The Ark Lounge, Dee Why

The Ark Lounge is located on the Strand at Dee Why Beach. I went along to what Wendy called a "girls gathering followed by a walk along the coast", only to find out it was actually her pre-30th birthday celebration!!

I started the warm summer day with a spider - I'm getting addicted to vanilla ice cream in lemonade - so refreshing! And upon examination of the short but sweet menu I was originally tempted by their entree of Pumpkin Arancini, but decided against it because it's a small serving (for a hungry Cindy). I ended up going for the linguine with prawns, garlic and pine nuts - was quite average actually, and VERY oily. But according to the people on my table the Arancini was DELICIOUS... damn.... I could have boasted on my ability to pick great food! Wendy went for their King Prawn with Mango and Lychee salad - a popular

dish for our table, and apparently the mango lychee salad was great. The entree tasting plate consisted of one prawn on mango lychee salad, a fig and prochiuto with goat curd, one arancini, deep fried calamari, and oyster. She gave it two thumbs up, but said if she comes next time she will order just the arancini. So I guess the highlight of the lunches were the prawns, the entree tasting plate, and the arancini.

The honey and coconut panna cotta with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream was so delicious, I was so pleased for the choice! I initially had my reservations with anything containing coconut, but thankfully there was only a small amount of descicated coconut on top it didn't bother me much. The honey was very aromatic. This was definitely 100 times better than the panna cotta at the Orso Restaurant at The Spit (don't ever go there! Overpriced ordinary food). The other popular dessert choice was the Lindt Chocolate Cake with cream and mixed berry compote made of fresh berry which was apparently very tangy. The cake was very chocolaty and smooth, and after my heavy oily pasta I was not ready to have another heavy dessert. But it was still a top notch choice - highly recommended. My long black was ordinary though - it didn't have a bad flavour, but just a bit thin and lacked body... and didn't have much crema... disappointed but it went well with my panna cotta anyway.

I liked the food and service - would go again if it weren't for my curiousity to check out other restaurants!

The Gelato Bar, Bondi Beach

This is an old favourite with beautiful cakes on display, and is one of the busiest cafe on Campbell Pde. The Dobos is made of layers of chocolate ganache and a soft fluffy cake, topped with caramelised sugar. The fluffy cake had such a light texture it must be made of some sort of starch flour (or even potato flour)! Cherry strudle was refreshing, lightly sweet and tangy, and had almond meal inside. The filo pastry wrapping the cherry was light and crispy - yum.