Eye Eat

Shanghai Memory - Ashfield

2012-02-09T19:51:00.002+11:00

My hubby and I decided to eat out one night and headed for Ashfield. There, we seemed to have spotted the new kid on the block - a Shanghainese restaurant that we had not eaten at or even seen previously. We entered Shanghai Memory cautiously as though there were patrons in there, there were relatively more customers in its neighbouring restaurants. Nevertheless, we were quickly greeted by friendly staff.

We ordered a classic shanghainese appetiser - toasted flour tendons "with full flavour sauce". What this is is really just bean curd type things drenched in sauce and oil and served with other fungi and beans. It's a really tasty dish being kind of sweet and all, but it might be an acquired taste. Me, being half-shang, really love this dish... yet, due to it's oiliness, it's not something that can be eaten often.

toasted flour tendons with full flavour sauce

My hubby requested pork and vege wonton soup. This was really packed full of MSG. Or maybe it's because I have made this dish since I was a young kid and every time, the home-made version never included MSG, that when I took my first mouthful, I was knocked off my feet. BUT - my hubby seemed to love it. So *shrugz* - to each their own.

pork and vege wonton soup

We also ordered pan fried pork dumplings. These were OK. The flour coating was a little thicker than I would have liked, but it was nicely crunchy on the bottom and flavoursomely porky inside.

pan fried pork dumplings

Last but not least, the waitress' recommendation - spare ribs wrapped in this rice thing which was then steamed. I can't describe it properly, but taste reminds me of the rice dumplings we make for Dragon Boat Festival except that the rice is not the sticky glutinous rice you normally have. The spare ribs were soooo tender they basically shredded and melted in your mouth. It was an interesting recommendation and I could see that other tables had likewise been sucked into ordering this dish.

steamed pork spare ribs

All up, it was a cheap and relatively decent meal. My hubby had a relatively unpleasant experience following the meal - not sure if it was due to the food or the oil, the beers, or just sheer exhaustion... But don't let that stop you from trying to foods - it was kinda tasty afterall.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money -7/10
Overall - 28/40

Shanghai Memory
267B Liverpool Rd,
Ashfield, Sydney
NSW 2131
Tel:(02) 9716 6085

The Cove - Drummoyne

2012-02-03T19:02:00.005+11:00

On the recent aussie day public holiday, my hubby and I decided to drive around. We drove to many places randomly - Breakfast Point, Abbotsford, Chiswick... until eventually we ended up at Drummoyne. We stopped just short of the factory outlet (at Birkenhead Point) and landed at the Cove, a nice little cafe overlooking the pool and the ocean.

Coffees were ordered first. My hubby's extra extra strong cappuccino was good, as was my mocha. Lots of people were ordering coffees just takeaway so that must mean that the coffee here is normally of decent quality.

coffees

Food-wise, my hubby's choice was the parmesan chicken open sandwich ($18.50). It came as an appeasing plate of parmesan and herb crusted chicken tenderloins on toasted turkish schiacciata bread. Accompanying this was tomato, avocado, sundried tomato pest, house aioli, mixed greens and micro herbs. It was pretty delish :)

parmesan and herb crusted chicken sandwich

After eyeing the smoked salmon open sandwich on the next table, I decided that I wanted one ($17.50). This was a generous portion of smoked salmon with avocado, spanish onion, capers, wild rocket and salmon roe on toasted schiacciata bread. Funnily enough, whilst my hubby's bread tasted nice and toasty, my bread was stale and chewy and spread with slightly over-powering herbed goats cheese. But bread aside, everything else was good :)

smoked salmon toast

Ambiance here is great, service is friendly, coffee is good, food is decent... so why not? :)

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance- 8/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 30/40

The Cove
Henley Marine Dr
Drummoyne
NSW 2047
Tel: (02) 9719 3022

Albee's Ktichen - Campsie

2012-01-28T11:52:00.004+11:00

My friends suggested a good Malaysian place in Campsie - so when we were lost on where to eat for the night, we decided to check it out. Albee's isn't a flash restaurant (looks kinda dingy) but is definitely buzzing with activity and pleasant aromas.

We decided to order the hainanese chicken rice ($10), kangkong with chilli and preserved bean curd ($12.80), and butter king prawns ($19.80). Drink wise, my hubby went for the milk tea and I decided on a white coffee. Drinks were not bad - but not as awesomely strong (ie. strong tea/coffee flavour) as some other places.

teh terik - $4

kopi susu - $3.80

The hainanese chicken rice was really good. The chicken was smooth and succulent and the rice was awesomely fragrant. The soup was meh - msged ish. The kangkong here was AMAZING. Maybe it's just that I haven't had it in a while but it was packed full of flavour. The preserved tofu bean curd thing was silky smooth and strongly flavoured. And the last but not least, the prawns were really something different. The shell was deep-fried and crispified and sprinkled full of this sweet ish powder. I think the "butter" bit may actually be pigs fat - which really took the dish to another level. I have to say, it was probably really unhealthy as I immediately felt the sore throat coming along. Worth it though I think :)

Hainanese Chicken Rice - $10

Kangkong with chilli and preserved bean curd - $12.80

Butter king prawns - $19.80

All up - don't come here for service or the ambiance. But the food here is worth a return visit.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 29.5/40

Albee's Kitchen
282 Beamish St
Campsie
NSW 2194
Tel: (02) 9718 8302

Ta Fong - Flemington

2012-01-21T08:43:00.000+11:00

Hunting for a quick lunch in Flemington, we found ourselves eating none other than Pho. We entered Ta Fong, which is a Chinese and Vietnamese Restaurant as it seemed reasonably packed with people. It had quite an extensive menu... but out of the entire menu, I ordered my usual - beef ball and beef tripe noodle soup (as I really like it), and my hubby ordered the special beef noodle soup (as he panicked and didn't know what to order) LOL :)

Anyway, both phos came it. It was yummy :) The soup was sweeter than a lot of other broths but tasty and delicious anyway. The noodles were perfect and soaked up the soup well (whilst not being too soggy) and my beef ball and beef tripe were good! I think my hubby enjoyed his noodles too!

beef ball beef tripe pho

special beef pho

Not a bad Viet/Chinese place. Soup's sweeter than normal - but sweet suits me :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Ta Fong
128 Henley Road
Homebush West (Flemington)
NSW 2140
Tel: (02) 9746 5486

Pho 54 - Cabramatta

2012-01-19T16:48:00.002+11:00

My hubby and I wanted crispy chicken noodle and hence we drove ALL the way to Cabramatta for Tan Viet only to find... it was closed!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!! >.< It was closed on the day we visited til Feb *sighz* just missed it.

After walking around a bit, we decided to eat at Pho 54 instead. Here, I went the usual route and ordered Pho - a beef tendon and rare beef noodle soup ($8.50), whereas my hubby ordered a mixed rice thing with pork chop, shredded pork and crab cake ($8.50). On top of that, I couldn't resist but order their ice coffee with milk ($3) - and that was definitely a good option. The coffee was rich and strong and sweet and perfect!

My pho was simply deliciousness! The broth was aromatic and flavoursome - had a good punch to it. The beef tendon was tender and the beef was OK too. The noodles were yummy and thick and smooth and YUM :P

ice coffee

beef tendon and rare beef pho - $8.50

My hubby's rice mixed dish was interesting. The pork chop was really tasty and tender but the rest of the mix was just average ish. The shredded pork was not to my liking as it was dry and somewhat bland. Nonetheless, my hubby seemed to like it.

rice mixed plate of pork chop, shredded pork and crab cake - $8.50

When at a pho place, I think it's best to order pho. The soup here is pretty tasty and cheap. Not a bad option in Cabra :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28/40

Pho 54
2/54 Park Rd
Cabramatta
NSW 2166
Tel: (02) 9726 1992

Ormeggio - Mosman

2012-01-15T11:30:00.001+11:00

My hard-working hubby has been extremely busy at work lately had not been let off work early for days and days and days now. So hard-working, in fact, that even on my birthday he didn't get home until well after the official work hours (you know - the 'nine to five' that no corporate firm seems to abide by?). Unwilling to be marred by the late hours, we happily trekked up to The Spit to have dinner at Ormeggio. We managed to catch the last rays of the sun and were stunned by a beautiful sunset at our table. The yatchs lazing around added to the calm and serene ambiance.

sunset

We decided to order their 6 course degustation (the 'menu creativo'). My hubby got the matching wines with it. We started with the complimentary appetiser - a deep fried squid ink ravioli with cured bonito and some other elements to it (of which I've unfortunately forgotton). It was interesting. The ravioli was really crunchy and though it looked light and crisp, was actually relatively more thick. As the ravioli did not have a lot of flavours in it, all was reliant on the cured bonito and the other stuff on top to impress the palate. And it did. It added just enough flavour to make it tasty yet delicate. So the dish scored high on its presentation, its taste and its texture :)

deep fried squid ink ravioli with cured bonito fish

The bread served at Ormeggio is made and baked fresh on premise. How did we know this? Our waitress asked us if we wanted more bread half way through the dinner and when we said 'yes', she sheepishly just came out with one roll - explaining that the restaurant doesn't expect all diners to have extra bread and as it was late in the evening (which it was), this was the sole remaining bread. Can't hold it against them as the bread was sooooo good. Crunchy and warm yet soft and fluffy. YUM.

bread

The first dish of the degustation was the organic grass fed wagyu beef buttuta served with burnt enoki mushrooms and an oyster mayo. The beef was raw but was so tender and smooth and flavoursome! The mayo was a delicious complement to the small beef slivers. The burnt enoki was a bit like crispified noodles. It didn't add much value to the dish but I guess it looked good.

organic grass fed wagyu beef buttuta, oyster mayonnaise, burnt enoki

Next up was an interesting white warm glop which smelled absolutely fanatistic! The white glop was a tiramisu of ling fish baccala with dutch cream potato spuma and crispy polenta. Oh the flavours were awesome! The fish was aparently cured in salt for 2 days then cooked in another method for another 2 days before it was prepared in some way to end up on this amazingly delectable dish being so wonderfully soft and creamy and tasty and what not. The cubes of crispy potenta were there to just be different to the smooth rich dallop, but I would have been happy with a creamy concoction :)

Tiramisu of ling fish baccala, dutch cream potato spuma, crispy polenta

The ravioli dish which followed the creamy ling fish looked simple enough, and yet - just like it's predecessor, whetted our appetites with fantastic aromas. The ravioli was filled with romanesco broccoli, and there were bits of anchovies and capers scattered for added flavour. I never knew you could fill ravioli with broccoli but oh my - it was wonderful! The buttery sauce was spot on - not too greasy and yet, just enough to douse the pasta with that wonderful melt-in-your mouth feeling. Soooo good!

Ravioli filled with romanesco broccoli, anchovies, capers

Onto the mains - the fish dish looked like a painting. There was the pan-fried flounder encrusted in almond in the midst of the garden of asparagus, herbs, smoked tuna bits and the artistic squid ink sauce. The encrusted skin of the flounder was crisp, yet the fish was cooked wonderfully. Not a bad dish.

pan fried flounder fillets, asparagus, smoked tuna and squid ink sauce

Our last dish before dessert was the veal. This was no ordinary veal. It was smoked biodynamic veal rump (cooked at 68 degrees for three days or something) served with vegetable ash (veges that have seeminlyl been burnt or dehydrated or just crumbed in some way), a toasted hazelnut puree, spring onion, radish and a bone mrrow sauce. It was really really tasty, really really tender (cooked medium) and really really un-veal like (in the sense that a lot of veal I've had previously had been relatively more dry, more tough and more chewy). I would like all my veal to taste like this in the future :)

smoked biodynamic veal rump

Our pre-dessert was a wonderful strawberry granita with foam and lime. What kind of foam? Couldn't tell you. But the granita was thoroughly endoused by strawberry flavour. Cold and icey and yummy.

strawberry granita with foam and lime

The usual dessert which followed this degustation was some mixed berry thing. As mixed berries is something I do not fancy, we managed to change the dessert to the 'barbajada solida'. This was an armedei chocolate and coffee barbajada. The traditional barbajada is an Italian drink, but on our plate, it was like a really really dense, really really chocolatey, really really strong coffee flavoured mousse thing. It was a touch on the grainy side (which I'm not sure if it's intentional) but it would have been better if it was completely completely smooth. it came with a caramel gelato which was sitting on an almond and mint crumble.

barbajada solida

All up - food here is pretty damn good. The views and the atmosphere is spot on and we couldn't really complain about the service either. Definately a good choice from my dear hubby :)

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 8.5/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 32.5/40

Ormeggio
d'Albora Marina
The Spit , Mosman
NSW 2088
Tel: (02) 9969 4088

Jin Yan (2) - Castle Hill

2012-01-11T19:29:00.000+11:00

For an early birthday dinner with my family and some family friends, we went to Jin Yang, the Chinese restaurant within Castle Hill RSL. The waiter who served us was relatively noob. We were like - how's the crab? He'd reply... we don't have crab...wait, let me check (then 2 mins later)... oh, there is crab. We'd ask - Can we get a barramundi (after seeing a tank full of them outside)? He'd reply ... we don't have barramundi today ... wait, let me check (then 2 mins later)...oh, we do have barramundi. He was so slow and absentminded the whole night, it would be interesting to know what was on his mind.

Anyway - after all the waiter cafuffle, we got food on the table (albiet slowly). There was the XO pipies with a fried thin rice noodle base, and the mud crab with vermecelli pot. The pipies were not bad - tossed in a good amount of XO sauce and accompanied by crunchy sauce covered noodle chunks. The crab was likewise ok. There was vermicelli a-plenty (which was lucky since everyone was wanting the vermicelli more than the crab) and the crab was tasty and fresh too.

mud crab vermicelli hot pot

XO pipies

Since there were a few people on the table (myself included) who were not huge fans of white rice, fried rice was ordered instead. There was the barramundi cooked with blackbean sauce and the scallops with sea cucumber stir fry. Both these seafood dishes were alright. The scallops could have done with a bit less time in the wok though.

fried rice

scallops with sea cucumber

steamed barramundi

There was also a honey black pepper pork, some garlic tossed bok choi, and a seafood tofu pot which came out (and remained) sizzling hot. The black peppered pork was extremely black peppered - so black peppered that you could taste virtually nothing but the black pepper. The veges were... veges? The seafood tofu pot was quite good though. The tofu was silken and smooth - good amount of sauce and flavour, and a decent amount of seafood residing within it - there was scallop, fish, squid and prawns. Not bad.

honey black pepper pork

garlic bok choi

seafood tofu hot pot

So overall, the food was average but the service was a little lacking or subpar. We all left with a satisfied full feeling though :)

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money -7/10
Overall - 27.5/40

Jin Yan
Castle Hill RSL
77 Castle Street
Castle Hill
NSW 2154
Tel: (02) 8858 4848

Thai Eatery - Concord

2012-01-09T19:27:00.004+11:00

My partner and I decided to grab a quick thai dinner locally at Thai Eatery. I ordered my usual - Chicken Pad Thai, whereas my partner opted for a Duck red curry with rice.

Service here is quite quick and efficient. Ordered quickly, food came quickly, finished eating quickly. My Pad Thai was really delicious. The noodles was cooked just right and there was just the right amount of sauce - not too soggy, not too dry. YUM :)

chicken pad thai

My partner's duck curry was also quite delicious. The curry was a good consistency, there was a good amount of duck and veges in it. Not bad at all.

