Mad Cow, Sydney

The boy arranged for us to have an early Valentine’s Day dinner so as to beat the rush before the weekend kicked in. For us it was more of a normal date and somewhere during the night we exchanged the words “Happy Valentine’s Day” (and gifts – unromantic but practical gifts). What I appreciate more than anything, though, is the fact that the boy went ahead and organised to have dinner at Mad Cow all on his own. Usually it’s me who does all the research and booking so it was a nice suprise for me.

Mad Cow is located at The Ivy. Who would have known that this little restaurant is situated behind one of Sydney’s most classy bars?

I absolutely love love LOVE the decor of this restaurant. The colour scheme is yellow and white with that bit of a vintage/bird cage feel. It looks stunning!

Salad of marinated octopus, pimientos de padrone, smoked sun dried tomatoes, goats feta, basil; $22

To start off, I opt for the octopus salad. It looked gorgeous. It tasted even better. The octopus marinade was simple but yet made the octopus the star of the show. It was cooked in a way that it was tough but yet still melted in your mouth. I have no way of describing it but it surely was wonderful. The chillis (pimientos de padrone) were not chilli at all, if anything it gave the dish a bit of sourness and acidity which gave balance in flavours. The goats cheese brought everything together. Overall it was a delightful salad. Two thumbs up from me.

Signature beef tartare with shoe string fries; $24

From the get go, the boy knew he was going to order the beef tartare. He’s had a fascination with beef tartare since trying it at Bilson’s (still very sad that they have closed. I do have a post coming up, eventually, even though we dined there a couple years ago but I assure you it is on its way). The egg yolk definitely gave me a bit of a fright but the whole thing worked together. The soft texture of the beef tartare was complemented by the crunchiness of the bread. I personally thought that it lacked a bit of seasoning, but there was nothing that the salt flakes on the table couldn’t fix up.

The shoe string fries

Rib Eye (t & r pastoral certified black angus 180 day grain fed 400g; $52

For my main (which ended up being ours as we shared) I chose the rib eye with chimichurri (an Argentinean salsa) and bernaise sauce on the side. This plump piece of meat was cooked to perfection; seared on the outside and pink and juicy on the inside. This is the first time we both had chimichurri sauce and all I’ll say is that we will definitely be ordering that sauce where ever and when ever we see it again. The salsa is just gorgeous eaten together with the meat.

Crispy Roasted free range chicken, roast pumpkin, baby beans, tarragon cream sauce $34

When ordering chicken there is always a bit of hesitation knowing that the chicken could come out dry and tough. This was surely not the case. The roasted chicken lived up to its title – it did have crispy skin and boy was it good. The chicken was moist, so moist that I have to say the word moist again! Ah, it was superb. One of the best roasted chickens I have ever had. The roasted pumpkin was to die for. It was tender and had so much flavour! Everything paired up with the tarragon sauce was exceptional.

Mad Cow’s ice cream sundae, coconut ice cream, candied macadamia nuts, coconut sprinkles $16

The boy chooses the ice cream sundae to finish off the evening. Everything was delicious on its own, and even better together. I really enjoyed the coconut ice cream – it wasn’t too creamy nor coconut-ty which meant that you could eat lots of it.

We were both stuffed by the end of the night. What a fantastic feed! Great job to the Mad Cow team. It was all so very delicious.

Mad Cow
330 George St
Sydney NSW 200
Tel: +61 9240 3000

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