Sono Queen Street Mall - tranquility in the heart of the city

http://www.sonorestaurant.com.au/

I've lost count of how many times over the years I have walked up and down the Queen Street Mall, it literally would be in the tens of thousands.  This may seem like a lot of times, but when you live in the CBD and in Queen Street in particular, the visits to the mall easily add up.  There are not a large number of restaurants in the Mall and the restaurants that are there, generally cater to tourists and are a little over priced. When walking through the mall, it's hard not to notice the stairs that lead up to Sono Japanese restaurant and for many years I resisted the temptation to walk up those stairs and try it out.

It's not as if I don't love Japanese cuisine, I really do.  I've even been out to Portside to visit the Sono sister restaurant, Sono Portside, which is a very lavish affair (see post here).  It's more to do with the fact I visited Sono in the mall a long time ago and didn't think it was very good.

Fast forward a decade and the lure of those steps became stronger and stronger until I decided that I needed to check out Sono in the CBD again.  As I mentioned, it's actually pretty hard to miss Sono in the CBD, the entrance is so brightly lit, it's like a beacon on the mall at night.  The restaurant is in the same historic building as the exclusive mens club Tattersalls, only the restaurant is a little easier to get into, a quick call and a reservation is all it takes.

Libertine bar and restaurant - Vietnamese fusion

http://www.libertine.net.au/

Sometimes you go to a restaurant and by the end of the meal you're just not sure about it.  You know the feeling, it's got a great reputation, it's in a great spot, everyone you are with is having a good time and enjoying the food, but it's just not doing it for you.  I experienced this feeling last year when going to Libertine for the first time.  It was with a group of workmates and was a chance to get together outside of work and have a nice meal, but by the end of the night I was a bit disappointed.

Fast forward a year and I decided I would give Libertine another go.  There had been some changes since my last visit and I was keen to see what the impact had been.  The biggest change was to the style of Libertine, which had always been a French Vietnamese fusion restaurant and has now moved to more generic EurAsian fusion style of cooking.  This is most likely from the influence of Kim Machin, formerly of Urbane and Spring, in his capacity as consultant to the well known restaurant.

As I have already mentioned, Libertine is in a great spot and is located at the Barracks in Petrie Terrace which is the old Police Barracks that was redeveloped into a cinema and dining hub in 2008.  There are a heap of great restaurants and cafes there with one of my favourite Spanish Restaurants, Peasant, being located in the same building.  It's pretty close to the CBD, so you can walk there fairly quickly or, if you choose, drive and and park in the complex.  The night that SC and I decided to visit Libertine was an unusually cold and rainy night, so driving was the obvious option.