Happy New Year! I am starting off 2019 by writing my first food review of the year about a place that really impressed me recently. And that would be Chef Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar & Grill.


My boyfriend and I chose this place to celebrate our ~ first anniversary ~ at and we were not disappointed. I have to admit I had some hesitations because most of the recent reviews claim that this restaurant isn't as good as it used to be/people claim it to be but at the end of my experience, I fell very full and happy!



Rockpool Bar & Grill is located unsuspectingly on the corner of Bligh and Hunter St. The black stone entrance over the front of the old heritage building certainly gives the place a strong sense of prestige and presence.



Inside, Rockpool is even more beautiful than we expected with its high ceilings, elegant lighting and cool stone marble columns. Everything exudes such a posh and grand ambience which we find perfectly suited for the romantic evening.





I found it extremely difficult to get the attention of the waiting staff which was a bit frustrating, but whenever they did come around the service was always extremely friendly, helpful and polite. Not typically rude or condescending at all. We had one waiter who waited on us pretty much the entire night and he was fantastic! The interaction between the wait staff in general also seemed really good and it made us feel very comfortable.



You KNOW some fine dining is about to go down when they serve the complimentary bread and butter. And to be honest, I feel like this is usually an indicator of the tiny portions about to come but we were happy to be proved very wrong.




Shrub and soda is a home-made fruit concentrate with non-alcoholic champagne vinegar that has probiotic properties similar to kombucha. I'm a huge fan of kombucha so I knew I had to try this out! Patrick got the mango flavour which was sweet, tropical, fizzy and fruity. Really good. On the other hand, my strawberry drink didn't taste like strawberries at all. It had house-made dill lemonade mixed in and this made the entire drink taste like pickle juice. I came to enjoy it because I do like pickles (and I never thought I would enjoy drinking something like it)... but as I was originally after a refreshing drink I found this misleading to say the least.




It took around half an hour for our mains to come out which is such a long time but in the name of good steak, we were happy to wait! We had napkins placed in our laps and one of the wait staff started trying to divide our mains equally between our two plates. We stopped him when we realised what was going on because we all know Patrick is just going to eat the meat while I'm still on the sides hehe :'(


I had never had wagyu like this before and it was INCREDIBLY GOOD. The steak was cooked medium rare (more towards the rare side but no one, no one is complaining) and perfectly seared as well as rested. The meat was so insanely tender that it truly almost melted in my mouth and it had a good amount of beefy flavour. It was not too salty as some reviews claimed and after trying it with the accompanying lemon wedge and bearnaise sauce, I never touched the sauce again. It's just perfect on it's own. I loved this so much.







Also another order for the wagyu because why go to an expensive steakhouse if you aren't going to try some of the best cuts they have to offer! This steak was also very good but paled so hard in comparison to the Denver. It didn't have the same tenderness or beefy flavour. The texture itself was more rugged and reminded me slightly of brisket. But I think if we didn't order the former then we would've loved this steak just as much!




The weird look Patrick gave me when he asked me what steak I was getting and I replied with the salad. I wasn't prepared for how big this bowl of salad would be. I feel like I am always surprised at salad servings!

Anyway the salad was pretty good! The amount of vinaigrette was on the heavy-handed side but I loved how it was sweetened with palm sugar. The radicchio was very bitter but balanced out by the sweet vinaigrette, cos lettuce and endives.


Probably our least favourite dish of the night which we unfortunately were keen and excited for. We were warned this dish was very carb heavy and filling and hence I decided not to order two other sides because of this. If I could go back, I'd probably not order this. The mac and cheese may be in quotation marks, but getting served penne pasta instead of macaroni still disappoints me. The cheese sauce was also very lumpy and gritty. It had the intense sharpness and bitterness of vintage cheddar cheese and a smoky taste from the speck. The first bite was great, but every other bite was not great at all. Wanted to love this, but unfortunately I didn't.




Another filling side dish but instead very, very impressive. I remember seeing a recipe for Blumenthal's duck-fat roasted potatoes and I have been dying to try out potatoes roasted in animal fats for so long. I tried to give it a go at home but it just did not work out good at all. Really glad I got these. The potatoes were nice and soft on the inside with the most amazing crisp layer on the outside. Generously seasoned with salt and rosemary it was a treat. The garlic flavours didn't come through to me but the cloves were in the bowl and so big, I mistook them for potatoes at some points.