Duck red curry

Overall - it was a good local thai eatery :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 30/40

Thai Eatery
47 Majors Bay Road
Concord
NSW 2137
Tel: (02) 9736 3334

The Wooden Bowl Family Restaurant - Strathfield

2012-01-05T09:42:00.000+11:00

Deciding to grab a quick lunch bite in Strathfield usually leaves us with a plethora of options. This time, it led us to the Wooden Bowl which seemed to offer the Chinesey-type Korean food.

Appetiser-wise, we got offered kimchi, yellow radish and onions to dip into the well-loved black bean sauce. Simple. But tasty :)

appetisers

I decided to order the mixed seafood and egg with noodle soup ($13) whilst my hubby opted for the seafood and hot noodle soup ($13). In the names, both dishes seemed quite similar. In appearance and taste, however, the two were worlds apart. My noodle soup came with a super thick clear yet gluggy soup. The soup was soooo thick that it just clung onto the chewy egg noodles - which made it so super tastily yummy. The egg bits added to the slimey texture which, for this dish, was really good :) My hubby's hot soup version came in a stone pot and was littered in redness. The same noodles were offered - thick egg noodles which were seemingly chewy, soft, yet kind of al-dente all the same time. My partner said that his soup was good. Chilli-ish but matched everything well.

mixed seafood and egg with noodle soup - $13

mixed seafood hot soup - $13

All up, for a simple noodle soup lunch, this does the trick. The hugeness of the noodle soups was definately very very filling. Whilst my big stomach was able to gobble down my noodles, my hubby was only able to consume around half of it before giving up.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 30.5/40

The Wooden Bowl
29 The Boulevarde
Strathfield
NSW 2135
Tel: (02) 9746 9077

WA Japanese Restaurant - Bondi Junction

2012-01-03T09:32:00.006+11:00

A couple of our friends had been saying that they had found an excellent authentic Jap restaurant at Bondi Junction and seizing the right moment, they had managed to book dinner for the six of us after a lazy public holiday spent chilling at Botanical Gardens.

Stepping into the restaurant at around 8.30pm, there were still a few tables of people casually enjoying their food out front and quite a lot of patrons having a good time out back. We ordered and were quickly greeted by an interesting appetizer - tempura tofu sushi. The sushi was cold but the texture was still interesting. It had probably lost it's crunch but the firm tofu provided a sort of substance that other sushi varieties may not offer. Then rice also seemed sticker than usual - not sure why that is. There was also a sweet sauce which complemented the otherwise possibly bland ish combination.

tempura tofu sushi

We ordered two salads - the seaweed salad and the salmon aburi salad. The seaweed salad came with a generous portion of seaweed and kelp as well as an abundance of lettuce, cherry tomatoes and I think, beetroot strips. It was sauced well, with a good amount of vinegary taste. The salmon aburi salad was also not bad. The salmon was lightly torched and topped with salmon roe. The chunks of avocado went well with the dish.

seaweed salad

salmon aburi salad

Sushi and Sashimi-wise, we were informed that apart from salmon, everything was sold out - no tuna, no king fish, no prawns, no nothing. Lucky that my favourite sashimied fish is salmon :P The salmon sushi was smaller than usual. Funny thing is, it doesn't look it (esp from the photo) - the salmon still covers the rice really well... but - that may be because the rice lump was likewise tiny, so in comparison, the sushi looked almost normal sized :) The salmon was quite fresh and the sushi tasted quite alright. The soft shell crab sushi was also ok. The crab wasn't quite the fresh crispy type, and the ricce was cold in the sushi... but meh - we were probably the last customers of the night.

salmon sushi platter

soft shell crab sushi

This hunch was confirmed when the waitress came out and apologised that they had run out of white rice. Hence, our following dishes came with brown rice instead. We ordered three mains. A yakiniku beef, a teriyaki chicken and a ginger pork. All the meats were presented in a similar fashion. The yakiniku beef is meant to be wagyu - it was tender and marinated in some sweet soy substance. It kind of tasted like Korean bulgogi which wasn't bad. The teriyaki chicken was very yum. The teriyaki sauce was light yet penetrated the meat well. And lastly, the ginger pork was encased in this sweet gingery sauce - so gingery that each piece probably had it's own little mound of grated ginger :)

yakiniku beef

Teriyaki chicken

ginger pork

Overall - Wa is not a bad Jap restaurant. It seems to be run by Jap people and the foods are tasty enough. It's just your average cozy Jap place - much like Sushi-Ya in Artarmon but possibly in a more convenient location :)

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

WA Japanese Restaurant

63 Oxford Street
Bondi Junction
NSW 2022
Tel: (02) 9388 0404

Fuhong Barbeque Restaurant - Burwood

2011-12-20T08:39:00.000+11:00

In Burwood and sporting a chinese style bbq meat craving? Add to that equation pouring rain and a tight schedule? That was us one busy Sunday afternoon.

Due to the rain (and being slightly noob without umbrellas), my hubby and I dashed into the first Chinese BBQ restaurant we spotted - Fuhong BBQ. My hubby ordered the soya chicken, bbq pork noodle soup ($9.50) and I the soya chicken, roast duck stir noodles ($9.50) and we were flaberghasted by the size of the portion. Yes we were both famished but we still couldn't conquer the mountain of meat and noodles.

The chicken was super succulent and tasty - crazily awesome with the ginger and shallot mixture. The pork was nice and the duck was pretty good also. My stir noodles was amazingly YUM (but I love stir noodles so I could be biased).

BBQ meats with noodles

Undoubtedly, we left the place clutching our stomachs but with full smiles on our faces. Luckily for us, the rain stopped also :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 8.5/10
Overall - 30/40

Fuhong Barbeque Restaurant
163 Burwood Road
Burwood,
NSW 2134
Tel: (02) 9715 2522

Awafi - Granville

2011-12-17T20:34:00.000+11:00

What do you do when your in Granville and in want of charcoal chicken and the El Jannah line is too long? You walk a little up the road until you hit another charcoal chicken shop. It always puzzled me how two shops, serving pretty much exactly the same thing, can have such differing numbers in clientele. Was one shop actually better than the other?

Awafi

Because we were too lazy to wait for El Jannah, my hubby and I decided to eat charcoal chicken at Awafi instead. We ordered the same thing we normally do - chicken and chips. The prices here are pretty similar to El Jannah (maybe like 50c cheaper) and you get all your usual stuff - bread, pickles, garlic sauce and chicken.

The garlic sauce here tasted pretty much just as good as El Jannah and the pickles were longer but again, similar taste-wise. The chicken itself was also very very similar such that based on these three things alone - I would not be able to know the difference in a blind taste-test (or an opened-eye one for that matter). The only difference seems to lie in the bread. The bread here was relatively dry... a lot drier than the yummy moist bread from El Jannah. Is it the bread that makes all the difference between the two competing chicken shops? Maybe...

charcoal chicken, garlic sauce, pickles and bread

There's also an extra size of chips here at Awafi - small, medium and large. The small chips here are relatively smaller in portion compared to the small chips at El Jannah - but it's tasty all the same.

chips

So if I were in Granville and wanting Charcoal chicken, which shop would I go to? We are creatures of habit so I think my first choice would still be El Jannah.

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

Awafi Charcoal Chicken
1/43 South Street
Granville,
NSW 2142
Tel: (02) 9637 3111

Altitude Restaurant - The Rocks

2011-12-13T20:07:00.007+11:00

Having not fine-dined in a little while, I was super looking forward to our dinner reservation at Altitude in Shangri-la hotel. I booked last minute so was not surprised to be left with either a crazily early 6.30pm spot or a 9pm spot. For the views, I went for 6.30pm and was not disappointed - the view was an amazing spectacle~

Altitude Restaurant view

For the night, my partner and I opted for the $135 Epicurious menu with 7 courses. For starts, freshly baked bread - white ciabatta, wholemeal or sourdough. All three options were wonderfully warm and soft. I particularly adored the ciabatta which had a crunch top with fluffy insides which the butter just melded with.

freshly baked bread

Course one was cured hiramasa kingfish. The fish tasted awesome. Fresh with a vanilla-lime vinaigrette. On top of the rounded kingfish pile was creamy avocado mousse and baby celery leaves. Quite a delicious start.

Cured Hiramasa Kingfish

The next course was quite interesting. There were flathead fillets rolled in savoy cabbage. I think these were then steamed and accompanied with clams, sauteed chanterelles which appeared to soak in the buttery sauce, and spotted with tarragon and peas.

flathead rolled in savoy cabbage, sauteed chanterelles, clams and tarragon

There was also a roasted and braised chicken terrine. I think that there was foie gras in the terrine but it wasn't too overpowering. The chicken chunks were nice, but not spectacular. With the terrine was a curried cauliflower beignet which was interestingly deep-fried yet mushy and crunchy little bits of apple was... umm... OK?

Chicken terrine

The next course went back to the seafood arena. There was a decent chunk of suzuki mulloway with crispy skin (or mostly crispy skin). This came with a beetroot puree, beetroot noodles and kohirabi noodles. I didn't touch the beetroot (and amazingly, my hubby didn't touch it much either). But the fish was cooked relatively well :)

crispy skin suzuki mulloway

In terms of the main, there was a choice of either duck or lamb. I opted for duck, my hubby - the lamb. My confit duck leg was sauced with a fennel and pedro ximenez-sultana jus and sat on a black pepper spatzle. The duck was tasty and the meat was tender. Unfortunately, the skin wasn't crispy... which is something I would have rathered. But notwithstanding, it was still quite yummy.

confit duck leg, black pepper spatzle

My hubby requested his lamb to be cooked medium. Unfortunately, it came out pretty much well down. I was disappointed at how un-pink the whole thing was. My partner didn't seem to care too much...either the lamb was seasoned well anyway, or he was just too busy messaging his friends to care. The lamb was accompanied with savoy cabbage, braised chestnuts and potato fondant.

roasted murraylands lamb loin

Next was the pre-dessert of bethonga pineapple jelly with a malibu sabayon sorbet. The pineapple jelly was really flavoursome and to my liking. The slimy cold jelly-like texture was nicely complimentary to the sorbet and the white fluffy egg-whitey substance. YUM.

Pineapple jelly with malibu sabayon sorbet

Last but not least, there was a dessert of warm dark chocolate fondant. My fondant, unfortunately was not gooey enough to leak out. However, it did meet my chocolate cravings :) There was also a chocolate mousse which was yummy, rich and smooth and a prune and armagnac ice-cream (which was not to my liking).

warm dark chocolate fondant, milk chocolate mousse, prune and armagnac ice cream

We ordered coffee to finish. The coffee was good - both my cappuccino and my hubby's long black. Disappointingly, no petit-fours came to bid us goodbye.

Coffee

All up, views and ambiance was magnificent. Food was good. Service was average but not lacking.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 9/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 31/40

Altitude Restaurant
176 Cumberland Street
The Rocks
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9250 6123

Coffee Warehouse Cafe & Deli - Homebush

2011-12-06T19:01:00.005+11:00

There's this cafe/deli on Parra Rd that I drive past quite often and every time, I drive past amazed. It could be a weeknight or a weekend... no matter what it is, and up to relatively late, there's always quite a crowd. So one night, I just had to drag my hubby to check it out.

This Cafe/Deli not only serves Di Stefano coffee, it also offers barista classes. There's screens on top of all the coffee machines that lets you eye how your coffee is made (usually to perfection). And though their coffee seems popular here, their pizza seems even more so.

Hence, for this night, we ordered a Chargrilled Baby Octopus ($12.50) and a Gamberi pizza ($25) to share. The chargrilled baby octopus was marinated with lemon & lime, parsley and a bit of chilli. Tossed well and chargrilled to be super tasty and tender. The octopus sat on top of fresh rocket and the whole this was doused with extra virgin olive oil. Was quite delicious.

Chargrilled Baby Octopus - $12.90

But the highlight was definitely the pizza. It smelled AMAZING! The pizza base was the perfect thickness. Crispy yet chewy at the same time. Smothered with rich tomato sauce, the perfect pizza base was topped with king prawns, bits of anchovy, fresh parsley and cheese. It was ZOMG deliciousness!!! One of the best pizza's I've had so far. The puzzle of why so many people ordered pizza here (even though it was all-you-can-eat ribs night) was finally solved :)

Gamberi pizza - $25

Looking around at the customers eating amazing looking desserts, my hubby and I just couldn't pass. I tested their gelato and chose pistachio and chocolate. The chocolate flavour was super super dark and rich. It wasn't too sweet and the cocoa flavours lingered in your mouth. It was yum. The pistachio, however, was a little bit of a let down. Maybe it was simply outshone by the chocolate.

Gelato (2 scoops) - $5

My partner's creme brulee ($8) sat temptingly on our table. Super thick caramelised sugar top was smooth rich coffee vanilla bean brulee. I'm not a creme brulee person and yet, I had the urge to gobble his dessert all up. I didn't need the biscotti which came with it though... the brulee was awesome enough :)

Creme Brulee - $8

All up, this was quite an outstanding dining experience. Sure, the service is slightly lacking in that they seemed short-staffed for the amount of customers but the food, the buzz, the atmosphere was all excellent. Definitely a place to return to for dinner again and again.

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall- 30/40

Coffee Warehouse Cafe & Deli
17-35 Parramatta Road
Homebush
NSW 2140
Tel: (02) 9764 8822

Zilver - Haymarket

2011-12-01T21:18:00.000+11:00

Our friend's wedding banquet was at Zilver, a lovely Chinese restaurant situated opposite Capitol Theater and Market City. The bride and groom were awesomely beautiful and handsome like they usually are and the food at this Chinese banquet did not deviate much from the norm.

First off was the crispy suckling pig with jellyfish. This was alright. The skin was crispy and the meat was tasty and salty. It's not the best suckling pig we've had and the looks of the pieces could have been improved. The jellyfish portion would have also been much better if it were bigger... but these seem like just my personal choices as everyone else seemed to enjoy this course.

suckling pig with jellyfish

The next course was prawns sauteed with beans and macadamia nuts. I liked the prawns - they were yum. I like macadamia nuts too. However, in my mind, prawns and macadamia nuts don't really go together. It's more an 'asian' thing - chuck the prawns in with prestigious nuts so it makes the whole dish more grand :)

prawns with macadamia nuts

The next dish was interesting. Scallops were enveloped with taro paste and deep-fried. This resulted in perfectly cooked scallops with mushy and crunchy bits. Not sure if taro and scallop go together... but on their own, both are delicious!

Deep fried taro scallop

My favourite course was next - the sharks fin. There was a good amount of sharks fin in the broth (not too much, and not non-existent). There was a bit too much chicken bits in it but - and they got a bit annoying after a while. But in general, the consistency and the taste of the sharks fin was really yummy.

Sharks fin soup

Lobster cooked in supreme soup was the course my hubby and various others on the table were long-awaiting for since the start of the day. I was disappointed by this dish... The lobster pieces were TINY! The all-meat pieces were about the size of a 20cent coin and the leg pieces were so small that there simply was no meat in them. My hubby still liked it though and argued that at least the taste of it was good.

Lobster cooked in supreme soup

The next course was the abalone with chinese mushroom. The abalone piece was tender and infused with sauce. The mushy was super huge and again, cooked reasonably well. If I were one to like abalone and chinese mushroom, I think I would have enjoyed this dish muchly.

