#88: Bentley Restaurant and Bar

Hi guys, haven't been able to blog in the last couple of days due to lack of content to blog about...and I don't think anyone wants to read about my daily boring life of school. So I finally dug up these photos about my trip to Bentley Restaurant and Bar!

Situated on Crown Street, with half the place being a bar, this restaurant is quite 'pretty'. It's great for casual dining, or even a drink after work (I'm just assuming from the fact that they have a 20 page menu for wines and beers etc. as well as the amount of people that turn up just to drink!) It's got nice natural lightning when the sun is still up, but after sunset it becomes a bit dim - you can still see what you're eating etc. but photos turn a bit weird....so please excuse my dodgy photos!

As soon as we settled down in our seats and started looking at the menu, we were served with free bread!!! As you all know, I don't really like bread, so I can't comment on the taste. But from everyone else, the bread was delicious, especially when dipped in olive oil, but meh, bread is bread.

For starters we had Rock Oysters ($4 each). That day they came from South Australia - very very fresh! Rather expensive, but I guess for a restaurant like Bentley, that's the price you have to pay la.

I'm a big sucker for foie gras so we ordered Duck Live Foie Gras Parfait with Pickled Carrot and Cacoa ($14) - 2 serves to be precise (for five people...I don't eat THAT much). This one was an absolute delight! I never knew cocoa would go so well with carrot and duck liver. The presentation also gets five stars! The generous serving of foie gras makes it the perfect dish to share and start the night!

We also ordered a range of appetisers so we could try everything (or close to everything) Bentley had to offer. Pictured above is the Seared Scallop with Sweet Potato, Sea Banana and Smoked Eel ($25). The scallops were seared to perfection and the sweet potato was really good. However, I still have no idea what sea banana is and nor could I see the smoked eel. So I'm guessing that it's in sauce?? Those who have been and tried it before, please tell me what it is, Google is not helping!

We also got a Balmain Bug with Seared Duck Breast, Black Bean and Coconut Curd ($28). When ordering, I think the accompanying ingredients interested me more than the focus itself. This dish was really delicious, the Balmain Bug was of nice texture, like a cross between prawn and lobster! What amazed me the most was the "black bean" (which I'm assuming to the dark splodges on the plate. To me, it tasted more like sago than black bean, but either way it was very yummy! The duck breast was a tad salty and reminded me of salami/prosciutto - to me, the dish would be better without it la!

There was also Tuna, Pickled Mussles & Octopus with Squid Ink, Quinoa and Sea Grapes ($26). I didn't get to try this one because I wanted to save some space in my stomach for the rest! But apparently the tuna was just right, not over or under cooked!

We ordered three types of main as we didn't feel like eating venison, mulloway or carrots!

The one about is obviously beef - Fillet of Black Angus Beef with Jerusalem Artichoke, Baby Cucumber and Burdock ($40). To me, this was way overpriced, but considering the price of everything else, this was pretty proportional! I didn't get to try to beef, as I felt bad for leeching. But I did get to try the baby cucumber and they were so FRESH!!! I love it (maybe it's just exaggerated)

This one is the Roasted Duck Breast with Baby Beetroot, Black Sausage and Turnip ($38). The duck was cooked to perfection! Just one serving is not sufficient! However, I couldn't find the black sausage...it's more like I have not idea what it is. The pink salt complimented the duck breast really well. Sadly, I didn't really like the turnip and beetroot, but that's just me and my picky tastebuds.

And this one is Spatchcock with White Asparagus, Zucchini Flower and Toast ($36). This spatchcock was delish - definitely NOT dry like I expected. But another question, what is toast? Like toast, as in bread? or is there another meaning? Someone please tell me la.

Out of the 5 desserts offered, we chose 3. I didn't take a picture of the menu, so I don't have a precise name for these deserts. The one pictured above is an "olive" sorbet thing. I've totally forgotten the name. The pink and white things that accompanied tasted of coconut and watermelon, however they were total disappointment as it felt like I was eating foam.... The pana cotta was really good though. From memory, this was $20. I didn't like this one very much, but Mum really liked it

I think this was meant to be a Macadamia Parfait ($20). But this was turned out like a macadamia sponge cake. Really nice at first, but has a bit of a bitter after-taste from the macadamia flavour. But overall pretty good, definitely better than the first one.

This one I remember! This was Chocolate Mousse with Pineapple(?) ($20)! This one was my favourite out of the three. The chocolate mousse turned out more like a creamy gelato, but either way, it was very yummy! The meringue (?) things were also really nice - kind of like chocolate wafers~ I loved this the most, yet the adults didn't like it much, commenting that it was too sweet for their them, except for me, it was an absolute delight!

And to end the night off, a nice cup of coffee! The coffee was piping hot, and made even better with one rock sugar!

And a picture of me and JellyBao! You can probably see the quality of my pictures decrease as the night went on...

Also, credits to Jellybao for taking some photos as I was at awkward angles and lighting! ^^ TY JB