Ladies Lunch @ The Village1 Kellet Way
Potts Point
The invitation by The Village to try their new Ladies Lunch menu with some other bloggers was eagerly accepted as it sounded like a nice concept - and the food sounded good too. The Village has become a night hot spot but their new food menu could easily become just as popular! The Ladies Lunch is $39 and boy (or girl) do they wine and dine you.
We started with a lovely antipasto sharing plate. It had a great assortment of marinated olives, char grilled capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, beetroot dip and hommus, toasted herbed and salted bread and an assortment of cured meats. All of it was great - but the Italian cured beef was a favourite with its dark rich and delicious flavours lingering. The quantity and quality was excellent.
Then came the crispy salt and pepper squid. Yum. It was perfectly cooked and came out tender and tasty. The chilli aioli with it was almost to mild - but still rich and tangy - and it also came with rocket and lemon.
We were also served an accompanying Pimms cocktail jug. If you picture a southern mint julep - then this looked like it. For a lazy afternoon this slightly sweet but light drink would disappear quickly and go with anything. Butr then you can also just stick with wine frome their good list.
The Pimms cocktail has Pimms, dry ginger ale, lemonade, mint and a garnish of sliced cucumber. It looked as good as it tasted - or perhaps tasted even better.
We then moved on to the Sicilian arrancini. I have to admit we've had some mixed experiences with arrancini over the years as some places struggle with it. These were good. They were crisp on the outside without the contents of spinach and mozzarella going gluey. A lovely Italian shaved parmesan topped it and it rested on a mild tomato puree. They were a decent size too - with one each being ample.
Being caring and sharing here means you also get some refreshing salads during your meal. These are light and tasty salads too. The first was a simple favourite of ours - caprese salad of tomato, torn bufalo mozzarella and torn fresh basil all dressed with a balsamic drizzle. Sometimes keeping it simple is best rather than being to busy. This salad worked - refreshing the palate.
The second salad was surprisingly another favourite of ours too - its like we were being channeled. This had roasted pumpkin mixed with baby spinach leaves, pine nuts and marinated fetta. The fetta was firm (not the silky Danish kind which is also lovely) and added some solidity to the salad which went well. It was lightly dressed - although it may possibly have even been the marinade from the fetta.
What's a leisurely lunch without some pizza! Again with the simple and fresh theme in place, the Margherita pizza was really nice. It had a very thin base topped with melted cheese and tomato and then garnished with fresh basil and a few shreds of parmesan. It came out nicely presented on a wooden board. We like good pizza, we like Margherita and we liked this!
Finally it was time for dessert. Plate one came with chocolate fondant, berry coulis and vanilla bean ice cream. The chocolate fondant was rich, gooey and decadent. It was a personal adaption of a family recipe from head chef Tristan Johnson who has put together this varied menu here. The berry coulis was nice but possibly overshadowed by the fondant and the lovely vanilla bean speckled ice cream. This may just be reflecting our own personal tastes though.
Dessert plate two had apple and berry crumble with vanilla bean anglaise. This fruity tower topped generously with crunchy crumble was a real winner. The vanilla bean anglaise went well with it but we both agreed that we still would have devoured it just as quickly on its own.
The $39 Ladies Lunch was surprisingly good - because sometimes set menu's can be a bit hit and miss. The quality and quantity provided was excellent and the ordering allows you to pace your meal nicely across an afternoon. One thing for sure - don't have much (or any) breakfast if you are going here - its very filling! We left very satified and with Mlady already talking about a return visit - without Sir!
The Village has a lovely indoor outdoor feel to it with its dining area opening on to its charming casual courtyard. While this place may be a hive of activity at night it has a homey family feel by day. This is driven by its owners decorating with this in mind (including things from their families adorning the place). If you try the Ladies Lunch you wont be disappointed.
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| The Gold Room - Private Dining |
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| The Upstairs Bar |
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| The downstairs indoor dining area |
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| The downstairs indoor dining area |
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| The Board |
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| Upstairs couch area - nice and casusal |
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| Marilyns wall |
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| Sous Chef Pete Wade |
