Stewarts at Brookleigh Estate

I was so excited to hear from Stewarts and was eager to try out their new winter menu for 2015.

We chose a Sunday lunch to indulge and we did just that.

As I've mentioned before in my previous visit here not too long ago (and that's just how I think ill keep my visits to Stewarts in future- very regular) one of my favourite wines happens to be on the list - the one I'm still yet to find to purchase in Perth. I found this lovely drop when I competed in the Buy West Eat Best 2014 WA's Signature Dish Competition down in Denmark WA and it's made by Forest Hill Estate. It's a 2012 Riesling and is very easy to drink. My husband agreed and we ordered a bottle of this right away.

We decided to have an entrée each instead of sharing this time around. My husband couldn't pass up the Beef Cheek. A small portion of thinly sliced cheek, served with mash, artichoke puree, it was like a mini roast and it was very tender and delicious.

 

I ordered the Duck Liver Parfait with Orange Jelly, Cornichons and Crisp Breads. I was definitely loving the creamy rich flavor of the pate and was very happy sipping my wine and nibbling on my little platter for one.

 

 

 

Filo Wrapped Chicken Wellington, Ecrase Potatoes, Silverbeet and Mustard Cream Sauce was my hubby's main (after we almost both ordered it) and the filo was lovely and crispy. The light mustard cream sauce added a nice touch also. This was a great sounding, looking and tasting dish!

 

 

For my mains, I decided on the Caramelized Pork Belly, Boulangere Potatoes, Choucroute, Sweet Potato Puree and Apple Cider Sauce to help break my pork belly drought. I don't know why but it's been a while since I've had pork belly. A perfectly sized portion of belly with a thin crispy crackling and a meltingly tender meat underneath. I'm always mesmerized how the grains of meat alternate in different directions layer by layer in pork belly and was loving every minute.

 

Looking through the menu I noticed they've switched from doing weekend breakfasts to now serving weekend brunch. Brunch is served 10am - 3pm Saturday and Sunday and looks great! The friendly waitstaff also mentioned that the new brunch menu has been very popular due to the more relaxed serving time. You can still order the full lunch menu on the weekends too so all bases are covered!

I'm so glad Stewarts isn't far from home and now I've seen the brunch menu I'll be back here in a few weeks to check it out!

The rest of the winter menu looks great too. They have a different Fish of the day dish and a pretty decent kids menu too.

 

Thanks Brookleigh!

Read More

Stewarts Restaurant at Brookleigh Estate - Swan Valley

I catch up with my friend Brooke of Cooking 101 regularly and so far our destination of choice seems to be the Swan valley.

Scouring through the entertainment book I notice Stewarts at Brookleigh Estate. I often share their specials on my page and have been to a friends wedding here a few years ago so we decided to hit this place up.

Located towards the back end of the valley on Great Northern Highway, its a bit further out than most of the wineries and restaurants but is an easy scenic drive.

Stewarts restaurant is nestled on the property of Brookleigh Equestrian Estate, which is very picturesque and very popular for weddings.

I was a happy girl looking at the wine list when I saw Forest Hill Estate 2012 Reisling, my most favourite wine that I first tasted when I went down to Denmark for the WA Signature Dish Competiton. After we came back from Denmark I was looking in all the small boutique wine stores around Perth for this little gem with no luck. $38 a bottle was a great price and we happily sipped on this throughout out lunch.

We both agreed to share the Scallops for entrée which were fresh from Rotto and served with saganaki haloumi and sauce vierge. The scallops were cooked perfectly and the haloumi added a nice saltyness to them. This dish was very much enjoyed on both parts.

For mains Brooke chose the Confit Duck leg. This looked amazing on the plate and definitely a filling meal with the large portion size. It came with roasted beetroot, broccolini and balsamic.

 

 

For my mains I couldn't go past the gnocchi. If there's gnocchi on the menu I find it hard to choose other things. This gnocchi was served with a generous pile of mushrooms, spinach, brown butter and parmesan.

