Martinis at Restaurant Two

Last night (lucky me!) I was taken out to dinner at Restaurant Two, the shiny place on the corner of Edward and Alice in the city. I was intrigued at the giant tin-foil air duct tubes visible above the ceiling panels as you come in. It's very pleasant and calm inside, and very roomy. Towards the end of the meal, around 9.30pm, the place started to fill up and it was getting very noisy, but it was nice and talkable up until then.
I had a martini to start: it was FANTASTIC! As dry as a Saharan sand beetle's bath towel, about 400% proof alcohol, served in a frozen glass and with two juicy firm green olives balanced over the rim on a toothpick. I became very ...loquacious. But happy.

For main I had Asian-flavoured duck, with steamed bok choy and broccoli, with a spicy citrus sauce-thing on the side. The duck was perfectly cooked, of course, all was as it should be, but Jimmy's Peking duck at the Pine and Bamboo on Wynnum Road is just as perfect, and possibly even better. Perhaps the issue is that unless you have an appropriate culinary background and an appropriately-trained chef, Western-style restaurants rarely do a good job of Asian (or any Eastern) cuisine. I do believe this. If you want Asian, you should go to Chinatown. They will do a better job than some pseudo-fusion whatever at the local three-star restaurant. But they will probably do a better pasta or roast meat dish than anyone else.
Anyway, my duck: very good but not great. Someone else had the venison which was apparently incredible. I should have had that.

Dessert was, like the martini, FABULOUS. Creme brulee, thick, gooey, creamy, stuffed with tiny black vanilla seeds and crusted with a tough tortoiseshell carapace of opaque golden-brown toffee. On the side, a roasted fig, a scoop of super-strong, almost black, chocolate icecream and a shard of thin shortbread, heavily dredged with icing sugar. I nearly died. It was just perfect, not too much, just enough to sugar me up, but not too sweet either, leaving you with a beautiful lingering vanilla-with-hokey-pokey-and-chocolate feeling. Ah.