshii

One hat

Alchemy 731, Assiette, Astral, The Bathers' Pavilion Restaurant, Billy Kwong, Bird Cow Fish, Bistro CBD, Bistro Moore, Bistrode, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, buzo, Catalina Rose Bay, Coast, Fish Face, Flying Fish, Forbes & Burton, Forty One, Galileo, Grand National, Il Piave, Jonah's, La Sala, Longrain, Lo Studio, Lotus, Mezes at Omega, Milsons, Otto, Restaurant Atelier, Restaurant Balzac, Restaurant Sojourn, Sailors Thai Restaurant, Three Weeds, The Wharf, Ying's

Read all about it here.

(by our account there are at least a few disappearances as well: hatless are Perama, Golden Century, sushi-e, Manta, Post, Sea Treasure, Bistro Lulu....did we miss anyone?)

Hurricanes

After quite a few recommendations, we finally got dragged all the way out to Hurricanes in Bondi by a crew of enthusiastic rib-minded friends.

We'd heard that the ribs here presented a fair rival to Tony Roma's and that the atmosphere was infinitely better. (which couldn't be hard since Tony's is a bit like eating dinner in the lobby of a Holiday Inn)

Well the racks of ribs (full slab of pork course) were so big that they would've made Fred Flintstone blush and the meat was moist and tender.

We were less impressed, however with the sauce which we felt was a touch salty and otherwise a bit one dimensional compared to Tony Romas Original recipe (well all of Tony's sauces really).

That being said the atmosphere really was better and being at Bondi, not to mention right beside the incredibly delicious gelato of Pompei's, certainly isn't a bad bonus in terms of an overall package.

HURRICANE'S GRILL - 130 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach Phone (02) 9130 7101