Abalone with Chinese mushroom

Instead of the usual crispy skinned chicken, we were served with roasted pigeon. Again, the portions were rather small so everyone's pigeon piece sat rather conspicuously on everyone's plate. How could we eat something so tiny and fragile? We just did.

roasted pigeon

Steamed fish was next. It was steamed well. The fish meat was soft and tasted quite fresh. If only they could dish it out in a way which made it look more impressive...

steamed fish

Noodles and fried glutinous rice came next. I opted for noodles. This was not yummy. It was tasteless and soggy and plain...

Noodles

Dessert-wise, we had fruit, little chinese cakes and biscuits, wedding cake slices and red bean soup. Nothing surprising. Not spectacular but by this stage, we didn't really care - we were full and ready to go home.

Red Bean Soup

It was a wonderful and awesome wedding. Banquet food - wise, it was average. You got your normal 10 course meal... some were good and yum, some were slightly disappointing. But I guess when you go to a wedding, it's not really the food that your meant to pay attention to :)

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - ?
Overall - 20.5 + ?/40

Zilver
477 Pitt Street
Haymarket
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9211 2232

Ton Ton - Sydney

2011-11-29T09:32:00.008+11:00

Ton Ton

My hubby felt like eating something soupy as it was raining and miserable outside. Several suggestions were made. It none better than the prospect of a yummy hot bowl of ramen. Mind you, we had a friend's wedding to attend and saturday traffic is usually super horrible so I was aware that there's a possibility that we wound have to miss out... Nonetheless, we heading to TonTon at Regent with a positive outlook anyway.

Lucky for us, it seemed like we could spare 10 minutes to down a ramen into our super hungry stomachs. My partner - distracted by the possibility of deep fried chicken - opted for a karaage ramen, in a set with added small curry ($12.80). The curry was really quite yummy. Thick and seemingly with potato bits melted in, it was flavoursome but does not overwhelm with the spices and it wasn't too spicy or anything like that either. My partner had hoped for some kind of visible meat of vege in it though (e.g. chicken, carrots, potato, etc). His ramen was soy-based with the crunchy goodness of deep-fried chicken pieces on top. Loads of shallots and seaweed floating and a good amount of bean sprouts too. I think he was somewhat disappointed with his ramen - he never really liked soy-based soups... but as I said, he was blinded by his love of karaage.

Small Curry

karaage ramen

I ordered the Ton Ton Ramen ($9.80). This had their special tonkatsu soup base (ie. thick pork broth) which was mildly spicy. It smelt delicious and definately tasted deliciou. Again, topped with heaps of shallots and seaweed - it was like a dream come true! (I love seaweed and shallots in my noodle soups). There were also a couple of bbq pork pieces on top. The noodles were deliciousness! It soaked in the soupy concoction but was not too soggy either. YUM!

Ton Ton Ramen

Ramen is definitely one good option for a rainy drizzly day. Good ramen is a bonus :)

Ratings:

Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 30/40

Ton Ton Ramen

501 George Street
Sydney
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9267 1313

Millenium Bar and Restaurant - Darlington

2011-11-24T08:52:00.001+11:00

As a gift from friends, we had a voucher to engage in a seafood platter feast at the Millenium Bar and Restaurant at Darlington. Stepping into the place, it was dimly lit and co-shared with a pizzeria. Not the most welcoming room and yet, there is a smell of good food wafting through the kitchen doors.

Drinks first - my hubby ordered a coke. It came in a relatively small glass with a slice of lemon in it. After a while (a slightly long while), our seafood main came out. Whilst the voucher promised pineapple cut squid, it was no where to be found on the plate. Nonetheless, the plate was filled with a generous portion of garlic prawns, mussels, john dory fillet, grilled octopus, soft shell crab and chips. It was a feast for the eyes and the stomach.

The soft shell crab was crunchy and tasty though not as battered as the normal jap-style ones. The garlic prawns were probably my favourite for the night - it was seasoned well and not overcooked or rubbery. Fish was meh - average, as were the mussels. The octopus was grilled a bit too much for my liking, but was seeminly perfect for my hubby. And chips were good - they almost always are.

seafood platter

Not a bad free meal. Service is slightly lacking here. We went up to the bar to pay the bill and ended up with $6.50 coke. $6.50 for a coke!?!?!?!?! Serious? And it didn't even come from a glass bottle ...

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - ?
Overall - 19.5 + ? / 40

Millenium Bar & Restaurant
103 Cleveland Street
Darlington
NSW 2008
Tel: (02) 9699 3999

Expresso Organica - Concord

2011-11-22T08:54:00.010+11:00

We were wondering what to have for lunch on Sat and the first thing that came into our minds was - Charcoal Chicken. However, having driven along the M4 already in the morning and was stupidly stuck in Saturday traffic, driving to Granville seemed slightly out of the question. Instead, we opted to check out a local eating hangout that is oh so close to us - and yet, in our half a year of residence, had not been to - Majors Bay Road in Concord.

Walking along the road, I was impressed by the amount of eateries on the road. It made for a hard decision but in the end, we opted for a reasonably packed cafe - Expresso Organica.

It was a hot and humid day and hence, ice cold drinks were ordered immediately. My hubby went for the Mango Blast ($6.50) which was a blend of mango, "freshly squeezed" orange juice (which came straight from your normal OJ bottles), and mango sorbet. The drink normally came with banana, but my hubby left it out for my sake :) The drink was thick and rich and juicy and sweet and refreshing. YUM. My Pineapple Crush ($6.50) was also thirst-quenching. Icey concoction of pineapple, "freshly squeezed" orange juice and pineapple sorbet gave that sense of healthiness and freshness (even thought the sugar levels are off the radar). Not a bad drink to down when it's hot.

Mango blast - 6.5

Pineapple crush - $6.50

Food-wise, my hubby opted for the Greek Style Calamari ($19). This was pineapple cut squid tossed in garlic, parsley, sea salt and cracked pepper then deep-fried to perfection. It was soft and tender and super tasty. The lemon zest aioli was also simply superb (I just wish there was more of it). The calamari came with a nicely tossed roquette salad and yummy herbed chips.

Greek Style Calamari - $19

My Chicken Fillet Burger ($14) also came with the super yummy herbed chips. In the open burger were generous fillets of chargrilled chicken with mixed leaves, tomato, avocado and cheese. The real winner was the mustard aioli. It was sooooo yummy! I think that I have to somehow learn to make my own aioli :)

Chicken Fillet Burger - $14

This cafe isn't big, the food didn't come super quick, but everything was friendly and cozy enough. The food was decent in proportion and taste. Not a bad local hangout.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Expresso Organica

49A Majors Bay Road
Concord
NSW 2137
Tel: (02) 9736 3222

Eastwood BBQ Kitchen (2)- Eastwood

2011-11-16T19:58:00.008+11:00

Since it's opening, my hubby and I have revisited Eastwood BBQ Kitchen quite a few times. Throughout our visits, there has been some good some bad, some improvements, some de-provements. But I guess in general, this honky style cafe is still a decent place to go for a bite :)

One of the improvements we've seen lies in the drinks. The standard of the drinks went from watered-down tastelessness, to much much more appetising. The ice cold horlick regained the wheaty flavour it was meant to have and the lemon tea was tasty and lemony and actually less sweet (at times anyway).

cold horlick and lemon iced tea

My hubby's favourite meal here remains the set lunch where he gets a soup, a drink and baked pork chop rice. I believe that the pork chop rice has decreased in quality somewhat - with the fried rice base being less tasty. But nonetheless, I'm glad there's still a fried egg on top. Russian Borsch as the soup tastes much better than the creamy seafoody fishy soup - but that's a 50/50 in terms of what you get :P

baked pork chop rice and creamy seafood soup

The creamy cheesy baked spaghetti's here are really quite good (and very cheesy) - particularly the chicken and ham one. Another thing I have tried is their set lunch deal with satay beef and chinese broccoli with flat rice noodles. This was average ish. The beef was good, but it was not mixed very well with the noodles.

satay beef noodles

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28/40

Eastwood BBQ Kitchen
1 Trelawney Street
Eastwood
NSW 2122
Tel: (02) 9858 1366

Toraya - Chatswood

2011-11-15T10:06:00.000+11:00

Toraya

We were at Chatswood checking out the latest awesome foreign company to infiltrate our shores - namely Daiso (where everything is $2.80). Having walked about the shop and bought every necessary and unecessary item under the sun, I was really hungry and craving Jap food. Hence, we headed for Toraya, which is a Jap restaurant located close to the food court of the Mandarin Centre.

I have to say, walking in left me doubtful of my choice - the tables were bare and reminiscent of food-court styles. However, there was a good portion of Japanese-speaking patrons. We were also greeted with my favourite appetiser - seaweed salad - which was super tasty as always :)

seaweed salad

I decided to try something different and went for their Eringe and Hotate Batter ($9.80) which from the description sounded amazing. Supposedly big oyster mushrooms and scallops were to be cooked in a soy based batter. What I didn't expect were tiny over-cooked scallops and countable thinly sliced oyster mushrooms on a sizzling hot plate. Tiny scallops and sizzling hot plates are never a good combination - leaving us with slightly rubbery slightly non-existant scallops to chew on.

Eringe and Hotate Batter - $9.80

My partner opteded for a main of Tonkatsu ($15.80) which was crumbed and deep fried golden brown. It was tender and tasty enough and came served with seaweed soup, rice and salad.

Tonkatsu - $15.80

My partner also craved oysters ($15/ half dozen) and opted to have them grilled with cheese. This was not a bad dish although in your normal cheesy oysters, you tend to get that delicious mornal or atleast a splatter of mash which added texture and taste - which with these, were absent.

Oysters with grilled cheese - $15/half dozen

Funnily enough, the dish we thought should and really ought to come first, came last - the Salmon Platter ($25). The Japanese always harp on about how sashimi and sushi should be eaten first as the tastes are fresh and subtle - and are relatively spoilt when you eat the "heavier" tastes firsts. Nonetheless, I was grateful when a pile of salmon sashimi and sushi landed on my table. The sashimi was fresh, the salmon suchi and thin rolls weren't bad and the salmon and avocado inside out roll was yummy :) Oddly enough, it came with only one salmon roe ship - which looked slightly out of balance as everything else seemed evenly split.

Salmon Platter - $25

All up, the food here is pretty average. Dishes were relatively well priced and the staff friendly enough. If you can get over the wierd food-court style attire of the place, you could possibly settle into a good meal.

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 3/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 24/40

Toraya Japanese Restaurant
Mandarin Centre
Level 2, shop 212
61 Albert Ave
Chatswood
NSW 2067
Tel: (02) 9884 9620

Eaton Restaurant (2) - Ashfield

2011-11-05T07:06:00.000+11:00

My hubby and I mentioned "crab congee" in a conversation to our Melbournian friends. This happened to be a term that they had never heard of. As such, we decided to take them to supper at Eaton Restaurant for some crab congee.

Our two friends had conveniently eaten 2 peking ducks for dinner (amongst 4 people) and were clutching their stomachs in fullness. Yet - when faced with super smooth rich congee filled with super sweet live mudcrab essence, they could not resist but lap up a few bowls. Yes - the congee is AWESOMENESS!

crab congee

My hubby couldn't resist but to order his favourite dish at this restaurant - duo of noodles (vermicelli and thin rice noodle) with XO sauce. This is pretty fantastic - not overlly oily, not too dry. XO sauce bought along a hint of chilliness (until my partner adds heaps of additional XO sauce to his bowl :P).

Duo of noodles with XO sauce

Another unique aspect of coming here for supper is the dessert. Yes, there's normally fruit, but they also have this bittermelon jelly. Yes - bittermelon. This brings a twinge of bitterness to the smooth jelly subtle sweetness. Topped with coconut milk, it is an awesome dessert. YUM. Our friends (where were clutching their stomachs at the beginning of the meal) still made themselves polish it off despite protests from their stomachs.

Bittermelon Jelly

Yup - I love this place for supper. One of the best!

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 30.5/40

Eaton Restaurant
313 Liverpool Road
Ashfield
NSW 2131
tel: (02) 9798 2332

Hurricane's Bar & Grill - Darling Harbour

2011-11-03T19:10:00.000+11:00

Who can say no to meat? And loads of it!

We had a few friends come up from Melbourne and they wished to eat ribs at Hurricane's and as guests - it's their choice. Hurricanes at Darling Harbour was buzzingly busy on a Sunday night. Yet - the waiter was attentive enough to lull around repeatedly until we laid our order.

My hubby and one of our friends decided to opt for a meat platter and a salad to share amongst the three of us. Another meat platter, rack of ribs and salad was ordered for the other end of the table.

The Caesar Salad ($20) came out as large crisp cos lettuce pieces with strips of bacon, anchovies, thingly shaved parmigiano and caesar dressing. The salad was fresh and was quite a good compliment to the mount of meat we devoured.

Caesar Salad - $20

The Hurricane's bbq meat platter ($94.90) came as a massive plate of BBQ basted chicken wings, juicy lamb cutlets, short cut sirloin, boerewors (sausages) and their famous ribs (pork). Under the ribs was a nice pile of chips. The ribs were nice and succulent and bathed in bbq sauce.The boerewors were average, but the chicken wings were YUM. The sirloin was also likeable.

Meat Platter - $94.90

All up, food wasn't bad and service was attentive at times.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Hurricane's Grill & Bar
Level 2, Shop 433-436
Darling Harbour
Sydney NSW, 2000
Tel: (02) 9211 2210

Peppercorn - Cremorne

2011-11-01T20:14:00.008+11:00

It's not everyday that we can eat at a restaurant and leave without paying a cent. It's a weird feeling - really. But that's exactly what we did. Upon my leaving of my old job, my awesome colleagues had given me a couple of dining vouchers (from Ouffer and Spreets type things). One included a 2 course meal with wine at Peppercorns in Cremorne. Having done my research (mainly eatability), I approached this restaurant with due caution - there were some reviews saying it was absolutely fantastic! yet some saying it was abismally poor and to never go.

Nonetheless, with an open ish mind, we entered the place - met with friendly and attentive waiters. We were presented with their menu and proceded to opt for the house red to go with our food choices.

My hubby's French Onion soup was very rich full of onion flavour. It was hot enough and the floating cheesy bread was complimentary enough to the shreds of soft caramelised onions in the soup.

French Onion Soup

My slightly more unhealthy option of salt and pepper calamari and prawns with aioli and salad was also appetising enough. The deep-fried stuff was all edible but the salad was a bit (or a lot) drenched with salad dressing. Even for me - someone who loves lots of salad dressing - thought it was a bit all too much.Salt and Pepper Calamari and Prawns

As for the mains, I opted for the pan-roasted half spatchcock. This came with potato balls, salad, mushroom and beurre cafe de paris butter. The butter was super rich - but just buttery - not much other flavour. It did mix with the spatchcock well though. Again, the salad was overly drenched, but the potato balls were alright.Pan-roasted Spatchcock

My partner ordered the grilled John Dory with prawns and vege. The fish was done better than I would have expected. It wasn't overcooked (on the most part) and tasted quite nice with a dash of lemon oil. The prawns and the veges were alright enough too.

Grilled John Dory

Dessert time came round - but nothing really intrigued us about their dessert menu and hence we left it. This resulted in us ordering nothing that wasn't included by our voucher meaning that ... yes - we just got up and left. How wierd is that feeling? LOL

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - ? (we didn't pay for the voucher so not sure how much it was)
Overall - 21.5 + ? / 40

Peppercorn
332 Military Road
Cremorne
NSW 2090
Tel: (02) 9908 1823

Our Wedding Reception - Rhodes Phoenix

2011-10-24T21:50:00.007+11:00

Wedding photos give me mixed feelings. On one hand, I get super excited about getting them in my hot little hands and can't wait to flick through them, on the other hand, I am way way way too lazy to sort through them properly. Hence, my hubby and I have yet to sit down together to figure which photos we want in our album. Official photos aside - I have been also sitting on photos of the food from our wedding (compliments to our good friend at TBang Photography).