Once again another issue with trying to flag down a wait person to ask them to clear the table as well as trying to get a dessert menu. We were both so full and satisfied at this point that we were thankful we didn't order three steaks. There's always room for dessert though!

The wait for dessert was nearly just as long as the wait for mains which was strange considering by then at 8:30pm the restaurant was mostly cleared out.




A huge slice of fluffy white pavlova with an equally huge piping of fresh cream. They weren't kidding when they said passionfruit pavlova. I kind of thought there might be other fruit but my bad. The pavlova was very marshmallow-y and the crunchy meringue sides were a treat. Still, the price and simplicity was slightly disappointing.







To end the night, Rockpool also surprised us with a moist chocolate cupcake adorning a candle on top. Such a nice little addition to our celebration! The chocolate cupcake was really nice and the fresh and cold cream they piped was the real cherry on top.




The waiter also took some cute polaroids for us which was so lovely.

My food review for Belle's Hot Chicken is made possible thanks to Uber Eats. I really enjoy using the delivery service because it is so convenient to have a night in without the worry of having to go out and buy food, queuing up for food, or cooking food. Throwing back today to the time the girls and I babysat Dallow's apartment (Dallow is a cat)!












Overall I can see why Belle's Hot Chicken is so hyped up and so loved by so many people! I love that we can get this taste of America through some really amazing Nashville style fried chicken in Sydney. Even with a little bit of sogginess from the Uber Eats delivery, Belle's really came through and the food was still super delicious.





TL:DR;
Price: On the pricey side but the Baller Bucket is a really good deal
Quality: Very good
Service: N/A
Ambience: N/A

Hey there, long time no see! June which has just passed is always my favourite month despite the cold winter weather because it's my birthday month. On my birthday I had the amazing opportunity to celebrate that with my boyfriend over dinner at Restaurant Hubert. I've been dying to try out this restaurant since it first popped up on my radar but could never find the right occasion. But now that I've been, I can say this is the perfect backdrop for a special occasion such as a birthday, celebration, fancy catch up or a very intimate date night. Actually you don't even have to have an occasion - just go.

Everywhere I've looked, Hubert has such wonderful and consistent reviews. I love that the restaurant is described as "romantic, ravishing and dishing up food that dazzles" by Good Food. Because that's exactly the kind of restaurant I want to go to.

We arrive outside Hubert on Bligh Street. Well and truly in the heart of Sydney. Also NOT to be confused with the bar/restaurant on the ground level. In fact it is the huge wooden doors discretely located on the right side. I'm surprised by the plain signage outside but with one push open we are instantly taken back in time and pleasantly surprised with what we find.



The entryway is illuminated by soft light from a few wall lamps that reveal a long and windy flight of stairs down. One side of the wall is filled with miniature liquor bottles and the other, vintage posters. We can hear excited chatter floating up from downstairs and soft jazz music playing along the way. I decide in that moment that I love this place already.



Further down we find a mini bar and surprise, more miniature liquor bottles. There must be hundreds and thousands of these and they look so impressive. There is also the Bridge Bon Appetite room where a private function is being held.

From here, another small flight of stairs spiralling down and you will reach the restaurant.




When you come down you'll be greeted with the reception desk. To the right there is a casual bar while to the left there is the stage, Beatrix Dining Room and Bar Normandy. We're lucky enough to be here on a night where we have a live band playing jazz music. The atmosphere is so warm with murmurs of chatter, candlelight and the tinkling of wine glasses. It really feels as if we have been transported back in time to an elegant and exquisite French post-war dining experience. I am falling even more and more in love with this place.


We arrived a little before 7 PM yet the restaurant was packed. Hubert doesn't take bookings for groups smaller than six so we had to put our name down on the waiting list. The wait was up to an hour which is crazy but anything for my birthday am I right? In that time you are invited to have a few drinks at the bar or go out and come back when they have messaged you that a table is ready.




We're seated at the bar alongside a few other couples but the two seater booths right behind us in the pictures above? Those are the seats to covet for an even more intimate and romantic night. I tried asking if we could move to the booth once I noticed a couple had finished up their dinner and left but it seems someone had already requested these seats in their reservation. So that's definitely my tip for next time! Ask for the booths if it's just two of you!!

