Nomad

Historic = ●

Distinctly average = ●

Dismal = ●

Oliver Reed was a tearaway. In the purest sense of the term. Where Reed went, controversy would follow. A fine actor aside (who could forget when he famously wrestled naked with Alan Bates in Women In love), he was also a raging and unashamed alcoholic, notoriously opinionated and forever infamous for being one of England’s finest hellraisers. He was also one of the first people ever to look good in a beard.

Oliver Reed died from a heart attack on May 2nd 1999 while – true to form - drinking with his wife and friends in a bar in Malta.

 Oli Reed – we salute you as a honorary SupperClub member.

Food rating: ● 

Meh. The Smoked Cod Roe Dip with water crackers, trout roe was too salty. BBQ Carrots with almond dukkah, labne – really? as a course? The Kingfish Carpaccio with Nomad creme fraiche, horseradish & kohlrabi was adequate. The Jersey Milk Haloumi with BBQ zucchini, pinenuts, raisins - decent.

Service: ● 

Poor. Some of the best, worst service I have had in a long time. Comical to a point. To start with, we had a table booking for 6pm. We were told to arrive promptly. We did. Only to be left waiting outside until 6.05pm, in the rain, whilst the staff kept tantalizingly dry inside partaking in a wine tasting exercise. Some places like to leave customers queuing outside so that people walking/driving by see how wonderfully popular it is. Great for the restaurant. Not so for the people waiting outside. But the worst was to come. Whilst talking with my neighbour the waitress topped up my wine glass (topped up, it wasn’t empty). I suddenly asked:

“What wine is that?”

“The Shiraz.” she explained.

“But I was drinking the Pinot and I had some in my glass.” I countered.

“No, you didn’t.” she sparred back. Shrugged, then walked off.

Dear reader, my glass was not empty, despite what you may know about me. My neighbour concurred. Empty or not (it wasn’t!) the waitress reaction was poor form.

General comments included that the staff were surely and disengaged. The sommelier was informative.

Atmosphere: ● 

The building itself is atmospheric. High ceilinged and stark. A gloomy warehouse turned trendy restaurant. It was cold. But that may have been due to the fact that I was wet. I believe you create your own buzz with stories and banter and good cheer. But the Nomad gloom extinguished our spark this night.

Well, this gets the worst review from a restaurant we have ever visited. Not even getting roaringly drunk helped. It normally does.

Cost: $130 per person. Over ten guests meant we had the ‘Feed Me’ set menu at $65pp. The rest was wine. This was generally deemed an expensive night. Worth it? Re-read above.

restaurantnomad.com.au/#start

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TapaVino

TapaVino

Historic = ●

Distinctly average = ●

Dismal = ●

“Que esta la vida? La vida es sueño.”

This translates as: “What is life. Life is a dream”. It’s by a Spanish dramatist, poet and writer Pedro Calderón de la Barca and is the Spanish equivalent of Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be” speech. Whereas Shakespeare's effort is somewhat nonsensical, silly and written whilst drunk in a debaucherous tavern, Calderón’s  talks of the earth, of sea, good wine and friends and ultimately the importance of food. So if your life is full of these things, then life truly is a dream.

SupperClub, Life is a dream indeed.

SupperClubs take on 'The Last Supper'

Food rating: ● (how we voted: red - 0, orange - 5, green - 8) 

Because we had a large group we had the set menu - $55 per head. Food came at a good pace and never disappointed. Dishes of particular note include: cow's milk cheese & toasted walnuts in vine leaves a la plancha, with toasted sourdough– fantastically strong & bitey, the yellow fin tuna cruda, spiced almonds, sherry dressing – historic. Tender tuna with a delicious sherry undertones.

Jeff commented the food was: "plentiful, with diverse flavours and delicious".

Both of the desserts: chocolate terrine, olive oil & salt flake,  and the mil hojas; puff pastry, custard, & sherry soaked prunes, with a Pedro Ximenez dressing were consumed with gusto.

Service: ● (how we voted: red - 0, orange - 1, green - 12)

Bravo! The voting speaks for itself. The service at TapaVivo was very good. We seemed to have one waiter (or was it twins?) who saw to our every whim. Happy, helpful and super friendly - without ever being a wanker. He was attentive and recommended some decent reds. TapaVino - muy bueno!

Cracking vino and company - Rusty, Mule, Jeff and Kainsey

Atmosphere: ● (how we voted: red - 0, orange - 5, green - 8)
The place was buzzing! A few people mentioned that is was a touch too loud to enjoy the winning chat, so be warned of that. It was however a Friday night and everyone was generally excitable. 

Señoritas por favor

TapaVino is influenced by the culture of sip-a-little-bit-of-this-and-eat-a-little-bit-of-that. However it was all so good we adopted our own philosophy which was: gulp-a-lot-of-this-and-gobble-a-lot-of-that.

Cost: $120 per person. There were thirteen of us. $55 a head for the set menu - the rest was made up of countless bottles of beautiful, full-bodied Rioja and quaffable Tempranillo.

http://www.tapavino.com.au

The search for Sydney’s best restaurant, continues...