Besser - Surry Hills

Besser is a casual Italian joint settled among the old collection of Besser blocks. It gives off a relaxed vibe and an old-school style. The waiters are heavily accented but quite friendly. Given the concreteness of the restaurant, it gets super noisy as human voices bounce around the room.

As a party of four, we decided to just order dishes to share. We opted for two entree dishes - the meatballs and the pork fingers. The meatballs were reasonably bite sized and packed full of cheesy flavour. There was also quite a delicious tomatoey sauce that covered the meatballs. The pork fingers were lightly crumbed and eaten with an oniony-yoghurt sauce. There was also an intense mustard flavour to the soft pulled-pork innards.

We chose three pastas. Two of the pastas were part of their specials for the day. Due to the noise and the waiter's accent, I don't quite remember exactly what they were, just that one was a creamy risotto with scampi, and the other was a pappardelle with sausage and mushrooms. The risotto was quite tasty - scampi give or take, but the cheesy creaminess and the al-dente rice created pretty awesome rich flavours all round. The pappardelle was not bad either. Slightly creamy, slightly tomatoey and again, perfectly cooked pasta. Whilst both pastas were delicious, what surprised me most was the gnocchi with turkey that we ordered. Not that it was better than the other pastas. Just that I've never liked gnocchi (like EVER) but this gnocchi is beginning to change my mind. The gnocchi was really fluffy and pillowy - not dense or carby like the normal ones, and the turkey meat added the right amount of saltiness to it all.

Other than the pastas, we also ordered the grilled scotch mushroom (sorry about the photo.... I didn't take it...). Having no expectations of what a scotch mushroom was like, it ended up as a plate of thin grilled scotch fillet steaks with juicy mushrooms and wilted greens. The steak was cooked well - tender enough. But I think I would have been happy enough with just tons of the mushrooms (which was really flavourful as it soaked in all the meat juices) and the wilted greens.

Dessert-wise, nothing really appealed. And, Messina was just next door (even the waiter agreed). So... Messina we went.

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

Besser
3/355 Crown Street
Surry Hills
Tel: (02) 9331 1611

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

Scarlett Restaurant - The Rocks

As a part of a friend's hens, dinner was at Scarlett Restaurant at The Rocks. Being a hens, the restaurant locked us up in a private sandstone room with no windows (to block out our noise?). Apologising for the photo quality first off due to lighting and use of a phone camera.

We had choices of three entrees, mains and desserts. We also got a nice salad, super thick cut chips and broccoli to share for the table too. For my entree, I opted for the Ceviche of Kingfish. Fresh yummy slices of king fish was served in a bed of blood orange dressing with chilli and radish. It was quite tasty.

Ceviche of Kingfish

For the main (even though the photo doesn't show anything), I had the roast beef fillet served with shimeji mushrooms, asparagus, bone marrow and jus. I asked for my beef medium rare and it came out perfect! Juicy, tender, really really tasty. Unfortunately, my friend wanted hers medium but it came out as a dry super super well down slab of (almost inedible) meat. What I absolutely loved about this dish was the bone marrow :) (but I am biased cos I love bone marrow).

Roast Beef Fillet

By dessert time, I was pretty stuffed. My option was the Chocolate mousse. This was nice and sweet (but not overlly so). It came with a  yoghurt sorbet which I wasn't a super huge fan of, as well as a slightly too thick and too difficult to bite into salted caramel toffee.

chocolate mousse with yoghurt sorbet

This was a pretty decent meal given that we came as a group function. It was better than I expected :)

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

Scarlett Restaurant
34 Harrington St
The Rocks, NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 8220 9999

@! (At Restaurant) - Crows Nest

On recommendation from a close friend who said that they had the best sushi in Sydney at a little restaurant in Crows Nest, we absolutely just had to try.  The restaurant is on one of the main streets of Crows Nest and is called @! Restaurant. Restaurant with symbols as names? Yup - I'm intrigued.

Stepping in, is small and neat. Run by seemingly authentic Japanese people (which is always a good sign). Looking around the other tables and looking at the menu, there were way too many things we wanted to try. After much deliberation, we settled for a Wagyu Potato Nest, Grilled Kingfish head, and the Sushi Omakase.

The Wagyu Potato Nest comprised of super delicious, flavoursome, melt-in-your mouth wagyu beef cubes, soaked in some really awesome slightly sweet sauce. This came with a mound of super crispy thin potato fries. Because the fries were super thin and crisp, it didn't get too soggy, even when it fell in to the sauce. Was quite a yummy dish!