Nonetheless the perks of sitting at the bar are your better access to the efficient and knowledgeable wait staff. Friendly? Not really, but they are happy to answer any questions in great detail and are quite witty!

To start the night off... even though we had already been drinking during our wait hehehe, we order some more drinks.




The menu is quite small and it's not always clear which dish is an entree or which is a main. But a quick look around the room at everyone else's dining tables reveal that despite the sizes, these dishes are all meant to be shared!




So we order a few things, some we have heard good reviews about and some we think just sound delicious and it's not long before our first dish comes out!





This doesn't look like much but I can assure you it is such a generous portion! The duck pate is delightfully smooth. It has the signature gamey and earthy flavour of duck along with a unique fruity sweetness to it which is enhanced even more by the maple jelly. I am so fond of this dish. The baguette is also extremely rave-worthy which a warm crispy crust and fluffy innards.

In hindsight we should've asked for more bread as there was definitely more pate than bread but on the other hand, this was also very filling and neither of us wanted to be full too soon.





Have you ever heard of gnocchi made using not potatoes, but choux pastry batter? Well never have I but this was such a rich and textural delight. We break through the crisp layer on top to reveal soft and pillowy gnocchi Parisienne tossed in a creamy mix of parmesan, French parsley and chives. I have such good things to say about chives in this dish. And the cheesy sauce. And the melt in your mouth gnocchi. Everything about it is so indulgent that I couldn't help but sigh and mmm with every bite.





If there's steak on the menu, Patrick will order it. And normally I'd laugh and roll my eyes at his predictability but let me say, this steak was actually and legitimately probably one of my favourite steaks ever. We would probably order another one if we weren't so full from the baguette in the first dish.

I'm surprised because flank is generally considered a cheap cut of meat and yet they grilled this so beautifully and it was tender and flavourful. It comes precut in thick slabs but when you try to cut it yourself the steak is a bit hard to cut even with a rigid steak knife. But in the mouth it honestly is easier to bite and almost just melts. Just like the beautiful Cafe de Paris butter melting over the top of each cut. It was definitely on the rare side compared to the medium rare steaks I have seen in other peoples reviews, but if you know me you know I love my rare steak. Just not many places can do it well and I think I've found a winner. Pat usually prefers medium rare/medium but he really enjoyed this so that's how good it was.




I love my potatoes and was excited to try this pommes anna! They are perfectly crisp and golden layered potato slices in a rich and luxurious beurre blanc sauce. A really great accompaniment to the steak. A few people online were saying this was the highlight of their whole meal, but to me.. nope, it was still the steak.


As we quickly devoured the last of our mains, we sat around contemplating for a few minutes if we should order more food - particularly the wagyu beef tartare with French fries. I also had a handful of other things I was keen to try such as the escargots in XO, the malakoff, or even the kimchi gratin. But better off save it for next time as we were feeling quite full and just eating with our eyes at that point.

So on to the dessert menu! I felt a bit cut that the servers offered the couples next to us a dessert menu as soon as they had finished their mains whilst we sat around for a while with an empty table and no one offered us the menu. I ended up asking for it myself and the waiter jokingly replied "no" so there's that??


A simple selection of some very delicious sounding desserts. And I went with this one...





I love this twist on what vacherin traditionally is. At first glance we thought the entire exterior was a piped shell of meringue. But once we cut through with our spoon, we find the exterior is actually piped cream covering a hard and round meringue shell. Out oozes the wonderfully creamy sauternes ice cream with raspberry sorbet and sweet cubes of rhubarb. It's very divine and texturally delicious.

One thing which I have to note is that towards the middle there was something unpleasantly sour and gel-like. I can't pinpoint what it is but it kind of threw off the dessert for a second there.




A little pick me up for my boy who was still studying for his final exams.


We sat around soaking up the music and atmosphere for a little while longer and got some photos. My polaroid camera also conveniently ran out of batteries but I bet you the photos would have been really cute.


Our candle on the table had shrunken immensely by this time compared to the new diners sitting next to us and Pat guessed that maybe each group of diner gets a fresh candle which represents the 2 hour time limit we all have here. Interesting right!


So that was our night and I was very sad to leave this place. I really hope I can come back again sometime in the future. But until then I will strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a wonderful night out with some good vibes and delicious food. Let me know if you've been and how it was! Or even if you'd like to come again with me hehe.