St Leonards hidden treasure..

Tucked away in the business district of St Leonards, is an amazing restaurant | bar with fantastic food for an incredible affordable price. With a Mediterranean inspiration, quality of the food was brilliant and the menu selection was delicious that the boy and I cannot wait to go back.

When first entering the restaurant on a Friday night, the sounds of a soothing live band is what is needed to begin the weekend. The live band created an atmosphere that hardly any restaurants have these days and someone what lack in terms of creating a casual relaxing mood where customers could enjoy their meal, with a glass of wine and the company of their lovers and friends. If your ever stuck on thinking of where to eat, Olio is perfect for any occasion with food that will make any stomach very happy

Starters

Sourdough bread with balsamic vinegar & olive oil
I love starting my meals with bread especially when the bread is fresh, soft with crunchy crusts

Entrees

Crispy pork – seared scallops, fennel, rocket and ruby grapefruit
Fantastic way to start the night as the dish was refreshing and light. The crispy pork was soo soft and tender which easily pulled apart from the fork and melted in your mouth. The seared scallops were big and grilled to perfection while the greens were incredibly fresh! What I loved about this dish was the flavours of the grapefruit when combined. Definitely worked wonders in my mouth.

Salmon & dill fish cake with radish and watercress salad with a side of lemon aioli
The boy’s favourite fish is salmon and he could not say no to anything salmon on the menu. Previously we had something similar to this at Cafe Sopra, Waterloo and personally I liked Olio’s much more. Lightly crumbed and the filling was really tasty. Portion is very generous in size and absolutely delicious. Very much loved by the both of us!

Mains

Olio Mediterranean seafood stew – fish, prawn, scallop, mussels, octopus, tomato, fennel, potato, saffron and grilled sourdough bread
Due to the cold winter nights, having a phenomenally tasty stew is what everyone needs this winter. The seafood pieces were fresh, scallops were big, prawn was huge and the seafood flavours were soooooo good I cleaned-up my plate. I loved the flavours in the stew which made it pleasurable when dipping the pieces of grilled sourdough. The poatoes were soft which absorbed a lot of the flavour making it brilliant. I loved this stew so much i’m still thinking about it as I write it up.

Duck & orange cognac sausages house made – duy puy lentils, cabbage and pancetta
Oh my goddddddd!!!! First bite made me wanna break out and sing Usher’s song – OMG!!!! I’ve never had duck sausages before and my god these sausages are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I’m aware duck can have an extremely strong taste and in my head i pictured these sausages to be really intense but boy was I wrong. Duck sausages were soo tasty thanks to the orange cognac and the lentils worked brilliantly when combined. Overall a must get dish.. It really is a fantastic dish!

Kopi Luwak
one of the rarest & finest coffees available

Kopi Luwak is a rich smooth coffee with an earthy, syrupy texture and a hint of cocoa undertones. The Asian Palm civet is responsible for the effects of this unique coffee. The tree-climbing civet prowls the coffee plantations at night picking and consuming the finest and best ripe coffee cherries. These pass through the civet undigested with the fleshy coating removed. The beans are hand picked and carefully washed and cleansed before being processed in the normal fashion to make the highly selected top grade coffee.

kopi luwak – with petite fours
At first I thought they handed us vodka shots with our coffee. Instead of vodka, its actually soda water with lime. Your meant to drink it first as it washes down any previous flavours from previous foods followed by downing the espresso shot then munching on the petite fours. I admit i’m no guru when it comes to espresso shots but I do love my coffee so yes I did enjoy this. After the shot, a bitter after taste lingers in your mouth until you take a nibble of the petite fours. Perfect way to end the night!!! Definite must try and remember its a “RARE” coffee which makes it special from the rest.

dessert

Vanilla creme brulee
Mesmerised by the size of it I knew i was in brulee heaven. The custard was rich and creamy and what I admired was the beautiful black specs of fresh vanilla bean throughout the creamy custard. The crisp toffee was perfect. Not too sweet nor overpowering like some can be. Loved it!!

chocolate fondant – poached pear and brandy anglaise
Rich chocolate fondant with gooey center. Poached pear worked brilliantly with the dark chocolate creating a good balance. The brandy anglaise wasn’t too sweet and very light and smooth in texture. Definitely a dessert for all chocolate lovers and one where it will easily satisfy an individual.

* pigged-out dined as a guest of Olio Restaurant

Olio Restaurant | Bar
201-205 Pacific Hwy,
St Leonards NSW 2065
Phone: (02) 9439 8988
Fax: (02) 9439 5966
Website: http://www.olio.com.au

Etch is a small modern European (French, Italian & Spanish influences) restaurant with excellent prices. Instead of paying lots of money for a fancy dish, Etch’s prices are reasonable. In my opinion its market is aimed at those who want a fine dining experience which doesn’t leave pockets completely dry.

