Sunday 19 October 2008

The Apprentice (Restaurant) - bargain eat

mcduck and i found a gem in sydney - similar to VTC (which we had numerous times in hk)...
and who were the other customers?
there was a group (30+)of baby boomers... looking for a bargain like us during hard times in the mist of the current financial crisis...
family with the older kids...
groups of friends and other couples made up the rest...
the venue was high up on the seventh floor of the TAFE ultimo building... a made to measure space for students (in catering / hospitality) to hone their skills...
we were seated and fed food pretty much straight away (dinner was 6:30 for 7:00pm start, and must finish by 9pm)...

proper dinner setting with floral arrangement and all...
nicely presented menu...
our dindin was 4 course - appetizers, entree, main and dessert - devised by one of the second year catering student in-charge...
the name of the game was to get here early... so to order asap - as portions of each dish were set and the orders were filed in first come first serve basis...
the appetizer was alternate menu - no choice... the bruschetta got a good crunch and v garlicy...
the prosciutto and melon was abit bland though...
viet duck salad - they got the vietnamese fish sauce right!
the octopus with balsamic sauce was ok (again... i think i had the inferior dish out of us two)
by the time the main came... we were quite bloated with the homemade bread and butter (the nice waitor just kept on giving us more and more rolls)... lamb shanks - another winner...
my choice sirloin steak with parsnip crisps... v nice, but mcduck ended up eating most of it as i then recalled (after eating several mouthfuls) red meat was not my thing...
desserts! artistically layered onto the oversize plates... panna cotta - vv nice but the consistency was vv jelly (they must have went overboard on the gelatine) but mcduck was not complaining...
and 4 out of 4 - i managed to pick the lesser of the two agian - my chocolate tart with a heavy snowing of cocao powder - mcduck wanted to scoop it up to add to his coffee to make mocha! it was quite nice anyway... we polished everything off and walked away having to pay $27 each + $2.50 each for a lemon lime bitters... that's $54 (had to be paid in advance) + $5 (paid after dinner with credit card or eftpos only) for a 4 course meal with drinks at good restaurant standard... bargain!

http://www.sit.nsw.edu.au/theapprentice/

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