The Beaufort Street Merchant

I walk pass The Beaufort Street Merchant and drive pass it even more. Having visited their unique wine shop and gourmet goodie store, I have always wanted to try their food but have never had the opportunity.

I finally ventured into The Beaufort Street Merchant with a group of work mates - all of whom are avid foodies. We managed to book a Friday night dinner for about 12 people about a month ago and I couldn't have been more excited.

We managed to find a two very nice red wines from their wine range (which is not just limited to what's on the list but you are also free to chose any wine that is sold at their wine cellar area) their list is not just limited to wines; cocktails and beers are also available. We grabbed the 2009 BONE TREE HILL CABERNET MERLOT and the 2009 SOL DE MAYO MALBEC ARG ENTINA - both were easy drinking and went perfectly well with their menu.

The dinner started off with two share plates - the Spanish Tasting Board and the French Tasting Board. I didn't have the opportunity to try the French Tasting Board, but I was a little disappointed with the Spainsh tasting plate. I've had better. But the olives, roasted almonds and the cheese was fantastic and the bread was beautiful.

The Spanish Tasting Board

 

The French Tasting Board

The mains, however were beautiful. Our group ended up picking a few different dishes from the menu. 

There was the Coq Au Vin Pie - which was so hearty and beautifully flavoured. The slow cooked chicken coq au vin was tender, it was well mixed with bacon and the red wine sauce was just the right touch. All this was served on top of a nice layer of mash potatoe. It was the perfect meal for a cold winter's night. Highly recommended.

  Coq Au Vin Pie

Then there was the fish of the day - barrumundi - it was cooked to perfection, cripsy skin juicy fish. In a fantastic sauce.

Fish of the Day

One of the girls had the steak burger - something light and easy. But it was still a massive serving and looked and smelt fantastic. The chips that came with it was from sliced pieces of potatoes and was nice, cripsy and well salted, and the aioli that came with it was one of the better homemade aioli I've had.

The Steak Burger

The last dish and the one that I ended up getting was probably the most disappointing. I had one of their specials the Duck - cooked in several different ways. It was a bit dry in some areas and just seemed lacking compared to the flavours of their fish and the pie.

Duck Special

After such a disappointing main, I had a fantastic dessert. I had the Nutmeg and Quince Custard Tart with spiced pear compote and it was just so divine. The perfectly baked crisp tart shell enhanced by the silky custard filling. This was made even more enjoyable by eating it with the spiced pear compote.

Nutmeg and Quince Custard Tart with Spiced Pear Compote

The Double Chocolate Jaffa Pudding with vanilla bean icecream

Mixed Berry Cobbler with maple pecan ice cream

with anglaise

The mixed berry cobbler was beautifully warm and hearty dessert with beautiful homemade pecan ice cream.

The Beaufort street Merchant has shown why it is so popular with the locals and foodies alike. The quality of their food is high, well executed, flavours wholesome and the dining experience was wonderful with great ambience and loving that haphazard, rustic, found-objects & Asian timber carvings interior. I can't wait to try it again and to come one day for breakfast! 

Bonsai Restaurant

The Bonsai Restaurant situated on Roe street in Northbridge an all-in-one Japanese fusion restaurant, cafe and lounge. I've heard many good things about the place but I haven't had the pleasure of going until a few weeks ago, with a few workmates to catch up after a hard week at work.

Huge and spacious, Bonsai Restaurant is a refurbishment of an old rundown warehouse with remnants of the old - exposed brick walls and hanging wires on high ceilings mixed with modern colours and sleek decor. Dining in the restaurant section is a dimly lit and also cavernously airy affair. I don’t know whether it’s more romantic or spooky.

The menu offered a la carte main meals or tapas Japanese. After a quick peek at the menu we decided sharing was the perfect way to taste the menu seeing as it was proving impossible to choose between all the interesting and tantalising options.

I didn’t judiciously note the name of every dish, we had; crab crawl, sashimi salmon on asparagus, agadashi eggplant, scallops, panfried mushrooms, and a bowl of miso soup amongst other things. And of course, dinner is never complete without the desserts, we opted for green tea tiramasu, crepe thingie, and chocolate delight, all which were surprisingly good.

The freshness of the ingredients was stunning. Bonsai had not one dish that fell below expectation in flavour or portion. I was thoroughly impressed by Bonsai. Usually fusion Japanese is always a miss but Bonsai have got the right, have nailed the Japanese love for texture and flavour experimentation. The complexity of flavours were harmonious, balanced and shows time and thought has gone through planning the dishes.

 

The Byrneleigh Hotel

The Byrneleigh Hotel is the perfect venue for after work drinks and catch up session with collegues seeing as it is just down the road. The bar section was filled with workers starting their happy hours. The dining section however wasn't packed out but we were told that we had to be out by 7:30pm (it was 530pm) as there were bookings for the tables.