First off - it was a pretty epic night. We were running slightly late and funnily enough, the waiters/manager of the restaurant wanted to make sure we were able to get food in our stomachs before doing parts of the official program (e.g. speeches, table photos, etc etc). I wasn't too surprised to see that the quality of food on our table was top-notch (as we're the ones paying for everything), but I was amazed to hear and see that all other tables had similar quality food.

First up for the night was the suckling pig and jelly fish platter. Everyone had a generous serving of the crispy skinned thinly meat/fat layered suckling pig and yummy jelly fish. I remember that a few of my non-asian friends came up to me later bemused by the fact that jelly fish could be eaten! It was a yummy dish indeed.

suckling pig and jelly fish

The prawn mince stuffed crab claws came out plump and golden brown. Crunchy deep-fried bread crumbs and tasty prawn mince was gobbled down by all (including my hubby's 3yr old nephew). I love how it managed to remain golden brown across all tables despite the massive amounts of these they had to fry up.

stuffed crab claws

Next up was braised dried scallop with mushies and broccoli. I don't remember much of this - probably wasn't impression-making, but I'm sure veges couldn't have gone too wrong. However, in retrospect, I believe that we had wanted to change the dish to fresh scallops (and not dried scallops) - the restaurant must have forgotten.

braised dried scallops with veges

I do remember, however, that the shark's fin soup with crab meat was awesome! Generous proportions of sharks fin, beautifully coloured, just the right consistency and delicious-tasting! I definately gobbled this one up :) Even my non-seafood eating friend ate this (though I'm not sure he actually enjoyed doing so) LOL

sharks fin soup

There were also lobsters a-plenty. My hubby was super relieved that he had the time to eat this - and it would have been a waste not to, as there was so much lobster! All cooked to perfection. My parents had altered the dish to make it come with thin egg noodles which complimented and mopped up the "supreme sauce" beautifully. Love the noodles :P

braised lobster and noodle in supreme sauce

Next up was the braised abalone with sea cucumber. I'm not a fan of abalone and not a fan of sea cucumber, but I could see that most Asian guests appreciated the taste and texture of this dish. The sauce was strong, but I think it was necessary coz abalone and sea cucumber are probably not the most inherently tasty things.

abalone and sea cucumber

Every table also got a large steamed live coral trout with ginger and shallot. Not sure what the taste or texture was on other tables - but I remember that our fish was spot on deliciousness. Super fresh, super smooth - the fish kind of just slithered down my throat with the perfect soy sauce coating. YUM.

steamed coral trout

I didn't touch much of my crispy skin garlic chicken but I do remember thinking that the kitchen did well to keep the skin crispified.

crispy skinned chicken

Just as the rounding off dishes, there was the fried rice in lotus leaf wrap. Most banquets get the rice and noodles at the end, but we shoved our noodles in with the lobster and hence, only rice in lotus leaf option was available. A very good option if my memory prevails.

fried rice in lotus leaf

Fruits and little biscuit and cake things were also served. Didn't get to touch them but they looked decent :)

dessert

All up, Rhodes Phoenix did an excellent job with the food. The service was also better than most and I love how the environment doesn't bring on that normal Chinese food clattering and clinkering echoey noises due to their high ceilings. Definately a good reception venue if you are stuck with the need to host a Chinese banquet.

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

Rhodes Phoenix
1 Rider Boulevard
Rhodes NSW 2138
Tel: (02) 9739 6628

Pho Toan Thang - Flemington

2011-10-17T13:23:00.000+11:00

Living where we're living gives us good close access to cheap yummy pho in Flemington. We've been to a few places for pho but one of our favourite is Pho Toan Thang which is situated in the little covered corridor.

Pho Toan Thang

My favourite pho is what I always order from this place (beef ball pho) and on this occasion, my hubby ordered the beef special (with the lot - rare beef, beef ball, beef brisket, beef tripe, beef tendon). The pho here is quite yummy. The soup is clear and tasty and luckily not filled with MSG. The beef balls are sometimes cut thinner than half... but also sometimes cut in half (depends on your luck). The noodles are deliciousness and when you add your own mix of condiments in, it's the perfect lunch or snack :)

"beef special", and "beef ball pho"

Not a bad place - price is also very reasonable. Hence, we've been here multiple times :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 29/40

Pho Toan Thang
95 The Crescent Shop 9
Flemington,
NSW 2140
Tel: (02) 9764 3687

Star of Canton Restaurant - Hong Kong

2011-10-14T19:58:00.000+11:00

Whilst we were in HK, we were just in time to catch my cousin's wedding. To my hubby and I, it was quite a weird wedding. Weird - not cos my cousin was weird, but weird because of the attitudes of the people who attended and the waiters who served.

First off, his wedding landed on the National Day of China (1st of Oct) meaning that halfway through his reception, fireworks would be present - and having chosen a restaurant which looks directly out onto Victoria Harbour - it meant that our reception observed a 1/2 hr pause to admire the fireworks.

In that context, we had guests at the receptions rocking t-shirts, 3-quarter pants, high socks and sneakers, and like half the guests were in jeans ... Yes. And the bride had like 4 elaborate dress changes to match them. On that night, they were also possibly short staffed and they simply dumped the food on the table and provided ZERO service except when they wanted to clear the plate.

First dish was suckling pig with these pita bread things. A whole plate of these were just dunked on the middle of the table without explanation and the waitress scurried off (AND keep in mind, we were relatives of the people paying for this... so we were the worst of plebs). Atleast the suckling pig was crispy and crunchy.

suckling pig

Large scallops with fungi and celery were next dunked on our table. The scallops weren't cooked the best, but were none-the-less scallops. And I love scallops - so they were forgiven.

scallops

Next up was a nicely arranged plate of prawns, broccoli and deep fried crab balls. I like fish balls, crab balls, lobster balls, all these artificial stuff - so I was OK with this dish too :)

crab balls with prawns

Next dish was well and truly dunked on our table in the dark - in the dark cos the fireworks were on and the whole place came to a standstill of observe the spectacle for half an hour. I don't really like dried scallops and they can accompanied with random bok choi everywhere... so... no. Didn't really appreciate this one.

dried scallop with veges

The "sharks fin" you normally get was substituted with this random soup thing with tiny bits of chicken throughout. I thought it was just really badly cooked chicken soup. My hubby said to me after that there might have been some random tidbits of birds nest throughout. It was a pretty tasteless undelicious soup LOL.

chicken and birds nest soup

Abalone, goose feet and veges came out next. There was quite a lot of abalone on the plate. I think what happens is that the service you get affects the taste of the food greatly. And since the service here is sub-par, it makes you feel that the food is sub-par too (regardless of whether it really is or not).

abalone and goose feet

Next up, our waiter bought out the steamed garoupa fish and subsequently massacred it. My hubby witnessed the whole thing - she first tried to take the head off and failed, she then swapped tactics and tried to take all the meat off. Couldn't, gave up and zoomed off, leaving us with an ugly looking carcass of a fish.

massacred fish

"Crispy" skinned chicken was umm... just normal chicken?

crispy skinned chicken

Everyone was pretty stuffed by now. But then wonton noodle soup came out. Amazingly, although the previous dishes were at times, neglected, the wonton noodle soup was smashed by everyone. Slightly overly soggy noodles with not too tasty wontons... but seemed slightly yummier than some of the other dishes LOL.

wonton noodle soup

Dessert-wise, super diluted red bean soup with glutinous rice balls were average. The biscuits were sooooo hard that you possibly broke your teeth trying to bite into it. What amazed me more was that they bought out platefuls of whole oranges (uncut) with plastic bags on top of it (ie. they expect you to "take away" lots of oranges). ZOMG. What kind of fruit service is that?

dessert

Restaurant in a super nice location. Decor was nice. Music was HORRIBLE.... like... they were blaring the most inappropriate songs the whole night. Fail.

Ratings:
Food - 5/10
Service - 3/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - ?
Overall - 16+ ?/40

Star of Canton Restaurant
Level 17, The One
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: (852) 2870 1488

Hawker style food - Singapore

2011-10-12T19:35:00.000+11:00

We were in Singapore for the F1 but subsidiary to super fast cars going around and around on an amazing night-time city race track, I was looking forward to delicious cheap hawker style food.

One of hawker centers we went to last time was the Maxwell Center. The beauty of this hawker center is that it's 24hrs - meaning that it is still opening when we're starving for dinner at 10pm. I also love how hawker centers can make you full whilst allowing for change from $5.

Not every store was open at this time, but there was enough for us to have a good feed. My partner opted for mixed rice noodles with fresh hand-made fish balls. It was an interesting selection for my partner as he's normally not into noodles nor fish balls - but I enjoyed it muchly :)

mixed rice noodles with hand made fishballs

I opted for congee. Though plain-looking in the photo, it was actually a preserved egg and pork congee (all the ingredients were in the bottom). The congee itself was cooked really well - smooth, dense and yum.

congee with preserved duck egg and pork

On the way to Maxwell Center, our taxi driver told us that of another awesome eating hangout - a whole strip of satay skewers at Lau Pa Sat. Walking there from Maxwell Center, we were met with smokiness in the air and lots of meats spinning round and round. However, be careful of the store owners pulling you into their stalls - hold your ground and decide which satay store you want to eat at (although they all sell roughly the same thing).

After considering our options, we went for a small meal deal of 20+ skewers - chicken, veal/lamb, and prawn. Looking around us, we could see many happy customers devouring one skewer after another. The meat was really tasty and tender and the satay sauce was really peanutty (which is awesome :P). These particular skewers were nicely peppered and slightly more chilli than your average satayed meat.

skewers at Lau Pa Sat

Aftermath

Much to my hubby's happiness, skewers are found pretty much everywhere in Singapore - including food courts of department stores lining Orchard Street. The one I particularly like is Takashimaya - a Japanese department store under which my hubby found delicious Jap-style skewers :)

Yakiniku at Takoshimaya food court

In the midst of F1 practice on Saturday night, we were hungry and extremely delighted to find that Glutton's Bay (another hawker store strip) was within the zones where we were permitted entry. Glutton's Bay is said to be priced a little higher than other hawker centers due to it's location and the fact that the makansutra people gathered some of the best seafood hawker people and gathered them here. But really - $10 for an awesomely yummy and huge oyster omelet with lots of fat juicy plump oysters? I'm not complaining :) Oh, and of course - sugarcane lemon juice to try and wash down the greasiness.

Oyster omelet

One of our local Singaporean friends took us to his local hideout - Beach Road Prawn Mee Eating House. It's amazing. It's pretty much an isolated hawker store in the middle of no-where in a place with no MRT and yet, tons and tons of super luxury cars are parked outside. Everyone was here to eat awesome Prawn Mee. The prawn was massive and fresh and tasty. The noodles were cooked just right and the soup base was spectacular! Bathed in prawn essence and other amazing ingredients - it was a super delicious prawn noodle soup. Our friend claimed that it was the best prawn mee in the country. We washed this down with barley water which was refreshing and nice.

Barley water

Prawn mee

Another Hawker center we visited was the one in Chinatown (not Chinatown food street which opens after 5pm, but the massive one on level one upstairs). We sampled a variety of food here - clay pot rice (which was really yum and authentically cooked for over 20 mins), these weird sweet and savoury crispy dumpling cups, and these soft steamed rice cakes with these mincey, preserved vege stuff on it. What blew us away, however, was fresh lime juice. Fresh lime juice!!! It was sour, yeh - but so so so refreshingly good :) Make sure you chose the store with heaps of limes. There's some imitations around which makes the juice more sweet than sour.

epically awesome lime juice

clay pot rice

singaporean treats

My hubby couldn't keep his eyes of the satay skewers - hence he got 5 chicken, 5 beef, and 5 lamb skewers which were all super tender, tasty and satayed. Again - super cheap :)

satay skewers

As I was doing my rounds of this huge hawker center, I noticed a massive long line. The rule is - when you see a line at a hawker center, line up. Doesn't matter if you don't know what you're lining up for, line up for it first anyway. Turns out, it was for soya sauce chicken with stir noodles. Couldn't resist and thankfully so. It was sooooo appetising! The noodles were soft but not overly so and the chicken was so smooth and tender and soysauce tasting - pretty damn amazing. Where are the stores like this in Sydney???

soy sauce chicken with noodles

I love hawker center food. Delicious. Varietied. Cheap. Make sure you choose one that looks relatively clean! They also display cleanliness ratings on their shop front (most of the time at least) so check that out :)

Fung Shing Restaurant - Hong Kong

2011-10-08T20:45:00.000+11:00

As a make-up wedding banquet for some of my relos on HK who could not make it to our wedding, we ended up eating at Fung Shing Restaurant at Whampoa Gargen.

Our banquet started with a whole roasted suckling pig. The skin was super crispy and crunchy yet not burnt. A ratio of meat, fat and skin. Quite yum :)

Crispy suckling pig

Then there was the prawn toast with salad dressing. It looked simple but tasted alright.

prawn toast

Huge scallops sauteed with broccoli, capsicum and some sort of shell-fish came next. The scallops were most awesome - not overcooked and extremely tasty when swimming in the sauce.

sauteed scallop

There was also dried scallops cooked inside hairy melon and surrounded by "fat choi" (a black stringy vege which tastes super awesome). The 'fat choi' was the best bit of the dish - something you can rarely find in Australia.

dried scallop in hairy melon

In this bowl was crazy amounts of sharks fin. And no - it wasn't just my bowl - it was EVERYONE's bowl. And everyone got TWO bowls. Sharks fin overload no?

sharks fin soup

Abalone was next on the agenda. This was cooked with goose feet and veges. I'm not a fan of abalone... but I do like goose feet. Tasty and saucy... kinda like the same sauce as the dried scallop with winter melon.

abalone and goose feet

The steamed grouper fish came next - seemingly overcooked... but actually cooked pretty well. The meat was tasty and smooth and freshness.

Steamed Grouper fish

Crispy skinned chicken is seemingly a must in all Honky chinese dinners. Every restaurant seems to claim that their crispy skinned chicken is the best... this one... is not. The skin is uncrispified. But I guess that the meat is quite tender.

crispy skinned chicken

To round up the night, there was fried rice and these deep-fried dumplings. The dumplings are meant to be dumped in this soup/stock thing to soggify it a bit. But it's really your choice - whether you want it super crunchy or somewhat soggy.

fried rice

deep fried dumpling

The restaurants famous dessert is this sago pudding creme brulee. Some of my relatives loved it... I found it to be a splatter of sweet goo. No - it was not my type of dessert. The "burnt sugar" bit was not the crunchiness that you normally find in creme brulees which was somewhat disappointing.

sago pudding creme brulee

There was also fruit... but yeh - nothing spectacular.

I guess that all up - the food was good. Heaps of seafood (particularly sharks fin). Funnily enough, banquets tend not include crab or lobster (much to my hubby's disappointment).

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29/40

Fung Shing Restaurant
2/F Whampoa Gourmet Place
Site 8, Whampoa Garden, Hung Hom
Tel: (852) 2362 0848

Senzuru Japanese Restaurant - Hong Kong

2011-10-06T19:58:00.000+11:00

Our friend's fiance works at Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel in the buffet kitchen. Hence, to meet up for dinner one night, we all decided to eat at the Jap restaurant in his hotel once he finishes his shift.

