Bondi Pizza - Parramatta

Every time hubby and I drive past Bondi Pizza in Parramatta, it is packed out! So when my friend and I waltzed in on a weekday to find it much less busy, I was a bit surprised. The menu had plenty of choices for entree, wraps, pizzas and pastas. There was also a small sign for the lunch special - an 8" pizza with drink for $9.95. So two lunch specials were ordered!

We opted for the Grilled Chicken Pancetta and the Mexican Nacho. The chicken pizza had plenty of chicken pieces and pancetta slices and also a heap of rocket, all on a tasty BBQ sauce. The Mexican Nacho was even tastier (in my opinion). It had a heap of ground beef and beans, diced tomatoes throughout and a good drizzle of guacamole. Sour cream and sweet chilli sauce was also on top. Pizza and nacho feel all in one!

chicken and pancetta pizza

Mexican nacho pizza

The pizzas weren't the best I've had recently but it was decent and tasty. Also, it was awesome value for a pizza and drink! ;)

Ratings: 
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 810
Overall - 29.5/40

Bondi Pizza
320 Church Street
Parramatta
NSW 2150
Tel: (02) 9891 9221

Adora Handmade Chocolates (2) - Parramatta

My friend agreed to join me for some chocolate and being in Parramatta, I wanted something other than Max Brenner. So, we wandered a bit further away to Adora Chocolates. Being a weekday, the shop (which was bigger and newer than the Earlwood one) was unfortunately empty. But we were happy to be seated and to indulge in chocolate :)

I ordered a hot chocolate. This was really massive and came with a chocolate ($5). The milk was frothed til super creamy and the melted chocolate was rich and just so chocolately real (none of that fake artificial stuff!). Soooo delicious! For the chocolate, I chose the macadamia cluster which was also very yummy.

hot chocolate

dark chocolate macadamia cluster

My friend had too many hot chocolates the day before and hence, went for their waffles with icecream and melted chocolate ($10). You get to choose your flavour of icecream but my friend went for the boring vanilla. The vanilla icecream had plenty of black dots - indicating real vanilla? And the scoop was MASSIVE!!! The chocolate was also plenty delicious.

waffles with chocolate and icecream - $10

I'm sure I'd definitely be back if they are still around! They are more on the businessy side of Parra - out of the way for most people I guess. But really  YUM :)

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

Adora Handmade Chocolates
Shop 2B/103 George St
Parramatta NSW 2150 
Tel: (02) 9635 7737

Temasek - Parramatta

I was crazily craving a good prawn mee - so much so that I was almost willing to fly to Singapore/Malaysia just for a good bowl. Luckily, hubby whisked me off to Temasek just in time to save thousands in traveling costs.There was a bit of a line for this busy Sunday lunch but we waited patiently and was rewarded handsomely with super yummy hainanese chicken rice and my beloved prawn noodle soup (har mee).

Hubby's chicken was really tender and tasty. The skin was silky smooth with just a thin layer of jellied fat underneath it. The rice was flavoursome but not too crazily oily which was good.

hainanese chicken rice

My prawn noodle soup was absolutely heavenly! The prawn stock was really really rich and packed full of seafoody prawn-shelly flavour. The hokkien/thin rice noodle mix helped soak up the delicious broth making for a crazy yummy meal. The king prawns in it were also good - but as the soup was soooo good, I probably would have been satisfied without them.

Har Mee - prawn noodle soup

I have a feeling that there will be plenty of har mee excursions to Temasek coming up for me in the future.

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28/40

Temasek
71 George Street
Parramatta
NSW 2150
Tel: (02) 9633 9926

Sicilian - Parramatta

It's been a while since we'd been to Parra and we were amazed at the new restaurants, cafes and froyo places which have sprouted. However, instead of visiting a new and upcoming joint, we stuck with a restaurant which seems to have been there on Church St for years~

Sicilian is one of those places that we'd normally just walk right past. The decor's not too flashy although, their semi-circular couches do look which comfy. As we walked in, the atmosphere was relatively quiet and dim (slightly dead looking) but people did seem to pile in after us. We ordered the Pasta di Palermo ($24.90) and the Cesare Con Gamberi ($24.90)

We were quite impressed with the portion sizes. Both dishes came out smelling spectacular. The pasta was rich and creamy. Definitely not a healthy option but absolutely creamy buttery goodness with loads of chicken, bacon and mushrooms.Some greens and a hint of pesto and garlic was also present.

Pasta di Palermo - $24.90

I doubt that the salad was any healthier. Three jumbo sized prawns came warm and pre-peeled (for easy eating) on top of our nicely dressed ceasar salad. A good amount of shaved parmesan and some nicely boiled eggs. Not bad for an unhealthy salad. :)

Cesare con Gamberi - $24.90

The food here is decent, service is so-so and price is not exactly what I'd call super cheap (unless you are like us and have an Entertainment book voucher). However, it was a good enough place for a lazy lunch if you're in the area.

