Even though we’ve been eating so much and in so many places, one of our favourite restaurants is still Ember
We’ve started to make it somewhat of a tradition to go there on our wedding anniversary
dozen deep fried oysters -come with an equal number of dipping sauces
Japanese mayonnaise, wasabi mayonnaise, tomato chutney, lemongrass and sweet chilli, soy and sesame, and peanut
This is one of our favourite dishes, and it didn’t disappoint. The oysters were breaded and deep fried, with an amazing crispy crust and a still-creamy centre. Out of the dipping sauces, although all of them were yummy, my favourite was the Asian-inspired soy and sesame
They had interesting but slightly oddball dessert combinations like banana tart with lavender ice cream....
Chocolate and banana is a foolproof combination, so the chocolate mousse was pretty good. The tarte tatin needed 30 minutes cooking time, and it was HUGE
If there’s anything I could complain about, it’s how bloody hard it is to find parking in the area

we met my old friend for dinner here
The menu had quite a varied range of items, catering to differing tastes as well as budgets. There’s a proper dining menu, as well as simpler and more reasonable bistro fare. There were a number of fondues available as well, including a Fondue Bourguignonne, which is a beef fondue where bite-sized cubes of beef are cooked in a mixture of cooking oil and butter, then eaten with a variety of dipping sauces.
We had a veal dish with mushrooms in a morel cream sauce, served with rosti potatoes. The burger was quite tender and not dry, just maybe slightly lacking in salt
The food, while still a bit pricy, was surprisingly very good. Service was outstanding too. Definitely worth a visit to try some European fare.

We’ve been to Oso twice before
and have been impressed both times
The pate is one of the best I’ve ever had , incredibly smooth, creamy and luxuriously rich, and served with crostini and cherry tomatoes
The home-made ravioli was filled with beef, in a cheese fondue sauce with mushrooms. This was very good but very rich; the cheese sauce had distinct flavours of gorgonzola which added a nice depth of flavour. Good thing the portion was fairly small, otherwise it would have been a struggle to finish it.
The presentation is great and service is also impeccable. The waiters are friendly and knowledgeable

The set lunch is very good value at $22+ you can get an Executive set lunch for $38+,but the choice isn’t as varied. For the regular set lunch, there are about 5 or 6 choices each for starter, main and dessert
had the pork rillette to start off,The rillette was pretty much like a pate, quite fatty but very good when eaten with some baguette.
Grilled tuna which was slightly disappointing, in the sense that even though we were asked if we wanted the tuna done rare and we said yes, it still arrived almost cooked through except a tiny pink centre. It was quite tasty with the tomato-based sauce, though, but it would’ve been so much better if it had been less cooked.
Good enough food though I expected better from the place’s reputation. Service was surprisingly friendly

I expected a very formal, fine dining experience because I’ve been told that it’s a very quiet and romantic restaurant but There was also a pretty high level of background noise, to the point where you’d have to speak quite loudly to your dining companion to be heard.
We ordered the Porterhouse and the ribeye because those seem to be their specialties.
The Porterhouse is essentially a larger version of a T-bone steak. On one end of the T-bone is the striploin, and on the other end is the tenderloin (fillet). So you essentially get to try two different cuts of meat on one steak.
The meat had a good chargrilled flavour, but it wasn’t as tender as I expected it to be
I must say that my first time at Morton’s, though far from a disappointment, didn’t quite live up to the sky high expectations that I had