Last Wednesday night I dined at Mad Cow with some good friends. Best of all, there was a moo-nstruck meal deal from Monday to Friday night from 6-7 pm where you can get two courses and a glass of wine or beer for $40. Although, there wasn't much choices on the menu - only two choices for entree, main and dessert. We all decided to order the entree and main rather than the dessert thinking that we'll have desserts elsewhere given that the choices weren't appealing - single selection of local or imported cheese, guava paste, pink lady apple or pavlova, strawberries, passionfruit.
 |
| Seating area |
Upon arrival we were greeted by a friendly man who was French (knew by the accent). I inadvertently booked the est. restaurant online and when I told them my name, they couldn't find it but they seated us at the restaurant without a fuss.
Up on level 1 of the Ivy, this Mad Cow restaurant sits right inside the Ivy Bar. There's a glass window separating the bar and the restaurant towards the back. As a result, there isn't much privacy but instead you get a casual dining feel. The dining table and chairs/couch supports this casual dining atmosphere (shown above). The restaurant has the same decor as the bar. There's this candle (shown below) in a ceramic vase and another similar one that is decked outside the restaurant around the Ivy bar too.
 |
| Candle in ceramic vase |
The two choices of entree were the oysters and pork capocolla. I didn't have the Sydney rock oysters but my friend described the oysters as fresh, (from today's fish markets) and rather nice. The lemon gave it the sour taste but was offset by the sweetness of the mignonette sauce.
 |
| Three Sydney Rock Oysters from today's market, shucked to order, mignonette sauce, lemon |
I had the pork as my entree. The pork was salty but the watercrest downplayed the saltiness and the rosemary oil was required otherwise the curated meat would have been too dry. This entree was great to have with the complimentary sourdough bread. It's a better choice over the oysters for that matter.
 |
| Kurobuta berkshire pork capocolla, rosemary oil |
Now for the main dishes. A choice between scotch fillet or ocean trout. I love them both! At home we always buy scotch fillet because it is thinner and tastes a lot nicer than other chargrilled steak. My preference anyway because the steak was so succulent - so juicy, soft and tender. The BBQ sauce as a condiment was fantastic! Gave the steak a nice spicy tang. I used every part of the sauce to spread over my steak. Sour and sweetness again seem to be the Chef's hat tricks these days at most restaurants I've been too.
 |
| Spicy steak with BBQ sauce |
As a side dish, we chose the pumpkin, spinach and chickpea salad. The pumpkin was soft but too much salt was added so I really didn't like this side at all.
 |
| Pumpkin salad |
 |
| Crisp skin fillet of Ocean Trout, baby beetroot, spicy lentils, eggplant. |
The ocean trout was just as splendid as the steak. When salmon or ocean trout are overcooked, the fish is flaky and looses its sweetness. We didn't have this problem at Mad Cow as the fish was gorgeously cooked with a smooth texture and the skin was crisp. The spicy lentils were not my favourite but the beetroot and eggplant were nice and sweet.
Overall the food was great, with the only let down being the pumpkin, spinach and chickpea salad but as this was neither part of the main or entree course, I would say that I would definitely recommend this place. The service and atmosphere were both very good as well. This place is in fact a one chef hat restaurant and the chef Christopher Whitehead spent five years working with the legendary Peter Doyle. Chris prides himself by using the best seasonal produce to present the best steaks in town and ensures his food is flavoursome.
Summary Review of Mad Cow:
Food rating: 8/10
Service rating: 7.5/10
Ambience rating: 7.5/10
Price rating: $$
Overall rating: 7.5/10
The best way to get to Mad Cow is to catch a train to Wynyard station as the Ivy is just across the station or any buses that stop near the train station or on the other side of George Street would be great. I wouldn't recommend driving to the city to dine here.
Mad Cow restaurant
Level 1, 330 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9240 3000
Opening hours:
Open lunch
Monday to Friday 12.00pm - 3.00pm
Open dinner
Monday to Saturday 6.00pm - 10.30pm
No comments:
Post a Comment