Booth Street Bistro, Annandale

After the success of our first #twEAT up at Red Lantern in January it seems like the idea has taken flight with a bunch of new Tweepers joining Karen and I at Annandale's Booth Street Bistro for a long and lovely Sunday lunch.

Along with fellow bloggers The French Wench, Le Bon Vivant and My Gourmet Feast we had Darren and Bernie from Restaurant Atelier in Glebe join us and also Adam - a chef who currently has a prime gig with Arnotts and who is now my favourite person in the world as he has a never ending supply of Turkish Delight Tim Tams. Cenk, the founder of The Social Dinner Club also came along, but without any Tim Tams to give me...hmmm.

Of course with so many foodie people at the table and "real chefs" I had to be careful not to put my foot in it and make it known that, well...I really don't know much about food other than it mostly tastes good (but not Durian, that tastes BAD). Of course my carefully laid plans all came undone when I thanked Wayne, the chef at Booth Street Bistro for my lovely Salmon to the reply of "ah, that was Ocean Trout". I may have then mumbled something about "all orange fish looking the same" whilst looking at the floor.

And with that stunningly embarrassing admission of my lack of food knowledge let me show you pictures of our FANTASTIC lunch with inadequate and possible wrong descriptions.

We kicked things off with a few different starters that our waitresses recommended.  For some reason only the ladies at the table partook in the Freshly Shucked Oysters with a Eschallot Vinegar Dressing ($3 each).  These were a mix of Pacific and Sydney Rock Oysters. Karen said she could really tell the difference between them, the Pacific (or was it the Sydney Rock) being lusciously creamy. Ah sure...I totally could too, no really I could.  I do know a good olive when I taste one and cos they are colour coded I have no problem telling the black from the green - Australian house marinated Olives ($6.00).

Next up is my favourite entree of the day - Marinated white anchovies on crusty caibatta ($6.00). Oh boy, the anchovies were beautiful, slightly oily but not too strong in that anchovy flavour that so many people find off putting.  I snuck a few pieces of this whilst everyone was busy chatting.  And what Sydney lunch would be complete without sourdough bread with Pepe Saya butter (complementary too)!

Starters finished with a really nice Crunchy Fried Calamari ($16.00) that was served with an eggplant wafer and a green bean fig dip.  I only took one small piece of calamari as I was trying to be polite - stupid me hey?

I had joked whilst we were planning our #twEAT up that this should really be my birthday lunch seeing as I turned...a year old earlier in the week. Somehow Booth Street Bistro cottoned on this and sent out a glass of sparkling wine for each of us on the house...a very nice thing for them to do. Thank your Wayne & Teresa for that!

Le Bon Vivant also raided his (very impressive) wine cellar for the lunch and shared a few lovely bottles with the table. I don't know much about wine (or food so it happens) but I had a taste of what was on offer and it all tasted great to me...just like...wine!

Even after all those entrees we still had plenty of room for mains which we kicked off with a Quinoa and Roast Vegetable Salad ($17.00).  Is there anything Keenwah (aka Quinoa) can't do I ask you?  I wouldn't mind make a salad like this at home, but I don't fancy my chances of it working out.

I ordered a lovely Pan Fried Salmon Ocean Trout (around $27 I think) for my main which was served with watercress and the most delicious creamy potato salad.  The skin of my "orange fish" was so perfectly crisp that I could have eaten a bowl of the skin alone.  The Boy was in raptures over his Braised Beef Check Sandwich ($16.00) served on toasted sourdough with picked vegetables.

I managed to snap two other mains during lunch - Karen ordered a delicious looking Confit of Tender Creek duck leg that came with Persian feta (so creamy!) and watercress and Cenk went for the Twice Cooked Blue Cheese Souffle (16.00) which was going to be my second choice. The Souffle is served with pears, hazelnut and truffle honey.

I wasn't planning on having dessert, but everyone else on the table was opting in and I didn't want to be the odd one out.  Passionfruit is one of my all time favourite fruits so it would've been remiss of me not to try the Passionfruit tart with lemon delish ice cream ($14.00).  The tart was amazing...and the combination of passionfruit and the lemon delish ice cream was perfectly...tart.  I was so engrossed in my own dessert I didn't even think of helping myself to some of The Boys Chocolate Tasting Plate ($14.00) which was a chocolate lovers delight with white chocolate sorbet, milk chocolate mousse and dark chocolate delice.



The Classic Crème Brulee with Biscotti ($14.00) was the talk of the table however. I mean look at this thing - the Brulee is HUGE, taking up an entire bowl rather than a teeny little ramekin we've all seen before.  Our French Wench was pretty chuffed with this I have to say so it gets the French tick of approval.  And of course who can pass up an Affogato when it's on the menu ($12.00).  This one came with a scoop of Vanilla bean ice cream, and a shot of espresso and Frangelico.

Booth Street Bistro is at 127 Booth Street, Annandale. We'll be back soon to try out the breakfast pancakes made with Pepe Saya buttermilk when they can get their hands on the stuff!