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

Sicilian
292 Church St
Parramatta
NSW 2150
Tel: (02) 9633 2259

Parramatta Phoenix - Parramatta

For my father-in-law's birthday, hubby and I took him out to Parramatta Phoenix - reason being that it's close and it's convenient. Though it's been open for around one year, I haven't really heard much about this restaurant in terms of quality of the food. In fact, though it's so close to home for many family and friends, I don't think this restaurant is frequented by anyone~

So I had no real expectations for this restaurant as we went (albiet late due to work). As my father-in-law enjoyed seafood (particularly fish), we ordered several types of seafood. We had 2 steamed oysters each. The oysters were reasonably sized and steamed with ginger and shallots and soy sauce. It was tasty and smooth. No grainy sands found. And very muchly appetising. Though, each swallow (which was very easy to do) was $5.50 a pop.

steamed oysters

We also had sugar snap peas with scallops. The scallops were really large and perfectly cooked. None of that tiny stringy stuff that you get at most other restaurants, this was really nice juicy sauteed scallops on very yummy and well cooked sugar snap peas. Quite enjoyed this.

sauteed scallops with sugar snap peas

Fish was a must. Steamed barramundi was ordered. It was decently sized and cooked well. The meat was tasty and fresh. The fish was devoured entirely by us seafood lovers.

steamed barramundi

Last but not least was my unhealthy pick - deep fried taro with duck. Yup - high oils, high fat, high cholesterol but oh so tasty and yummy. The taro was really smooth with just the right balance between sweet and savoury. The duck was soft and tender. And the 'crunch' was flaky golden goodness. YUM but definitely a 'sometimes' food.

Crispy taro duck

I was actually quite impressed by this meal. The food here is pretty quality. Maybe because it is slightly pricier than other chinese restaurants in the area, the restaurant was largely empty. The service was reasonable and we got sweet watermelon and oranges to finish the meal. It's not a bad option for a good Chinese meal in Parra.

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

Parramatta Phoenix
Westfield Parramatta
Level 4, Shop 4070
159-175 Church Street
Parramatta NSW 2150
Tel: (02) 9891 3338

Inside Out Restaurant and Bar - Parramatta

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

Nadia's Cafe - Parramatta

Brunching. Love it.
Even if it's local at a random cafe within Parra Westfield.

On this particular Saturday, we had decided to eat at Nadia's as we had to be somewhere in Parra at a particular time. Faced with a decent sized menu, my partner and I went ahead and ordered coffee and food.

I ordered my usual - skim mocha without cream - and my partner ordered his usual - long black. We are definately creatures of habit.

My mocha was average. Nothing brilliant but not too bad. I can only assume that my partner's long black was alright too.

skim mocha

Long black

Foodwise, my partner opted for a bacon and egg roll with tomato relish. I have to say, it was a bit sad looking on the plate. Alone with no condiments. Nothing on the side. However, the egg looked runnily good.

Bacon and egg roll

I decided on a blackboard special - chicken and mushroom quiche with salad. The quiche was pretty tasty. A bit burnt on the crust but creamy and fluffly on the inside.

Quiche with salad

I have to say, Nadia's on a Sat midday is quite busy. Waitresses are running around everywhere. Food is decent but, I'd probably want to go elsewhere for brunch before returning.

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

Nadia's Cafe
Parramatta Westfield Shopng Cntr
Shop 401, Church St
Parramatta
NSW 2150
Tel: (02) 9893 959

Crinitis - Parramatta

Decisions decisions decisions.
Life is full of decisions.
I hate making decisions.
So when faced with a menu which opens up to be as big as your table and full of words, I was a little taken back. What to eat?!?!? What a hard decision.

My friend and I decided to dine at Crinitis. As it was a Thursday night, the place was quite busy and service was... well... yeh.

Decisions on what to order was definately difficult. But after much deliberation, we decided to order 2 mains to share - the Spiedini di pollo ($36.90) and the 500g pork ribs ($28.90). My friend also decided on a cocktail - the buckle me ($22.90) whereas I, having to work at 8am the next day, decided it's best to be able to drive home and wake up the next day.

So my friend's buckle me cocktail. The name says it all. Tasted peachy yet strong - very quite strong. It comprised of peach snapps, vodka, barcardi, tequila, cointreau, peach ice tea, apricot nectar and lemonade. One sip - it was nice. More than one? Buckle me.

buckle me - $22.90

The food took a little while to come out. The place was a little bit noisy. Hence, it was a little bit hard to talk. Yet, when the food did come out, it was pretty amazingly huge~ The 500g pork ribs were gigantic! Covered in homemade BBQ sauce and grilled to perfection. What more, it came with yummy chips :) Awesome~ (I did have a ribs craving though).

