Opera Bar

I know, I know, I haven't been drinking in bars for ages. It's Christmas. Blame the shopping and the working and the packing. Actually, in retrospect, all those things should have been making me drink MORE not less..

So today is my OFFICIAL LAST DAY OF WORK FOR 2010! Last day of slogging away, working for the man before the big Radelaide Roadtrip commences. For me, the last day of work feels like the last day of school. A whole lot of people doing a whole lot of nothing. The only difference I can identify from the days of old and the days of new, is that DVD re-runs of classics like Philadelphia or The Club are replaced with Cosmopolitans and Canadian Club...

The Opera Kitchen had recently opened on the Lower Concourse at the Opera House, and Holly and I were both really keen to see what the Becasse Bakery, Miss Chu and Charlie and Co looked like in mini, fancy-sort-of-food-court versions of their bigger siblings. All the little mini's looked freaking adorable, but seriously over-priced (Plan B Wagyu Burgers that are normally $10 are $21.50!! Talk about paying for the view...) The other downside for us, was that we wanted drinks too, so we cut our losses and headed to Opera Bar!

What TimeOut said:

"Opera Bar is the perfect place for locals and visitors alike to drink a toast to the most beautiful harbour city in the world. Been soaking up a little too much vitamin D of late? Savour the view from beneath the massive outdoor umbrellas. It gets hectic on the weekends, so arrive early if you want to be sure of nabbing the best spot, and make sure you stick around to catch the sunset. Keep it simple with beer, wine and spirits if watery cocktails aren't your thing. The wine list offers a modest but decent choice of mostly Australian wine, with all but Champagne available by the glass for around $10. There's a good selection of beer on tap too, including Opera Bar Organic Pale Ale and Organic Blonde, both made by Sydney brewers Red Oak."

What Bel said:

We hunted for a table outside under the shades, but considering 1) it's three days before Christmas and 2) we were there right on lunch hour, we probably never really stood a chance. Outside was PACKED, but there were a few booths and tables available inside so we grabbed one kind of near the doors so we could longingly peer outside for any tables that cropped up (didn't happen, wah!). Look at how crazy busy it was!! You'd think the entire CBD workforce was trying to avoid work/wind down before a big holiday break or something...

I feel like I've kind of cheated on this one. I went to a COCKTAIL BAR and ordered a beer. In my defence, I'm not sure a Long Island Iced Tea and rocking back into work half-charged is entirely kosher behaviour and TimeOut said their cocktails were shithouse anyway. So instead of getting a cocktail, although I watched a few get made and they looked really refreshing and totally tasty (maybe looks are deceiving??), all three of us ordered Coronas. Two with lime, one with lemon. In my opinion lime wins HANDS DOWN but Adrian likes lemon. So good on him. Had I actually realised Opera Bar was in the Bar Guide BEFORE I'd ordered I most likely would have gone for one of those organic ones. Just to say I had one. But not to worry - I can have one when I go to Red Oak!





There's another reason I feel like I cheated a little bit. I was there for the food. Not the booze. Since it WAS a lunch date, our primary focus was lunch. So really this was a bit of a bar visit by default. Oh well. best I tell you about the food then!

Wowowowowowowowow! We shared the Opera Bar Tasting Plate, Mezze Dip Plate and the Fennel, Bacon, Pea and Quail Egg salad between 3 of us and it was perfect perfect perfect! The tasting plate had really scrummy things on it like little nori rolls, teeny beef pies, thai fish cakes, spicy chorizo skewers, fig and goat's cheese salad and pickled octopus YUUUUUUUM!! The dips were glorious too, one a beautiful beetroot, another a creamy olive/hummus combo and one a zingy capsicum. The bread was a teeny bit too much though, we didn't get through it all. The salad was the tastiest I've had in a really long time, and it totally renewed my massive crush on quail eggs. Like normal eggs - only cuter and teenier! here's some snaps of our spread...

We started tucking into our goodies when lo and behold, in rocks Matt, who was also down on the harbour enjoying drinks and dins with his work crew! It was actually super funny cos he was griping about how he'd just spent $20 on a burger! He should have come to Opera Bar for a rad feed with us...

Opera Bar

Sydney Opera House

Lower Concourse

Bennelong Point, Sydney

Ph 02 9247 1666

Alira

Let me just start off by saying one thing. Alira, I have a massive crush on you. Oh no wait, two things. Promise I'm not doing the Bar Guide in alpho order.

Holly and I had tickets to the Clinique Superfood Superskin dinner party at Doltone House in Pyrmont. All day we'd been discussing what sorts of things we'd see on the menu that night. Salmon, definitely. Chia seeds, absolutely. Goji berries, probably. Bread, NOWHERE. Alcohol, tough to tell, but it doesn't exactly do wonders for your skin so it's fairly safe to say probs not. So considering Holly and I aren't the smallest eaters I know, and lord knows we love a drink, a little bit of preparation was needed juuuuuuuust in case our fancy dinner party ended up involving us crying into our raw mushroom and tofu lemongrass broth (which it kind of did).