Senzuru provided a tranquil Japanese feel which offered a good range of Jap food - sashimi, sushi, teppanyaki, tempura, yakitori, the whole lot. For this night, as our friend is buddies with the chef, we let the chef decide the menu - and the drink menu.

To start with - a freaking HUGE bottle of sake (1.5L) which got smashed (and hence a 2nd bottle was in order). And did someone get smashed? Yes - someone got smashed.

massive sake bottle (x2)

Foodwise, our appetisers comprised of a seaweed cracker, sweet potato cake (made from sweet potato imported from okinawa), and this seaweed thing in a vinaigrette which was super totally yummy. (sorry I couldn't be more specific, the chef explained it all... but the night was a bit of a blur food-wise).

trio of appetisers

We also had an awesome selection of sashimi - toro, salmon, king fish, snow fish, white fish, super fresh prawns, loads of sea urchin, some clam variety and my favourite - the scallop (which was super sweet, super huge and super tasty). In fact, we went seconds for the huge massive scallops :)

assorted sashimi

There was also a teriyaki fish. Straight translation from chinese is a "silver snow fish"... not sure of it's name in English. But it was cooked soooo well. Extremely tasty, the skin was beautifully caramelised, the fish flaked off the bone and we all dunked it in kewpie mayo... mmm... YUM.

teriyaki fish

Tempura also made an appearance for the night. Mainly prawns, but there was also a good selection of veges (eggplant, baby corn, mushroom, bean, shallot). Perfectly deep fried and crisped up.

tempura prawns and veges

There was also this fish cartilage tempura. This was interesting. It was chewy... yet the meat (or cartilage) itself bought along with it a subtle yet extremely appetising sweetness. Quite amazing. And yes - we smashed the plate :)

tempura cartilage

We also got grilled wagyu beef cubes which came with crispy garlic bits and a bean sprout, carrot, shallot mixture. Not bad - but I think that we were pretty full by now.

grilled beef cubes

One of our friends really wanted chicken wings yakitori style - hence we got those... but I think he was a bit too drunk to appreciate them :P

yakitori

And last but not least, a crowd favourite - the edamame beans. Normal but yum.

Edamame

So the meal was great. The service... well... they were all friends with our chef friend... and hence, they were more like friends rather than waiters/chefs... The price? Discounted much.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 32/40

Senzuru Japanese Restaurant
Harbour Plaza Metropolis
7 Metropolis Drive
Hunghom, Kowloon
Hong Kong
Tel : (852) 3160 6898

Seafood Paradise - Singapore

2011-10-05T18:58:00.002+11:00

One of the famous Singaporean dishes is the Chilli Crab. Our last run in Singapore was so short that we missed this awesome dish. This time, we almost missed it too. Almost. Our awesome Singaporean friend suggested that one of the chain of restaurants that do the best Chilli Crab has a branch at the Airport (T2). He also mentioned that this place not only does awesome chilli crab, it does a uniquely amazing creamy butter crab.

Given his suggestions, we ate at Seafood Paradise and asked the waitress if it was possible for two people to finish two crabs. She said that it was do-able. Hence, a wonderfully saucy chilli crab and an amazing creamy butter crab arrived at our table.

The chilli crab came drenched in a thick chilli sauce with egg bits floating throughout. The crab was sweet and fresh. My partner loved it. I preferred my creamy butter crab. This was simply AMAZING! Smooth, creamy, buttery with a hint of chilli and pepper. It was sooo good you simply had to lap up the sauce with the small little super soft deep fried bun.

Chilli Crab

Creamy butter crab

deep fried mantou

This has seriously got to be one of the best crab meals we've had. Having a whole crab each, however, left us a little crabbed out. I don't think we need to eat crab again in a while :)

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 31/40

Seafood Paradise
60 Airport Boulevard
#036-059 Level 3 Terminal 2
Singapore Changi Airport
Singapore 819643
Tel: 6214 9655

Bakehouse Garden Korean BBQ - North Strathfield

2011-09-23T13:02:00.000+10:00

Default dinner option for us seem to be either Charcoal Chicken (at El Jannah) or barbequed meat of some sort (either Jap or Korean style). Instead of going to Tosung this time, we decided to try something new - Bakehouse Gardens Korean BBQ within the Bakehouse Quarter.

Side dishes were pretty good - broccoli with chili sauce, eggplant, kimchi, pickled chinese cabbage. Good amounts of lettuce were supplied to supplement our barbequed meats.

sides

For this night, we opted for a beef bulgogi hot pot ($40) which was a sweet soup with a heap of beef bulgogi, mushrooms (button and straw), onions, rice cakes, and potato noodles. This was really yummy. The beef was tasty and tender. However, the pot is rather deceiving - it's rather shallow, meaning that everything boils and cooks super quick. Delicious anyhow :)

beef hot pot

We also opted for 2 barbequed meats - marinated beef short rib ($19), and pork belly ($14). OK - so the portions aren't massive, but the meats are absolutely deliciousness!!! My hubby said that the pork belly here is just as good (if not better) than Tosung (whom he'd previously named as the best pork belly in Sydney). That is a BIG call. But not one without reason. It was melt-in-your-mouth tenderness and deliciousness!

Marinated beef short rib - $19

Pork Belly - $14

I have to say, the service here was pretty amazing. At one time, there were THREE waiters surrounding our table putting plates down, swapping plates, cooking our meat. Not only that, the grill was changed like 3-4 times during the course of dinner (where we only really cooked 2 meats). Not a bad place - cheap too! Definitely worth a revisit

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance- 7/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 32/40

Bakehouse Garden Korean BBQ
11 George Street
North Strathfield
NSW 2137
Tel: (02) 8746 0299

Cheeky Chocolate - North Strathfield

2011-09-20T13:11:00.000+10:00

Looking for an Adriano Zumbo inspired cake without the normal Adriano Zumbo lines? Look no further than this sophisticatedly frenchy-looking dim-litted chandelier-filled chocolate cafe in North Strathfield.

Cheeky Chocolate only opened in the recent few months but quite often I see it packed full of people when I drive past on a Friday-Sunday night. Not only that, Adriano Zumbo does consultancy work here. Hence, I jumped at the first opportunity to drag my hubby and a few friends to sample the cakes here.

First thing that caught my eye - the glass cabinets filled with awesome looking cakes, macaroons and hand-made chocolates.

Cheeky Chocolate

My hubby was a party pooper and opted for a liquid dessert of chocolate thickshake. He asked for it to be extra thick. It came out only slightly thicker than a milkshake. Unfortunate.

Chocolate thickshake

One of my friends chose the mango cake. This was a square slab with a mango layer center, marshmellowy whiteness enveloped the mango with dusted yellow mango powder all over it. My friend enjoyed it muchly. In my tasting of it, it was an interesting texture, and sweet but not overly so.

Mango cake

Another cake which was ordered was the passion-fruit and white chocolate cheesecake. The top cheesecakey layer was light, the passion-fruit was flavoursome and the white-chocolate third-tier was slighty more dense and a good sweetness. The biscuit crumb base was also deliciousness~

Passion-fruit cheesecake

My eye landed on the chocolate caramel tart. A fantastic chocolate biscuit tart encased gooey fluidy chocolate mixed with caramel. All this was topped with peanut brittle. It was amazing! Rich, dense, chocolatey, heavenly!!!

Chocolate caramel tart

Fantastic desserts in a chillaxy friendly environment? Who wouldn't like it. For those alcoholics - there's cocktails galore here too! Definitely worth many re-visits :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 31/40

Cheeky Chocolate
11 George Street
North Strathfield
NSW 2137
Tel: (02) 9764 5966

Bar Biscotti - North Strathfield

2011-09-19T12:56:00.003+10:00

We woke up early on a Saturday morning and I was starving! Hence, for convenience sake, we went for breakfast down the road at Bar Biscotti :)

It was a hot day so I decided to order a chocolate thickshake. It was tasty and yummy... but... slightly not thick enough. It was half thick - the bottom was OKish, but the top half was like a milkshake.

Chocolate thickshake

My hubby's cappuccino was also decent ish. Like we thought previously, the reason why the coffee is not as awesome as the ones in Melbourne is due to the milk. Hence, with normal Sydney milk, I guess it was an OK coffee.

Cappuccino

Food-wise, my hubby went for the 'Big Biscotti' ($16.50). This was a pretty huge plate of stuff with 2 eggs (cooked how you like - my hubby went for fried), a huge pile of tiny mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, several sausages, a hash brown and a pile of thinly awesomely toasted bread. My hubby said that the bread was amazing! Everything else was not bad either.

The Big Biscotti

I decided to order my usual - eggs benedict with smoked salmon. Lightly toasted muffins topped with generous servings of baby spinach and smoked salmon slices and poached egg. The poached egg was unfortunately, overcooked. No ooziness. A shame. The hollandaise sauce was tasty though :)

Eggs benedict with smoked salmon

Breakfast was not bad. But when we went to pay the bill, they were like "$88.50 please" which left my hubby and I flaberghasted. "WHAT?!?!". Turns out, they mixed up the tables and put the next table's bill on our tab too~ So I guess that if you're eating here, be sure to check out the bill! :)

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

Bar Biscotti
24 George Street
North Strathfield
NSW, 2137
Tel: (02) 9746 7333

Shoya (2) - Melbourne

2011-09-14T16:10:00.002+10:00

My hubby felt like eating barbequed meats - hence, we decided to dine at Shoya - a jap restaurant we'd been to before for an omakase. Shoya has 6 levels of dining - a smokeless Japanese style BBQ level, traditional HORIGOTATSU (jap) style seating, fine dining tables, an executive section with sushi bar, Karaoke rooms and an executive lounge. Since we're barbequing meats, we opted for the "smokeless" jap style BBQ level which didn't have a table available til 9pm.

It was really interesting because the smokelessness of the barbeque was amazing! The only barbeque I've ever been to where I could leave without smelling like a barbeque :) Food-wise, we decided to order a sushi and sashimi set ($65) and 2 barbeque sets ('Gouka Tokusen') ($59) to share between the 3 of us.

The sushi and sashimi moriawase had a good fresh selection of sashimi (king fish, tuna, salmon, white fish) and sushi (tuna rolls, california rolls, squid, clams, scallop, scampi, kingfish, salmon, tuna). All was yummy but.. for $65, it wasn't entirely value for money.

Sushi Sashimi Moriawase - $65

Assortment of sushi and sashimi carefully selected by the chef. A perfect starter to share or for the seafood lover's main.

The barbeque sets came with a seaweed salad, wagyu sashimi, and a mix of meat and seafood barbeque meats. A sweet finish of icecream was also included. The seaweed salad was yummy and fresh with a good amount of vinaigrette. The wagyu been sashimi was also deliciousness! Tasty, beefy, fresh.

seaweed salad and wagyu beef sashimi

On the meat platter, there was rib of Wagyu beef, Wagyu beef sirloin, pork belly, and free range chicken. There was also Ox tongue with spring onions and Wagyu sausage. All the meats were really good. The wagyu was really tender and tasty and the pork belly was yum. The OX tongue was chewy yet delicate and I love all sausages to Wagyu sausages were right up my alley :)
However, portion-wise, I don't think 2 males would be full on the amount of meat served.

selection of meats

On the seafood platter there was prawn, scallop, squid, abalone, and salmon. Again, portions were not plentiful but the scallop and squid were amazingly sweet and deliciousness!

selection of seafood

The seaweed soup was tastiness. Clear looking but full of flavour :) The set also came with a bowl of rice. Guess they have to fill you up somehow as the portions are plentifuless.

seaweed soup

Dessert-wise, my friend went for a chocolate cake. This was chocolate sponge topped with chocolate mousse and a tiny gold flake. It was no where near as yummy as the cake from Ganache... but... it was alright.

chocolate cake

Icecream-wise, my hubby went for green tea, I went for sesame. The green tea was like any other. But the sesame seemed to be a mix of black and white sesame seeds. It was really really packed full of sesame-flavour.

green tea and black sesame icecream

All up, food here is fresh and tasty. Portions are not the most, but... it's quality and not quantity, right? :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Value for money - 6.5
Overall - 29.5/40

Shoya
25 Market Lane,
Melbourne
Tel: (03) 9650 0848

Cumulus Inc - Melbourne

2011-09-12T10:01:00.000+10:00

Prior to going to Melbourne, I had done my research and read loads of good reviews about the breakfast at Cumulus Inc. Hence, I was dying to go.

Unfortunately, we had a bit of a sleep in and by the time we decided to go, it was pretty close to 11am. And that was pretty close to the time they stopped serving breakfast... hence, we rushed to Cumulus Inc by taxi and just made it.

Cumulus Inc.

First things first - coffee. Melbourne coffee. We figured out that it isn't about the destination, but about the milk. It's the Riverina milk that most Melbournian cafes use which make Melbourne coffee awesome~ And yes, the coffee here is awesome - both my mocha and my partner's capp. And the barista lady went crazy alllll morning making coffee after coffee after coffee.

Cappucino

mocha

My hubby ordered the 'Shakshouka'. This was baked eggs with roasted peppers and Persian feta which came in a heavy, super hot cast iron pan. It was packed full of flavour - crazy mix of spices which my partner loved. The heavy flavour hit was a little too much for me at that time of the day though.

shakshouka - baked eggs with roasted peppers and Persian feta - $17.50

I ordered the 'Grilled Lyonnaise sausage'. This was a huge plate of braised beans with chunks of sausage and bits and pieces of smoked pork hock. On top of this pile of beans was a 65/65 egg. From my research, the reason why it's a 65/65 egg is because it's an egg cooked at 65C for 65 minutes. This leads to an egg which has a firm ish egg white and a runny yolk. Break the egg and it spills all over the beans, leading to a hearty yummy concoction.

Grilled Lyonnaise sausage, smoked hock, braised beans and 65/65 egg - $19.80

Patrons come in and out of this cafe. But there's a promise of yummy food and delicious smells and aromas throughout, making the wait worth it :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 31/40

Cumulus Inc
45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne
Tel: (03) 9650 1445

Ganache (2) - Melbourne

2011-09-09T10:14:00.000+10:00

I remember that I had an awesome cake from Ganache last time I was in Melbourne - hence, I couldn't wait to return. Stepping into their new branch on Collins Street, we were met with glass cabinets full of hand-crafted chocolates, macaroons cakes and slices as well as some enticing packaged chocolates.

This time round, I opted for a brownie mousse cake ($7.50). This a layer of delicious brownie with dark and milk chocolate mousse which was smooth, decadent and melt-in-your-mouth, and topped with a layer of chocolate anglaise. There was also a thin slice of tempered chocolate and a tiny tiny speck of gold flake sitting on top. YUM.

brownie mousse - $7.50

The pistachio macaroon ($2.20) had a crunchy shell and a creamy pistachio filling. I think I have confirmed that I am not a fan of macaroons - freshly made or frozen type. Instead, my hubby took fancy to this little treat.

pistachio macaroon - $2.20

My hubby opted for a Chocolate Milkshake ($6). This was a sweet chocolaty concoction with gelato, chocolate ganache and slightly too much milk. My hubby and I are both thick shake fans - hence, I think we'd prefer more gelato and more chocolate... so this was slightly diluted for our liking.

Chocolate Milkshake - $6

I love the cakes at Ganache. A must-return for sure!

