Six for Six at Citizen Corner

September 10, 2012

It’s rare that six out of six meals ordered at the one restaurant are all exceptionally good. This was our happy experience at Citizen Corner on Friday night.

Citizen Corner is located on (surprise, surprise) the corner of Devonshire Street and Holt Street in Surry Hills. It’s quite nice inside – simple and unpretentious with white table-clothed tables, hanging lights and frames on the walls. The staff are also unpretentious. In fact, they are incredibly friendly and make us feel welcome immediately.

It took us a while to decide what we wanted to order but eventually we made our choices.

We started with two entrees.

Our first entree was pan-fried scallops with a celeriac puree, chorizo and coriander dressing ($16).

As it turns out, chorizo and scallops were born to be together. The flavour combination on this plate was so incredible, I literally scraped the plate when we were done. The celeriac puree was the perfect consistency and extremely tasty.

Our second entree was fresh blue swimmer crab cakes with a sweet chilli jam ($16).

The crab cakes were very light and very fresh and tasted so good. The sweet chilli jam was surely homemade. It was just the right amount of sweet and just the right amount of spicy.

Next came our two mains.

We ordered two different pasta dishes.

The first was spaghetti with king prawns, fish, squid, tomato, garlic and chilli ($25).

This dish was also – you guessed it – delicious. The sauce was scrumptious – not too spicy and not too oily like some sauces can be and the pasta was perfectly al dente. The servings of seafood were very generous – plenty of fresh fish and squid to go around.

Our second pasta dish was linguine with asparagus, cherry tomatoes, pesto and goats cheese ($19).

This dish also could not be faulted. The cherry tomatoes and asparagus pieces were extremely fresh, the pesto was flavoursome and the pasta was cooked to perfection. Best of all, the taste of the goats cheese in this dish was not concealed by the other flavours.

The portions of the entrees and the mains were just right – no food was wasted and we weren’t uncomfortably full.

Which meant we could push on and order dessert. What better way to end a meal?

Our first dessert was a French apple tart with honeycomb ice cream ($10).

This dish was wonderful – crisp, flaky pastry, soft sweet apples and creamy ice cream.

Finally, our last dish of the evening was a vanilla crème brulee with shortbread ($10).

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten creme brulee before, save for a couple of times trying someone else’s. So I was very excited to see whether the top would crack when I hit it with my spoon, like they do it on TV. To my great delight it snapped perfectly and tasted absolutely divine. The texture of the creme brulee is really something – cold and creamy and smooth.

All in all, I was very impressed with Citizen Corner. It’s not often you come across a restaurant with friendly staff, reasonable prices and outstanding food. We left very full and very happy.

Would I go back? Definitely.