Baller Lunch

In Jeff's words:
"Darren, Jen, and I were in the PBL rooms one weekend practicing the CVS exam and then afterwards got sidetracked and started searching up super nice Michelin star restaurants that we'd want to go to once we were real doctors."

From that conversation stemmed our pact to meet up at some really nice restaurant, perhaps Alinea in Chicago, ten years from now when we're all doctors. We would get the degustation/tasting menu and just splurge. Then, Jeff and Kat got into Canadian med schools (CONGRATS guys!), so we decided to have a baller lunch (cheaper since we're still only students) to celebrate before they left.

After searching online for restaurants, we finally picked Gusto da Gianni in Hamilton which was voted to be the Best Fine Dining Restaurant in Brisbane in 2009.  

The restaurant is really nice as it borders the Brisbane River.  The weather was also really beautiful on Saturday, so all in all, a great day!

We ordered the Peasant Menu, which was served family style.  Overall the food was ok.  The entrees and dessert were amazing, but I have to say that I was not impressed with the mains.  In fact, I'm quite disappointed about the mains.  Here's what we had: 

Entrees: 

Focaccia - this was good...fresh bread always is...

 

Fried Olives with Cheese Stuffing...good but salty.

 

Potato Frittata: YUM-O

 

Roasted, Breaded Fresh Vegetables: Really good!

 

Caprese Salad: Probably my most favorite dish of the day.

 

Antipasto Meat Dish: Tasty!

 

Mains:

Rigatoni: Nothing extraordinary.

 

Pumpkin Risotto: Ally and I pondered whether or not the risotto was fully cooked.

 

Salad: I found a huge ass dead bug/cricket in my serving...

 

Dessert:

Tiramisu: DELICIOUS!

 

The highlights of the meal for me included the potato fritatta, avocadoes with buffalo mozzarella, and tiramisu.  All of our entrees in general were tasty, and the tiramisu was authentic and good, but I was really disappointed with the mains.  I could have made a better tasting rigatoni that than.  And for the price we paid, I expected at least some sort of meat dish.  I probably won't ever go back to this restaurant, but overall, I still had a really good time with some really awesome people! 

Kat and Jeff are now off to New Zealand while the rest of us are studying for exams.  We're definitely note hatin'!  =)  But you guys will most definitely be missed by all of us!  Have a great vacation, and I'll see you guys when you get back!  And to everyone else--good luck with exams!