Dinner at Jimmy Liks

Earlier this week Dave and I caught up with a friend for dinner at Jimmy Liks in Potts Point (http://www.jimmyliks.com/). We'd walked past many times before, but had never actually been together. While I recall having eaten there several years ago, my memories of the food were hazy, although I do remember the cocktails being good!



It was very busy for a Tuesday night, in fact we were lucky to get the last table (I say table, but it's one of those places with one large communal table). The space is pretty chic, being dimly lit (you need to use the itty bitty book lights that they provide to read the menus!) and obviously very popular.



The communal table, cocktail list and Asian-inspired menu reminded me of Long Grain in Surry Hills, but the space is much more intimate.



We ordered chicken betel leaves with smoked eggplant chilli and eschalot relish to start. It was gone in one big mouthful, but really good! For mains we had a salmon salad with watermelon ginger lime leaf and roasted eschalot chilli dressing, and the crispy skin duck with yellow bean tamarind and orange. This was ample food for the two of us, and both were fantastic. I'm glad we changed our order at the last minute from the beef to the salmon salad, as the flavours and textures of both dishes actually complemented each other. Our friend had the aromatic curry of eggplant with picked pineapple and chilli, which was also delicious.



Most of the cocktails appeared again to be Asian inspired (using, for example, sake and nashi pear liquers, I think). They weren't as good as I remembered from last time, but still held their own (although cocktails at Long Grain are better in my opinion).



All in all, we rated Jimmy Liks really highly. The food was fantastic and the service was pretty good also. I don't think you can book, and it's obviously pretty popular with the eastern suburbs crowd so you might have to wait for a table, but the food is worth the wait. Besides, you can always take a seat in the cool bar while you're waiting for a table.

Restaurant: Nove, Finger Wharf, Woolloomoolloo, Sydney

We headed to Nove on a balmy Sydney summer afternoon.  Sitting outside, looking over the Woolloomoolloo wharf to the city skyline was very pleasant indeed.

Cat started with a refreshingly bitter Campari soda, which was welcome on a hot and humid day.

I had whole snapper with a sort of olive, orange and pine nut tapenade.  The fish was fresh and tasty, nicely cooked so the skin was crispy but the flesh moist.  The tapenade worked well although it was oilier than necessary.

I tasted some of Cat's pizza - goats cheese, pumpkin and pesto - which was your classic thin-based variety and was yummy.

We washed the meals down with a Patina rose from Orange.  It had a vibrant campari-red hue and was lemony and acidic with hints of berries and spice.  Not too sweet.  Nice and refreshing.

I grabbed an affogato for dessert.  It was great.  Really good coffee with that proper vanilla ice cream with vanilla specks through it.

Service was attentive and friendly.

Our meal came to $88 (would have been cheaper if it wasn't a Sunday).  It's substantially cheaper than the other restaurants on the wharf and still does good, simple, fresh pasta, pizza and a small selection of meat and seafood.

DJ