A friend recommended me to try out Icebergs at Bondi Beach, which overlooks one of the world’s most famous beaches. I had booked well in advance with a special request for window seating (window seating is not guaranteed), and was able to get one on arrival. Then again, my reservation was exactly at opening time for lunch.

So after sitting down, the first thing that I saw was the view. It was a beautiful day, and the surfers are out on the beach enjoying the sunshine.

Then came the food – the real reason I was here. So here are some of the dishes that were served.

I started out with the Sweet Corn, Baccalá Soup, “Pangrattato”, which is sweet corn, baccala (salted cod), chicken stock, cream and pangrattato (which is crispy bread crumbs with oregano). This was a great start to my meal. I’ve never had corn soup with fish, so this was definitely a new adventure for me.

Then came the coral trout risotto, which was just as awesome. I got the appetizer version on recommendation, as the main version would have been too much to handle. This was perfect.

The Chicken Paillard was the special of the day, which is a corn-fed chicken thigh fillet, char-grilled with baby cress, horseradish, eshallots, fresh chili and lemon. For something that looked as simple as this the chicken was especially tender and was simply amazing.

To complment the food, I ordered a pea salad with basil and feta cheese. Yum.

Of course, the meal would not be complete without dessert. The classic “Sgroppino” for two, which is lemon sorbet blended with Prosecco, was the choice of the day. All of this was done in three-and-a-half hours time. There was no one there to rush you, so a great dining experience indeed.

Okay, this was a random shot on the way back into the city that evening, from the top of the stairs at Potts Point. Just thought I had to share.

Icebergs Dining Room and Bar
Open Tuesdays through Saturdays 12 noon – 12 midnight
Sundays from 12 noon – 10pm

After opening more than 20 restaurants in New York, London, Tokyo, Miami, Honolulu, Hong Kong and more, chef Nobu Matsuhisa and his partners including actor Robert De Niro expanded their geographical reach with the opening of Nobu Moscow. Located in historic central Moscow, the restaurant features decor that includes mother-of-pearl accents, sea urchin-inspired chandeliers and curvilinear walnut walls that resembles an ocean wave. The restaurant can house 189 guests, spread over a main dining hall and sushi bar, lounge bar and two individual bars.

I made today a relaxing day before tomorrow’s press events and then the opening of Designersblock, 100% Design and Tent London on Thursday. I headed out to the local grocery store Waitrose to check out the store.

The eco bag above may not look very exciting, but it’s quite simple and practical. UK grocery stores have been promoting the use of reusable bags as part of an effort to reduce plastic bag usage. These are definitely much sturdier than the reusable bags that you see in the US at stores such as Whole Foods or Safeway.

Then there’s the packaging. How do you make a product on the shelf stand out amongst others? This freshly squeezed orange juice literally “screamed” out at me when there were hundreds of other bottles out there. The label itself was definitely bright enough and it caught my attention. It was just as simple as that.

For lunch, I ended up at The Natural Kitchen while walking up Marylebone High Street, the main shopping street in the Marylebone area, just north of Oxford Street. This is definitely a first for me in the area, and it was definitely very charming. I had a great meal at the cafe upstairs, with a Thai spiced sweet potato soup with roasted pine nuts, then a spinach and feta quiche + salad.

The evening was just quite mellow. It is now just past midnight in London, and I have a press event first thing in the morning. So stay tuned. More to come tomorrow from the events.