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 30/40

Ganache
Collins Street
Melbourne
Tel: (02) 9650 8388

Movida - Melbourne

2011-09-07T14:42:00.000+10:00

We hopped off a plane in Melbourne on a Friday night and decided to meet up with a friend for dinner. The dining place of choice was Movida. We had no reservations. We simply just rocked up to the packed out restaurant at 9.30pm. "Mind a 30 min wait?" sure- no problem. This is when you know you're in Melbourne - it's OK to start dinner after 10pm.

Sangria

A jug of sangria to start the night as we decided on the range of tapaz (small individual pieces) and racions (sharing plates) to order. My hubby and our friend both liked the sound of the specials a lot - and hence, a lot of the specials of the night were ordered.

First up was the Anchoa ($4.50 each). This was a hand-filleted 'Cantabrian Artisan Anchovy' on a long thin flat crouton with a small scoop of smoked tomato sorbet. This didn't pique my fancy, but my hubby seemed to enjoy it.

Anchoa - $4.50 each

Something that was up my alley was the Croqueta ($4 each). This was super yummy crispy golden deep fried silky croquet with a filling of potato, jamon and egg. Smoothness and tastiness yet crispy and crunchy. YUM.

Croqueta - $4 each

Next one was also my order - Sopa Ajo con Vieira ($6 each). This was a perfectly cooked scallop mimicking an island surrounded a sea of garlic soup. The garlic soup was really really rich yet somewhat light. The scallop was lightly seared yet soft and tender inside. It was perfect combo. Super deliciousness! I could have like 10 of these!

Sopa Ajo con Vieira - $6 each

My friend picked the Agridulce con Pato ($11.50 each). This was a slow cooked duck shank which was crispy on the outside and stringily tender on the inside. This was served with hazelnuts, raisins and onions. Not bad.

Agridulce con Pato - $11.50 each

That was our tapaz dishes. Our sharing plates included the Cecina ($19.50) which was air-dried thin slices of wagyu with a soft poached egg and truffle foam. OMG this was amazing. The egg flavour was strong, get complemented the soft tender wagyu slices and truffle foam greatly. Deliciousness!!!

Cecina - $19.50

One of the specials was the rabbit. Four round columns of rabbit was wrapped in prosciutto was accompanied by melty soft brussel sprouts. This was OK tasting :)

rabbit with brussel sprouts

Another special that we ordered was a white fish served with pipi in a white wine cream sauce. The fish was really soft and tender with a crispy skin. The whole combination was pretty yum.

white fish with pipi in white wine cream sauce

The buttered leek was another special we ordered. The leek was really soft and really really buttery. Super rich and deliciousness.

buttered leeks

Thus far, the scallops were most awesomeness of the night. Something which was on the same calibre was the Carrillera de Buey ($21.50). This was slowly braised beef cheek which was seriously 'fall off the bone' beef cooked in Pedro Ximenez, all sitting on cauliflower puree. The meat was soooooo tasty. The sauce was infused into the meat which was sooooooo tender. Zomg :)

Carrillera de Buey - $21.50

Last but not least, we ordered a dessert on the specials menu - crispy spanish donuts. The donuts were filled with custard. The ball of goodness was deep fried, coming out super tongue-burning hot and super super crunchy. The ball of sweet dough was coated with cinnamon and was served with vanilla ice cream. My spoon could hardly crack into the donut... but - well worth the effort once able to be dugged into.

specials dessert

Finishing dinner close to midnight? Usual for Melbournians... right? This restaurant was well worth the <30 min wait. The flavours here were spot on. Worth a return visit for sure!

Ratings:
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 33.5/40

Movida
1 Hosier Lane
Melbourne
Tel: (03) 9663 3038

Vue de Monde - Melbourne

2011-09-05T17:35:00.004+10:00

I think I have just had the most epic lunch - EVER.
The lunch booking was for 2pm at Melbourne's 3-hat restaurant Vue de Monde. Luckily, our hotel was just next door at Intercontinental Rialto.

The funny thing about this restaurant is that it was epic from the beginning. Situated on Level 55 of the Rialto, the building's lift's highest level was 54 which meant that in order to get to the restaurant, the reception lady at the bottom had to buzz you up. After an ear-popping elevator ride, we step out to an amazing Melbournian view and a classy 'antique-ridden' bar.

As unfortunately, our table was not yet available, we chilled out at the bar for a while - enjoying the view. When our table was ready, we were professionally led to yet another amazing space with spectacular views. Without table cloths, the table was instead covered with dark, textured kangaroo hide which was stitched and tacked across the table top creating a soft ish smooth surface to lean on. What catches our eyes (view apart) was the pile of river pebbles and blackened logs in the centre. Each rock and log is used in some way when you order the degustation... but as we were not only a few of the rocks were used for us. The rocks were used as cutlery rests, salt and pepper holders, butter receptacles and the like. Very artful. Was fun to play with for giggly girls like me :)

We weren't given a menu for ages - but that didn't mean we didn't get food. First off to reach the table was hand cut potato chips with a creamy dip (onions, carrot, chives, sour cream... and maybe some other ingredients that we couldn't identify). My hubby was sold! Super crunchy crispy chips. YUM :)

hand cut chips with dip

Next out, 4 more amuse bouches came out. There was this jelly thing with some white thing inside. The white creamy paste was a mix of oysters and lemon. The gelatine layer added an interesting texture to the creaminess.

apple gelatine creamy thing

Another was a venison tartare sandwiched between thin sheets of crisp dried venison meat. The venison tartare was really tasty, smooth, creamy. A slight taste-hit. I like how it was cleverly presented on top of a rock :)

beef tartare in venison jerky

There was also a bite-sized piece of smoked eel. The top was crunchy and crispy and unexpected in fish. This was due to a sliver of clear, crisp white chocolate praline. On top of all this, there was a small pile of caviar. I never knew eel could taste so good - so flavoursome and so many textures in such a simple looking dish.

bite-sized cod

The orange thing was a little rod of raw pumpkin topped with tiny squirts of lemon yoghurt,toasted pumpkin seeds and shallot/chive(?). My hubby was flabbergasted by the handiwork. There was also a worm-like thing on the rock. This was a pickled vegetable... the waiter said it was artichoke... I'm not sure what it was but it was vinegary and crunchy.

pumpkin rods

After all the appetisers were done, the waiter waltzed over and informed us of the 2 food options - 'choice' or 'freedom'. 'Freedom' is their $250 10-course degustation. 'Choice' is their 4 course a la carte options ($150). Looking at the time, it was after 3pm already - and after 5 amuse bouches, I don't think my stomach could fit 10 courses. Hence, the a la carte we opted - only just (as my partner was almost swayed by the quality of the meals thus far). We get an entree, main, cheese, and dessert. As I'm not a cheese fan, I was allowed to go for 2 entrees instead! :)

My partner opted for the Melbourne club sandwich. This was no ordinary sandwich. Where's the bread? 3 super crisp crisp-bread sandwiched a layer of prosciutto and a layer of sardines with cucumber shreds scattered throughout and a nice dollop of aioli. Tasty. Fresh. Yum.

Melbourne club sandwich

I went for the prawn Russian salad. In my mind, a prawn salad looks like a pile of greens with some nice peeled cooked prawns on top. What I got, however, was a rectangle of translucent smashed prawns with bits of green, potato puree squirts, carrot cubes, wasabi mayo and caviar scattered throughout. O.M.G. I can't describe how I felt when I ate this. How can a prawn salad taste so good? Sweet and fresh and tasty and savoury and flavoursome and like, everything!!!

Russian prawn salad

My 'extra' entree (which I swapped a cheese plate for) was the Ox tongue salad with Gascony butter. Gascony butter is butter with a pinch of pepper for extra taste. The ox tongue was really soft and chewy and tasted amazing when with the butter. There was a massive array of radishes, greens, celeriac, tiny onion slices and edible flours everywhere. It was like eating a garden. A very tasty garden though.

Ox tongue salad

After our entrees, we got our bread. The butter came with the waiter scooping it from a big wooden bucket in front of your table. It was then placed on one of the "rocks".

butter using rock receptacle

The bread came in a leather pouch with heated rocks on the bottom. Yes - heated rocks - to keep the bread warm and soft.

bread with heated rocks

The palate cleanser was even more amazing than the previous creations we've seen. I love it because it allowed me to play :) It starts with a wooden pestle which you use to grind a mortar filled with fresh lemon balm, baby parsley shoots, wood sorrel, pineapple sage flowers and tiny lime grains... all of which was snap-frozened by the use of liquid nitrogen which was theatrically poured out in front of your eyes. Crushing the frozen leaves and flowers, you get a pile of crumbs on which a cool refreshing cucumber sorbet sits on top. This was ridiculously fun and quite a creative palate cleanser.

Palate cleanser

Out next was our mains. This was course 2 and the time was close to 4pm (and we had a plane to catch at 6.30pm). I had the wagyu beef. This was two super marbled pieces of wagyu with dried apricot cubes, Jerusalem artichoke, radish slices... all on top of a bed of smoked bone marrow. There was also a creamy foam sauce of some sort. This was melt-in-your mouth goodness. Oh yes - and there were the edible flowers ... again. So many textures. So many flavours. Zomigosh~

Wagyu beef

My hubby had the flathead with tarragon, swede and mustard. There was a crispy crumbed skin on top of a perfectly cooked slather of flathead. I don't know what they put on the skin but it was soooooo crispy and sooooo complementary to the soft textured fresh tasting fish. There were also some puffy squares which were quite interesting.

flathead

Next up was my hubby's cheese platter. The cheese was shipped around on a temperature controlled trolley which was completely glassed so you could see the cheese selection. The cheese is cut to order but from my observation, every time patrons were asked what kind of cheese they wanted, they all let the cheese dude decide. My hubby's 3 cheese were... 2 from Normandy, and one which came from a 40 kg wheel.... hahaha - that's as far as my cheese expertise went. My hubby said that one of them was a Camembert. The cheese came with two plates of pastes and apple shards.

Cheese platter

Another palate cleanser came next. There was a bubbling lemonade - crazily bubbling liquid nitrogened and very lemony in flavour. Delicious~ There were also "popping candy". An apple sorbet with a jelly thing that you dip into the "popping" mix (kind of like the cola popping candy we have as a kid). "pop" "crackle" "snap". Brings giggles to every table :)

bubbling lemonade and popping candy

Then came dessert. Hubby chose he mandarin "Weis bar". This was a rich and creamy milk and mandarin sorbet surrounded by fresh mandarin bits which have been poached briefly in sugar syrup and super awesome bed of crunchy dried mandarin. The flavour was soooo intense. I'm not a mandarin fan but if the mandarin flavour was swapped with mango or pineapple... man - this would have been dessert of the year~ Crazy!

Mandarin Weiss Bar

I opted for something chocolatey. The chocolate souffle was topped with chocolate mousse and vanilla crème anglaise . The souffle was really light and fluffy. One spoonful would simple just aerate and melt in your mouth. So light, yet chocolately enough.

Chocolate souffle

By now, it was 5pm. We had to dash. Told the waiter we were catching a 6.30pm flight back to Sydney - he was bemused "cutting it short aren't we?".

As we headed back down the 55 levels, we were met by another smiling reception lady who gave us a goodie bag "breakfast for tomorrow". ZOMG. Breakfast goodie bag to take away? A smile came on both our faces :) There was freshly baked sweet brioche, muesli, tea mix, and 2 yummy choc chip cookies. Awesome!

Breakfast goodie bag

With so many amuse bouches, palate cleansers and amazing dishes - the $150 is waaaayyy worth it! All waitstaff were nice, friendly and attentive - giving that relaxed yet sophisticated feel to the restaurant (and you've gotta see the bathroom!). Ambiance is amazing. There's like, nothing to criticise... So would I be back? most definitely yes! Oh - by the way, remember to book like 3 months in advance!

afternote - the restaurant host EMAILed us the menu of what we ate afterwards (unrequested). That's pretty damn impressive!

Ratings:
Food - 10/10 (hubby wanted to give 11/10)
Service - 9.5/10 (+0.5 for emailing us the menu after)
Ambiance - 10/10
Value for money - 10/10
Overall - 40/40

Vue de monde
Level 55 Rialto
525 Collins Street
Melbourne
Tel: (03) 9691 3888

Sushi Roll - Top Ryde

2011-08-30T18:18:00.001+10:00

I had salmon and avocado sushi craving and we had to collect my hubby's dry cleaning... hence, we were made to find a sushi place within Top Ryde. Sushi Roll at the outdoor piazza 'La Strada' was picked.

Sushi train or a-la-carte, both available. We opted for sushi train this time. My first pick? Salmon and avocado roll! :) Others included tuna salad and avocado roll, scallop sushi, crab salad and avocado sushi, seaweed ship, and salmon and avocado hand roll. The sushi bits on the train were nice. But I prefer the sushi bits we made-to-order (ie. pick something on the menu which you can't find on the train) - as they were more fresh :) I LOVED the scallop... so sweet and tasty. The seaweed salad was also heaped super high and yum. Mmmm...

All up? The sushi's not bad. Everything is tasty. Not the super freshest of sushis but good enough to satisfy my cravings :)

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

Sushi Roll
Top Ryde Shopping Centre
Shop 3042 Ground floor
Blaxland Rd (Cnr Devlin St)
Top Ryde
NSW 2112
Tel: (02) 9808 6986

Thanh Mai - Canley Heights

2011-08-28T17:19:00.003+10:00

For dinner one night, our church friends decided to all venture out to our english pastor's "hood" - Canley Vale. Being Vietnamese, our pastor took care of all the ordering. Some of us had drinks - avocado shakes, durian shakes, custard apple shakes, and my awesome iced coffee. I only tried the avocado shake (and none of the others). It was creamy and sweet, apparently comprised of loads of avocado, ice and condensed milk. My iced coffee was strong and sweet - just the way I like it :)

avocado shake

iced coffee

Foodwise, we had to try some traditional Viet cuisine. There was the sour fish hot pot. This was really really yummy. Fresh live fish (tasted like Perch or Silver Bream) which was to be immersed in a sour soup made from pineapple, tamarind and tomato. The water spinach, bean sprouts and okra were thrown in with the mix. All up, the fish was super super yummily fresh - you take it out after it's done and dunk it into fish sauce to eat. The soup was an interesting mix of sweet, savoury and sour. The Viet way is to have the soup with your rice. I think I'm too honky for this... I like my soup by itself. The soup was strong, but in quite a nice way :)

sour fish hot pot

Another Viet traditional dish was the caramelised fish hot pot. Again, super fresh fish was chopped up and cooked in a bubbling caramelised sauce which was sweet sweet sweet. You can see the flame surrounding the pot... you let it sizzle until the flame goes and then the caramelisation just fills your whole mouth! A must have sauce!!! (and fish!!!) Deliciousness!

caramelised fish in clay pot

The other dishes, though under the guise of "Viet food" are pretty much found in your normal Asian repertoire. There was the salt and pepper squid which was crunchy and golden and chewy and tasty and everything! The garlicy chilli deep fried lemony seasoning made the dish very much appetising.

salt and pepper squid

There was also pork chops which was coated in some sweet marinade which was tender and tasty enough.

pork chops

We also had a plate of lemon grass chicken. The chicken was kind of dry but immersed in epic flavour. The meat was so chewy that our pastor questioned whether or not it was crocodile meat. It tasted like chicken though... but then again, crocodile probably tastes like chicken too LOL.

lemon grass chicken

The seafood tofu hotpot was average. A good mix of calamari, fish, prawn, mushrooms and veges. Twas average.

seafood hot pot

All up - the two fish dishes (the sour soup and caramelised fish) were definitely the winners. YUM!

