bistro cbd followed by cupcakes

Spring is the best time of year, I think, because the weather is brighter, the birds are singing and the flowers are out (great if you don’t have hay fever). It’s also when lots of friends have birthdays, so there are lots of opportunities for birthday lunches.

Such as when C. and I celebrated her birthday at Bistro CBD, in King St (CBD). It’s one of those ‘business lunch’ places that are filled (mostly) with blokes in suits. An upside of this is that these places usually have good service and are pretty quick if you have to get back to work.

Aside from the a la carte menu, they also have a ‘fixed rate feast’ where you can have 2 courses for $30 or 3 courses for $40 (available only at lunch). It’s excellent value, though naturally the course sizes are a bit smaller than the norm.

We both went for the ocean trout for starters. It was beautifully marinated with bits of cornichon and a piquant fennel and radicchio salad. My pork belly main was just right – right size, right crunchy skin, right moist meat. For dessert, we both had the tamarillo, which consisted of a poached fruit with matching sorbet. I thought the serving sizes were perfect, considering you probably wouldn’t want too much food before that afternoon meeting back at the office.

However…on the way back to said office, I passed by the Cupcake Bakery outlet underneath the Ivy complex in George St. So I thought I’d get some cakes to motivate my team. Well, everyone was certainly motivated! I (greedily) snaffled the red velvet cake mainly due to the little red icing love heart. The cake itself was a wonderful deep shade of red, but a bit dry. The overall voted winner was the tiramisu.