I’m proud to be a member of Team PokerStars Online. Along with myself, the fastest poker player in the world Randy ‘nanonoko’ Lew, WCOOP Event Winner Anders ‘Donald’ Berg, twitter wizard and MTT specialist Shane ‘shaniac’ Schleger, we make up some of the biggest names in online poker.  

Now, you will have a chance to test your skills against me and the rest of the team, for FREE!

Team PokerStars Online is going to give you a chance to win some cash by playing in our new Team Online Freerolls.

Each month, $1000 will be up for grabs. You will also get the chance to play against me and other Team Online members, all with bounties on their heads. Eliminate a Team Online member and win a $25 bounty. It’s that simple.

If that isn’t enough, PokerStars is giving you even more chances to play and win. There will be TWO Freerolls every month!

To enter the $1000 Team Online Freeroll, all you have to do is create a PokerStars account and make a real-money deposit on the PokerStars client using the Marketing Code ‘godlikeroy’.

For players who can’t deposit but still want to play on PokerStars, there’s still a tournament for you to play. This tournament will also be played by Team Online members and if you our fortunate enough to bust one of us, you will win $10 to help build your bankroll.

To enter the $100 Team Online Freeroll, all you have to do to play is:

1.      Download the free software.
2.      Open a new PokerStars.com account.
3.      During account signup, enter the bonus Marketing Code “Insert Code from Favorite Team Online member blog here”
4.      You are now ready to play!

New Signups Freeroll Details

Depositors’ Freeroll Details:

To register for a Team Online Freeroll tournament, open the PokerStars lobby, click ‘Tourney’ & ‘All’.

*PokerStars reserves the right, to cancel, modify or suspend this Promotion at any time.

Nine days ago I was a fifth of the way through my 150k hand goal and eager for the upcoming SCOOP events. I have now just passed the halfway mark of my goal and have played in a bunch of SCOOPs, with mixed results. I’ve mostly stuck to playing the non-hold’em events and managed a few deep runs including 39th in #11-M (6max PLO8 hi/lo), 104th in #18-M (6max PLO 1r1a), 35th in #28-L (Razz) and 67th in #31-L (8-game). Annoyingly all my runs in the high events have been thus far unfruitful but hopefully that can change with #35 NLO8, a tourney I got 2nd in two years ago. I’m also very much looking forward to the 6max PLO the next day, which I will also be hosting.

Playing the SCOOP as an Aussie basically requires the lifestyle of a vampire with most events starting at 1am, 4am and 7am local time. It’s all about sleeping through the day and staying awake at night. Fortunately as a former avid gamer and protester to the “go outside and get some fresh air” campaign, I am well equipped to handle such a lifestyle.

Funny story about the Razz event I went deep in actually. It started at 1am and I had been awake all day, and decided to stay awake at night to play. I busted the medium at around 4am and was playing/running bad in some mediocre cash games so with just the low left all I wanted to do was bust and get some sleep. I think I had an average stack or so. I decided to start playing like a complete maniac and must have seen 4th 16 out of 20 hands in a row. I ran like a god and people folded way too much and I soon found myself with 2-3x an average stack. Sigh, right (#firstworldproblems?). My head was doing that thing where it slowly drops forward then snaps back as you realise you’re nodding off. Then I had a stroke of brilliance. I grabbed my laptop, logged onto stars and turned the sound on loud, jumped into bed and proceeded to get as much shuteye as I could in-between hands and in the breaks. I was still playing crazy but toned it down a little. This went on until around 7am when I realised, by some absurd miracle, I was 3rd in chips with not that many people left. That was enough to give me my 2nd wind and with an extra strong coffee I returned to my PC and powered through (only to bust in 35th!) – ah but it was worth it.

Returning to cash games – it has definitely been my best month of the year so far. I’m playing my best, putting in the most volume and despite running a bit under EV, after the day I had today I gotta say I’m running pretttttty good too. All 2/4 – 3/6.