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Thanh Mai
252 Canley Vale Road
Canley Heights
NSW 2166
Tel: (02) 9726 6883

Danks Street Depot (2) - Waterloo

2011-08-27T12:12:00.000+10:00

Brunch at Danks Street at 10am.

10am!?!?!?!?! Who organises something on Sat morning at 10? Not only that, why are the streets packed and the cafe overly populated at such an early hour? Well... it was my high school friends. And I like my high school friends. As such, early early on Sat morning, I dragged my hubby out of bed and headed for Waterloo.

The perfect anecdote for an early morning wake is a huge bowl of coffee. A HUGE bowl of super yummy creamy tasty nicely balanced mocha the size of my face. YUM :)

Bowl of Mocha

One of my friends was a vegetarian. As such, he opted for the tomato and avocado on toast. It came out first and I was a little surprised by it's portion size. The plate was big enough. But there's just a slice of toasted bread with some chunky tomato and avocado bits and scarce amounts of feta.

tomato and avocado on toast

Another friend opted for the broccoli and scramble on toast. Again, big plate, not much food. Looking slightly yellow and overcooked broccoli came with not much scramble unfortunately.

broccoli and scrambled egg on toast

Sardines and tomato on toast was colourful enough. I think it tasted alright coz there were not much complaints from my friend (except for maybe the portion size).

Sardines and tomato on toast

I ordered the creamed truffle eggs with grilled tomato and mushroom with a slice of bread. The eggs were awesomely creamy and tasty but I still remember that back in the days when I first came to Danks Street my creamed eggs filled the ENTIRE plate. And I mean - the ENTIRE plate. Those were the awesome days that I miss muchly >.<

truffled creamed eggs

One of my other friends went for the smoked salmon omelet. It was actually relatively decently portioned, the smoked salmon looked fresh and tasty.

smoked salmon omelet

My hubby went for the chicken sandwich. I think this looked the best out of all the meals. Awesomely toasted chicken salad with corn and rocket. YUMness! :)

Toasted chicken sandwich

All up, the food here is still tasty. The portion size, however, it horribleness! Inflation!!! I miss the good ole days.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 6/10
Overall - 27.5/40

Danks Street Depot
1/1/2 Danks St
Waterloo
NSW 2017

Tel: (02) 9698 2201

Sushi Bar Rashai (2) - Annandale

2011-08-25T10:13:00.004+10:00

My mum wanted to eat Japanese one night. Hence, my hubby and I took our parents to Sushi Bar Rashai. My mum likes sushi and sashimi and my dad is a huge fan of eel. So a dinner with both these elements would suit us just fine.

We ordered a party sushi and sashimi platter for 2. This had a good variety of salmon (natural and lightly seared), tuna, king fish and another variety of white fish. All were in cut to perfect thickness. All were nice and firm and fresh and tasty. Super YUM. The sushi pieces, however, were pretty normal ish. Nothing too special.

party sushi and sashimi platter

Before ordering, my mummy eyed the vege tempura which landed on a neighbouring table. Hence - it became something on our order. Lightly tempura battered bit of veges (including beans, lettuce, carrot, sweet potato, onion), nicely deep fried and awesomely crunchy :)

Vegetable tempura

I wanted to try their Sapporo hotpot which was on their specials menu. The soy-milk based hot pot with seafood (prawns, scallop, fish), enoki mushrooms, and asian veges were super yum. Slightly overly tasty... but yum nonetheless. OK - it might be my bias in that I love all ingredients in it :P

Sapporo hot pot

My daddy's favourite- the Unadon - came on a large dish. Unfortunately, it was slightly luke-warm and not quite hot enough... and the eel was slightly not saucy or tasty enough... but, it was just there to quench my daddy's cravings.

unadon

Service here is friendly. Food here is tasty... not the best jap food I've had, but not bad either.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Service - 6/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 27/40

Sushi Bar Rashai
241 Parramatta Road
Annandale
NSW 2038
Tel: (02) 9560 3007

Colebee Centre - Doonside

2011-08-18T22:25:00.005+10:00

One of my friend's weddings was in the dead of winter. The ceremony and reception took place at the Colebee Centre which was in Doonside - out west... out in the open... late afternoon... making it even colder. Hence, being inside with food was warmly welcomed.

For starters, the classic bread roll with butter. Nothing too special.

bread roll

In terms of entrees, there was alternate beef and cannelloni dishes placed. I was lucky enough to get the sliced roast beef. The beef was sandwiched between toasted ciabatta, rocket, cherry tomatoes and drizzled with olive tapenade. This was OK ish. The beef was tender enough and the rocket was fresh... not a fan of the cherry tomatoes. The reason why I said lucky I got the beef was because the the cannelloni pasta was filled with roasted pumpkin (which I don't eat), fetta (which I don't like), ricotta (which I'm not a huge fan of) and thyme... all drenched in rich bechamel sauce. Yeh... rich, creamy but not really my type of dish.

sliced roast beef, rocket, cherry tomatoes and olive tapenade

roasted pumpkin, fetta, ricotta and thyme filled cannelloni

One of the mains was very similar to the entree. In fact, I think that they used the same beef in the entree as with the main. The beef escalopes were served with a pink peppercorn and brandy cream sauce with potatoes, carrots and zucchini. That was my partner's dish. Mine was a huge chunk of pork with apple compote and light gravy. This was served with mash and veges. Again... dishes were OK ish...

beef escalopes in a pink peppercorn and brandy cream sauce

pork with apple compote and light gravy, mash and veges

Dessert was probably my favourite of the night. My partner received the sticky date pudding with hot butterscotch sauce whilst I got the chocolate gelato truffle ball with a creamy centre which was rolled in dutch cocoa. I loved my dessert. Sweet finish. The gelato was awesome. Chocolatey enough. YUM :)

sticky date pudding with hot butterscotch sauce

chocolate gelato truffle ball with a creamy centre rolled in dutch cocoa

Guess that at weddings, it's not about the food but about how awesome the bride and groom were. And they were definitely awesomeness :)

Ratings:
Food - 6.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - ?/10
Overall - 19.5 + ?/40

Colebee Centre
Nurrangngy Reserve
Knox Road
Doonside
NSW 2767
Tel: (02) 9831 5265

zenja (2) - North Strathfield

2011-08-16T20:50:00.004+10:00

We were on our way to brunch in Eastwood or Burwood when we decided we were too hungry and wanted food RIGHT NOW. Hence, the car suddenly stopped on our road where Zenja was conveniently located. Our last experience at Zenja left me with mixed feelings - awesome food, crappy service. Nonetheless, we took the risk.

Contrary to our last experience, we were whisked away and seated immediately, the menu was provided shortly and our order was taken promptly.

Everything came out in a timely fashion and the service was friendly and attentive!!! So the lesson to be learnt here? Only visit Zenja when the crowds haven't appeared yet.

My hubby ordered a "flu fighter" ($5.50) which was a mixture of pineapple, orange and apple juice with a hint of ginger. Sounded healthy enough and tasted primarily of pineapple juice with subtle ginger. I ordered my usual - skim mocha ($3.50) and was pleasantly surprised at how smooth and creamy it was. It was just strong enough in coffee and chocolate flavour, well balanced and at perfect temperature. It was as good as Melbourne coffee!!! Well, I thought so anyway :)

flu fighter - $5.50

mocha - $3.50

Foodwise, my hubby opted for the french toast ($11.50). This was two thick-cut slices of bread immersed in egg mixture, served with maple syrup, crispy bacon and grilled tomato. I'm used to eating french toast asian style, which has peanut butter dripping in the middle of the two bread slices, but I guess this style is slightly healthier.

french toast - $11.50

I remembered how awesome my eggs benedict was last time ($13) and hence, went for it again. It came with THREE huge eggs poached to perfection, a good heap of smoked salmon, a small serving of baby spinach and nicely toasted turkish bread all with a decent portion of hollandaise sauce on top. It was a winner! So deliciousness. But I have to say, 3 eggs is slightly overkill. I tried to palm an egg off to the hubby but he wouldn't take it.

Eggs benedict - $13

We had an almost perfect Zenja experience this time... until we went to pay. The bill came to $29.40 (as we had an entertainment book voucher). We gave $50 and got $20 change. Sure, we were going to tip - but I would like that to be a choice. I want to get my change then choose to leave it for them. Shouldn't that be the way it's done in Australia?

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 31.5/40

Zenja
5 George St
North Strathfield
NSW 2137
tel: (02) 9746 9334

Inside Out Restaurant and Bar - Parramatta

2011-08-12T08:46:00.001+10:00

My friend and I met up at Inside Out Restaurant in Parramatta for a catchup - chosen by a process of elimination and surprised to find it's relatively nice cozy atmosphere.

Drinks for starters - my friend ordered this fig cocktail. I don't remember exactly what was in it... only remember fig, frangelico and me saying to my friend "that sounds like it might be super sweet" and my friend saying "it's OK. I like fig". As it turns out, you should always listen to the female race because we are always right LOL. The drink was soooooo super sickening sweet. So epic that every sip made my friend cringe and become shocked by how sweet it was all over again.

fig cocktail

Food-wise, my friend opted for the pan seared duck breast ($36). Slices of duck was served on a fluffy bed of sweet potato mash and topped with a small bunch of wilted spinach. The fig made an appearance once again in the sauce - a fig and port reduction. Overall, it made for a sweetly sauced succulent duck breast which was nice tasting... not super awesome though.

Pan seared duck breast - $36

I went for steak ($39). A nice 300g slab of grain fed sirloin on a heap of creamy mash potato and plentiful soft shell crab on top, all smothered in a bernaise sauce and red wine jus. I wanted medium rare - came up more medium. It was tasty enough. The soft shell crab could have been nicer if it had a bit more crunch... but overall, it was OK :)

sirloin with creamy mash potato and soft shell crab - $39

For dessert, we decided to share a creme brulee ($12). This was probably the best dish of the night - a definite winner. Yummy glazed over sugar toffee which was super awesome when combined with smooth creamy cold custody concoction. This was served with a relatively sweet raspberry sorbet and a not so awesome almond biscotti. I would have been happy with the brulee with nothing else accompanying it :)

Vanilla bean creme brulee - $12

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

Inside Out Restaurant & Bar
99 Phillip Street
Parramatta
NSW 2150
Tel: (02) 8837 7300

Ocean Room - The Rocks

2011-08-07T23:01:00.004+10:00

Since our honeymoon, "life" had just gotten in the way of my awesome hubby and I from sitting down to an intimate nice dinner together until now with the chosen venue of Ocean Room.

Ocean Room

It was a relatively tough decision between their degustation or a-la-carte menu. At the end of the night, a-la-carte won. Tapaz-style dishes we opted for as starters included the soft shell crab taco ($6 each), tuna cornet ($5) and the aburi scallop ($5 each).

The soft shell crab taco was really yummy. The taco shells were thin and super crispy. It kinda crumbled a the bite - but in a good sort of way. The soft shell crabs were quite strongly spiced and deep fried just right. This sat on top of lightly pickled vegetables which made for a good balance - the unhealthy crab and the healthy salad. YUM!

soft shell crab taco - $6 each

The tuna cornet comprised of very paper thinly curled nori rice cracker cornet. In this crisp cornet was finely diced marinated blue fin tuna tartare. I have to say - this was tiny! One bite could probably do for this cornet. It was an interesting combination. Not overly tasty but ... meh~ not bad either.

tuna cornet - $5

The aburi scallop was another interesting combination. Yummy flame seared scallop encasing a good dollop of Japanese pesto and a heap of Tasmanian wakame. Not 100% convinced that the wakame and pesto went together and not sure if the scallop went together with the two condiments.

Aburi Scallop - $5 each

We couldn't got to Ocean Room without trying their signature dish - the Tuna Creation ($23). This was 5 tuna cubes prepared in 5 ways with 5 condiments. The leftest cube of tuna was oil blanched with bits of fresh ginger and corriander on top. This was served with chilli salt. Together, it was average. The next one down the line was a natural raw cube of tuna served with light soy salt and a tiny bit of wasabi and lemon zest on top. I liked the light soy salt and I think this combination went well. The middle one was also served with soy salt, but this time, the salt was 3 years aged. The tuna cube was seared and sprinkled with five peppers and salmon roe. I believe this one was yum too~! The fourth cube down the line was raw tuna with black salt, and jalapeno and yuzu zest on top. The black salt was scarce but strong. You probably only needed 1 or 2 flakes to accompany the tuna otherwise the fish would be overpowered. Last but not least, the marinated tuna with truffle salt. Fried garlic and fresh chilli was sprinkled on top. I think that this was the strongest in flavour and quite tasty.

tuna creation - $23

We also ordered a scallop melt roll ($17). This was a cucumber, pickle, salmon sushi roll with seared scallop on top, flame seared cheddar cheese, garlic miso on the cheese and either bonito flakes or caviar on top of that. I love scallop. I love sushi. I love cheese. However, when all put together, it was the cheese that sunk the boat. Not sure if cheddar cheese should be on sushi.

scallop melt roll - $17

Now onto the mains. I ordered the tuna fin ($39). Only one word can describe this - EPIC. When I ordered it, I was thinking of the fins of a normal sized fish. But I was wrong. Very very wrong. When this dish came out, my hubby was thinking that this was a whole sword fish and thought to himself ("That can't be ours~"). BUT... it was. This was HUGEMUNGOUSNESS!!!! It was like 40-50cm in bigness! It came with a tuna wing "map" which detailed 3 bits to it, all different in taste and texture. The far part of it was the back loin - which is part of a muscle that supports the head of the tuna. This part tends to be very lean and the flavour is quite intense and strong. The inner middle part is the fin muscle. And this part is one of the most active muscles of the whole fish - it's darker looking (almost brown ish) and tastes quite different to any other part of the tuna. My favourite is the bit closest to us - the neck belly. This part is fatty and smooth and rich and tasty and deliciousness. YUM. It also can be considered "otoro". This massive yellow fin tuna wing came accompanied with a crushed cucumber ponzu dipping sauce which I didn't have to use much of coz the slow roastedness of the tuna was flavoursome enough :)

tuna wing - $39

My partner's main was tiny compared to my tuna wing. His Shiogama pork belly "cout de sel"($37) came with a dash of spicy kochujang sauce and a small salad. The pork belly was tender and rich and tasty. Not bad but I think our attention was captured by the massive tuna wing.

shiogama pork - $37

For a sweet finish, I ordered the chocolate tasting plate ($17). This comprised of 3 small cakes. The opera cake on the left with creamy yummy chocolate and espresso layers, a white and dark chocolate parcel (with sponge and mousse bits encased inside the chocolate coating), and a chocolate mud cake which was rich and moist and doused in delicious chocolate ganache. Not a bad finish to the night at all!

chocolate tasting plate - $17

All up, this place is pretty impressive. Views of the Opera House, which hanging tubes of brass (or whatever metal it is), a good variety on the menu, and OK service. Only bad thing was, they never returned with our change. Either they thought that $16 is definitely going to be tip or they just genuinely forgot - not quite sure. But as a patron, I prefer to see the change returned and if I so choose to tip them the whole lot of the change, I would let them know by leaving it on the table.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 30/40

Ocean Room
Bay 4 - Ground Level
Overseas Passenger Terminal
Circular Quay West
The Rocks
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9252 9585

Golden Century Seafood Restaurant (2)- Sydney

2011-08-04T20:39:00.002+10:00

My hubby and I were lucky enough to be invited by family friends to dine at Golden Century the other night. Whilst there, we saw Adam Liaw (masterchef 2 winner) dining with his japanese companions :)

On this night, our hosts did all the ordering. First up on the table was lobster sashimi. This came atop of steaming plate of liquid nitrogen - giving it a "smoking" aura. The lobster sashimi came in big fresh cold chunks of lobster. Lots and lots of it. The lobster chunks were subtly sweet and tasty. Accompanying the giant lobster were small fresh oysters which were super creamy, as well as salmon sashimi which were really quite yummy :P

lobster sashimi

Next up was abalone - large thinly sliced abalone quickly cooked hot pot style. Cooking the abalone this way makes it soft and tender and again, brings about a subtle sweetness which lingers in your mouth. What I like even more than the abalone is the super super awesomely sweet soup and lettuce which results after the abalone is cooked this way.

abalone

There was also XO pipies on the night tossed on top of fried thin rice noodles. The XO sauce was relatively strong and tasty. Yum but slightly more chili than I can take after consuming quite a few of these. Right up my hubby's alley though I think :) It was definitely a plate of fresh yummy pipies.

