The Latest Food Goss!

Fine Dining

by

Dine, Dance and Romance

What:     Mastro’s Ocean Club

Website: Click here

Where:  15045 North Kierland Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ, USA

Rating:  

Why:

If you’re up for a romantic, swanky, fine dining experience in Scottsdale, Arizona, then look no further than this fabulous restaurant and club.

Perched on the corner of North Kieland Boulevard and the entry drive into Kierland Commons (diagonally across from the Westin Kierland Spa and Resort) is Mastro’s Ocean Club.

This restaurant, lounge and club opens as a lounge from 4pm but is otherwise for dinner only. It unashamedly tries to be a glitzy affair and achieves that in spades, perhaps even going too far if you’re the cynical type. From the pretty, tanned and precociously aloof model in the LBD who took our booking at the door that afternoon (and who joined several other equally gene-blessed hosts at the reception area inside that evening), to the silver service from the male and female waiters all dressed in black tie complete with white coats and black bow ties — this is unabashed swank in all its glory.

Even if that’s not your thing, it is difficult not to be entirely impressed because this Club pulls all of that off really well. The restaurant is beautiful inside, the wait staff know the extensive food and wine menus, as well as the night’s multiple specials, in significant detail, and they do absolutely everything they can to make your stay just that bit special.

As you enter the restaurant, to the right of reception and down the stairs is a large wine bar with some standing and seated tables where you can enjoy whatever drink takes your fancy while you listen to the live band entertaining the more energetic visitors on the dance floor. The restaurant itself (which is to the right of reception, not down the stairs) is indeed optional as many locals visit the venue for the glitzy club feel it offers. If we are going to be picky about it, the band were actually cheating a little as they had a backing track with music and vocals on it that they were singing and playing to, and really only the drummer was the professional musician. However, they sang in tune enough and appeared entertaining enough to delight the 20-30 people constantly on the dance floor, while the rest of the room, comprising at least 100 people, were happily singing or tapping along while enjoying their cocktails – no musical purists here.

Being a Saturday night, the restaurant and club were both inordinately busy, which is a very good sign, so while we had a reservation, we were still quite happy to wait and listen to the music for 10 minutes or so. It passed by swiftly and we were ushered to our table by another model-esque host, and were met by our waiter hardly a moment after the host glided serenely back to reception to join the other hosts.

This is where you come to set the bar really high on a first date, or to celebrate something really special, or when you are on holiday (like we were) and just want to do a bit of safe splashing out on some great quality food and service. Once again, this fine restaurant does not disappoint.

As you might imagine from its name, the restaurant specializes in seafood. As is expected in a fine dining restaurant that actually does provide a fine dining experience, the “usual suspects” on the menu are all there, and then some, but are also specific to a given region or breed of fish, and of course there are varieties of crab, shrimp and lobster. As well-fed Australians we have been spoilt multiply with large and beautiful prawns, but the shrimp we were served as an appetizer were enormous and nothing short of impressive, not to mention extremely tasty.

The excellent menu also includes an impressive array of meat cuts and other proteins, a variety of tasty sides, sauces and dressings, as well as multiple gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options.

Our waiter was attentive, friendly and down to earth. However, she was certainly able to switch on the “glam” if her customers appeared to want that – she was having a very different conversation with us from that she was having with the customers a couple of tables down, but never skipped a beat.

Being a very busy night, the food was delayed but only very slightly – we were eating our appetizers within 15 minutes of ordering and our entrees (remember main courses are called entrees in the US) within 30 minutes of finishing our appetizers.

Our appetizers (and, we noticed, a number of other dishes on the menu) came with a bit of theatre, with our shrimp cocktails served in a glass cocktail bowl surrounded by concealed dry ice, leaving the cocktail bowls smoking away as they arrived and for a few minutes afterwards. It’s a well-known restaurant gimmick, but it is still impressive and is totally in line with the product they sell, which is fine quality food with a fine quality presentation.

The seafood we were served for main course – a thick swordfish steak for me and B enjoyed lemon sole with vanilla in tempura batter – was impeccably cooked and presented and tasted every bit as good as it looked. As seems to be the case in this part of the world, the serves were very generous – you will certainly not go hungry.

If you’re smart, you will not finish what’s on your main course plate (assuming that was physically possible) and leave room for one of the scrumptious desserts on offer. We saved some space to share some creme brulee for dessert and it was equally as impressive as the main course.

As expected, the wine we were recommended towards was perfectly matched with what we ate, and rounded off what was in our view a very impressive fine dining experience.