500g pork ribs - $28.90

The ribs came with a choice of salad, chips, potato or veges. As evident, we had opted for chips and veges. The chargrilled veges were actually pretty good. The zucchini was really sweet as was the capsicum.The potatoes were soft and fluffy too.

chargrilled veges

The Spiedini di pollo was 2 super long skewers of chargrilled chicken. The chicken was yummily garlicy, herby and lemony. The meat was a little bit dry and heavy, but tasted much nicer when heaped with garlic aoili :) The chips were good. Salad was normal.

Spiedini di pollo - $36.90

The servings were undeniably gigantic. By the end, we were both clutching our stomachs in fullness. Dessert menu? Unfortunately not this time.

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

Crinitis
291 Church Street
Parramatta
NSW 2150
Tel: 1300 274 648

Meidi BBQ House - Parramatta

"Let's go eat spinny bbq things!" is something I've been saying since seeing this place on Chocolatesuze's blog. It's a bbq place in Parra which has meat pre-marinated and pre-skewered for you. Then you pop the skewers on a self-spinny thing and it spins and spins and spins on top of hot charcoal, giving it an awesomely even cooking experience. What more, it is an all-you-can-eat! Eat as much meat as you can possibly stomach :)

Meidi BBQ House

Stepping into the place, there's three main sections of food. There's innumerous skewer variety, a cold entree/appetiser section, and a cooked small eats section. In terms of the skewers, there's a good range of chicken, pork, beef, lamb marinated in all sorts of things. What more, there's super awesome frankfurts and fishballs (which I LOVE in Honky style bbqs). There's also beef rib and squid (unskewered), ready for u to pop on a wire mesh. For appetisers, there's the vinegary white raddish (which is superbly awesome), beef jelly, garlic seaweed, chilli potato strings, tofu bean curd (which are not very appetising), and bean sprout stuff. And in terms of the hot food - this is probably the section that you go to if you're with a big crowd and your waiting for your food to be cooked. Gyozas here are pretty yummy so they're worth a try.

skewers

appetisers

pre-cooked hot food

appetisers

random selection of skewers

skewers going round and round and round

In terms of skewers, the chicken wings and the fish balls are my favourite. The beef ribs and satay chickens come as a close second. There's also fruit (just orangers) and icecream (vanilla only) after your hectic meaty meal.

All up, my partner and I decided that this is like a cross-over between a Honky-style bbq and a Korean bbq minus the work (ie. good for lazy people). For the price ($28.80 Mon-Thurs ^& $29.90 Fri-Sun), this is probably a good option if there's two of you and you're both too lazy to set up a barbeque but if there's a large group, you're probably better off price-wise to set up your own cos really, how much meat can you really eat?

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

Meidi BBQ House
Shop 4, 100 Church St
Parramatta
NSW 2150
tel: (02) 9635 9098

The Lighthouse Seafood Restaurant & Bar - Parramatta

For our clinic Christmas dinner, our boss shouted us to a three course meal at The Lighthouse Seafood Restaurant. To add to the Christmas cheer, Christmas crackers were placed on the tables for us, and live entertainment was present with some dude singing Christmas carols ALL night.

We were first served with yummy warm bread. I have to say - most of us were famished and so, soft warm bread was served. The butter melted into the bread, giving us a super yummy rich buttery taste to start the meal.

warm bread roll

We had a choice of different entrees. I chose the Smoked Tasmanian salmon. This was many many slices of super subtle and lightly smoked Tasmanian salmon rolled with avocado and straw mushrooms inside with a hint of dill mayo present throughout. Salmon roe and super finely diced apple was spreaded all around. It made for a relatively yummy starter. What I didn't appreciate too much was the raw straw mushrooms. I normally like my straw mushrooms cooked - grilled, steamed, barbequed, sauteed, ANYTHING! - just cooked. LOL

Smoked Tasmanian salmon with avocado and straw mushrooms, salmon roe and dill mayonnaise

For sides to share, we got super thick cut chips and salad. The chips were deliciousness! Golden crispiness on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. YUM. The salad was likewise good. It had a good amount of vinaigrette in it.

thick cut chips

garden salad

For my main, I opted for the roast chicken breast. The chicken was cooked okayishly and was stuffed with spinach and ricotta. Creamy mustard sauce was drizzled around the chicken and steamed veges - carrot, beans and asparagus - were sitting underneath the chicken. All up, it was a decent dish. Being hungry, I polished it all off.