The gnocchi was nice and the portion size again was big, I couldn't finish it all! I polished off as much as I could, though.

After lunch the waiter asked us if we could be tempted with dessert; yes we could...and we did! So glad we did too, we ordered the churros to share and eagerly awaited it's arrival. Stewarts definitely delivered with this dessert beauty.

Fresh churros with dark chocolate dipping sauce cleverly poured into egg shells. We got stuck in straight away (after photos of course) and loved every bit of it!

Stewarts had been on my 'to try' list for a while and the visit was most definitely worth the wait. I'll be back here again and know I wont be disappointed!

Stewarts are also affiliated with the Entertainment Book, we used our gold card and received the relevant discount.

Read More

Print Hall

To celebrate Becoming the WA Finalist for The Noosa International Food and Wine Show ILVE Presents Australia's Best Home Cook , my Hubby and I were invited to Print Hall for the media launch the next day along with Jim Berardo and Greg O'Brien, the co-founders of the Festival and a few of the sponsors. Print Hall has been on my list for so long I was excited to try Executive Chef Shane Watsons amazing food. We headed to the function room on the 2nd floor and it didn't take me long to spot the menu and folded in the napkins.

Duck Liver Parfait was my Hubby's first course. Generous mounds of lovely smooth and rich parfait topped with salted plum, cherry and Geraldton wax.

My first course was the vegetarian option; New Season Vegetables which was lovely steamed asparagus and yellow squash, savoury soya milk and a big roasted malt wafer! I love asparagus and the fresh dill paired with the other elements perfectly!

For mains I had the Pan Roasted Barramundi that was topped with Coorong Pippis, courgette and dill. The skin was lovely and crispy and the Barra cooked to perfection.

David Blackmore's Wagyu Beef Bavette was a cracker of a dish! My husband loved the cut of beef which they cooked perfectly medium-rare and it was accompanied with leek, roasted pepper, cornichons, beef tendon and a rich jus. The beef tendon was soft; almost jelly like with a light meaty flavour, quite hard to describe.

The desserts we chose were Sweet Chaos with sweet parfait, honeycomb, mandarin and lavender and The Bittersweet Chocolate Tart which was lovely dark chocolate ganache snaked across the plate adorned with caramel almonds, crumbled caramel popcorn and ice cream. Both desserts were delicious.

 

Read More

RiverBank Estate - Swan Valley

I met friends the other week for lunch and we decided to go somewhere that has a voucher from the Entertainment Book. We chose the lovely RiverBank Estate.

I've never been to RiverBank before and the first thing I noticed was the beautiful rolling vines which went on for ages and backed onto the Swan River.

We decided to sit underneath the beautifully designed veranda outside seeing as though it was a nice sunny day. The newly sprouting vines overhead gave out plenty of light shade and was lovely to sit under.

We chose the RiverBank Tasting board which is a selection of bites chosen by the Chef that particular day.

The Tasting Board consisted of an array of gourmet delights prepared by Head Chef  Darren King. We had a Light Prawn Salad, Pork Rillettes, Aranacini Balls, Potato Salad, Duck Liver Pate and Chorizo, Olives and Crackers.

We also ordered Pumpkin Arancini Balls and the Tempura Prawns with Wasabi Mayo.

 

 

All the food was faultless and we had fun picking our way through the dishes as we sipped on The Celebration White which is a dry blended white and was very easy drinking both my friend and I took a bottle home each!

After lunch we had a few tastings and I must say all of the wines I tried were so good, literally one after the other!

With the Entertainment voucher we saved just over $20 off the total bill. I'll definitely be back here with my Hubby for a beautiful lunch one day very soon.

They also have an Entertainment Voucher for 30% all Cellar Door Sales up to $500, so big savings all round!

Read More

C Restaurant - Perths only revolving restaurant!

Just a few days ago we had lunch at C Restaurant, Perth's only revolving restaurant located at the top of St. Martins Tower on St Georges Terrace in Perth.

