Can't help but love cosy restaurants

Having booked tickets to see Avenue Q at the Theatre Royal last Friday night my friends and I were faced with that age-old conundrum - grab an early bite before the show when you may not be hungry or wait until afterwards and have a late supper. Choose the former and it'll be a somewhat rushed affair. Choose the latter and you run the risk of drowning out the dialogue with tummy rumbles as you scoff Maltesers by the handful. Opting for option one, we were then faced with another dilemma: where to go that we could be sure of being in and out within an hour. In the city. On a Friday night. Hmmm...

I'd never been to Sky Phoenix in Skygarden in the evening before (only for mid-week yum cha) but for pre-theatre dining it seemed to fit the bill perfectly. It is possible to linger over dinner in a Chinese restaurant but most often you don't. With a lazy Susan on the table you don't even have to worry about passing the dishes slowing you down.

Sky Phoenix is another one of those cavernous Chinese restaurants that I seem to have been to a lot of lately, albeit rather more upmarket and tastefully decorated than most, and as it happens it was a great choice for Friday night. Not only was the food very good, it was swiftly delivered to the table, allowing us to just as swiftly dispatch it. The staff were attentive and the service excellent.

Unfortunately this style of restaurant just doesn't push my buttons. They're too big and brightly lit and impersonal-feeling. I like small, intimate restaurants with just a handful of tables. Oscillate Wildly in Newtown, Marque in Surry Hills and A'Mews in Glebe all spring to mind. Obviously candlelight is a girl's best friend on a date but I prefer cosy over brash even when I'm catching up with a group of friends. Add a soft, jazzy soundtrack, discreet staff and a halfway decent menu and I won't want to leave. Which, come to think of it, is exactly why Sky Phoenix was such a good choice on Friday night.

As for Avenue Q, best described as an R-rated puppet musical, it is without a doubt one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. Not to mention risque - the puppet sex scene just before the intermission is eye-popping - and funnily enough, real. I loved every second of it!