With 14 days left of the month and a bit under 75k hands to go, my pace is still around the 5k/day mark (slightly over). I’m still feeling great – not burnt out – and with the way i’m running/playing should have no problem knocking out the rest of the hands. I’m only averaging around 500 hands/hr which equates to 70hrs/week, definitely the most I have ever played in my life.

In other news Puneet and I have booked another trip to Queenstown for the end of July. I will be heading down a few days early to hit up the ANZPT – Queenstown. Everyone knows how much I love that place, I can’t wait! After that my next series will likely be the ANZPT Grand Final in Melbourne at the end of August.

P.s hope everyone likes the new site makeover! There are still a few bits and pieces to be touched up / filled out but i’m happy with how it has turned out

• I have already played 30k hands and while this is slightly behind pace, I only need to get in slightly over 5k hands per day. Totally doable.
• I have no travel plans for the month and no significant time consuming events coming up.
• I’m feeling really good about my game and my health both physically and mentally – this is one month I don’t envision getting burned out in.

Month to Date

Going into a bit more detail on that last point – I have been eating exceptionally healthy for the last few days and plan to cut out alcohol entirely for the rest of the month. Both of these add up to having far more poker energy and will help me stay alert at the tables for longer. In addition to this I have been working my way through The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler. It’s a fantastic book. It’s not the easiest read – in fact I have had it downloaded on my iPad for a few months and it took my most recent and most concerted effort to get the book to stick. It’s not a book that you can just read cover to cover and expect to get help out of. There are exercises, writing tools, processes and learning models that require constant work. It’s worth it.

I now begin every poker session with a short warm-up which constitutes of getting myself into the right state of mind and looking over some pre-written notes about my overall game plan. I end sessions with a short cool down which is logging my results into a spreadsheet with a few ratings on my play and comments of the session. I focus more on keeping my attention on the tables and not on twitter, skype or reddit. 2p2 being down is certainly helping in this regard. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of what is possible by applying the techniques within The Mental Game of Poker and am already noticing a marked improvement in my play. My results have been pretty good too but as they are subject to great variance I am learning to apply less weighting on day to day results and more on how well I play.

In other news it’s that time of year again at PokerStars and the SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) is upon us. Day 3 has just completed and I’ve only played two events – but all the omaha ones are yet to come and I don’t plan to miss any of them. I’ll make another post detailing my schedule a bit more. I also get to host two events as a part of my role as a part of team online – I will be hosting event #24 PLO 1R1A ($11/$109/$1,050) and event #36 PLO 6-max ($55/$530/$5,200). The structure is great in that anyone can give the SCOOP a shot starting out with their low events – so jump in and I’ll see you at the final table!

I’m going into May wanting it to be an epic month – mostly in terms of volume but hopefully with results to follow. Day 1 got off to a great start with me putting in almost 8k hands – not a pace I expect to sustain but I would be happy with anything north of 5k/day average for the month. On that note I should come up with some goals. I was reading an article earlier that mentioned a person is considerably more likely to follow through with goals they set if a) they are tangible (ie “I will play 150k hands” and not “I will play more”) and b) if there is a sense of accountability. That accountability can come from anywhere – a bet with a friend, a training partner, friends/family or in my case, the blogosphere. The thought behind it is that if you put your goals out there and have other people know what they are you are far more likely to follow through and succeed because there is an inherent desire within people to want to please others / not disappoint others. So, on that note, goals!

• 150k hands of poker
• 8 poker videos (5-6 for UltimateGrinders and 2-3 for PokerStrategy)
• Follow through with C25K - I’ve been out of shape and inactive for too long and this seems like a good way to get going again

That’s it. I’ve found making too many goals is unrealistic and results in me trying to spread myself too thin and ending up not getting anything done. If I can do the above 3 i’ll be very happy and will look at adding something new for June.

