Alex: When walking through the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay it’s as if you’ve been transported to the Hotel Peninsula or Le Bristol Hotel in Paris. Beautiful décor, grand mirrors that are finished with a gold coating and artworks hanging in all parts of the hotel’s lobby. The whole atmosphere simply oozes luxury.
Our good friends over at Lime and Tonic always seem to nail it on the head offering ridiculously good deals at some of Sydney’s best kept secrets and this was one of them. For a steal at $59 you are provided with a glass of Oyster Bay Sparkling Cuveé Rosé, NZ and canapés consisting of oysters and a decadent paté spread a top a crumbly bread as well as a 3 course meal to follow.
The canapés are normally served on top of the Intercon’s iconic rooftop bar but unfortunately due to bad weather we were served this in the Stillery which is the downstairs bar. Either way any experience you’re getting is bound to be a good one when you’re sipping champagne in this hotel.
After taking a little too long to enjoy our drinks we eventually walked over to The Stockroom and shown to our seats
It was interesting to note that one section of the dining room was quite modern and trendy, a lot brighter and appealed more to a younger generation while the other side was quite dark, and obviously your more traditional style of what you’d expect at a fine dining restaurant.
I always like looking at Bianc’s face as they bring the bread and butter to our table. She starts to get all fidgety and always tells me to shut up when it hits the table. It’s like her holy grail of foods (other than burgers obviously). There were two types of breads that were accompanied by a warm butter. One was quite dense and buttery which I loved and the other was like a flat bread, a great contrast in the bread choices which I liked.
For our entrées Bianca went with the Hiramasa Kingfish mi-cuit, whipped herbed pear, The kingfish was beautiful and fresh and quite a generous serving considering it was sashimi but we both agreed that the purée was a little too overpowering. Perhaps it would’ve been more enjoyable if it was a drizzle rather than a big dollop of it.
My entree was the Heirloom beetroots, buffalo stracciatella,sorbello tomatoes, tarragon. A texturally wonderful dish! Roasted almonds juxtaposed well with the softness of the delicious sorbello tomatoes. I really enjoyed this and thought it was a great way to start off our dining experience.
While both myself and Bianc have since come to enjoy certain fish we decided to ignore the other option for main and both went with the O’ Connor pasture fed New York steak with seeded mustard jus, seasonal vegetables. The steak was one of the best I’ve had in a while. So easy to cut into and just melted in your mouth. The jus that accompanied the steak really elevated its flavours and made it a perfect way to finish off the savoury part of the meal.
Not that there wasn’t enough food already but we decided to get a side of mash potato with crunchy chips, sour cream and chives $9. It was unanimous that this was the best mashed potatoes ever. The addition of those crunchy chips on top were such a clever idea and one that I will have to get Mumma FFS to try at home. The butter situation was a little full on so I couldn’t have more than a few spoonfuls which was a shame because it was so good.
Ahh, my favourite part of any meal. We opted for one each of the desserts starting with the Praline profiteroles, hazelnut, salted caramel. It became harder and harder to fault anything after our mains. The profiteroles were light and airy which juxtaposed well with the decadence of the hazelnut. The ice cream which I believe was salted caramel with hazelnut nuts was also a welcome addition.
One of my favourite things is lemon curd so I could hardly hold my excitement when we were brought Stockroom’s lemon meringue tart. The serving sizes for all of the dishes were very very generous so by this point I was already on the verge. What we liked about this tart was the inclusion of the gingerbread slabs giving a great texture and spice to the dish and something that I have never tasted along with lemon curd. Out of the two this was obviously the more refreshing options, but either way we felt stuffed by the end of it.
If you’re wanting a night out whether it be date night, catch up with friends and get all dressed up but not spend a fortune then this is definitely the BEST option for you. We spent an extra $50 on top our lime and tonic voucher for drinks (bottled water which was annoying) but otherwise $59 for a 3 course meal including champagne and canapés is an absolute steal and one that I cannot recommend enough.
Book your experience by clicking the link below.
https://www.limeandtonic.com.au/sydney/experiences/4853/rooftop-restaurant/
Until next time
Alex
Love the sound of the Stockroom, you had me at the entrees & then it just kept getting better, loved the pictures as well, keep up the great work. Value for money too !!!!
That is an incredibly good deal! The food there is great and I adore that hotel! 😀