Pyrmont and I have never really spent THAT much time together, but I knew if we were on Darling Island Wharf for dinner, we were only going to be a hop, skip and a cocktail away from some nice bars, hopefully involving some arvo sunshine, nice bevs and scrummy starters. Some TimeOut Bar Guide mapping recon was completed before we left the office - turned out Alira was a teeny walk from where our event was being held. Yesssssssssss.

What TimeOut said:

"Alira is the ideal locale for some after-work drinks where you can gather your thoughts as the sun sets over the harbour. As far as ground-floor locations go, they don't come more picturesque than Alira. The bar and restaurant is nestled on the far side of Jones Bay Wharf, secluded from the hustle and bustle of the nearby CBD. The bar has been well designed so that the interior and outdoor spaces blend into one another. The well-considered cocktail list boasts an excellent Bloody Mary and a sweet-yet-sharp Aperol Sour with limoncello, Aperol, vanilla sugar and orange bitters. Don't worry if one drink turns into a few and it's dinner time; the menu features a two-person, DIY, wood-grilled lamb sandwich."

What Bel said:

Well they were spot on when they said tucked away! We were second guessing ourselves as we walked along the length of Pirrama Rd thinking hmmmm, it HAS to be here somewhere! But our thirst for a good cocktail before we tucked into some delicious superskin food was strong strong strong, so we hung in there and found it in the end! Literally, the end. Like, THE end of Pirrama Rd just about. Turns out it was about 5 wharves further along than we thought it would be. What losers. Anyhoo...

Alira has got possibly one of the BEST spots in the pm on the whole, entire harbour. When Holly and I arrived, maybe around 6.15, it was completely drenched in that really delicious afternoon sun that makes everyone look tanned and gorgeous. It was a little windy. Ok, a lot windy, but while the sun was out, it was really lovely. You don't get massive views of the harbour because it's right at the shore end of the wharf but that kind of doesn't matter. It's sunny, it's super adorable, and it's walkable distance from my house. WIN WIN WIN.

The OTHER thing TimeOut were spot on about is the layout of the bar. Inside are long wooden benches to eat and drink at, the walls plastered with colourful and crazy posters mainly from the Middle East and Spain. Holly and I mentioned that it looked like it would be really cosy inside in the cooler months too, with big, rustic rugs on some of the walls.

The same benches as inside are on the outside too, as well as a few smaller tables for littler groups. And there are lanterns EVERYWHERE! I have got SO much time for lanterns. So there you go, Alira, you had me at lantern.

Holly happens to be one of the massivest foodies I know, so when we grabbed our menus from the waitress, she was straight into the food, which must have been like torture for her. So much of it looked so so good, but we weren't there for huge eatin' we were there for drinkin' / time wastin'. We knew we'd be fed at the Clinique dinner, so we didn't want to fill up. Although hindsight would tell us we should have eaten as much as we could have BUT THAT'S ANOTHER BLOG POST LOL. Cocktails were definitely in order though, and we thought we'd go for the Sours. I ordered an Amaretto Sour and Holly got the Pisco Sour.

The drinks were like liquid summer, mine much sweeter than Holly's which was quite sour but still fantastic. Um, which is why they're called sours. Der. The thing I've never really understood about sours though is the egg white. Why? I don't understand why it's there, what does it mean? Sours are always delicious, but egg whites smell. So if you order one ever, DON'T PUT YOUR NOSE TOO CLOSE TO THE GLASS. Trust me on that one.

Our bevs were fantastic, but we're both renowned cocktail skullers so we thought 1) these are going to disappear in an instant if we don't order food and 2) we're about to go to a dinner party that serves food that's good for your skin. Food that is good for your skin doesn't generally include any good stuff, like carbs. So we thought we'd order a couple of plates to share. Preferably the ones that come with bread. Everything looked incredible so we got our waitress to help us pick. She told us the Morrocan eggplant salad was the most popular starter, so we got one of those, and she recommended the sheep's milk labneh as her favourite, so we ordered some of that too. And PRAISE THE SWEET LORD they came served with TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF BREAD. Totally amazin'.

I'm not even kidding, the eggplant, I could have bathed in. It was so scrumptious and packed full of flavour. The labneh was smooth and creamy and just a little bit bitey, just like good labneh should be. The flatbreads that came out were yummy just in themselves. The thicker version was nice and toasty warm and not too doughy like some bad flatbread can be. And the thinner crispy version was like eating this scrumptious smokey paper. YUM!

Had we known that we would be served these miniscule, beauty-industry-sized courses at the Clinique dinner (they were super super tasty dishes prepared by Luke Nguyen just TEENY!) we probably would have preferred to stay here, sipping our Sours and eating our way through Northern Africa, the Middle East and Spain. Oh well, plenty of time for that.

Alira

Shop 120, Jones Bay Wharf

26-32 Pirrama Rd

Pyrmont 2009

(02) 9518 4884