Being as impressive as it was, you do not expect the bill to be any less impressive, but even without under-doing it, you might expect a bill total for two (pre-tip) to be around or just under the USD$300 mark. To minimize it, we suggest minimizing how many cocktails you order. They’re quite delicious and won’t break the bank, but that’s no reason to invite them to do so.

This is a place to which we will most definitely return.

by

East Meets West With Zest

What:     Madame Wu

Website: Click here

Where:  Riparian Plaza, 71 Eagle St, Brisbane CBD

Rating:  

Why:

Sitting atop a well-regarded dining precinct with some of the most spectacular river views does not necessarily equate with excellent dining.

But sometimes it does, especially if you are at Madame Wu.

Madame Wu is a very popular and busy restaurant, which you will find at the top of a staircase located between Riparian Plaza and 111 Eagle. The entryway faces the marble reception desk where you will be greeted warmly and either ushered to your table which you had to reserve or to the well-stocked bar area behind reception if you prefer a drink or two first. Be warned, though – if you haven’t booked and it is a Friday night or other busy period, you may well be turned away.

It is most definitely worth making the booking (which is online and very easy). The atmosphere at Madame Wu is usually celebratory, although it probably doesn’t hurt that we made our booking for 8:45pm on a Friday night. That’s a good time to book, by the way, as long as you can hold out until then to eat. While the place is still brimming, things are a little less hectic then and the staff, who are excellent, can give you just that little bit of extra attention they might not have time to do a little earlier when the “straight from work” crowd is in full swing.

The menu is modern Asian cuisine in which East really does meet West and there will be something to suit most palates (but if you don’t like coriander, you’d best let them know – it may appear where you don’t expect it). The chef’s recommendations are the two banquet offerings which feature a rich mix of very tasty menu items and are very unlikely to leave you wanting.

At the time of this review, those banquets were priced respectively at $65 and $85 per head, and it is only a 2 person minimum for those. These prices are not cheap, but they are well worth the food that follows, which is beautifully prepared and presented. The $65 banquet is certainly more than enough for most people – there will almost always be food left over if you choose the $85 version, which is delicious but enormous.

The a la carte offerings are always available and reasonably priced and the wine list also covers a broad range of tastes and budgets. Most of the staff will also know which wines best match the food you ordered so unless you are an expert in that area yourself, you would be well placed to take their advice, which in our case was absolutely bang on.

The food comes out in tranches and is timely – sometimes almost too quick with the banquet, but we were hungry so that suited us perfectly.

Seating can be inside or outside – obviously outside has the better views, but inside dining is also aesthetically pleasing as a lot of work seems to have gone into the visual aspects of the premises.

We expected high quality, and we certainly got it. It’s not a place you’ll only want to visit once.

by

Quality with Quantity

What:     Blackbird Restaurant / Blackbird Bar and Grill

Website: Click here

Where:  Riverside Centre, 123 Eagle St, Brisbane CBD

Rating:  

Why:

Affordable luxury comes in many shapes and sizes, and this restaurant is just the right shape and size.

Nestled into Riverside Centre behind the Rugby Club, up the stairs and to the left is Blackbird Bar and Grill. Head right instead and you walk into Blackbird Restaurant.

The Bar and Grill is one of the places to be on a Friday night after work for the young and exciting. It is blessed with superior views up and down the Brisbane River and looks straight out at the Story Bridge, which is breathtaking when lit up of an evening. The well-stocked main bar overlooks this panorama and both the indoor and outdoor areas are clean, shiny and plush – and often standing room only after 6pm. As you might expect for a bar situated where and how it is, drinks are not cheap, but they won’t break the bank either.

Away from the bar and through the corridor is the Blackbird Restaurant, a swanky affair with plush seating and tables, velvety and mahogany appearance, and well-trained attentive front of house staff.

The food will also not disappoint with a tasty array of options to suit most palates. Their steaks are also a specialty and range from a tasty 250gm scotch fillet all the way to a 1kg rump (which is not for the faint-hearted).

Once again, the food is not cheap, but you don’t come here for rubbish or cheap food – that said, an excellently cooked 300gm steak is still south of $40 at the time of this review which is very competitive given its quality – but they do also have more luxury choices such as 100% wagyu options and the 1kg steak will set you back about $95.

A pleasing array of vegetarian options is also there and they do serve entree, main, dessert and an array of platters to cater for all group sizes.

If the great food and views are not enough to make you remember the place, you will remember the professional staff who during our visit were most attentive and capable of actual conversation and humour. Definitely not a once-only place to visit.