La Cantina

It feels like ages since i last posted here and i do apologize for that. On the other hand, i do have a few places that are eagerly waiting to be posted! 

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For quite a while, i have been wanting to visit La Cantina - a nice rustic and cozy Italian restaurant located in the quiet surrounds of Narrabundah. The restaurant is nicely decorated with an array of oil paintings set against the thick brick walls, and definitely loved the brick archways that were cleverly lit by some simplistic modern lighting. Beautiful restaurant, i must say. 

Alice Thai Restaurant

Honestly, i wouldn't have found out about Alice Thai Restaurant if it wasn't for a friend of mine, who raved about how good their Pad Thai was. Alice's location is not exactly the best because their entrance can be easily go by unnoticed and their sign is often hidden behind the dance studio one. Alice's is not very big but you can tell that the owner has meticulously selected the paintings and decorations to create a traditional Thai atmosphere in the restaurant.

Homemade Orange & Star Anise Infused Quail Salad

Despite being tired and all, i decided to cook quail for the first time! *YEY

Since it was my first time cooking it, I decided to stick to the fairly traditional combination of flavours - orange and star anise. Overall, the salad tasted nice but i wished the quail was a bit more moist =P. Here is a photo of how it turned out:

Sanur's Balinese Restaurant

Hi SMB readers,

Sorry for the lack of posts as i've been quite busy lately but i hope you have all had a wonderful 2011. Wishing you a HAPPY (super belated) 2012 too! 

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Sanur's Balinese Restaurant was the last restaurant that i've visited in 2011. It was a rainy and cold night after work and all i wanted was a hearty meal. Sanur's it was, since a lot of places were already closed for the holidays. It is a nice looking restaurant boasting full length glass windows and humbly decorated with interesting Indonesian ornaments.  The staff is friendly, polite and very helpful in describing what each component was.

We decided to order a Sate Sanur's for starters which was a combination of beef, chicken and prawn satays and it was accompanied by rice cake, pickled cucumber, sambal and Sanur's satay sauce. The satays were nicely served on a small pretty griller but that was just for 'decorative purposes'. Taste-wise the satays were alright but i wish they were served hot instead of near-cold; the accompaniments were nice though, especially the satay sauce. 

Digress Restaurant & Lounge

We were at Digress Restaurant & Lounge for a Christmas work dinner - a place that was highly recommended by the manager. We were greeted by two Asian-looking lion statues at the entrance before heading downstairs where the restaurant and the lounge are. The restaurant is dimly lit to create a more relaxing environment (but not too good for photo-taking) with the wall recesses adorned with vases in a simplistic manner and tables neatly presented with purple tablecloths. Forgot to mention that Digress' specialty is to serve Italian and Indian fusion dishes which i thought would be quite an interesting combination to try. 

The menu offers a lot of choices which made it hard to decide, so we ordered a Naan Basket and some Mozzarella & Paneer Fritters to start with. The naan basket came with 3 different types of naan: fetta naan, sundried tomato naan and garlic naan. The fetta naan was quite nice with the gooey and yummy centre but my favorite was still the garlic naan.

The mozzarella and panner fritters were lovely - nice and crispy on the outside with a soft and melt-in-your mouth texture inside. It came with a jalapeño aioli which gave it a nice kick too.