Anniversaries call for special stays and one of the most romantic places in NSW is the scenic, misty Blue Mountains. We combine our wedding anniversary with a stay at the luxurious 5 star hotel Lilianfels and the opening of their new restaurant Miss Lilian. But there’s just one hitch!
All of our plans were in place for a romantic getaway in the Blue Mountains. The pet sitter was booked - Mr NQN’s sister Araluen was looking after Teddy and Milo and we were all excited about a weekend away. But then poor Araluen had to undergo emergency surgery in hospital and our plans looked like they were in jeopardy.
But then a friend reminded me that Lilianfels has dog friendly accommodation. I rushed to the website and there it was. The pet friendly accommodation is in a separate building adjacent to the main Lilianfels accommodation building. Excited that our anniversary weekend was still going ahead, we bundled Teddy and Milo into the car and took the 2 hour drive to arrive at Lilianfels in Katoomba in the afternoon.
Lilianfels was originally a summer time escape for the Darley family. Sir Frederick Darley was the sixth Chief Justice of NSW. He purchased over 11 acres of land next to Echo Point in 1888 and built this home for his family with 5 daughters and 2 sons. The restaurant Darley's is set in the original homestead of the family. One of the daughters was named Lilian who passed away from tuberculosis at a young age and Lilianfels was named after her. Nowadays the 5 star hotel has facilities like a tennis course, mountain bikes, gym and swimming pools.
A few weeks ago, Lilianfels' Southeast Asian restaurant Miss Lilian had reopened. Miss Lilian had been closed for around 4 years since around COVID and has opened to much each anticipation just over a week ago as locals have welcomed the opening of this space. If you are headed to Echo Point for a view of the Three Sisters, it’s just a couple of minutes walk away and a welcome respite from the cold or hot weather.
The interior has changed a little with even more changes to come in the future. At the moment it is open from 11:30am-5:30pm from Thursday to Monday with possible plans to open up for dinner. There's an outdoor area that is dog friendly as well as an indoor area. Chefs James Quang Vinh Pham and Jason Vu Nguyen lead the kitchen here.
We start with cocktails. I love the Greedy Pandan with dark rum, pandan, calamansi juice, grapefruit & pandan coconut foam that tastes like a delicious, whipped cream pandan dessert. Mr NQN really enjoys the Jade Punch with lemongrass infused vodka, apple, pineapple & lime.
A shout out must be made to our server Quynh who was spot on with her recommendations. We end up ordering a range of dumplings to start. There’s the brightly coloured lobster, ginger and shallot dumpling that is filled with big pieces of lobster.
The striped tom yum flavoured prawn and squid dumpling has a touch of that tangy spicy tom yum flavouring.
There are two siu mai on offer: a sambal chicken and leek or a lemongrass pork and prawn. Both are excellent although the sambal chicken and leek is a favourite (albeit slightly mild on the sambal).
They also bring out a caddy with four sauces: vinegar, chilli oil, soy sauce and their house made XO style sauce made with prawns. These are complimentary and the prawn XO is particularly good with the dumplings.
And if you’re looking for vegetarian dumplings, the mushroom dumplings are full of flavour and comprise of three enormous dumplings filled with a flavoursome mix of mushroom and corn.
The Szechuan chicken wings are slightly different from what I was expecting. They’re actually chicken ribs (ie the wing portion cut in half). These are dusted in Szechaun spiced flour and served with a tangy, sweet calamansi plum sauce.
The wagyu beef salad has crispy deep fried wagyu beef strips atop a cucumber, chilli, beansprout and peanut salad that sings with flavour. The beef strips are crisp and can be a bit on the dryer side if you’re expecting a rare style of pan seared beef.
The Peking spatchcock is a whole spatchcock that has been given the Peking duck treatment so that it has a lovely crispy skin seasoned with five spice. The pieces are served with calamansi plum sauce. I also think this would be delicious with some thin pancakes, cucumber and spring onion like Peking duck.
The XO seafood fried rice is one of the best fried rices we have tried. This Hong Kong style fried rice has a very generous amount of seafood from prawns to calamari in a garlic fried rice with egg and house-made XO sauce. On top are crumbled up prawn crackers that give it a nice crunch.
There are three desserts on offer and Mr NQN has one in mind: the sago pudding with a bottom layer of black glutinous rice, sago with young coconut cream, honey and fresh mango.
We also try the deep fried sesame glutinous rice balls with a sweet red bean topping. I like their petite size and the fact that they come out freshly fried. And as it’s a very hot afternoon, we also try the Vietnamese iced coffee made with drip coffee and sweetened condensed milk for a refreshing pick me up.
It's time to check into our room. Service at Lilianfels is superb. We’ve stayed here several times and the staff treat guests deferentially and with kindness. We check in and they show us to the dog friendly accommodation right next door to the main building with its own car park. Teddy and Milo excitedly chatter eager to take a look at where we are staying.
Our room #504 is one of four rooms in the building and is a gorgeous room with floor to ceiling windows and a view of the hotel’s pool and the Blue Mountains yonder. We're lucky as it’s a clear sunny day so we can see the blue tinged mountains that looks like a painting rendered to life. The room also has a balcony that looks out to Echo Point Road.
The king side bed is comfortable and there’s a chaise lounge, desk and two large dog beds. On top of the beds are bowls with dog biscuits. The dogs quickly insist that we open a bag and they sit lying yin and yang back to back chewing enthusiastically on a bone shaped biscuit.
