australian rozie

Josie invited a group of us to try the Monday night 2 for 1 mussels at the Gazebo Wine Garden. I think that back in the day, the Gazebo was a famous party place for rock stars visiting Sydney. Now it is all new and renovated into apartments. In the S section of last Sunday’s Sun Herald there was coverage of the Gazebo Wine Garden’s 2nd birthday party. I had not been there before, I guess it’s not really my scene. It was an extremely cold and wet night (was it the coldest day this year?) but we still managed to get ourselves over to Elizabeth Bay (thanks Nads for the lift).
When we arrived, we seemed to be ignored by the attractive wait staff for about 5 minutes (that seems like a long time when you are waiting). I think that the manager would have normally greeted us at the door on arrival but he was caught up in the kitchen. Once he came to the front, the service was excellent for the rest of the night. To be honest, I was expecting it to be a bit “obnoxious” there – like Hugo’s or something. The waiters were very cute, friendly and funny (wishing Josie a Happy Birthday all night – even though it wasn’t her birthday). Unfortunately, there was a bit of a stuff up with Joanne’s order not coming out, so they offered a round of some “special drink” (that smelt delicious, like Christmas and I wished I could have tried it) after dinner. At most restaurants, they would possibly give you an apology if you’re lucky and that’s it. (Please refer to my post “Customer service in this town has been flushed down the toilet”).
The mussels were very tasty, I had the white wine & chive cream sauce (most IBS friendly flavours). As a regular mussel eater, I’d say these were better than those offered at Bungalow 8 (that place gets so busy on their all-you-can-eat mussel nights, it’s really churn and burn).
The highlight of the meal was the dessert, Apple crumble crunchy cup & ice cream. I think it was made fresh because the pastry was so light and fluffy (and it took a while to come out).
After an initial bad start on arrival it turned out to be a top night with great food, good friends and very friendly service.