Automata - Chippendale

There's several new exciting restaurants opening up, some in the up and coming buzzing area behind Central Park on Kensington Street. Automata - with ex-chef from Momofuku (Clayton Wells) - is one of these new kids on the block setting up shop in the newly refurbished Old Clare Hotel.

The vibe is on-trend. Hipster and slightly industrial with funky looking lights and part of an aircraft engine as it's decor. Several shared long communal tables both down and upstairs which seem good for groups but slightly too close for comfort when eating with strangers. Waiters here also give off  that 'I'm uber cool and chilled' vibe.

Offering a 5 course degustation, Automata sets us off with some tasty snacks. There is the really tender and sweet storm clams with a rosemary dashi and cream, as well as fried fish skin with a yuzu kosho. Both are delicious starts for the evening. I found the combination of rosemary and dashi to be a daring pairing - but it worked surprisingly really really well.

The first course was a plate of asparagus, lots of little stumps of them - all wrapped with sesame leaf and with a umeboshi paste sandwiched between the asparagus and the leaf. It was quite interesting. The flavour of the umeboshi is a tad overpowering, but it's not a taste I disliked. Oh - and there's some wakame on top just to make it more visually interesting.

Bread comes in after the first course. This is really soft and warm house made bread rolls with an absolutely amazing pumpkin seed and anchovy whipped butter. I was not eating bread with butter. I was eating butter with bread. This whipped butter is SOOOOO delicious I want it on everything!!!

Course two is a steamed hapuka - perfectly perfectly steamed - sitting on a bed of really smooth and super flavourful cured roe emulsion and topped with a roasted sheet of seaweed. It may not look like much, but it smelt and tasted amazing! The fish just flaked off and was smooth enough to melt in your mouth. I think that this was my favourite dish of the night.

I'm not sure if it's teething problems of if we were just dining (on a Wednesday) at a bad time of the night, but after the fish, service slowed considerably... like really really slowed. Being seated so close to other diners on a communal table meant that it gave you tons of time to eavesdrop (unintentionally) on everyone else's thoughts, feelings and dreams. The first of the meats to come was the slow roasted quail - cooked two ways - served with red witlof, and a burnt apple and caper sauce. The witlof was a pleasant bitter addition to the reasonably well cooked quail. Again - the dish required you to 'unwrap' the parcel.

Again after a really long wait, our last savory course arrived. It smelt AMAZING! It was a slab of inside skirt topped with a variety of mushrooms and embellished with a tamari and brown butter, and a glop of eggplant puree. It was good. It was packed full of flavour. The meat is a little chewy but definitely forgivable because of all the delicious tastes mixing in your mouth.

Last but not least, there is dessert. The couple sitting next to us didn't like it much. I don't think it was sweet enough of their tastes. However, hubby and I loved it! It was a pumpkin seed sorbet (more creamy than a sorbet... it was really just an icecream), with a bitters meringue and dehydrated mandarin. It was a good combo of crunchy and smooth, subtle sweetness and light bitterness. I'm pretty sure we both polished it off.

So all up, this new restaurant lives up to it's hype. Pretty tasty food. Reasonable value for money. Some daring flavours and combinations. Definitely worth a try!

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

Automata
5 Kensington Street
Chippendale
Tel: (02) 8338 1708
For online reservations: Click Here

Ippudo - Chippendale (Central Park)

I had been lucky enough to be invited by Ippudo to visit their new premise at Central Park before their opening on Oct 2nd. Situated in the 'dining district' of the complex, the vibe around the place is really chillaxy and awesome - as is the decor of their newly renovated restaurant.

To be honest, when I received their invitation, I was really really excited. Since Ippudo first came to Sydney, I had been meaning to try out their ramen and pork bun. But for one reason or another, my efforts to go had been thwarted in one way or another.

The first thing that you get smacked in the face with when you enter their store is a super crazy enthusiastic "いっらしゃいませ" ("Irrashaimase"). I hope that the staff were only this enthusiastic because it's early days as their welcome chant was so intense that it gave me a fright! LOL :)
We were welcomed warmly with an extensive menu and told to chose anything except.... they didn't have pork buns! My heart sank a little >.<

We made our selection - a beef croquette to share, a Shiromaru Special for me, and a Miso Tonkotsu Special for hubby. The beef croquette was slightly too oily but it was golden brown and crumbed well. The innards flowed out this beefy creamy substance which was unexpectedly meaty in flavour. I didn't dislike it, but it was very different to other croquette's I've had due to the beefiness of it.

