Spago - Beverly Hills

Ever expected a dinner to be sub-par then get something a bit more spectacular? Doesn't happen too often but Love it when it does :) And, it happened at Spago at Beverly Hills.

We booked at the last minute and ashamedly, were also late for our booking. The restaurant was rather accommodating though, despite their surprisingly pretty full restaurant. You see someone making fresh pasta at the front all night long, as though to emphasise the fact that you are eating freshly made pasta.

For starters, we had some garlic bread. This smelt amazing. The bread has a crispy crust and a soft center. Butterly but not dripping in it, and garlicy but not overly so. Not bad.

garlic bread

Hubby ordered the Pappardelle Cheek's Ragu ($24).This was al dente handcut thick ish pasta served with a 16 hours cooked ox cheek ragu with porcini and truffle oil. The pasta was tomatoey and meaty. A reasonably tasty pasta.

beef cheek ragu papadelle - $24

I had the king prawns fettuccine ($24). There was a reasonably large amount of prawns with some mushrooms and capsicum. But the star of the dish was the creamy lobster bisque. ZOMG this lobster bisque was mindblowingly good - urges you to go back for more and more and more!

King prawn fettuccine - $24

So I have to say, I loved my pasta here. And I would come back for some more. The whole meal was made cheaper by our entertainment book, so if you have one, come check out this small ish yet busy Italian restaurant.

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

Spago
524B King Georges Road
Beverly Hills, 
NSW 2209
Tel: (02) 9585 0282

Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant (2) - Beverly Hills

I graduated again recently! YAY!

What it meant, however, was another boring ceremony which ended roughly around 8pm. By the time we get out - say goodbye, do some other random stuff, make it to a place to eat... it's 9pm! So late dinner it was.

My parents, partner and I decided to dine in Beverly Hills at the Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant. Ridiculous name - but fantastic food. The "midnight snack" menu is meant to start at 10pm, but the waiter said that if we ordered a seafood item (which also slashes price after 9pm), he can give us the "midnight snack" deals.

This is what we ended up getting on the night...

First to come up is scallop congee. Seeing that my mum was feeling a bit sick and that I love congee and scallops - this dish was pretty perfect. The congee was extremely tasty and was infused with that seafoody sweetness. The scallops was the frozen variety so how they managed to make the congee so yummy tasty and sweet was a mystery. If I had to guess - it probably had to do with some additives of the chemical nature... Nonetheless, it was still delicious.

Scallop Congee

Salt and pepper deep fried white-bait fish was also part of the package. This was slightly less crunchy than I would have liked, and slightly more chilli than I had anticipated. I've always found this dish rather fascinating to eat cos you're like eating A WHOLE FISH! it's head, eyes, brain and all, its bone and spine, all the way to the tail! It's amazing! And half the time, it doesn't even register in my head that I'm chomping down a whole fish.

Deep fried white bait

The green veges came out - just in time to relieve my chilli-burning mouth. These were very ordinary and slightly over oily. So oily, in fact, that I'm not even convinced greens are good for you anymore.

veges

Next came the one dish that wasn't part of the deal - the "four treasures of the sea". This comprised of a scallop, an oyster, an abalone, and a clam/shell-fish variety. We ordered two portions of these. Unfortunately, my partner gobbled up the clam/shell-fish thing before I could take a close up of it. In general, the seafood was fresh - tastily steamed in shallots, ginger and sweet soy sauce. The scallop had an extra dallop of crushed garlic on it to add more flavour and oyster, though not huge, was still plump and juicy.

Four treasures of the sea

The deep fried prawns and deep fried rice noodle base came out next. This dish was HUGE and soaked in a super rich, slightly overwhelmingly tasty tomatoey sweet-chilli ish sauce. Because of the sauce, the prawns lost a bit of it's crunch. As I was lazy, I was able to chomp down one prawn - shell and all, but for the next one, the shell was too soggy and normal-fied that I had to actually peel it off before ingesting the prawn meat. The rice noodle base had it's crunchy bits and also it's nice soft and soggy bits (which I love). However, as the whole sauce this was slightly overwhelming, it was a bit of a rude shock to have a bowl full of oily sauce and bits of rice noodles swimming in it. Ahhh... so unhealthy but extremely tasty.

deep fried prawns and rice noodles

Last came what probably ought to have been the cold-cut entree. Cold cuts of marinated beef, pork and jellyfish. This dish was probably one of the least oilified and hence, gave a good fresh finish to the evening.

cold-cut plate (beef, pork and jellyfish)

All up, the service here isn't the best (unless you are a regular ... and then the waiters get chummy with you). The food is tasty and yummy but slightly on the over-oily side. And price-wise, we got away with paying just slightly over $80 for this much food (and much food was taken away in take-away boxes).

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

Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant
503/505 King Georges Rd
Beverly Hills
NSW 2209
tel: (02) 9580 0788

Rhinedorf - Beverly Hills

Rhinedorf German Restaurant

After working on a Saturday (which is a truly horrible experience), I was craving meat - and LOTS of it. So in my mind, our dinner choices were either HUGE ribs or HUGE pork knuckle. Seeing that the Mardi Gras was in the city, we chose to avoid that area and opted instead, on going to Beverly Hills for German food at Rhinedorf.