The bathroom is spacious with a large bath and a separate shower and vanity with plenty of space to spread out your toiletries. Appelles Apothecary toiletries are provided. As it is our anniversary the hotel can arrange things like a dozen long stemmed red roses, chocolate covered strawberries and champagne for you. We sip champagne and nibble on strawberries while the dogs relax at our feet.
There are little details that make it feel like home - when I make myself a cup of hot chocolate and I appreciate that the kettle is already full and plugged in and staff are friendly no matter where you go in the resort.
After a couple of glasses of champagne we take the boys for a walk around the grounds and to nearby Echo Point. Behind our accommodation building is a leafy, sun-dappled pine forest with areas to sit and relax.
Tonight we are heading out to dinner in nearby Katoomba, just over 5 minutes drive away. Gia Cafe and Bistro has been open since July 2024 and is a cafe by day but at night its Sri Lankan roots show. The chef Chathun Perera used to work at Darley’s at Lilianfels.
It’s located at the lower end of Leura Mall in a corner building. There’s an inside courtyard section and a main restaurant area. The courtyard is good for large groups but isn’t dog friendly as it’s all indoors. Service is friendly and efficient and we take a seat in one of the windows in a cute little area for 2. There are cocktails available but we stick to water as we've already had wine and cocktails.
I already know what I want to order but we also bump into a friend Nicole who actually recommended Gia to me and she’s dining here this evening. She recommended us the hot buttered calamari. The calamari is lightly coated in a turmeric batter and then glazed with a spiced pepper butter and served with stir fried banana pepper and red onions. This is delicious and full of flavour although if you are butter or oil averse this may not be the dish for you.
The lamb pan rolls take me straight back to Sri Lanka. These are rolled up pastry filled with soft pulled lamb and sesame and then deep fried and served cut in half with a very moreish tamarind sauce. Even Mr NQN who is ambivalent to the flavour of lamb absolutely loves these.
There are five curries to choose from and we decide to share one. They recommend the Spanish mackerel fish curry cooked in silky turmeric and coconut gravy. The fillet of Spanish mackerel is quite firm but once you break it up and dunk the fish in the sauce it’s very tasty.
There are around half a dozen vegetable side dishes and I always love eggplant mojo (my recipe for it is here). The fried eggplant is sticky and sweet and cooked onions, tomato and mango chutney. This one has pickled red onions on top to balance the sweetness.
I’d recommend getting a curry and the eggplant mojo as well as the tempered cabbage. The cabbage is thinly sliced and sautéed with cumin, chilli and dried kooni shrimp. The flavour of this goes perfectly with the Spanish mackerel.
While there is rice available, I love string hoppers and it's not every day that you can have them. These rice flour steamed noodle cakes come with a little bowl of coconut curry sauce and pol sambol, a Sri Lankan condiment made with grated coconut and spices.
There are two desserts on the menu: a classic Sri Lankan dessert of Watalappam or fruit sorbet. We go for the Watalappam which is a coconut and jaggery sugar custard with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The flavour is similar to a coconut creme caramel. I had almost forgotten how sweet watalappam is but sweet toothed Mr NQN devours this.
After a good night’s sleep we have breakfast in the room which is an easy option for anyone staying in the dog friendly wing. Otherwise breakfast is available at the Orangery in the main building. At 9:30am on the dot they bring the tray to our room. Mr NQN ordered the warm porridge with poached figs, brown sugar and milk. We also try the buttermilk pancakes with caramelised banana and maple syrup.
We accidentally received the full breakfast as well but I ended up nibbling on most of this. There’s three sausages, bacon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and potatoes as well as two fried eggs. Another day we try the eggs benedict which is my favourite savoury option. Breakfast comes with a selection of pastries, toast, jam, butter and marmalade as well as tea and coffee. After breakfast we head to the nearby Katoomba Falls Reserve for the off leash dog park for the boys to run around.
Following this is lunch at Cedar Kebab on the main street of Katoomba, another place that my friend Nicole recommended. Cedar is wildly popular among locals and is said to have some of the best kebabs. Certainly a quick glimpse into the menu shows a range of kebabs that make choosing difficult with names like Death Row Last Supper, Khalil Gibran and Barbara Ganoush. Just a note: Cedar Kebabs is closed on weekends so if visiting, make a beeline for it on Friday or Monday on your way in or out.
Service is friendly and there's a whole plant based menu based on their freshly fried falafel or plant based meat but there's also chicken and beef. The plant based one we try is the Katoombian with felatfel, kofta, lettuce, tomato, slaw, onion, pickled, zhoug and tahini. This is also good mainly because of the freshly fried and herby felafel. I think next time I'd swap out tahini for more toum.
I go for the North Kat with chicken, lettuce, tomato, onion, toum and zhoug. This is fantastic, nothing can really go wrong when you combine toum and zhoug for a spicy, garlicky sauce but the seasoned chicken is fresh and tasty with the thinly sliced lettuce and tomatoes.
And coming up next: a romantic dinner at sister hotel Echoes.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you do anything special on your anniversary?
NQN and Mr NQN stayed as guests of Lilianfels and Miss Lilian but meals at Gia and Cedar were independently paid for.
Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort & Spa
5/19 Lilianfels Ave, Katoomba NSW 2780
Phone: (02) 4780 1200
Miss Lilian
5/19 Lilianfels Ave, Katoomba NSW 2780
Phone: (02) 4780 1200
11:30am-5:30pm Thursday to Monday
Gia Cafe & Bistro
4/201 Leura Mall, Leura NSW 2780
Phone: 0409 603 874
Cedar Falafel & Kebab House
129B Katoomba St, Katoomba, New South Wales 2780 Australia
Phone: 0410 151 024
Open 11am-7pm Monday to Friday
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