Baroque Bistro Bar Patisserie @ Rocks

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A friend and I were in The Rocks area for Vivid tonight. We've got the day off, so it was a great day to look for a trendy cafe to enjoy a relaxed late lunch and coffee.



Baroque is located in Rock's best corner block, overlooking the historical sandstone buildings, and you get the harbour bridge and the opera house views. I'd say it's a hidden French bistro gem. I think the tourists would know Baroque better than a local.



It was a sunny day and we saw a lot of customers sipping nice coffee outside Baroque. The outdoor area had a great ambience and we thought it was the perfect spot to get a quick cup of coffee and grab a casual bite to eat.

[IMAGE="http://www.weekendnotes.com/im/005/01/sydney-harbour-bridge-view.JPG" width="100%" link="http://www.weekendnotes.com/im/005/01/sydney-harbour-bridge-view1.JPG" align="CENTER" thumb="http://www.weekendnotes.com/im/005/01/sydney-harbour-bridge-view2.JPG" border="1" caption="Harbour view dining room:
Views of the Harbour bridge and Opera house" wrap="0" title="Sydney Harbour Bridge View" margin="5"]

This rustic French dining positioned itself as a 'casual fine-dining' in Sydney's prestigious tourist hotspot. We were lucky enough to be seated right by a window where we could see the harbour bridge. A good spot to view the spectacular fireworks or Vivid light shows from the distance.

We reckon this restaurant has all the wow factor.



We heard Baroque Bistro is operated by the same people that own La Renaissance, the famed French patisserie in the Rocks.

It is open 7 days a week from 8am til late and given the location and view, the price is reasonably fair but not exactly cheap and you should expect small portions.



The decor of this French restaurant isn't too pretentious or grand. It has a rustic vintage-worn feel juxtaposed with the shiny industrial metallic light fittings. There are plenty of natural lights which adds warmth to all the pink acrylic plastic chairs.

Definitely a unique fit-out and I quite like it.

The atmosphere is friendly and casual.



The interior is very industrial-looking and a bit futuristic, with a high ceiling and ecclectic furnishings and art.



We started our meal with some hors d'Ceuvres: Ocean Trout ($22)

Beautifully house cured ocean trout glistened under the light, it tasted moist and flavoursome. Served with shaved fennel, apple, dill and hazelnuts. A good refreshing entree but the portion was really small for the price we paid.



Next, we ordered the Salade Nicoise ($22)

We loved these perfectly-seared yellowfin tuna served on a bed of baby cos, tomato, black olive, white anchovies and hard boiled eggs. A light salad without the rich creamy heaviness.



We were slightly disappointed with this sweet potato salad ($16). There was plenty of rocket; some roasted sweet potato cubes and Pearl Cous Cous but very limited crispy quinoa and the blue cheese was non-existent.

There was hardly any flavouring or dressing on this salad. I would expect more for a $16 salad.



The Baroque Truffled Cheeseburger ($20) came highly recommended.

The burger was served on a large plate and it looked quite smallish in comparison.

But don't let that fool you. This palm-sized burger is packed with a thick fat patty, oozed with melting cheese and you can really smell the rich black truffle butter.



The house grind Cape Grim angus beef patty was cooked perfectly with it being pretty in pink at the centre. The patty was super juicy and tender. Together with gruyere cheese and black truffle butter on a soft brioche bun, made this a hands-down amazing burger.

It was a really rich-tasting burger. After the second bite, I had to add some rocket salad into the burger to balance out the flavour a bit.

It came with a huge pile of crispy shoestring fries.

I can assure you, this was a substantially filling, tasty burger.



A nice coffee to complete our meal.

The waitress was friendly but the service was a bit absentminded.



We did not try any of the dessert here, because they mark-up 10% more to what La Renaissance would normally charge. Their dessert selections were virtually the same. We don't see why we need to pay more when the cheaper alternative is just a street across.

Initially we thought it would cost us an arm and a leg to dine in this grandiose French restaurant. As it turned out, it wasn't too bad.

After this hearty filling comfort meal, we definitely needed to do a walk-about. So we picked up our cameras to get ready for Vivid.

#bars
#brunch
#burgers
#circular_quay
#food_wine
#french_restaurants
#restaurants
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%wnsydney