“My vision for Etch is to bring together the finest quality and sustainable produce at great prices for city workers to enjoy all day from midday to late at night with the one seasonal menu running continuously. Offering efficient and friendly service, with a concise selection of interesting wines in a relaxed and fun room”.

- Justin North

Early last year I first went to Etch for a colleagues birthday (read previous entry). Since then I had fond memories of some of the dishes I had. After being so long since I last visited, it has been one of the places the girls had been wanting to try for approximately 1 year. Finally, there was a reason for us girls to get together in celebration of spicyicecream’s birthday *whoo hoo*.

* APOLOGIES FOR THE HORRIBLE PHOTOS, It was pretty dark in there that my camera was chucking spasms even with a really low aperture =|

Caramelised pork head, roasted prawn, pickled rhubarb, kohlrabi puree

I thought this dish was pretty god dayem good. When all was combined the flavours were extremely delicious. Definitely one of my favourites for the night.

Duck plate – Duck pancake with mandarin, duck pate and duck infused creme caramel

I’ve never been a huge fan of duck. I only love my duck cooking asian style. Other than that, I find duck really gamy and really really strong. So if you love duck then chances you would love this dish. The duck pancake with mandarin was absolutely DIVINE!!!! It was that good I wish i ate the whole thing to myself. The duck pate was great! Wasn’t as strong as I thought it would be which is GREAT… and the infused creme caramel was very intelligently done. *thumbs up*

Ballottine of free range chicken, sauteed brussel sprouts, bacon, bread sauce

Chicken was really tasty, definitely one of my highlights for the night. The dish looked quite huge even i don’t think I could finish it. All the flavours when combined together made fireworks!

Crusted sea bream, Jerusalem artichoke barigoule, trompette puree

Betty loved her dish endlessly, it was really really good that I would have been happy to swap my dish for hers any day hehe. So many flavours, fish cooked to perfection.. how could anyone not love such an amazing dish!

Flathead, Serrano ham, parsnip puree, potato fondant, jus gras

Don’t judge a book by its cover! Everyone was ooh-ind -ahh-ing over my dish. It was nice but not what I had expected. Usually when I got to fancy restaurants, I always seem to order fish dishes and this one was fairly unusual with a beautiful fancy twist. Still great! definately somthing different from all the usual “seared / crispy” fish dishes .

Roasted sirloin, daube of beef, spinach, carrot, red wine jus

THE BOMB!!! Can never go wrong with red meat. Beef was soft and tender and the flavours were just delicious!!! Plenty of nods for this dish.

Risotto of Spencer Gulf prawns

I really enjoyed the flavours of karen’s risotto. At this stage so far everyones meal seems to be better than mine thank god we all shared our meals…Risotto was beautiful, rich in flavour and fresh.

Roast pork with beetroot

Being asian, we don’t really like to eat our pork red. At first I thought i’d struggle with this but instead it was actually delicious thanks the the awesome crackling!

dessert

Caramel date tart, burnt butter ice cream, Earl Grey tea syrup

After having this same dessert last year, I knew this dessert was going to be awesome which is why it still hasn’t left the menu. We all loved this one soo much that we ordered a second dosage.

Chocolate peanut butter mille feuille, manuka honey marshmallow

After having the awesome rockpools mille feuille, i had high expectations for this chocolate dish. Unfortunately we were disappointed. Having said this, usually chocolate desserts are always the safest option if your scared to venture out of the chocolate zone. In this case, venturing out would have been better =(

Lolly tray

I’ve never been one to order ly trays. In fact this is the first ly tray I have ever ordered in my life. It was pretty good!!!

Spiced quince crumble, Hoegaarden ice cream

Ive never been a fan of apple pie probably explains why this wasn’t one of my favourite desserts. I did love the flavours that came along with it such as the cinnamon / nutmeg taste. Apple pie / crumble lovers you’ll have to try this one!

Baked rice custard, poached rhubarb, white chocolate & juniper berry ice cream

Very light rice custard dessert, i’ve never had this baked before which explains the interesting texture. Presentation was amazingly beautiful!

Hope you had a wonderful birthday miss awesome spicyicecream!!!

I had an great night with you ladies and of course ears dropping at that crazy couple who were having a break-up session with tears, table banging, voice raising and of course our theories of what would and probably happened after they argued PHUAHAHA.. <3 <3 you girls!

Etch

62 Bridge St

Sydney, 2000

P: (02) 9247 4777