Hope everyone else had a good April and I wish you all good luck for May

Okay then – back on track. Yes, Puneet and I are engaged. Yay! I proposed to her on our last night in Queenstown but it isn’t official until it’s on Facebook, Twitter and my Blog – right? right. Without getting  too mushy gushy about it all I’ve chosen to document the evening via photography:

After an amazing day spent in Glenorchy, Kinloch and Paradise we get back to Queenstown and decide to feed some duckies. We buy some food and head down to the lake

Seriously, what an amazing place. We walked out onto the rocks and were loving life, the ducks and the scenery

Someone seemed especially happy. I had been carrying the ring with me all day (the box is not an easy thing to conceal on your person!) looking for the right time/place and when I didn't find it in a place literally called "Paradise" I was a bit worried. Then we were here and it was perfect so I popped the question, she almost fell into the water, but didn't, and said yes

We headed back to our hotel room and called the families then went down to the bar and ordered two glasses of some fine champagne. The hotel decided to just give us the bottle. Thanks Sofitel Queenstown!

*clink* Cheers!

After our drink we headed over to the Bunker for dinner. When we arrived wouldn't you know it but the concierge from the Sofitel had called ahead and organized another glass of champagne for us. What were they, trying to get us drunk or something? I unfortunately didn't get any photos of the place which is a shame because it was spectacular - very rustic with several fireplaces and an indoor/outdoor setting for their upstairs bar. Trust the one photo I did take to be of fire though - I love fire - but the food was excellent and I highly recommend the place either for a cocktail upstairs or food in the restaurant.

And there you have it. The next day we flew home. The perfect end to a perfect trip.

The air is clean and during the cooler months the smell of fireplaces burning all around town envelops the town. There is so much to do: if you’re into the great outdoors then you’ll find no shortage of adventures or if you prefer to spend your time indoors there are a plethora of quaint restaurants, bars and places to chill out. An obvious favourite of mine is Wine Tastes the wine tasting centre in the middle of town. The idea behind it is that upon entering you are given a card which you can then insert into any one of the many machines surrounding the edge of the restaurant littered with wine bottles and descriptions to get either a taste, half glass or full glass of the particular wine. It is an excellent way to taste wine and the little touches of being able to order cheese or dip platters as well as the warm decor only adds to it’s charm.

This isn’t going to be a particularly long entry, and I will be sure to update at least once more on the specifics of what we did while here but there are two things that have excited me greatly this time that did not on any prior trips. The first is the availability and awesomeness of the Bluff Oyster. I had never heard of it until on this trip when we were walking throughout the streets of town and written in chalk on every specials board of every restaurant was “BLUFF OYSTERS AVAILABLE NOW” or “BLUFF OYSTER SEASON HAS BEGUN”. And if the restaurant didn’t have a specials board, they pulled out a board just to announce the arrival and availability of the bluff oyster. Needless to say I was intrigued.

A little online research of the bluff oyster found countless references to it being the best oyster in the world or, if the reviewer was particularly nitty, it fell to the pitiful rank of one of the best oysters in the world. So, today with lunch, I ordered up half a dozen of the bad boys:

Outstanding. 10/10. The best oyster (perhaps the best thing ever) I have eaten. For starters they were enormous. The were creamy, but not too creamy, especially for an oyster of the size. They were intense in flavour. The first thought that came to mind was “this is a sydney rock oyster on steroids”. They were served with a sherry vinaigrette but they didn’t need it and I didn’t use it. They were perfect as is or with a bit of lemon. Holy moly. You probably think i’m overselling these things, but i’m not. I’ll be eating them every day for the rest of the trip, that’s for sure.

I mentioned two things but the second doesn’t seem all the exciting (at least not yet) compared to what I’ve just written. Tomorrow we’re heading out on a private fishing trip with Clearwater Fishing for 5 hours – something I have wanted to do ever since my friend Daniel went on one in Sydney a couple of months ago. I’ll definitely be taking photos and reporting back with a trip report after the fact but for now i’ll just end with: Queenstown is the nuts and to be continued…

p.s I also found a cool tree:

I’m honoured and humbled to have been asked to be a part of PokerStars Team Online and will do my very best to represent my position with the site both here in the Australia & New Zealand region as well as around the rest of the world both online and off.

