Figtree Churrasco, Mayfield/New Castle

My Irish friend highly recommended this restaurant.  For $79, you can go crazy for the full Churrasco experience. A nice bottle of Argentinian wine to accompany the meat is a must.  It's a slightly dearer Brazilian experience but something you must try if you are in the area.

Beginner Tapas -Crumbed Feta with Blueberry, Mushroom, Sea Chowder sample or Cous Cous alternative

To start you off; try a few of the tapas to activate your taste buds. The crumbed feta was tasty with blueberry compote. The mushroom was slightly dry. The cous cous was tasty. (all pictured above).

Try not to load up on the bread but the tomato, goats cheese dip was pretty tasty.  Trust me though. Do not eat too much of this. You will need the stomach space.

Tomato and Goats Cheese with Bread (it's a tough spicey)

Grilled Haloumi 

The haloumi was slightly dry and plastic like to be honest.

OMG potatos with a side salad. Sauces include apple cinnamon dip, BBQ sauce and fig jam sauce

So instead, I tried to overcome my tastebuds with the tasty potato and some side salad. Little did I know, some of the best courses are coming through.  Firstly, there was the prawn then one of my favourite dishes of the night was the blue fin tuna which was slightly seared (pictured below). It was light, fresh and did not taste awfully fishy for those non-fishy fans.  My tastebuds then went into overdrive with the course of pineapple which was intended to cleanse the palette (pictured below).

Seared Blue Fin Tuna (Sashimi Grade of course)

Highlight - Pineapple

For all you meat eaters, you are now wondering how was the meat and how well was it cooked?  The beef was perfectly cooked. The meat melted in your mouth and accompanying sauces were amazing. The lamb was good, the chicken and pork were good and the chorizo was average.

I got seconds on the tuna and a small slice of pineapple to dessert my little butt away.  I ate way too much. It was a good experience though. Give it a go if you have some mula to spend.

Wagyu Beef

The Lamb

Chicken

Pork and the last course is Chorizo (not pictured)

The Terrace Pub - North Sydney

Update

The Terrace has had a slight make over and I then went back for lunch. I found that the decore was much more pleasant but food was not as good as it was. The presentation of the food was still pretty but what's the point if the food doesn't go down well.

Maybe there are just some teething issues.  The $10 steak deal seems to have expanded to Monday to Thursdays.  I'll have to think about this one.

I go to the terrace every few months when I'm in dire need of protein.  This generally involves a steak sandwich or the steak.  If you go early in the week (Mon - Wed) it's a $10 steak with a drink. The food is tasty and consistent. The food is pretty too and is well presented.

On this particular occasion I ordered the steak - medium but it was slightly rare.  The mushroom sauce is beautiful and makes a great sauce for the crispy chips. The salad is minor but does the job to refresh your palette. In the majority of instances where I've ordered the steak it has been more accurately cooked. I would suggest getting there early for a table.

Leesa's Kitchen

I always love a good stir fry.  I cooked this one using hokkein noodles, honey soy prawn tempura pieces with vegetables topped with fried onion and corriander.

Chur Burger, Surry Hills, Sydney

This place has been dubbed "Sydney's best burgers" so I had really high expectations.  The line to enter the restaurant also hyped it up for me.  So what is my verdict?

The Beef Burger was cooked to perfection and exceeded my expectations for a $10 burger. The chips were fine, unfortunately they ran out of the sweet potato chips! You gotta get in early I suppose.

The chicken burger was great - juicy, well cooked and went down really nicely. It was the highlight burger for me! There was a great buzzing atmosphere with loud 90's music, ciders and funky furniture for children of the 90s.

So given the price, quality of food, great atmosphere and speedy service - I can understand why this place has been dubbed Sydney's best burgers. I don't doubt that there are other places with a tastier burgers but typically you'd be paying $15 to $20 for a burger in a pub with other variables that weren't that great.

Beef Burger $10 - Yum

Chicken Burger $10

Dove and Olive, Surry Hills, Sydney

My friend was still hungry after dinner so we sought a place with drinks and some food.  We settled on Dove and Olive. It was lively and jam packed.

We sat down and my friends settled for cider.  I had my typical vodka cranberry.  We sat around chatting about travelling in areas of Korea and Japan.  Our drinks rested on a record which was funky.  The decore was trendy full of children of the 90's.

We snacked on potato gems which were attempting to be fancy. They were tasty but titled " D&O Tater Tots Parmesan mashed potato poppers with
house made mixed pepper, celery salt & aioli".  The aioli was nice but I wasn't a fan of the mixed pepper and celery.

Will come back to try other food

Drinks on a record

Potato Gems - $8

Carlisle Bar, Kings Cross, Sydney

It's a nice bar so don't expect no dry bowl of wedges here (although technically do have $8 chips). Carlisle has a new cocktail and tapas menu. It's sleek, dark and trendy in decore.

The absolute highlight for me that night was the Haloumi. It tastes like a tasty mozzarella; it's not as salty as your normal haloumi but I'm told it's hand made by some greek grandma and only distributed to three places - Carlisle being one of them.  It's a must try!

If you are a fan of gin and whiskey then you'll also love the cocktails. If you are soft and normally stick to vodka like myself then you will get smashed really quickly from the cocktails. My favourite for the night though was called South of the Border (Tequila, mezacal, passionfruit, lime and vanilla).   I wasn't a fan of all of the cocktails.

Please note: I was invited to the Carlisle Bar for a cocktail and tapas tasting. It was great because I got to meet a few other fellow food bloggers.  It was a very well organised event.  
I came back here early on 6pmish on a Friday night and it was dead. Hopefully they can attract more people and revive that atmosphere.

I had a bit of everything here, Tortilla chips with fresh avocado, coriander chilli and fresh lime, Carlisle Plate with trio of dips, marinated olives, feta, crusty bread and pita and Vegetarian Teasers: chargrilled eggplant, zucchini, capsicum, marinated artichokes, semi-dried tomatoes, olives with pita and crusty bread

Watch out for the super onion hit in the avocado!  I think the starters were all good.

grilled haloumi cheese, topped with purple grape and balsamic reduction - $14 (you'll get 4 pieces)

THIS IS A MUST TRY ABOVE !!!!

Eastside Fizz - Beefeater gin + lime + mint + Perrier water + sweetness.

This cocktail Eastside Fizz was nice and refreshing

Lightly floured and fried prawn cutlet, served with three dipping sauces - sweet chilli plum, soy teriyaki and wasabi aioli $18 - you'll get about 8 prawns

The prawns were nice but the wasabi aioli needed more wasabi. They were very well cooked

Blood & Sand - Chivas + Cherry & Herring + Antica Formula + Ardbeg + fresh orange.

The Blood and Sand was probably my second favourite cocktail. It was tasty.

Beef tenderloin - rolled in mixed peppers, barbecued and served medium rare with a bourbon jus and garlic crisps. $24 (you'll probably get 3 fold as pictured here)

The beef was very well cooked. Tasty dish.

Gelato Messina, Surry Hills, Sydney

Everyone raves on about how great Gelato Messina is.  I've always been turned off by the massive lines but I was peer pressured by my friends to line up and check it out. The line ended up moving pretty quickly and I settled for an apple pie ice cream. My other friend chose strangers with candy and my other friend chose a cookied ice cream.

I am a fan of real apple pies so I took big bites into the creamy chunky bits. It was tasty. I will have to come back to try the other flavours.  I think there is a lot of hype around Gelato Messina. I don't know if I would encourage this hype but I wouldn't talk badly about this place either.