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Went to Whitewater this arvo, as I was not feeling the best and felt like a cheerup. Well, if you've read any of the preceeding entries, you know that good food will always make me feel better. I was actually heading for Garfish, but they we fully booked, so the other got the nod.

I must admit, one of the nice touches at this restaurant is the truffled butter they serve with the bread, Mmmmm, truffles. More bread would have been nice so I could eat all the butter :)

I ordered seared scallops with ocean trout brandade, crispy shallot, bacon and rosemary vingerette for a starter, and continued the ocean trout theme with pan roast ocean trout with cauliflower orzo, crisp whitebait and parsley salad. I must say, the cauliflower orzo was spectacular, and I'll certainly try to add this one to my recipe book. Perfect marriage with the fish.

Washing this down was a couple of glasses of Tinpot Hut SavBlanc, an exceptionally nice white.

To finish up, I had the tarwin blue cheese with a glass of westend ‘3 bridges’ botrytis semillon, another marriage made in heaven. I was even considering dessert, as the coffee brulee with campari and orange sounds just awesome, but I resisted.

I was feeling considerably better about life at 3pm :)

Must be restaurant weekend. I went to Whitewater for lunch today with Amanda. Good food as usual although the restaurant was a little noisy. I had to ask if we could sit up the top away from the road, but this is par for the course on weekend lunch times (or so I understand). We were going to do this a couple of weekends ago, and I had my eyes on the duck pasta, which due to the fast rotation of items on the menu, had gone. Oh well.

I ended up with a beautiful fillet of blue eye for main, and a starter of a tartin of jerusalem artichoke and goat's cheese. Amanda ordered the ocean trout but it was off the menu, and she had yellowfin instead. All chased down with a Tim Adams pinot gris. Beautiful.

It was my dad's 80th birthday yesterday, so we celebrated by going out to the new Manly Pavillion restaurant for lunch today.

In case you don't know, the restaurant has beenu undergoing significant renovation in recent months after having been purchased by the guys behind the old Ceruti's restaurant in Manly. The old Heritage Room is beautiful, and the new bit is very nice with stunning views straight up the harbour.

I stuck to the seafood, with a starter of perfect (and I do mean perfect) raw yellowfin tuna with pasley and capers, and just a hint of lemon and olive oil, followed by the whiting fillets, which were cooked to perfection. I was sorely tempted by the wild boar ragu, and of course my dad ordered it and said it was fantastic. We had a nice bottle of Tyrrell's HVD semillon with the meal, and I ended up with a beautiful bit of gorgonzola and a botrytised reisling. Mmm.

The service was attentive and the timing and serving sizes were right. About the only thing that let the restaurant down was the lack of linen on the tables in the new area. You sort of expect nice napery in restaurants at this price range. I somehow suspect that this is only lacking at lunch, however.

I'll certainly be back to try the 5 course degustation menu with a couple of my foodie friends.