I was asked to answer a few questions regarding this Team Online assignment and I think snippets of the answers will be posted on the PokerStars.com Blog but I’ll post the full responses here for those interested in what becoming a part of team online means to me + what I hope to achieve being on the team:

1. How do you feel about becoming a member of Team PokerStars Online?

I feel incredibly humbled and honoured to have been chosen to be a part of Team PokerStars Online. It has been a dream of mine for a while now and to actually see it come true is an incredible feeling.

 

2. What do you hope to bring to the game of poker in ANZ?

Currently the main game of poker is No Limit Hold’Em with PLO being a distant second. It is like this in most places in the world but I would like to close the gap between the two and bring more popularity to the wonderful game of PLO. I truly believe that the game is more fun, complex, interesting and challenging and that all poker players should learn to play it.

 

3. What can we expect from you in 2012?

In 2012 I hope to continue to advance as a poker player putting in a lot of volume on PokerStars.com eventually leading up to reaching SNE for the third year in a row. I’d love to work away from the tables as well on increasing the popularity of PLO both in the ANZ region and worldwide.

 

4. How do you think your blog readers will react to the signing?

My blog readers have been incredibly supportive ever since its creation over a year ago. I believe they will be happy for me and eager to see what I can and will do with my new position as a part of the team. I appreciate and value the support of my blog readers incredibly highly.

 

5. If the public should know one thing about Roy Bhasin the man, what would it be? And how about GodlikeRoy the poker player?

 

As a man it would be that I am always eager to try new things and expand my horizons. Whether it be travelling to a new place, eating a new type of food, attempting a new activity or anything in-between. Much in the same veign as that the one thing about me as a poker player is that I am always trying to adapt and am open-minded about all forms and types of poker. I will play try any variant, any format (tournament, cash, SNG) and any number of players (FR, 6max, HU) as well as all ranges of starting stack sizes. I find this approach to poker more interesting and it allows me to stay fresh at all times.  Basically, I just love poker.

So there you have it! As you can imagine this is an incredibly exciting time in my life and a great opportunity for me. I’ll be making a few more posts in the upcoming weeks about what else I have been up to over here along with a well overdue poker update. There is also an upcoming promotion for those in Australia that will be revealed in the coming weeks which I will be a part of – stay tuned Hope everyone is well! Cheers!

All seven of us set out at midday after picking up the keys to our rented Toyota Tarago. Puneet was charged with driving, I was in charge of directions and the rest were in charge of staying out of trouble. We all failed. I kid, I kid, it was quite the success actually.

Our first stop was Churchill Island. You access the island via another small bridge just off the main part of Philip Island. The main (only?) attraction here is a heritage farm. None of us really knew what to expect and this stop was a part of a package deal that we’d booked, we all mostly wanted to see the penguins. But we were pleasantly surprised. This place was awesome. For starters it had spectacular water views that appeared behind enormous green fields.

Churchill Island

Churchill Island

Churchill Island

The animals were charming and ranged from sheep to ducks to horses to chickens to turkeys and our favourite of all – their border collie sheep dog. We managed to catch the dog in action as they have a daily show where he rounds up the sheep – it was awesome to watch. After he’d done his work his trainer decided to show us it’s not just sheep he can round up and had him chase down the two turkeys within the enclosure. If you’ve never seen a turkey bolt for it’s life you are missing out on one of life’s funniest experiences. The only way I can explain it is if you can imagine the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail after he had lost both arms running for his life, jumping back and forth from one foot to the other.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjEcj8KpuJw]

We were in tears. It was just one of the turkeys too. The other one was smart enough to realise that if he just stood still the dog would stop trying to chase him down and round him up. Not the most clever turkey to have lived but oh so funny. I wish we took some photos or video footage but we were too captivated to consider that. So instead, here’s a duck:

Ducky

Next stop was the koala sanctuary. This place was pretty cool but not the most exciting koala sanctuary that I’ve been to, especially since I grew up only a few minutes away from the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. A few photos:

Sleepy Koala. Actually he's just a normal koala - all they do is get high on eucalyptus leaves and sleep all day.

Koala Daniel eating some Eucalyptus..