Tables around us ordered things like their fish and chips (lighly battered salmon with chips), and salmon aburi sushi. I have to say - I got serious food envy. The sushi looked pretty awesome! I definitely have to try it next time I go there.

Our ramen came shortly after. The "special" bit of our ramen meant that we get a side plate of flavoured soft boiled egg, simmered pork belly, roasted seaweed sheets, black mushrooms (or black fungus), bamboo shoots and spring onions. I know, it's the greedy option but I really enjoyed the gooey nature of the egg and the plentiful seaweed. And the simmered pork belly??? Simply melt-in-your-mouth to die for type of YUM!

For the noodles, you get to choose between soft, medium and firm for the amount of cookedness. The waitress recommended 'firm' to get maximal texture and bounciness in the noodles and I guess, the noodles gradually soak up the soup anyway. As for the soup bases, hubby's Miso Tonkotsu was really flavourful. Not as thick as Gumshara, but you could still taste the collageny goodness about. The semi-strong miso flavour mixed in with the pork soup makes this a very palatable slurp.

My Shiromaru soup is also tonkotsu based. It was less intense and served with thin white Hakata-style noodles. The two ramens were really quite different. My one is the milder cousin of the miso tonkotsu but just as filling. I have no idea how the other tables managed to eat their noodles with their fish and chips / sushi but hubby and I were both super super stuffed by the end of our meal.

I had a tasty meal. I love noodles and this satisfied my noodle cravings. Can't wait til they officially open and I can finally sample their pork buns!

Ippudo Sydney (Central Park)
Level 1, RB07
28 Broadway
Chippendale
NSW 2008

Opening on : October 2nd, 2014

Mission Restaurant and Bar - Chippendale

For an early Christmas dinner with old uni friends, we went to Mission Bar and Restaurant in Chippendale. My friend organised the private function - meaning a private upstairs room with art surrounding us (the Ng Art Gallery featuring Mariola Smarzak's work, Cantata). Lucky for us, our private dining room was slightly sound-proof in that the people downstairs are unable to hear the ruckus we were making :)

To start, we got warm flat lavosh bread with super yummy olive oil emulsion. The lavosh bread was suprisingly floury, but because it was warm and mixed really well with the olive oil, salt and pepper (or maybe, because I was hungry), I thought it was really pretty good.

lavosh bread with olive oil

On our function menu, we had a choice of either chicken liver parfait with caramelised eschallots and chargrilled bread (which I chose), or baby beetroot salad with roasted pecans, grapefruit and goats curd (which my partner chose). Some of my friends managed to get a third option of zucchini flower fritters. My chicken liver parfait was smooth and really rich. Not overly livery, it was subtly tasty - but only when slathered on the bread. Tasted better with the caramelised eschallots which adds a good balance to the whole thing. My partner's salad was pretty big - sure, not the most bling or flash, but I guess it was decently fresh and well seasoned.

chicken liver parfait with caramelised eschallots and chargrilled bread

baby beetroot salad with raosted peacans, ruby red grapefruit and goats curd

For the main, we had the choice of either a Chermoula baked blue eye trevella or a slow roasted lamb shoulder. My fish was cooked well - not too tough, it was still tender and seasoned well. It was sitting on top of a bed of pinenuts, raisins, parsley and preserved lemon curd. I loved the pinenuts, was ok with the parsley, and picked out all the raisins LOL. My partner's lamb was HUGEEEEEEE. It was lamb shoulder shredded with green cardamon, chilli and tahini. Didn't look appetising to me, but my partner said that it was good - just waaaaayyy too much of it :)

chermoula baked blue eye trevella with pinenuts, raisins, parsley and preserved lemon

slow roasted lamb shoulder with green cardamon, chilli and tahini

We had an interesting range of sides to share : green salad and rice. Nothing too exciting.

rice and salad

So the service was pretty good in that they didn't kick us out even with all the noise we were making. The ambiance was good. The food was decent. Overall - pretty good.

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

Mission Restaurant and Bar
3 Little Queen Street
Chippendale
NSW 2008
Tel:(02) 9318 0815