Sunday, 2 October 2016

Biota Dining, Bowral

Just outside of the Bowral town centre, Biota Dining is a fine-dining restaurant shrouded by a tall row of bushes along the main street. There is limited parking outside the restaurant but don't be discouraged by the sheer number of cars filling the car park - the spots may be occupied by people attending a party/function in the small area next to their bar.

En Route from Car Park to Restaurant

Biota Dining offers both degustation tasting menu ($145+ pp; requires reservations beforehand) or bar dining during lunch hours. As this was a last-minute food stop, our group didn't have a booking so we rocked up to see if they were able to fit us in for a late lunch. Ivanhoe did try calling beforehand but got stuck with their voicemail...

Li-Sun Exotic Mushroom Tour, Mittagong

Two months ago, Ivanhoe began organising a group road trip to Bowral in order to attend the Li-Sun Exotic Mushroom farm tour in nearby Mittagong over the Labour Day long weekend. I wasn't quite sure what to expect so I did a little research/light reading to get myself prepared for what was ahead.

Fortunately, the weather on this day was awesome and we headed down south early in the morning so that we could scout out the local cafes in the Bowral town centre before the tour. The time soon came to head to the local swimming pool car park, which was the pickup point for the tour.

Shuttle Bus

Saturday, 1 October 2016

Le Montage, Lilyfield

Ever since I received my 'golden ticket' invite inside a choc block, I've been looking forward to B&J's wedding for some time... cos the wedding had to be running on a chocolate theme, right? As an FYI/fun fact: unbeknownst to the bride and groom, 1st Oct is actually referenced in 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory' story as the day on which the golden ticket bearers could enter into the chocolate factory - how appropriate for the wedding!

The wedding ceremony and reception was to be held at Le Montage, which I had previously been to for a night-time wedding reception and the location just screamed CLASS (or maybe it was because the other couple had put in a lot of time, effort and clearly ~moolah~ to creating an awesome wedding reception)!

Sign in Driveway

So on this sunny, but seriously windy, day, I actually set up early with T-bone and Ally to check out the nearby Orange Grove markets and used this chance to source breakfast and baked goods before attending to my ushering duties for the wedding ceremony.

Saturday, 24 September 2016

Gelato Messina HQ & More, Rosebery

Following on from our lunch at the Three Blue Ducks, we continued on our food crawl in search of dessert.

Messina HQ

Located diagonally across the block from the Saporium car park, is the Gelato Messina HQ, which offers gelato and cakes to passing customers, and appears to be the location of their cooking classes.

Three Blue Ducks, Rosebery

For over a month, the ND food group preparing and planning for a Rosebery food crawl and it finally happened! Foodie adventures was meant to begin at midday in Rosebery but due to a late departure and traffic, I didn't end up getting to the Saporium, Rosebery, until 12:45pm. By that time, the group were all hungry and in search of food.

The Saporium houses a few cafes, restaurants, a health food store, and holds weekly "markets" (i.e. a dozen or so food and goods stalls) on Saturdays from 10am-3pm. However, there was limited food options there that tempted our taste buds (maybe Mr Bao but it was rather expensive at $6 per bao) so we decided to head outside and walked through The Cannery to the Three Blue Ducks.

Three Blue Ducks


Entrance to Restaurant

The Three Blue Ducks is located in a massive warehouse, with high ceilings and ample natural lighting, that has been converted into a restaurant & homeware store.