We took the quick elevator up to the 33rd floor, and my ears popped on the way up. As soon as we stepped into the restaurant we were right behind the main tills and it took a few seconds for me to realise that the main outer edge of the Restaurant slowly moving along.

We were seated quickly by our friendly waiter and given the menus. As I was reading the drinks list I could see out the corner of my eye, the window going past very slowly. It actually took me about 20 minutes to get used to the rotation, reminded me of being on a boat or catching the ferry over to South Perth/Rotto. Hubby was fine though!

For first drinks, I ordered a Champagne Cocktail which was Moet, Grey Goose and Pineapple Juice with a Maraschino Cherry. I love Moet and it was so smooth with the lovely pineapple juice, I must recreate this at home. Hubby had a long island ice tea and we ordered some house made bread for starters.

We decided to go the 3 courses which was $63 each, which was great value I thought, plus I had my Entertainment card.

Entrees were C's 'Famous' Gnocchi and Oysters done 4 ways; Kilpatrick, Chilli & Lemon, Natural and Orange Tomato Salsa. I had 1 Kilpatrick, my first Kilpatrick style oyster, I'm slowly starting to like them. The Gnocchi was soft and pillowy and the creamy Gorgonzola cheese sauce was very tasty. The portion size was generous I thought too.

Whilst waiting for the mains we ordered more drinks; a glass of Capel Vale Sparkling Brut and a bottle of James Squire Golden Ale. The Sparkling was so delicious, I'll be buying some of this on my next bottle shop venture soon.

My second course was the Pink Snapper 'special' with a sweet fruit quinoa salad and octopus croquettes. Again, my first time tasting quinoa, I have had some in my cupboard for a while but haven't cooked with it yet. I couldn't really tell you the flavour of it, it was neutral to me, but the it wasn't too bad with the Snapper.

The Octopus croquettes were crumbed legs of octopus. AGAIN my first time trying octopus, I had 1 and dished the other to Hubby's plate. It was like a strong calamari flavour encased in a yummy crunchy crumb and you could see the 'suckers' as you cut into them.

The other main meal was the Chicken Roulade with Pumpkin Puree, Sautéed Mushrooms, Pine Nut Polenta Cake and Creamy Morel Sauce. The Chicken was cooked to perfection and the mushrooms were to die for, I knew I could smell them as soon as the dish was presented. The pumpkin puree was so bright and orange and the smokey spiced popcorn was so good I snuck a piece straight away! Everything on this plate married well together and it was gone in a flash!! I didn't get any photos of our mains as we had the sun right on our table as they arrived.

1 Dessert dish was the Turkish Coffee Cake with Chocolate Tuile. I didn't try this as Hubby said it had mint in it, I really don't like mint (Though it's funny how Mojito's are an exception), so didn't try it but I was told the Mandarin Sorbet was very refreshing with the mint and chocolate.

I had the Blueberry and Vanilla Parfait and it was delicious! The fruits of the forest sorbet was sweet and fruity it tasted like a fantastic Raspberry Jam. The Blueberries on the plate were the biggest I've ever seen too, I don't usually like blueberries, the ones I buy are usually very bland tasting but these were massive and full of bursting berry flavour. I couldn't eat the middle bit because it was frozen solid but was pretty full by this stage.

All up we did about a 1 and 1/4 revolutions of the whole restaurant and were there just under 2 hours. Our waiter was attentive without being intrusive and cleared our plates and took drinks orders very promptly. There was a bit of a wait after entrée for our mains, longer than I expected but the revolving view was a great time filler.

We ordered a Long Macchiato and asked for our bill. I had my Entertainment Gold Card on hand so we used that and ended up getting $45 off the total bill. I've always been a massive fan of the Entertainment book, its great for people like me who dine out so often.

Our overall experience at C was a good one, it was a Saturday Lunch and the restaurant wasn't very busy, I found it spun around faster than I expected and in the beginning felt a bit dizzy.

Absolutely fantastic views of the Swan River and Perth surrounds, and its great pointing out/questioning thing as you spin around. Best views from a restaurant I've been too! Definitely recommended!

Read More