Bistro Lilly

It was my birthday last Wednesday, so Frankie had organised a surprise dinner for me! He met me at my place and then we caught a cab into the city.

While looking for a place to organise his work Christmas party he stumbled across this place and remembered it for future reference. They do a 5 course degustation for $63 and $98 with matching wines. We of course went with the matching wines! Frankie had also planned to take me to see the Idan Raichel Project (which is part of the world music event that the opera house have going) at 8pm so we had to keep an eye on the time.

Luckily for us we were the only ones in the restaurant! Being 6pm on a wednesday night I didn't think there would be many people, but to have no one else it was great. It was like our own private dining room. So of course the service was attentive, but you could also see the waiter lingering around not sure what to do and it was an open kitchen (which i was facing), so I could see the chef just standing there sometimes staring out into space...

This is the menu, which you can't really read! I tried photographing it on different angles, but this was the best that i could do. First up we were given an amuse bouche.

Amuse Bouche

As you can see it's an oyster. I can't really remember what the vinegarette was on top of it, but it had something red in it! It was very nice, but i wanted another one, but then i guess an amuse bouche is just one mouthful.. This came with a beautiful glass of Champagne (Grandin Classique Brut) which i looked up and found it's only 15 bucks a bottle retail. I will definitely be looking out for this in the bottle shops.

Soft Shell Crab

Second course was fresh queensland soft shell crab with nuoc cham. This was delicious. Perfectly cooked with the right amount of batter. I had never had soft shell crab up until a few weeks ago, and am annoyed i was missing out all these years... We had it the other night from Sushi Samurai though and it wasn't very good, the batter was very very thick which prevented the shell of the crab becoming crispy... so if you go there don't order the crab. This dish was accompanied with a glass of 2006 Leuwin Estate Dry White Wine.

Veal Tenderloin w/ King prawn, Roma Kasaundi, and Beetroot Essence

This was good but nothing special. The potato crisps on the top were terribly hard to eat as well. I thought mine were going to go flying across the room when i tried to cut it. This was served with a glass of 2006 Cartwheel Chardonnay.

Roast Duck Tortellini w/ Pancetta, Chilli, Peas and Sage

The last of our savoury courses was a pasta dish. Again this was quite good, but nothing that made me want to eat plates and plates of it. You couldn't really tell that it was roast duck inside the pasta casings either. This came with a glass of Pikes Sangiovese.

Yucatan Chocolate Pudding w/ Stratacella and drunken chocolate sauce

This was by far the best dish of the night! Oh it was so good. I polished this off in no time. Chocolate puddings would have to be the best dessert ever, especially when they are hot and gooey inside and you have really cold good ice cream to go with it. This was served with a really nice glass of baileys of glenrowan aged muscat. Sticky wine is so so good.

Even though there were 5 courses we didn't feel that full after. If the dessert had been some sorbet or something i would have still been hungry. They didn't give us any bread or anything either which i thought was strange. Bread would have been good.

Frankie xx

One lucky girl!

Bistro Lilly
Observatory Tower
168 Kent Street
Sydney NSW

Ph: 9252 1116