Rise, Darlinghurst

One birthday celebration simply isn't enough. After celebrating Sir D's birthday at Masuya, we celebrated again with more food of course at Rise in Darlinghurst, who has (in my opinion) one of the best value degustations in Sydney.

China Blue: a mixing sensation of grapefruit juice and paraiso - $10

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday nights, Rise offers their 7 course degustation at 25% off the usual price, for just $48pp, which is fantastic value. Of course we took up this offer, and we arrived for at the first 6.30pm sitting on a cool Tuesday night.

Spicy pork belly salad with tofu and bean sprouts namuru

The first course is the spicy pork belly salad, which is a soft square of tofu holding up some peppery rocket, slices of roast pork belly and topped with a pile of bean sprouts. Although the pork belly is nice, what really wins me over is the combination of the bean sprouts which have a lovely sesame flavour and the cooling sensation of the tofu.

Sweet corn soup with scallop mousse

Pizza e Birra, Surry Hills

It was our lucky day. Sir D, BLT and I had just driven out to meet Flamezy at Pizza e Birra in Surry Hills for lunch. We were expecting to have difficulty finding parking but lo and behold! A free parking space beckoned to us right outside Pizza e Birra which we claimed without any hesitation. It was just the start of what was going to be a fantastic day.

Seeing how packed the restaurant was and knowing its' popularity, we anticipated a short wait to be seated. Surprisingly, we were seated straight away as if a table had already been set in advance for us. The food gods were definitely smiling on us today! We were handed rustic brown paper menus containing an array of pizzas, pastas, salads and sweets.

Spinaci e Gamberi (Spinach and Prawn) pizza - $23.00

The Falconer, Darlinghurst

Falcon in The Falconer

The Falconer is an unsuspecting little restaurant on Oxford Street that we walked straight past when trying to find it. Sir D and I were greeted by cheerful waitstaff who asked us whether we were here for dinner or drinks, and then led us to a comfortable booth on the side of the restaurant.

Menu

We are handed us single page menus with entrees, pasta and risotto, mains, sides and salads and desserts. It all sounded so delicious I wanted to order one of everything, but I exercise restraint and we choose one entree and two mains.

Arancini (2) filled with pumpkin, stracchino cheese and marjoram - $8.00

Gelato Messina, Darlinghurst

Despite the very cold weather recently, Sir D must have his gelato fix so after dinner at Rise we walk a couple of blocks in search of Gelato Messina on Victoria Street. We are very glad to see the gas heaters outside the shop front and we are surprised to be joining quite a number of others eating and ordering gelato on this chilly night.

The menu ranges from gelato in a cup or cone, take-home tubs of gelato, gelato cakes, tiramisu, coffee and Callebaut hot chocolate! However tonight, we only have eyes for gelato.