Friday night @ The Gabba

Rymill sparkling Chard Pinot & Te Whare Ra Sauv blanc to kick start the night !!

We weren't technically at The Gabba but rather near it...We decided on dinner at The Crosstown Eating House as it has indeed been a very long time since our last visit. On our first visit, Crosstown hasn't had the Uptown lounge bar yet on the 2nd floor and so we were excited to see what the new bar may be like....Things have changed a little....you get your menus, cutlery, salt & pepper etc. on the table all ready for you.

From the Shared Plates, we had the Kinkawooka Mussels in garlic, tomato & herbs with Char-grilled bread. Several mussels were really tiny but sweet and tender. The sauce was tomatoey and the chewy bread was charred to perfection!

From the Main course menu, Miss food hunter had the Market fish which was a Grilled Snapper with jerusalem artichokes, green beans, capers and lemon. This was a dish executed well in all aspects, the caper sauce was a hit, the roast artichokes were tender and something different from the norm of potatoes, the green beans were cooked al dente and the fish was moist with a good crisp skin.

The 350g OP Rib on the Bone was Mr food hunter's main and was served atop smoked celeriac puree with watercress and sauce viande.  The steak was juicy, tender and cooked medium rare (by default) as preferred. The slight disappointment was to find sinew through the steak in an otherwise perfect dish!

After dinner, we decided to check out Uptown for more drinks but there may have been a private function...There is now a segregated black wall & a door soon as you head upwards and no more the wide open space. The door was closed and we thought we'd not be rude and so we adjourned.....

...opposite to Canvas Club. There was some really good lounge tunes playing in the background but everyone's excited & loud on a busy friday night that the music was drowned out. We were seated on a comfortable leather pinned sofa and soon as we read their Tapas menu we thought we had to try at least one or two things. Why not? seeing as we were indulging in more wines....a Friends of Ours Pinot & a Deutz cuvee brut Sparkling ; )

We had the 3 items in all. The Sardines Tostadas, the Roasted Tomato & Sherry dip which we had to order bread for as it didn't come with'em and so Artisan bread it was with an oil & balsamic dip. Everything on that wooden board was deeeelicious and well-presented. The tomato & sherry dip was fantastic and thankfully, they they gave us a generous scoop which went superbly well with the sardine tostadas and the warm trio of breads in a bucket ie.rye sourdough, turkish and baguette slices.

Our tummies were thoroughly filled as we polished almost everything off the board but they were certainly happy bellies and by this, we look forward to another visit VERY soon to Canvas!!