Koala Daniel is one happy chappy

After the koala sanctuary we were starting to get hungry so we made a dinner reservation and headed into the beach side town to kill half an hour  before we ate. Once again not really knowing what to expect we were blown away when we stumbled upon this fantastic beach:

Beach at Phillip Island

Dinner was pretty lackluster. We went to Infused based on some good reviews and the fact that we could get a reservation and they were opening early. Service was bad, cocktails were undrinkable and the starters were mediocre at best. The mains were all around excellent though which at least let us end the meal on a high note.

From dinner we rushed to the penguin parade as we were starting to get short on time. We unfortunately had to miss “the nobbies” which is a place at the edge of the island where you apparently get spectacular ocean views and get to see seals close up. Oh well, it’s a good excuse to head back! The penguin parade itself was incredible. They didn’t allow any photos or video to be taken while there so I have nothing to show you but I highly, highly recommend it. Despite it being a true, hot Australian summer day the evening/night got down to very cold temperatures, probably because of the chilling winds blowing up from Antarctica. I googled a couple of images to give you an idea of what we were looking at while there and just how small these penguins were!

Penguins!

More Penguins!

All in all it was a fantastic trip and I highly recommend a visit to Philip Island for anyone wanting to get out of Melbourne for the day.

We had rented a 3br apartment across the road from Crown where we all stayed. It was Puneet and I, Gavin (Gavz101) and his gf Olivia, Mike (gordo16) and his lady friend Emma and Daniel (he plays euro sites so he has no screen name) and his female counterpart, his 27″ monitor.

Puneet and I were only there for eight days, as were most of the others, so that in itself didn’t leave for a lot of time to fit in cash games, tournaments + other stuff. I personally restricted myself to two tournaments and zero cash games. It wasn’t so much a planned restriction but when there were other amazing and more fun things to do the prospect of grinding live poker just wasn’t high on the list. Besides, I was able to at least muster together the motivation to put in a few hours playing online each day. Daniel and I found ourselves waking up at 7-8am most mornings, walking down to St. Ali for some breakfast + amazing coffee then returning home to put in a few hours of poker. Those sessions definitely stemmed my already limited desires to play live cash.

I played the $5k Chinese poker event as well as the $2.5k PLO. I failed to cash in either but both were fun events and I had swapped 5% with both Daniel and Mike who placed 6th and 7th respectively in the PLO. Also congrats to Mike for placing 2nd in the Chinese poker tourney. I forget Mike, did you get a trophy for that? (excuse the inside joke). The only other notable result was Gavz bubbling the main event by a handful of spots.

On the food and drink side of things we managed to hit up quite a few places: Flower Drum, Spice Temple, Movida, Movida Aqui, Lucky Chan, The Atlantic and St. Ali. I’d like to review them all but that would take forever so I’ll start with one or two and add the rest either as smaller/quicker reviews and/or will post them later as I have more time. Let’s start with The Atlantic:

The Atlantic is a restaurant specialising in seafood (surprise surprise) within Crown along the Southbank side. I went here three times, all for lunch, and all were excellent. In addition to the restaurant part of the venue they also have an oyster bar and a downstairs cocktail lounge called The Den. I didn’t try either but Puneet and Emma went to the cocktail lounge one night while Mike and I were in tourneys for a drink and said it was very nice. Despite not trying the oyster bar per se, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to order oysters off the menu each time I went. They had four options: Cowell Bay (South Australia), Duck Bay (Tasmania), Cloudy Bay (Tasmania) and Moreton Island Rock (New South Wales). They varied in flavour and texture but all were excellent, very fresh, and perfectly shucked.

Oysters at The Atlantic

The food was consistently very good. Twice we ordered individual dishes and the third time we ordered a bunch of their sharing plate options, the food was great in all instances. The Smoked Slow Roasted Quail with grilled figs, rocket salad, quail egg and blasamic jus gras was my favourite starter and of all the mains that I had and tried the Steamed Wild Barramundi with confit fennel, blood orange, fennel foam and pink peppercorn powder was the best. Drinks went off without a hitch too with all the wine we ordered being great not to mention the excellent cocktails. I’ll give the food & drink an 8.5/10.

