Choose Chu’s

April 15, 2016 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | Restaurants, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

Chu’s Restaurant, 40 Unley Road, Adelaide Tired? Hungry? Needing a friendly face?  Come to Chu’s, for some good no-nonsense Asian-fusion food, with the emphasis on Vietnamese / Chinese cuisine.  They’ve been going for over 5 years now, which tends to be the threshold of survival in Adelaide’s fickle, spoiled-for-choice array of eateries. We shared starters of cold rolls, dim sims, crabmeat & prawn cakes, with champagne and a nicely cool but not freezing white wine.  Then, gastric juices jump- started, we moved to graze, in ‘flights,’ on red duck curry, crispy fish in ginger and some stir-fried vegetables, washed down with a…

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The Earl of Leicester Hotel

January 23, 2016 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Restaurants, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

Nick Xenophon's Entrance is permanently locked

85 Leicester Street, Parkside, South Australia Confession.  We at TVC frequent The Leicester.  We know the Liar’s bar, the Liar’s Restaurant (complete with witness box), very, very well.  There is also a cozy bistro and the pokies lounge .  Monica and Ian (the hard-working publicans) & Co. greet us with their friendly, witty, knowing, slightly sardonic manner.  You know they’ve seen it all, including a shotgun hold-up and patrons who have completed the Beer Challenge 10 times.  But it is invariably a welcoming and refreshing haven. The famous, enormous ‘schnitties’ (Will you have yours with avocado and cheese?  Or with bulls’ balls [sorry]?) – are,…

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Guillaume

January 19, 2016 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Restaurants, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

Paddington, Sydney, January 2016 On a blustery evening when the Sydney streets had been washed as clean as the new year, TVC joined the well-heeled (and well-jacketed, well-hand-bagged, well-skirted and well-suited) at Guillaume in Darcy’s Building,  This  smart three-storey-terrace is set, rather incongruously, in an otherwise ordinary (if up-market) suburban street. Slightly odd too, is sitting in the elegant  revamp of what feels as if it had once been someone’s living room.  Slightly too minimalist for TVC but  – hold the presses!  this means that the tables are acres apart and it is all lovely and quiet.  This is not a place for shrieking…

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Pendolino

January 6, 2016 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | Restaurants, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

Level 2, The Strand, Sydney, January 2016 Dawdling back from the Queen Victoria Building in George Street, we passed the rococo wonderland of The Strand. Whilst loitering about the cigar and paraphernalia stores, we noticed a small sandwich board promising lunch.  What we got was a beautiful dark interior, formal settings with a relaxed atmosphere, a good wine selection including import specials at reasonable prices….…and the best pasta dishes in town.  Simple, elegant, unpretentious and service both assiduous and unobtrusive.  We returned in August 2017 and it has maintained its standards.  

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Chiswick at the Gallery

January 4, 2016 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Restaurants, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

Visit most decent art galleries across the world and as you empty out of the rooms, especially those of a special exhibition, you’ll find a gift shop, a cloak room, and a bad crowded café.  Go to the top floor and you might find a decent restaurant, and in Sydney, most likely, a view. So it proved when we went to “The Greats” at NSW Art Gallery. Canny punters book, so we had to make do with a communal table but this was no problem – The Varnished Culture‘s table talk is invariably PC when in public and everyone, especially nearby, seemed…

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