The first thing that struck me about the Byrneleigh was the trendy decor. They’d done an excellent job decking it out. Plenty of warm timber, offset with astro turf and shiny, modern chandeliers. Sounds like a strange mix, but it all balances together. The outside has a massive screen for all those die-hard sports fans.

The second thing was that we were harassed to place our order. Unfortunately, the menu was so bland that nothing jumped out at any of us, causing us to turn the waitress away twice. Finally, when we were ready to order and it seemed that all the waitresses were playing host to customers.

Thirdly, no water delivered to the table, even after we asked. After the second request, we were provided water.

My fourth issue was the food provided on the tasting plate, which was below average. I give credit were credit is deserved and the squid on that tasting plate was quite good according to everybody. Not too chewy and the batter was light and flavoursome with a perfect amount of salt. The rest of the food however was below quality. The chorizo with lime was rather poorly done. I now realise that it is VERY possible to get VERY bad chorizo. It was oily and fatty and reminded me of chinese sausages (except chinese sausages actually have flavour instead of just tasting oil), west australian olives with feta, pea aranchini with truffle aioli, (which were nice and crispy and probably the only good item on the tasting plate), peppered beef, orange and bernaise, some toasted turkish bread with home made hummus (the bread was cold and the hummus seemed to have old oil taste to it) and two garlic prawns, which seemed to need to be cooked a little bit more.

We also had a chicken pizza to share, which was rather average, nothing remotely exciting. In fact, it probably needs more flavours to it, was rather bland.

As a happy hours place and the fact that it's walking distance from work the Byrneleigh is the perfect place to catch a few drinks, but other then the awesome decor, everything was below average, even as a pub food place. It definitely needs to work on it.

On the Bright Side

I have a whole lot of back-dated postings to do. I've been busy. Work's being exhausting and as such I've been living my philosophy; work hard, play harder which of course means I'm too busy to actually take time out and relax.

One of the things that I did do was attend a winter music festival - On the Bright Side. It had a relatively awesome line up - Tim and Jane, Warpaint, James Blake (his music is so soothing), Foster the People, The Grates, The Kills, The Hives, Pulp.  I particularly loved Foster the People (they were pretty amazing), no one performed as impressively as The Hives (I even got to touch Howlin' Pelle Almqvis chest!) and Pulp was extraordinary. 

The mud and dirt of it all, although this photo was at the start of the day so the ground wasn't that bad yet...

The Festival goers

Foster the People 

Modest Mouse

followed by THE HIVES

(has the cutest butt ever! and he couldn't help shaking it towards us!)

then there was...

 

The only thing I regret was not getting myself more organised and....
a) not getting a pair of gumboots - seeing as the whole ground was mud! thanks to all the downpour that happend prior to the festival - luckily on the actual day it didn't rain! 
b) not matching an outfit to my doc marten's hence couldn't wear it so my converse shoes got killed.
c) damn teens and their inconsiderate pushing and elbowing me in the ribs! not to mention all their PDA, seriously I am not there to watch them kiss! - pfft but hey all part of being at a music festival!


Of course the whole day and night couldn't end without heading to the moon to get some fries with aioli dip. Fantastic music, sqaushy mud, great company and all in my favourite season of autumn/winter.

Cue Favourites

So the disadvantage of going to London/France a month after the launch of Fashion Week in Australia and I guess around the world is the fact that my one of my favourite stores, Cue also released their Spring/Summer collection (and it's a goodie) and unfortunately I have to save.

I'm praying that people will not buy the items I love (very unlikely that this will happen)..

I'm really loving the following..

L: I love the Terracotta pants (it will be more visible in two photos time)

R: The colour block dress is so simple but will be flattering and a classic piece perfect for any wardrobe!

The Colour Block Dress



Strip shirt with Terracotta pants (the pants just look so comfy and the contrast black line and the button are two perfect details to put an edge to otherwise normal pants)

I love this dress (The Blue Overlay dress) - it's so 1950s but with a bit of a modern twist!

I wonder if this would suit me. Please let it suit me. It's the perfect thing I've been looking for since seeing this classic movie on a Sunday afternoon (I can't remember the title for the life of me!)

The White Sleevless Shirt Dress seems like the perfect summer item to have in your wardrobe. Perfect for those days and nights at the beach/shop/picnics.

Casual, yet can be dressed up.

I haven't quite decided if I like the whole sleevless blazer thing but the detail and cut of the blazer is beautiful.

Cue said that they have one with sleeves but only in selected stores.

But I love the shorts.

And the colour is so pretty.

*SIGH* alas I cannot have all. I must find something similar/better in London/Paris. Otherwise I must definitely get the colour block dress (and if it suits me the Blue overlay dress).