Steamed Barramundi from The Atlantic

Service was a bit of a mixed bag. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t exceptional either. A couple of times we had to wait exceptionally long to place our orders or ask for something else but for the most part it was decent enough. On one occasion our waiter or the manager deduced we were poker players and it was a lunch right before the Chinese poker event Mike and I were playing so he immediately ran to ask the kitchen to rush our food out – that was a nice touch. Overall I give the service a 7.5/10.

The Ambiance of the restaurant was incredibly pleasant. Everything from the decor, layout, lighting and presentation of the space to the indoor/outdoor seating areas and individual rooms that gave you a very private dining experience worked wonderfully together. I sat in three completely different areas each time we went and none were even close to the others. They have a large space and use it very well — it’s not just one giant seating area with a bunch of tables. It’s far enough away from the gaming floor that you could convince yourself you’re not even at a Casino, especially if you enter from the Southbank side. I give the Ambiance a 9/10.

The Engine Room at The Atlantic

Value for money is always a tricky one. You can usually expect to pay a premium for any restaurant located within or in close proximity to a casino (especially one as prestigious as Crown which prides itself on offering high-end dining). The Atlantic is no exception but it certainly doesn’t use this fact as an excuse to unreasonably inflate their prices either which is refreshing. It’s definitely not a cheap eat, or a “cafe style” lunch but for a bit of a splurge and consistently good food it lives up to expectations. I’ve definitely had worse food for the same or more money and comparing it to the other options available in and around Crown it fares well. Oysters will set you back $3.50 to $4.50 each with a dozen ranging from $38 to $48 depending on the variety. Starters hover around the $25-$30 range and most main courses hit around the $40-$45 mark. Exceptions are the crayfish platter or “today’s catch” which are both sold at market price. All things considered I give The Atlantic an 8/10 for value for money. If the food wasn’t as good as it was this number would definitely drop quite quickly.

Verdict: I give The Atlantic a 33/40. If you’re in or near Crown and you like seafood, this is the place to go. I’ll definitely be returning.

After the Aussie Millions we returned home and Gavin and Olivia came too to spend a few days in sunny rainy Sydney. We made it out to the Hunter Valley one night where we hit up some wineries and had an incredible meal at Muse (more on this later). On the one day of sun we had we took full advantage: an afternoon at Bondi Beach, evening hanging out in our local park by the water and by night we had a feast. I BBQ’d some chicken wings then cooked my infamous rib-eye’s inside. Gavz and Liv made one of the best chocolate cakes in existence and Puneet was on cocktail duty. A pretty much perfect night.

Cake & Cocktail Production

I have much more to say and share but for now I’ll wrap this post up. My plans for the immediate future are more online grinding for a week until I head to India for 8 days for a cousin’s wedding. I haven’t been back for a few years (far too long!) and i’m sure the wedding will be amazing so i’m incredibly excited — i’ll have to remember to take plenty of photos and post some up when I return. Hope everyone is well – Cheers!

I’ve thought a bit about how to rate each place and what categories to use and have decided on the following: A total score will be awarded out of 40.

10 points each food & drink, service, ambiance and value for money. They’re all pretty self explanatory. Value for money can be tricky when you’re comparing a $150 dinner to a $30 dinner as the former is rarely worth five times as much as the latter (diminishing returns blah blah blah) so i’ll try and use it as an indicator for evaluating a place against other places of a similar price point. There are definitely times when an expensive dinner seems totally worth it and other times when it doesn’t, similarly many times a value dinner will be incredible or just terrible.

Anyway, we have been to several places worthy of review over the past few weeks and I expect to get to the others shortly but to begin with, here’s a review of Jonahs at Whale Beach.

Jonahs at Whale Beach

website

Jonahs is a boutique hotel with restaurant and outside bar located high atop a cliff at Whale Beach. It is a part of the Relais Chateaux (from their website):

Relais & Châteaux is an exclusive collection of 475 of the finest hotels and gourmet restaurants in 55 countries.

Established in France in 1954, the Association’s mission is to spread its unique art de vivre across the globe by selecting outstanding properties with a truly unique character.

