Tonight I got to be mum’s date as her boss took us out for Christmas dinner at Forty One.  I’d never been before, and was glad we got there while it was still light.  The view was spectacular!

I’d heard the view was amazing from the bathrooms.  It was, but it was hard to photograph it - I tried, but my poor little point-and-shoot struggled a bit.  Still, you get this interesting effect with my hand around the lens on the glass:

My favourite course was the grilled sea scallop and pork belly confit with cauliflower and apple reduction.  I thought the ‘main’ of veal was a bit too heavy after the exquisite lightness of the preceding courses and didn’t enjoy it as much.  I enjoyed the dessert of white chocolate parfait with kirsch marinated cherries, but I think I preferred the ‘pre-dessert’ - a large shot glass with chilled apple jelly, topped with champagne foam.  It was tangy and cleansing and texturally quite lovely.

It feels churlish to note them (and they would be tagged #firstworldproblems on Twitter), but there were a couple of little jarring things I noticed that I didn’t expect at such an upmarket restaurant with such a big reputation.  Things like my chair having a hole in its upholstery, and the silver platter bearing the petits fours being streaked with soap and water spatters.  My brother would have been unimpressed with the nervous French waiter, who wrote down our orders on a notepad, which seemed completely unnecessary when it was a degustation menu and he only had to remember one choice of main and dessert per person.  Obviously very minor points, and of course they didn’t really detract from the deliciousness of the food.

Being treated to a wonderful meal, getting to dress up and being able to gaze out over Sydney for a few hours...I was happy!