Silk's Brasserie@Leura, NSW

I went to Leura near the Blue Mountains on 14/05/09 and had dinner at Silk's. What a fantastic meal it was. One of the best dining experiences I have had. It ain't Tetsuya's but it's still good. A must go if anyone wants to stay for a night at Leura.


Nice Ambience

To Start

Provençale fish soup + aioli, served with tempura-batter prawns on side $21: Fish stew was delicious. Had tomato purée and cream. Fish was well minced. Flavours would have been enhanced with chives. Tempura was done well with good salted batter. Crisy but batter seemed a little thin layered compared to Japan and peeled easily from prawns.

Main Course

Tenderloin of grain-fed beef on creamy mash with baby English spinach + black olive butter $36: Tenderloin Beef was cooked to perfection. The wine, which was a 2001 Canobolas-Smith Cab Sauv and Cab France blend from Orange, was too high in alch and the tannins needed to be softer to match a beef of this quality. A 13 to 13.5 % wine like a aged Bordeaux would be perfect. The beef had so much juice that I felt it overpowered the taste of my wine.



That's how well my beef was cooked. Medium rare.

Dessert

Warm bitter-sweet chocolate fondant served with chantilly cream + black cherries $15: Fondant was right in texture and taste. Well presented. Not too sugary. Delicious with port. I had a pickwick's NV tawny port with this. Best fondant I ever had in my life.

I paid about a 100 bucks for the meal but it was well worth. Good ambience and I loved the selection of jazz music played. Lighting was good too and the service was fantastic. Every dish was timely served.

Go to their website http://www.silksleura.com/ for more info on what they serve.

Mayfield Vineyard Restaurant@Orange, NSW

This was the meal we had at Orange 2 months back. Mayfield is one of the restaurants listed on SMH's good food guide. Overall it was a really nice experience but the stars of the show were the desserts. The Lamb loin was also cooked very well.

On Arrival

Roasted organix tomato & basil soup: A really simple dish to cook. You could taste the freshness in the tomatoes.


Entrée

Porcini mushroom papardelle pasta with a mushroom & braised dark suace


Goats cheese caramelised eschalot tartlet with pear, rocket & truffle honey


Main course

Spicy pork sausages with dutch cream potato roasted tomato and onion jam


Pan fried Atlantic salmon fillet, grilled asparague, prawn & wild fennel bisque


Lamb loin wrapped in pancetta, peperonata, rosti potato & rosemary sauce: classic

Desserts

Turkish delight, quince & pomegranate parfait with fig sorbet & meringue: The ultimate dessert for that day


Passionfruit & lime jelly bavarois with pineapple sorbet & wafers: Sorbets that the chef makes are wonderful


A selection of cheese and fresh figs, muscatels, crackers & walnut loaf: regrets...a boring dish

Entire course per person was A$60.

For more info, go to http://www.mayfieldvineyard.com/.