Although the entrees were truly very tempting, my partner and I decided to save our stomach space for the huge mains we were choosing.

Drink-wise, this is the only place where lemon-lime bitters came as bitters in a glass and a glass bottle of schweppes. Mixed together - it became an interesting colour and an interesting taste, which, unfortunately, was not the taste I was used to or after. LOL

Lemon Lime Bitters - $3.50

In terms of food, my partner chose the Kalbshaxen ($26). This was HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE veal knuckle slow roasted with herbs and spices. The meat was so super tender and simply fell off the bone. This was accompanied with red cabbage, roast potatoes and drizzled with gravy. Very tasty but slightly oily and very filling.

Kalbshaxen - $26

I wanted pork crackling. Hence, I ordered the Schweinehaxen ($23). This was a big chunk of pork knuckle, slow roasted with beer and herbs. Although there wasn't an abundant of crackling, there was still enough to satisfy my cravings. The crackling was really good - really crunchy and crackly. It is such a guilty pleasure though - as each bit of crackling is dripping in fat. Definately not for the faint-hearted. The meat however, was slightly varied. Some bits were a bit dry whereas other bits were really tender and juicy. Mmm... It was accompanied with sauerkraut, which was good but not excellent, and roasted potatoes which were sooo herby, fluffy soft and pork-oil tasting. The "gravy" that it came with was a dissappointing patch of oil. But if you were brave enough to soak the meat in this gravy patch, good rewards ensued - you get extremely flavoursome, almost aromatic, juicy pork which enriches your tastebuds but clogs your arteries. LOL Try if you dare.

Schweinehaxen - $23

Unfortunately, although I was so hungry and thought I could eat a horse, I failed miserably. I managed to gobble down all the crackling and probably around a third to a half of the pork. I think that next time, we can just order one knuckle between the two of us and that will probably fill us up. But for this time - the buy one get one free voucher from the E-book meant that we got away with paying less than $35. Bargain! :)

Amazingly, the rowdy, lively diners around us seemed almost capable of gobbling their large portioned meals. This is truly a German restaurant. (I think it's authentic, but I've never actually been to Germany so I probably wouldn't know)

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

Rhinedorf German Restaurant
485 King Georges Road
Beverly Hills
NSW 2209
Tel: (02) 9570 6763

Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant - Beverly Hills

Roses.
Love. Elegance. Beauty.

It was my parent's 27th anniversary today. Being an only child (and since my partner deserted me for the wondrous city of Melbourne), I was stuck being a third wheel on my parent's special day.

Supposed to be pale purple roses - but looks more Pink. I much prefer blue though~! (nevermind, they belong to my lovely mum)

Well, my mum had a craving for big fat juicy oysters (cooked the asian way), and since she's the boss of the house, we trekked to Beverly Hills "Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant". Parking is a nightmare, but we eventually made it.

Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant

First to come was the house soup - watercress carrot and pork bone soup. It was a nice surprise to find it un-oily, which is how most other asian restaurants tend to serve soup on the house.

House soup - watercress, carrot and pork bone soup

Well, you guessed it, we ordered my mum's request - big fat juicy oysters cooked with shallot and ginger in a soy sauce dressing ($4.50 each). And they did not disappoint! mmm... yummm...

Mum's request - oysters cooked with ginger and shallots

Close-up of my big fat oyster

I wanted to try the live pippies cooked in rice wine (which I later found out was super expensive - more than $50). It was nice, refreshingly different to the usual pippies in XO sauce style. But probably not worth the cost.

Pippies cooked in rice wine

To compensate for the un-XOed pippies, we ordered XO scallops. Wasn't too chilli (which is super, cos I'm not a chilli eating person) and the scallops were pretty spectacularly yum. Not overcooked or tough - but tender and "melt-in-your-mouth+ flavour" feeling.

Scallops in XO sauce

Something else I found super delicious at this restaurant is the mixed mushroom and tofu hot pot. I love mushrooms (especially oyster mushrooms) and tofu works for me. Having them together, sizzling hot in a little pot immersed in an oyster sauce base - delicious!

Mixed mushroom and tofu hotpot

Now for a normal dish - pork chops in peking sauce. Alot of pineapples involved (which I like), and the meat was nice and tender. But, compared to everything else, was really, just like every other pork chop in peking sauce.

Pork chops in peking sauce

Finally, came the complementary fruit. Mmm... watermelon. Having just survived winter, I crave watermelon :)

complementary fruit platter (with my mum's fingers as she was too eager to eat it and wouldn't let me finish taking a photo first)

The total bill came to around $160 - with the main contributor being the pippies. The pippies are refreshingly different to how I'm used to having them... but not spectacularly good to warrant the price. Nonetheless, try for yourself, form your own opinion. In all, The scallops and oysters win my vote - with the mixed mushroom hot pot coming in close... and... as far as Chinese restaurants go, this is quite a good one!

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29/40

Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant
503 King Georges Rd
Beverly Hills, NSW 2209
Tel: (02) 9580 0788