Fireworks and the best private dining ever

[vilakins]

Awww, I have virtual fireworks from kalinda001! And a card from zoefruitcake. :-)

And now here are photos I took of two private dining rooms at the restaurant we went to on Thursday night for Greg's work do, Kermadec. We were in the main restaurant, right by the floor-to-ceiling windows with a view over the viaduct harbour, but these two rooms off to the side on the way in are the coolest I've seen.

Eating with the fishes

You go across the stepping stones and there are goldfish in the water! Through the doorway to the right is the Zen Room.

Zen and the art of dining

Yep, this one has a Zen garden, also with stepping stones. It was hard to fit much in because of the position of the doorway. But how cool are those?

Comments

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

That looks like a really interesting place. How was the food?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Very good! I had fish because it specialises in that. It was a pity though that all three starters and mains on our set menu had fish, seafood, or meat: nothing for vegetarians and little for people who eat kosher. The orthodox couple had to get a special starter because they all had seafood or ham or bacon. [flails] I went for the tomato soup with prawn dumpling and left the dumpling. :-P I keep telling Greg that having one vege option in each course will cater for vegetarians and any religious food laws, but he didn't organise it. [rolls eyes]

Anyway, the fish was lovely and so was dessert: chocolate cheesecake. :-D

[kerravonsen]

The place we went to last night is the same one we've been to for the past few years -- before then we tended to move around every year. But this has
- excellent food
- unusual recipes (so it's an adventure)(*)
- our "set menu" usually has at least one vegetarian dish
- excellent wait-staff/cooks -- one of us is very allergic to wheat starch, and not only were they willing to make a special version of a dish (when she realized it had soy sauce (which often has wheat starch in it)) but they remembered her food allergy the next year and asked her whether there were any problems.

(*) For example, the dessert I had this year was Lime panacotta, and we were wondering what else was in it that we could taste and recognise, and then one of us realized it was lemon grass.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I blame the person who organised the meal rather than the restaurant. Apparently there were meant to be vege options but he changed the menu. Sigh. It's so thoughtless.

Ooh, lemongrass pannacotta! I buy an absolutely delicious one from Foodtown.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

chocolate cheesecake

That does it. That's it. My mouth is watering. Mum's buying a cheesecake for dessert for Christmas Eve, when some friends of the family are coming over for dinner. It has to be chocolate now, has to be...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yum!

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

It sounds like an amazing place - love the pictures. My dream house has glass floors with aquariums underneath them, I find fish and water so soothing.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Mo too. I ate at a cafe in a garden cantre last week and they had all these water features: running water is so relaxing.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Oooh... I bow before the coolness of those rooms! Hope you had a great time...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We did! We were in the main part which is a lot less cool (in fact it was very hot with the evening sun pouring in) but their food is excellent.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

That evening sun can be hot at the moment... I'm glad the food was good.

[kerravonsen]

Those are cool rooms.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Aren't they! They take 8 each; maybe one day we'll book one if we can get enough people together.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Zen and the art of dining

A) Those are awesome pics, and B) I dare you to write that.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ha! Now there's a suggestion I may take up. :-)

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'm slightly disappointed that there isn't a big hexagon with glowing squares to take your order... but maybe there is, and you were standing in front of it?

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

oh my goodness, I adore it! I want to go there!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

So do I. We'll have to find 6 others to book a room, I suppose. I think I'd go for the fish one but I'm not sure.

Perfect icon!

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

Those rooms are totally fabulous.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Aren't they! Now I want to eat in one.

[sorsha-khan.livejournal.com]

Wow. Those rooms look great, but I bet you couldn't drink too much with those fish to step over!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

True! And getting out of those seats when drunk mightn't be that easy either!

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Do you get to feed the fish? ;^)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm sure people do!