Now, Mr RD and I know our mexican food and restaurants and we wanted to see what this place had to offer.

The young waitress showed us to our lower level table next to the bar. She asked if we wanted to order a drink. Water would be fine. Normally we'd order wine but not this time. Leaning over the balcony from the bar giving us a lovely view of her armpits as an appetiser ... she plonked glasses on the table.

"The Magic that Makes Dreams Come True" it says here on this glossy card, promoting the Rowers. There are paragraphs of this purple stuff "...located on the tranquil harbourside.." anyway, it looked OK, and we'd just taken the ferry over from Circular Quay to have a look at Mosman, maybe get a bit of lunch, and the Rowers appeared to be the only place. We were welcomed, seated and after quite a while, were given menus. L went for the Gourmet Pie in a Pot (of the Day - turned out to be Beef) and I chose grilled Baramundi. When the waiter was finally ready to take our order, she offered us garlic bread, but we refused, although it was late and we were ravenous. We just wanted what we'd chosen, not to fill up on gratuitous refined carbohydrates. Feeling virtuous we sat back and waited.

We've been staying in Lane Cove , a short bus ride from Sydney's CBD and full of good restaurants. Yellow looked promising, and we good a good seat in the window. I ordered the lamb shank, but the waiter made a face and looked at his watch "twenty to eight - it's a bit late" This was on a Friday night, but Aussies do eat incredibly early and most restaurants are closed by 9.30 or 10. He said the lamb shank would not be ready till 8pm, and as we were not having starters...so I changed my order to Salmon. L chose the T-bone steak, which was described on the menu as "medium rare" in other words, that's how they serve it. As it happens, that's the way L likes it, so we did not get the chance to see if this was negotiable. Guess what - our food did not arrive till 8pm anyway. My salmon came with asparagus, saute spuds, and the steak with veggies, mash and gravy. With a fantastic bottle of Shiraz, called "Beyond Broke" for $19, we were so happy, we ordered the fruit plate to follow. At this time of year we expected mango, pineapple, papaya, etc. but we got a miserable little plate of underripe strawberries halved, some squeaky apricots also halved, a nectarine cut up and half a kiwi sliced but not peeled. It was poor quality and poorly presented - a miserable disappointment. They should simply have said "Sorry, we have no fresh fruit left" and offered to serve something else. Friendly waiter, decent enough mains, but quite average really. OK DM Jan 2007

We saw an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald: $25 for two courses, and after 3 hours on Narrabeen Beach we wandered in, wearing shorts, flip flops and covered in sand. We got a really friendly welcome, they found us a seat with a panoramic view and showed me to the cool, well appointed washroom where I was able to scrape off most of the sand and have a good wash before sitting down. The room is cool, crisp and beige, with white napery, big windows and ocean views - like something out of an architectural magazine.