Tim Ho Wan - Burwood

I'd been dubious about Tim Ho Wan coming to Sydney for a really long time. Not just the crazy cues but also the outrageous prices. However, for today - my craving for a vegetable dumpling won out. It also helped that there were close to no lines at lunch hour (around 12.30pm).

We weren't super hungry, so we only ordered a couple of dishes. First and foremost, the spinach and shrimp dumplings ($7.80). This had the most amazingly thin crystal dumpling skin super delicious and plentiful spinach filling. YUM! I could eat plates and plates of this I think.

As per all our yum cha experiences, the pork and prawn dumplings had to be ordered ($7.80). This was a huge disappointment. Really dismal looking. Really not any better than siu mai from elsewhere.

The rice rolls with sesame sauce was pretty tasty. Silky smooth rolls drenched in a sweet sesame sauce. Can't really go too wrong.

The last thing we ordered was one of their specials - the crystal shrimp roll with century egg. I've never steamed rice paper rolls before. Now I know that it just becomes really sticky. An epic slab of prawn meat with a small slice of century egg and fish roe. Hubby quite liked this dumpling but I felt like there was waaaaaayyyyy too much prawn meat in this.

I think that Tim Ho Wan in Burwood is not bad. Extravagant prices aside, the service, ambiance and wait times were all quite reasonable.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 6/10
Overall - 28/40

Tim Ho Wan (Burwood)
Ground Level Westfield Burwood
Cnr Burwood Road and Wilga Street
Burwood NSW 2134
Tel: 0426 788 708

Biota - Bowral

Biota is one of those restaurants I've always wanted to try. Being in the Southern Highlands, it's relatively close to Sydney but after a yummy meal, it seemed more fitting to just stay the night also. Lucky for us, Biota offers a stay and dine package - 5 or 7 course meal with accommodation (twin share).

We opted for the 5 course meal. The food, service and ambiance combined all led to a really pleasant and relaxing experience. Several snacks were offered before the first course. This included a thing pear 'roll-up' with sheeps milk, goose ham, a cute little bowl of tasty fish roe and summer flowers, as well as an acacia seed eclair that you dip into a warm, raw hen's yolk.

Bread was bought to the table is these warm mole skins - toasty warm house baked dark rye bread rolls with really smooth and delicious cultured butter.

First course was an oyster with leek and cucumber. As my father can't eat raw foods, his oyster was substituted with a confit tomato. The oyster in the dish was really fresh and super sweet. Pretty amazing. I also loved the sweetness in the leek.

Course two was a slab of really tender pork belly, hidden underneath some greens and served with a tasty dallop of eel custard.

The next dish was house-milled single origin wheat noodles with a rooster stock and a dehydrated hens yolk. Dad's substitute was this plate of delicious smelling mushroom pasta.

The last savoury course was lamb. The lamb was all covered with pickled carrots and served with a blackberry sauce. My parents and hubby all loved it.

Pre-dessert was a honey-softie - a milk icecream with honeycomb. It was a really good palate cleanser- subtly sweet and quite refreshing.

Dessert was 'mums roses' served in these really intriguing stone bowls. Good use of liquid nitrogen to make the sorbet. It worked well with the peaches and cream.

All up - it was a really good dining and staying experience. The food, service and ambiance were all awesome and the rooms were also really clean, pleasant and comforting.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 32.5/40

Biota 
18 Kangaloon Road
Bowral, NSW 2576
Tel: (02) 4862 2005