Restaurant Review: Customs House (Brisbane)

I was lucky enough to be included in a special dinner at Customs House in Brisbane last week.

We were served a goat's cheese tart as starter and I had the Salmon Nicoise as my main. Alas I couldn't eat the dessert strudel as it contained almond flour, but it looked nice! My salmon was a little overcooked for my taste, but that may have had something to do with us starting dinner later than planned. We certainly enjoyed the wine on offer, and it was plentiful!

Customs House is on the Brisbane River and can be reached by RiverCat. It is a part of the University of Queensland and is an historic building. They offer facilities for functions and events and their website is fairly comprehensive.

We had a great evening.

Restaurant review: Bathers' Pavilion Cafe, Balmoral Beach, NSW

My old friend Liz and I went to celebrate her new job at The Bathers' Pavilion Cafe on Thursday night. This is one of Liz's favourite places (she always orders the strawberry daiquiri) and hence most appropriate.

I had a glass of Roaring 40s sparkling while I waited for her - nice and dry but with soft fruit and a wonderful, tingly mouth-feel.

We shared a deep-pan baked pizza of salami, goats curd and roma tomato with basil. It was new to the menu and delicious! Bathers' pizzas are thin crusted and as authentic as any pizza can be outside of Naples.

Bathers' position on the beach at Balmoral makes it a lovely spot for a casual summer dinner (there is the fine dining restaurant in the same building). Rather excitingly a couple seated near to us became engaged while we were there - he got down on one knee to hand over the ring! I've never seen this done in the flesh before :-) They were a very good-looking couple!

Bathers' also has a kiosk downstairs for daytime beach-goers - they do great coffee and sandwiches.

Restaurant Review: Safi (North Sydney)

Safi is a small restaurant tucked away in Ridge Street, North Sydney. The front dining room is white and minimalist and seats about 25 comfortably, with a view of St Mary's Church across the street. There is also a small 'cushion room' at the back of the restaurant for those who wish to eat a la Beirut.

The food is Middle Eastern and delicious. A group of 11 of us enjoyed hommos and baba ghanouj, tabouleh, potato kibbeh, spinach pockets, shish taouk (chicken skewers), and a crepe covered in minced lamb and herbs. The food was fresh and simple and served on white platters to lend all attention to the food. The service was attentive and informed, and our dishes arrived promptly from the kitchen. A friend bought one of the gorgeous water pitchers from the table (available for sale) - the owner imports them from Lebanon.

The coffee is Arabian and the tea is cinnamon. The restaurant is BYO, which adds to value (although $3 pp corkage is a bit steep). Our bill saw us each pay $19 which was quite good value for a meal without wine or packaged drinks (we stuck to the table water). There is a $35 pp banquet menu available for those after more dishes; however, any more might be unnecessary!

I'd walked past Safi many times on my way home from work; I'm glad I had the chance to eat there at last, and will certainly go back for another casual dinner with friends.