XO Pipies

After sashimifying the lobster, there's still lobster left in the legs and head and stuff and hence, this was cooked - tossed with supreme soup and scattered on top of really yummy egg noodles. My partner was really really happy cos he LOVES lobster and I guess just giving it to him raw isn't as awesome to him as having it sizzling hot and drenched in tasty sauce. Again, I'm a fan of the accompaniments - the saucy egg noodles.

lobster in supreme sauce

Another dish ordered for my hubby was the suckling pig. Whilst the skin was still kind of crispy, and the suckling pig was tasty I think it tasted kinda average ish. The jellyfish accompanying it was also so so.

suckling pig

Dessert-wise, we got traditional asian cakes and deep-fried flour puffs and red bean soup. T'was OK.

dessert

Golden Century is a place for seafood. Seafood is their forte so if that's what you're ordering, you're up for a good meal. The other dishes, however, is probably just so so.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29.5/40

Golden Century
393-399 Sussex St
Sydney
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9212 3901

Patisse - Waterloo

2011-08-01T07:58:00.000+10:00

Following Masterchef and Food Safari hype Patisse has been packed out on most weekends.

I'm actually not a macaroon fan - but seeing all the different colours and flavours makes me really happy... hence, we went macaroon hunting at Patisse only to find............. there's only one flavour left!?!?!?!?!

Apparently, they make their macaroons every wednesday and people buy them buy the 50s or 100s (according to the shop dude)... hence, when I come on Sat (and I've been hunting twice), there's only like 1 flavour left.

Well... I got it anyway. The vanilla macaroon was sweet, fresh out of the fridgely cold, and... mmm... average actually. Slightly disappointed.

Vanilla Macaron

I also couldn't resist the Opera cake. This was really yummy. Layers of coffee syrup soaked coffee cake, chocolate ganache, coffee buttercream and chocolate glaze - it was really really yummy. Slightly lighter and less dense compared to most other opera cakes, it was still really tasty and coffee-chocolately... I gobbled it up in no time!

Opera Cake

I have to say - Patisse is nice. Looks nice. Looks appetising. Is appetising. But not super duperly so. It was kind of average ish - like, Opera cake is nice... but Opera cake at Intercontintal is better I think. So Patisse is a nice cafe, cake, dessert place which is slightly over-hyped by Masterchef.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Patisse
G01/197 Young Street
Waterloo
NSW 2017

Tel: (02) 9690 0665

Digi.Kaf (2) - Glebe

2011-07-29T19:24:00.004+10:00

It was a rare Saturday morning with no commitments. My partner asked me where I wanted to eat and immediately, Digi.Kaf, an awesome brunch place we went to in previous years floated into mind. Hence - to Glebe we went.

First - coffee. We both wanted Cappuccinos. It was made nicely here. The coffee is almost strong enough and almost creamy enough and hence, almost yummy enough :) Just a tad short of Melbournian coffee.

cappuccino

In terms of food, my hubby picked the baked beans with sausages ($14.50). This was a substantial pile of cafe baked borlotti beans, onion and roasted capsicum submerged in a rich herbed tomato sauce. My hubby asked for the sourdough toast on the side so it wouldn't be crazily soaked in it. The sausages were very rich and aromatic - chewy and yum. And the poached egg was cooked to perfection... the yoke oozed out. My hubby said that this was probably one of the better baked beans he's had for a while.

baked beans with bacon or sausages - $14.50

I opted for the green eggs and ham ($16.90). This was three eggs made super scrambled and creamy with basil pesto stirred through it. This was served on top of a crusty sourdough toast, wild rocket and plentiful generous rashers of crispy grilled prosciutto. The creamy scrambled was really YUM. Soooo creamy - sooooo pesto-flavoury and deliciousness~

Green Eggs and Ham - $16.90

There's a reason why I wanted to come back - great food, good coffee, good service, great atmosphere.

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 31.5/40

Digi.Kaf
174 St Johns Rd
Glebe,
NSW 2037
Tel: (02) 9660 3509

Eastwood BBQ Kitchen - Eastwood

2011-07-27T13:40:00.001+10:00

In the past few months, a place we've always gone to for awesome red bean grass jelly icecream float drink had been replaced by a popular honky-style cafe branched off from Chatswood. This place, most probably due to it's newness in the suburb, was packed out both times we visited. The service was variable on the two occasions, likewise the food.

Eastwood BBQ Kitchen

They have special "lunch sets". We ordered their lunch set on both occasions. One time, it was a cream of pumpkin soup with a baked Portuguese chicken rice and drink. The soup was interesting - not your average pumpkin soup. This was pumpkin soup with an asian spin. It had a seafoody taste to it, kinda like your creamy seafood or chicken soup with a hint of pumpkin in it. The Portuguese chicken rice, however, was very yumminess indeed. Potato cubes, carrot, peas and chicken bits with wonderfully creamy tasty sauce which was all on top of some rice.

creamy pumpkin soup
baked Portuguese chicken rice

Another lunch set had been a Russian Borsch with a Baked pork chop rice. The russian borsch was super tasty and delicious and the baked pork chop rice was a wonderful surprise. The fried egg on top adds an additional wonderful texture and taste to the whole dish. The sauce is pretty much just tomatoey enough and the pork chop is wonderfully tender. YUM.

russian borsch

baked pork chop rice

The noodle here are slightly average and slightly expensive compared to what you can get elsewhere. There's their signature rice noodle soups. The one I opted for here was with a deep fried fish puff with rice noodles. This was... umm... average. Not too much taste. Not really my favourite type of noodle. But meh.

rice noodle with fish ball puff soup

The stir noodles with 2 kinds of bbq meat options fared a bit better. The bbq stuff is awesome! Really tasty tender soya sauce chicken with crispy skinned juicy fatty duck. Mmm... The stir noodles were ok... but I've had better.

Stir noodles with duck and soya sauce chicken

Likewise their drinks. This was a milk tea coffee blend and it came out really quite bland. Not enough tea flavour. Not enough coffee flavour... Hmmm..

coffee with milk tea

As I mentioned before, the service is variable. Depends on your luck! Try and come on a non weekend day for better service and food I guess :)

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 6.5/10
Overall - 26/40

Eastwood BBQ Kitchen
1 Trelawney Street
Eastwood
NSW 2122
Tel: (02) 9858 1366

Shake Shack - New York City

2011-07-25T14:20:00.000+10:00

Before going to NYC, I had done my research regarding burgers. One of the highly recommended places for a burger was 'Shake Shack'. Amazingly for us, there was one right underneath our hotel (wasn't intentional I swear!).

Shake Shack

Because Shake Shack was right underneath our hotel, we were able to go multiple times :) We tried their chocolate shake and that was simply superb - rich, thick, creamy and chocolately. On a different night, we opted for their "concrete". We tried one of their specials - the chocolate coco-loco concrete. This was chocolate custard blended with coconut dulce de leche and brownie chunks and this was like... omg thick and super super rich. I think we got through around half of this and we both gave up - it was too crazily thick and rich~

chocolate coco-loco concrete

One time, we tried their Shackburger and a Shack-cago Dog. The Shackburger, though small for American sizes, was packed filled with flavour. Super juicy and delicious beef patty with melted American cheese, lettuce, tomato and their special "shacksauce". This was soooooo good - we were both reminiscing the flavours the whole time we were in NYC (and also now, that we're back). The Shack-cago Dog was a Vienna all-beef sausage dog in a really soft yummy potato bun. This was topped with Shake Shack relish, onion, cucumber, pickles, tomato, pepper, celery salt and mustard. This was amazingly deliciousness too!!! Mmmmm.... Amazing. I'm salivating just at the thought :)

Shackburger

shack-cago dog

The fries here were crinkle cut. This time - we chose to have cheese melted on top - resulting in a cheesy deep fried starchy heap. So yummy but sooo sooo sooo unhealthy feeling :)

cheesy fries

Upon our first visit, we eyed our neighbouring tables who seemed to have this huge stack in their burgers and hence, that was definitely on our agenda for our next visit. The Shack Stack was a cheeseburger and a 'shroom burger combined. The Shroom burger is a crisp-fried portobello filled deep fried patty with muenster and cheddar cheese melted throughout it. So this cheesy mushroom patty plus a juicy beef patty was combined with lettuce, tomato and shacksauce to give us a monster of a shack stack. It was extremely tasty - a little too big to put into your mouth all at once - but yum nonetheless. My partner preferred the normal shack burger to this, but both were good.

shack stack

Shake Shack is one burger joint in NYC that is definitely worth a visit :)

Ratings:
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 30.5/40

Shake Shack (the one under Intercontinental)
691 8th Ave,
Southwest Cnr of 8th Ave and 44th St
New York City
Tel: (646) 435 0135

Tosung Firewood BBQ - Homebush

2011-07-23T23:28:00.005+10:00

Upon high recommendation by our Korean friend (repeatedly), my partner and I decided to check out Tosung Firewood BBQ which was around the area where we lived. Our friend said that the smoked duck was to die for - and hence, we were all up for a duck night! To our disappointment, duck was sold out for the evening >.< Hence, we had to settle for our usual favourites at Korean BBQs.

First to come was a range of sauces and condiments. We each got a salad and a cold soup. The cold soup was vinegary and filled with veges - I think it's meant to be a healthy thing to drink following unhealthy bbq stuff, or maybe it's to cool our burning mouths down (as we tend to eat the meat straight off the hot plate without waiting for it to cool down properly). There were only three other varieties of side dishes - a sweet potato mash puree type thing (which I didn't really like), pickled onions, and pickled chinese cabbage.

condiments

We opted for one side dish to complement all the meat - Jap Chae ($12). This was a good array of veges with beef all tossed in super yummy potato starch noodles. This was quite delicious - the flavours were all there, it was hot and steamy, the noodles were nice and soft, there was just enough sauce.... Mmm.....

Jap Chae - $12

In terms of meat, we had the ox tongue ($18) and the pork belly ($17). My partner claimed that this was probably the best pork belly he has had in Sydney - and given the number of Korean bbq places he's been to and his love of pork belly - it was a pretty big claim. It was soft, tender, juicy and you could tell that the meat was "fresh", like it wasn't the type that has been sitting around for days before they served it out. There was a good meat to fat ratio - just enough so that the meat kind of just melts in your mouth. The ox tongue was also good. Thinly slices, tasty and chewy but not too chewy - just the way it's meant to be.

Pork Belly - $17
Ox Tongue - $18

As we were in a firewood bbq place, it made no sense to not order any smoked stuff. Hence, out last choice was the firewood pork rib ($25). Coming out pre-smoked and firewooded, you're meant to heat it back up on your stove... and... this was heavenly. Smoky flavour infused throughout the meat, super super tender - the meat just falls off the bone... and it was just amazing! Really yummy ribs - I ate so much of these :) If the firewood ribs are this good - would the duck be even better?

Firewood Pork Rib - $25

All up, it was a good recommendation by our Korean friend. The restaurant seems to be a bit in the middle of nowhere - but there's a big carpark and a lot of Koreans who dine here (which is always a good sign). Definately worth a re-visit :)

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 30.5/40

Tosung Firewood BBQ
17-35 Parramatta Road
Homebush
NSW 2140
Tel: (02) 8756 5252

Casellula - New York City

2011-07-11T16:36:00.001+10:00

On recommendation by a friend, we had decided to dine at Casellula, a Cheese & Wine Cafe in the Hells Kitchen area of NYC. Being quite a small, cozy yet popular cafe, the place was packed full of people and we had to wait a little while outside in the dark and cold.

Nonetheless, when seated, we could see the charms of this place. Cheese cabinet in full display, lots of people chit-chatting over a glass of nice wine. The whole thing made the place comfortable - like your just chilling at a friend's after work.

For the night, we decided to order 2 entrees and 2 mains. My partner's pick was the Spanish white anchovy fillets which were served with fennel fronds and pickled shallots. Small crusty bread accompanied the salty/sour combination which really, kind of opened your appetite to try other things.

Spanish White Anchovy Fillets

The entree of my choosing was the chistorras in a blanket. Super yummy sausages wrapped in a soft tortilla like pastry and topped with slices of raddish. Not bad... but so far, the dishes were quite small - leaving me wanting.

Chistorras in a Blanket

The first main was the seafood taco. Lots of seafood - calamari, squid, prawns - with red cabbage slaw and a lime cilantro dressing. I have to saw, of the night, this was my least favourite. Not because the flavours of the seafood was wrong. But because the "taco" wasn't really to my liking. Although I am a fan of soft tacos, the consistency of this flour wrap just didn't seem right.

Seafood Taco

My partner's favourite of the night was the Pig's ass sandwich. Super yummy ham thinly sliced, with 5-spoke tumbleweed and fol epi cheese, pickles - all pressed together in the toasted turkish-style bread, with super yummy chipotle aioli on the side. Kind of like an upscale ham and cheese toasty :)

Pig's Ass Sandwich

Being a tapaz style cafe, it was kind of weird seeing food in normal proportions once again (as opposed to American sizes). I have to say, I miss American sizes - but only when it super yummy good food.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 6.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Casellula Cheese & Wine Cafe
401 West 43rd Street
New York
Tel: (212)315-2121

New York Slice - New York City

2011-07-09T05:03:00.000+10:00

We had done our research and noted that the New York Slice is one of the 'must eat's in NYC. Instead of just jumping into any pizza joint (which are everywhere in NYC), my hubby decides - NO! Let's go out of our way to find a net-recommended one. So at the risk of missing the sunset views on the Empire State Building, we went pizza-slice hunting.

It was a tough trek, made tougher by the fact that my hubby forgot to bring the name and address of the joint. We almost didn't find it. We almost missed it, and gave up after 1/2 and hour of walking. Just as we were about the run back to the Empire State Building, we saw it! Bleeker Street Pizza.

Bleecker St Pizza

There was a window full of yummily ovened "pies" (ie. pizzas). Some with very tempting toppings. But to be traditional, we had to go with the margherita. A large, wide, thin, foldable pizza topped with tomato sauce and stringy mozarella. The base is what makes the new york slice a new york slice. It's thin and chewy in texture, yet crusty and crunchy all at the same time. How can something so thin and simple be so yummy?

Margherita pizza slice

The New York Slice does not disappoint. Yumminess to the core.

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29.5/40

Bleecker Street Pizza
69 Seventh Ave South
New York, NY 10014-4043
Tel: (212) 924 4466