The Deck, Southbank

Here's what I learnt recently:

1. Pre-theatre meals are purposely portioned to be small so that theatre goers can finish their meals quickly and still make their show. 
2. Panzanella salad is a Tuscan style dried (not stale) bread and tomato salad
3. Turandot is possibly my favourite opera to watch live

As you may have guessed, we watched Turandot recently. As part of an opera and dinner package, we got to enjoy dinner at The Deck, Southbank before the show. Being located so close to the Arts Centre, The Deck enjoys brisk business for pre-theatre meals so much so that potential diners without pre-bookings were turned away. Outside of partnering with the Arts Centre, they also offer a two or three course pre-theatre dinners for $45 and $55 respectively.

We received one main each from a choice of about 4 mains and a glass of wine. We also ordered a side dish of shoe string fries ($8) as the portions were rather small and not filling. 

Gaz chose the BBQ chicken, panzanella salad for his main. Pieces of chicken with good char, refreshing tomato salad. I liked the crispiness of the dried bread which added good contrast of texture. 

My main was the rainbow trout, fennel salad. The fish was well cooked, very light and the fennel puree was delicious.

The portions were small but the option to fill up with sides and dessert were available.

As for Turandot, it was the highlight of our night! It was funny (who can forget the names Ping, Pang and Pong?), tragic, and what beautiful songs. We also met and chatted with a worldly couple who had watched the same opera many times before who gave us many trivia facts about Turandot and Puccini. They also enjoyed the opera very much.

The other operas by Puccini are La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Tosca, the former two will be performed by Opera Australia this year. I'm looking forward to watching those ones!