FCBA x MonteAltoRoasters // Casual Dining with fellow instafoodies! (*⌒▽⌒*)θ～♪

On Thursday, 11th August, I was invited by FCBA community to join them and a group of other foodies for a feast at the newly opened Monte Alto Roasters located in Crows Nest. They have been up and running for just over a month now and they have been expanding their good food, drinks and music with many of the locals. They are opened for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as offering a unique drink menu from the bar. 

Monte Alto Roasters is two-storey restaurant and bar, with a very simplistic yet cosy café-like interior. The dim lighting is perfect to set the mood for the evening, and there is enough sunlight to come through and light up the whole place, which is perfect for, us, foodies who like to take photos of their meal.

We began the night with getting to know one another, over drinks before the meal. We shared who we were, what we did when we're not eating around Sydney ad where we blogged or shared our photos. We all ordered our own drinks and I took a few photos of some of them.

Salted Caramel Espresso Martini (AUD$18), made with Salted Caramel Vodka, Kahlua and Espresso.

I ordered the Japanese Slip-up (AUD$16),  which Harry, who is the director of  Monte Alto Roasters, whipped up himself. He used melon liqueur, orange liqueur and fresh lime juice. The cocktail had a light and refreshing taste, but I was informed that it might taste light but it's actually quite strong! So I had to pace myself to ensure I didn't get too drunk before the meal.

We also had the chance to try their Cold Drip Coffee (AUD$5), which is made by slowly dripping cold, filtered water through lightly roasted ground coffee for a period of ten hours using a cold drip system. The result is a full flavoured coffee that retains the unique flavours of each coffee bean without the acidic oils typically found in coffee extracted at higher temperatures. 

We started off our meal with their Smoked salmon accompanied by Grape seaweed (AUD$16). I have never tried grape seaweed before and it was also very intriguing at how it looked. Once I took a bite I was very confused as to how the grape seaweed taste…it was somewhat like little burst of slightly salted-water exploding into your mouth. It was a very interesting dish to both look at and eat.

Next up was their Tempura Zucchini flowers with four-cheese stuffing (AUD$16). I love eating zucchini flowers, I don't know why specifically but maybe it's because the last few times I had eaten them, the stuffing was just amazing! As for these one, they had a light crispy layer on the outside and the melt-y cheese filling was really good too!

The next 2 dishes that arrived was their salads, which were their  Pear and quinoa with asparagus, rocket, feta, walnut, homemade dressing  (AUD$12) and their Mango prawn with mix leaf, tomato, cucumber and Homemade mango dressing (AUD$16). Starting off with the pear and quinoa salad, it was quite refreshing and filling too, plus you can also add grilled chicken for a filling lunch at an extra $5 on top.  The mango prawns were delicious as it had a beautiful buttery taste which went very well with their mango dressing. I thoroughly enjoyed their salads as our appetisers before the mains started coming out.

When their Crab burger  (AUD$14) made its way onto our table, a few of us were drooling because we wanted to just take a bite out of it.  It has soft shell crab, lettuce, tomato, coriander, tamarind fish sauce and a bun to complete it. The crab was cooked to perfection, as the crab meat was quite juicy and tender, plus it was easy to rip apart to share amongst us.

The last main dish that arrived on our table that night was their Grilled Atlantic salmon fillet (AUD$22). Now this dish was just amazing as tasted just as good as it looked. It was served with mashed sweet potato, spinach and honey soy sauce and, of course, it was topped with some crispy curls of sweet potato too, which made the dish look incredible. As for us foodies though, we had a hard time deciding to see which angle was the best way to portray this beautiful and tasty dish for our instagram feeds. I tried to just to take a few snapshots quickly so I can feast on this while it was still warm, because I love salmon (cooked or raw!).

To end the night we had a little pot of mystery waiting for us. We were served a panna cotta with fresh fruit, topped with crumbed oreo. It was a light and delicious sweet treat, which we finished off real quick and apparently their secret ingredient was imported special chocolate. 

I had a lovely time meeting all the new foodies and also the food too!! I cannot wait to come back to have the salmon dish again with friends, and try out the rest of their cocktail menu! 

♥♥♥♥♥

[290816]

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been able to be blog as much as my computer died 2 weeks ago, and thought I'd get one of the IT guys at work to check it out but results came back end of last week and it's dead. So I'm back onto my old laptop for now, while I hunt and wait for bargains on laptops. I have been looking into a few brands and all which will suit my needs so please bear with me until then. I will try and get some videos up soon as I know you guys have been waiting for them, but my old laptop is slow, so gotta be patient with it. Until then, enter my giveaway if you haven't already, it closes in 2 weeks!!!

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