A Touch of Luxury

Recently Vikki had a Saturday night off work so we decided to have a night in the city. After checking in to our room at the Hilton, we wandered around town looking at some stores we haven’t been in to together for a while.

Soon enough it was time for lunch and as we were in Martin Place, Intermezzo caught our eye. I have been several times for business lunches but this was Vikki’s first time.

After perusing the menu and wine list we ordered 2 glasses of Prosecco and shared beef carpaccio for entrée.

We both had pasta for our mains, I chose linguine with Western Australian Scampi, fresh vine ripened cherry tomatoes and chilli. 

Vikki opted for an entree sized pasta of house made pappardelle with trio of mushrooms, fresh ricotta and black truffle. Vikki said it was truly delicious, she likes a bit of truffle (ok, I admit she likes more than a bit of truffle). The fresh ricotta was amazing ( I snuck a bit when she wasn’t looking).

We then decided that as it was a special day that we would have some cannoli filled with sweet ricotta.

After lunch it was off to the shops again and then a quick rest at the hotel.  After easing our feet a little, we headed down to the executive lounge for a pre dinner cocktail and nibbles. Lovely fresh prawns and a few hot snacks got us fired back up again and ready to go out again.

Surprisingly the temperature had cooled a little so we headed for a whisky at The Baxter Inn. Located in a dark seedy laneway off Clarence Street and down a set of stairs, the Baxter Inn is like stepping back in time to the 1920’s. The Baxter Inn features a list of around 360 whiskies from all around the world. We decided on Bowmore Legend, as I had tried it on previous visit and enjoyed it. Armed with a bowl of pretzels we sat down to enjoy our whisky and people watch.

After our drink we headed out in to the night again and with no destination in mind we ambled down George Street and found ourselves in the Rocks. Walking past the former premises of Rockpool, I lamented the fact that we never went there while it was open. Imagine my surprise when Vikki told me they were open but had moved to the Burns Philp Building in Bridge Street. That made us head back south for a walk past.

After looking at the menu and noticing they had a bar menu we headed in.  

After sitting down and perusing the wine list we ordered two glasses of champagne. We only felt like a little bite to eat so decided on some caviar and blinis. After a bit of upselling from the very helpful waiter, we decided to try the Yasa caviar. Vikki is not really in to caviar normally, but she found this was sensational. 

Our waiter had given us the story of the brand and then told us how the brand representative showed them how to eat the caviar by placing a little on your hand to warm it up and then straight in to your mouth. We tried it and were pleasantly surprised at the difference in flavour as compared to having it cold. 

Yasa caviar is farmed in specially built aquaculture tanks and produced from Siberian sturgeon in the UAE, Yasa has the worlds largest and most technologically advanced aquaculture farms. Not only do they process the roe for caviar but the fish is also processed for the culinary market.

After our caviar and champagne it was time to head back to the Hilton and end our day with a night cap of a nice Bourdeaux from Cahteau Cantemerle.

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