Roast chicken breast filled with spinach and ricotta in creamy mustard sauce

For my dessert, tiramisu was on my plate. The saviordi biscuit was soaked in hazelnut liqueur and espresso coffee and was topped with mascarpone. The coffee taste wasn't quite enough and the biscuits were still kind of crummy. The mascapone cheese tasted more like cream... not really something I savour. I have to say, it wasn't the best tiramisu. I believe I make yummier ones :P

Homemade tiramisu cake

All up, dinner was decent. The Christmas cheer got to me after a while - but that's probably just me. I was never a huge fan of Christmas stuff LOL

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29.5/40

The Lighthouse Seafood Restaurant & Bar
68-80 George Street
Parramatta
NSW 2150
tel: (02) 9635 8388

Sea Sweet Patisserie - Parramatta

My friend who lives from the Shire has, on multiple occasions, been trying to tell me how awesome the baklavas are from a sweets shop in Parra. After many times of hearing about it, I made her actually take us down here - so we can try it ourselves.

The patisserie is called Sea Sweet and is located on Church street, on the quieter side of the river. There are two glass cabinets full of cakes and petit fours, and two huge cabinets of lebanese sweets. According to my friend, it's probably better value to take-away, as they charge you double the price for eating in.

loads of cakes and sweets available

On this particular occasion, we decided to purchase half a kg of mixed baklavas ($13.90). We got a huge selection - cashews, pistaccios, chocolate baclavas, rectangular ones, round ones, the whole lot. They all have a different name - but being me, the only difference I sense is cachew vs pistaccio. What I mean is that, to me, all cashew ones taste the same and all pistaccio ones taste similar. The baklavas here are really quite awesome. Sweet, but not overly so. Light and puffy and crispy. Bite-sized (which is kind of bad as it means that I consume many many in one sitting).

1/2 kg of baklavas - $13.90

The baklavas here are yum. The range of cakes available also seem quite good and my friend thinks that they are decent in taste. The service isn't 100% though... but be patient and eventually, they'll get there.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Sea Sweet Patisserie
4 / 354 Church St,
Parramatta
NSW 2150
tel: 1300 90 80 70

Lucianos - Parramatta

My friends and I were up for a late lunch on a Sunday in Parra. Having all the options of the restaurants on Church Street, we had finally decided to test out Lucianos - a restaurant that none of us have been to previously.

Lucianos

Lucianos has a decent list of lunch specials. We were slowly seated... then even more slowly, offered a waiter to take an order... then slowly the drinks came... then slowly, we waited and waited and waited and waited ... then an hour later, our food came. That was the pace of the whole meal. Slow.

We ordered a garlic pizza to share ($9.90). The base to this pizza was super crispy and crunchy. It was done really really well. The cheddar melted on top and the garlicy flavour added the perfect taste to the pizza base. All up - this is probably one of the best garlic pizzas we've had. Just took around half an hour to get here.

garlic pizza - $9.90

In terms of mains, whilst there were 6 of us, we had only ordered 4 different meals (some of us chose the same thing) - and one of them was a salad. The pasta's weren't exactly extravagently complicated (in our view) and so, to wait an hour for them to arrive (ie. at 3pm), it was slightly unexpected.

Me and one of my friends ordered the Penne venetian ($9.90 including a drink). This was penne with chicken, basil, garlic and pinenuts all in a white creamy sauce. It tasted really quite awesome. The pasta was done well - al dente - it was creamy and tasty but not overpoweringly so. Pesto flavoured, heavy yet light at the same time. I was very happy with my meal (except that it took an hour to get into my stomach).

Penne venetian - $9.90

Two of my other friends ordered a vitello capri risotto ($9.90 including a drink). Risotto for this price can not be perfect according to my friend, so she was happy with it even though it was a bit more soggy and a bit more runny and watery than she would have liked. I guess flavour-wise, it was decent. Unfortunately, one of my friends found a long brown hair in his risotto - and being asian, it was obviously not ours. When we informed the waiter of this, he was happy to take it off the bill. I'm sure my friend would have complained earlier if it was not for the fact that he was scared that he wouldn't be able to eat for another hour.

Vitello Capri risotto - $9.90

My partner ordered a spaghetti aglio oleo ($9.90 including drink). This was spaghetti with garlic, olive oil, sea salt flakes (aka salt), pepper, parsley, basil and chili flakes. It was flavoursome and spice-y but I don't know. It seemed to lack something. I preferred my creamy penne I think.

spachetti aglio oleo - $9.90

I didn't take a photo of my friends chicken salad. It came as a huge bowl and there was no major complaints about it so I can only assume that it was alright.

All up, service was a bit lacking, the decor was 'wannabe vintage', and the food was decent (except there may be hair in your food). Probably won't be returning unless I'm looking for a place to hang and kill time.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 4/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 26.5/40

Lucianos
281-283 Church Street
Parramatta
NSW 2150
tel: (02) 9687 6880