Furthermore, Relais & Châteaux is also a family of hoteliers and Grands Chefs from all over the world who share a passion for, and a personal commitment to, ensuring their guests are privy to moments of exceptional harmony. To choose Relais & Châteaux is to experience an unforgettable celebration of the senses.

From the vineyards in Napa valley to the Northern beaches of Sydney, from the olive trees in Provence to the lodges in South Africa, Relais & Châteaux offers a chance to explore the Route du Bonheur and discover a special place in a variety of destinations.

The Relais & Châteaux signature reflects this ambition: “ALL AROUND THE WORLD, UNIQUE IN THE WORLD.“

Jonahs was somewhere we had been wanting to go to for a long time, and we had high expectations. It didn’t disappoint. Before we even arrived and were driving up the cliff side winding roads we knew we were in for a treat of a view. The restaurant was quaint and house-esque with the decor of a modern French slash contemporary Australian beach side dwelling. We were greeted with great service and seated immediately. We elected to order our starters from the tapas menu and enjoy them on the outside deck while having a drink and enjoying the view then finish with our mains back in the main restaurant area.

Food & Drink

We started with Marinated Sicilian olives and fried Marcona almonds as well as some Garlic prawns Andalusia style. It’s hard to get olives wrong and i’m glad to say that these were up to par. The prawns were especially fantastic. They weren’t overwhelmed by garlic as is often the case and while they were doused in a good amount of oil it was very high quality and not at all over the top.

Our cocktails were very good. I had a gin martini and Puneet had a lychee martini. Again it’s hard to get those too wrong but it’s always good to know a place can do them right.

Before our mains came out I had also ordered their Half dozen Sydney rock oysters served with lemon and raspberry vinegar mignonette. I’m a big fan of natural oysters so any addition usually has to be pretty spectacular for me to like it better than the standard. The mignonette was good but a little too sweet for my personal liking. The oysters themselves were great.

For mains I had the Spring Lamb – Roasted saddle and  herb crumbed cutlet with zucchini and peas trifolati, baby zucchini flowers and pea purée. Again, very good. The whole dish blended together very well with both the flavours and aromatics complementing each other. The lamb was cooked to perfection, some of the best I have ever had.

Puneet had the Bomba Rice on a creamy risotto with baby vegetables, semi dried tomatoes and Pedro Ximenez Sherry wine reduction. This was a bit thick and heavy without a tonne of flavour. The flavours that were there worked well and it was a tasty dish for sure but it wasn’t really in the same class as the other food we had.

We ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir from Oregan in the US for our meal (I can’t recall the exact name, shame on me). It was excellent.

We were too stuffed to fit dessert in by the end.

Overall I give the food an 8/10.

Service

The service was good but not phenomenal. We were greeted well and everyone was polite and helpful throughout the evening but once we had been seated we had to wait a while and try and flag down a waiter a few times before getting our order in. That slight annoyance aside, the meal went smoothly. They were very accommodating in letting us have the first part of our meal outside and even brought over a blanket when they noticed it was a bit chilly. I give the service a 7.5/10.

Ambiance

Ten out of ten. Perched atop a cliff looking out over the pacific ocean with waves crashing into the rocks and beach below it’s hard to give this place any less. It was quiet, secluded, special. There’s not much else to say – in terms of places with a view to eat in Sydney (better yet, the world) you would be hard pressed to find better than Jonahs. 10/10.

Value for money

Jonahs isn’t cheap but you pay for the view. It also delivers in terms of food quality and competent service. There are probably better places you can go to for a purely fine-dining experience and similarly you can get away with views close to this for much cheaper but combining the two is a rarity. Overall it delivered what it promises without disappointment. I give it an 7.5/10 in terms of value for money.

The Verdict

I give Jonahs at Whale Beach a 33/40. I would definitely recommend it to others and it is somewhere everyone should go to at least once. If we were to go back anytime soon I think we would sit on the outside deck and have a few drinks + tapas rather than opt for the full meal. It would be a wonderful place to chill out with a few people and take in the view.