teresa 7 November 2008 European 3 Comments  Print This Post  Email This Post

A North Shore gem

Another birthday dinner… another FABULOUS meal! This time with my greatest friend and “separated at birth” sister. Each year, we celebrate our birthday together with a great meal. Two (or maybe three!) years ago, we had our birthday dinner at chef Chad Muir’s other restaurant, Restaurant Balzac and loved the food tremendously. The european flavours and soft sourdough tempted us to follow him and dine at the new Burlington Bar and Dining. Recently awarded One Hat (2009 SMH GF), we were keen to try this local eatery.

Apprently, there are only two dining times – 6:00pm and 8:00pm – but we arrived around 6:30 and it seemed fine! I am becoming a daylight-savings lover as the daylight still shone brightly through the open windows.

My “twin” and I are both sourdough-lovers, so when we saw the bread coming, we both secretly and silently sequel with joy. The bread is from Sonoma, a bakery located in Glebe and Waterloo. I’ve been past Sonoma a few times but have never tried their breads. We were served two types: I think there was Rye Spelt and some seeded sourdough (I forget now!). The seeded bread was full of grains… just how I love it!

Sonoma Bread

Their range of wine is quite extensive. I like how they offer 1/2 bottles, which allows us to sample a bigger variety of wines. (My friend loves red, so it was a red wine night. It went very well with the food though!)

Fab Wine

As we are small eaters, we decided to order 2 entrees and a main. The menu is rather meaty but provides quite a few choices. We were surprised that most dishes were under $30! Awesomely great value!

First was… The entree.

Salad of globe artichokes, asparagus and spring onions with shaved pecorino ($16)

This salad was light but tasty. I particularly loved the spring onions. Luckily, it didn’t give me onion breathe afterwards! The pecorino flavour was quite strong but went very well with the artichokes and asparagus (with much less flavour).

Sauteed prawns with corguette, sun dried tomatoes, wild rocket and pasta - Entree size ($16)

“Entree size! Are you sure??”, we both thought. The “entree” serving looked like a main serving! I particularly liked the crumb on the top of the pasta however, the rest was quite average. I kept picking at the crumbs! I’m not sure what pasta it was… it looked similar to a risoni but bigger and longer! I was expecting a long pasta (which I wasn’t looking forward to), but was more than happy to see that it was short.

Baked sardines with Sicilian olive tapenade, tomato and white anchovy salad ($26)

The sardines were VERY tasty! They had a nice “sweet” fish flavour. I LOVED the white anchovy, especially eaten together with the tomato. The anchovy isn’t as strong as the usual anchovy you get in the jars. It was like the tomato’s sourness cancelled out the saltiness of the anchovy. It was SO delicious.

There was no way we could fit in dessert. By this time, my stomach has probably expanded 2 sizes. I think its time for some exercise.

The service was so-so. Actually, everyone was fantastic… except for the one waitress who wouldn’t acknowledge you if you requested for something, or whenever we ordered something. HMM wasn’t happy about this! But every other waitress made us forget about it! On my way to the bathroom, I was surprised to see SO many people seated at the back of restaurant… dining and drinking! I didn’t expect that!

Overall, we had a great and tasty time! Can’t wait for next year and another eatery to add to my North Shore restaurants list!

The Burlington

6 Burlington St 

Crows Nest NSW 2065

Phone (02) 9439 7888

w :  http://www.burlingtonbardining.com.au

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