Wagyu Potato Nest

 The Kingfish head came out next. At this time, I was super puzzled as to why our sushi came out last (cos authentically, shouldn't sushi and sashimi come out first so that our palates weren't tainted??). Anyway, the Kingfish Head was really well cooked. The meat was succulent and juicy and whilst it possibly just had salt and pepper on it, it was really good - esp with a hint of lemon on it :)

Grilled Kingfish Head

 Lastly, the omakase sushi set turned heads around the restaurant. It looked absolutely gorgeous and the people on the next table were quite envious. There was a huge variety of fish - all really fresh and good. Not quite tokyo standard, but my friend was right, one of the best sushis in Sydney. The tuna was good. The salmon was good. The lightly flamed scallop with sea-urchin was AMAZING. The scampi was super sweet. Hubby loved the sea eel. All up - LOVED IT!

Omakase Sushi Set - $55

@! Restaurant is definitely a restaurant to return to in the super near future!

Ratings:
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 31/40

@! Restaurant
417 Pacific Highway
Crows Nest, NSW 2065
Tel: (02) 9437 5285

Butagumi Tonkatsu - Hong Kong

We were hungry and looking for something yummy to eat around the Mong Kok area in HK. After giving just a bit of thought we decided on Butagumi Tonkatsu located at the basement of a little arcarde called Gala Place. It was a Japanese restaurant specialising in Tonkatsu (which we didn't actually end up ordering) with your usual western/chinese influence.

Drink-wise, I opted for a sesame milkshake which was really quite delicious~ Rich in black sesame flavour, icey, milky and just thick enough. Hubby had the usual iced lemon tea.

black sesame milkshake

We both ordered set menus. With the set came a creamy soup. This wasn't too spectacular - just creamy with some lumps here and there.

creamy soup

My main was the salmon pasta - with spinach fettuccine and mushrooms. This was pretty tasty! Just creamy enough. The pasta was just al-dente. It was pretty well balanced in flavour.

salmon with spinach fettuccine

Hubby ordered a steak featuring an american angus. Hubby asked for medium rare, and it actually came out as such! Amazing~ The steak was tender, the sauce was just enough, and I guess we were just both surprised that this was yummy.

Angus sirloin

The poorest part of the meal was probably the dessert. This was a pretty crappy small square of blueberry cheesecake. We barely touched it. Much better to save stomach space for other things in HK!

blueberry cheesecake

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

Butagumi Tonkatsu
Shop B01 B/F Gala Place
56 Dundas Street
Mong Kok, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 31820186

Ruby Tuesdays - Hong Kong

We were having dinner with a friend in HK. Initially, I had said that I wanted to go to a Jap restaurant. However, having just thrown up all over the place due to food poisoning the day before, raw fish and sushi was the last thing on my mind. Instead, we decided to go to our friend's favourite restaurant.

Ruby Tuesdays is our friends favourite restaurant because he has an amazing VIP card here which gives him 50% off the WHOLE bill - food AND drinks (alcoholic beverages included). Pretty awesome :P

I had a craving for wings, and so, we ordered wings as an entree to share. The small (9 wings) was only HK$60 more than the large (18 wings) - which, after discount, means that it's less than $5 AUD more for 9 more wings. So despite knowing that it's almost impossible for the three of us to polish off 18 wings and our mains between the three of us, we ordered it anyway - 9 teriyaki flavoured, 9 buffalo. They were pretty finger-lickingly good!

Large wings - buffalo and teriyaki

Our friend got the Colossal burger. This was a full POUND of meat patty with melted cheddar cheese and a tiny bit of salad encased between three soft buns. It wasn't super duper tasty but it was super duper massive! Our friend did a pretty decent job at almost polishing it off! Not the chips though - they were a bit sad looking.

Colossal burger

I got a steak. A wagyu sirloin (from Australia... yes - there's better aussie steaks overseas than in Sydney). It was cooked perfectly medium rare, really juicy and tasty, and topped with an asiago cheese and peppercorn sauce. Served with a side of baked potato and overcooked broccoli, it was actually quite yummy!

wagyu sirloin steak with asiago sauce

Hubby got a full rack of pork ribs. Sure it wasn't as saucy as Hurricanes, nor was it as big, but the meat was still fall off the bone. This was served with veges which were virtually left untouched by hubby.

pork ribs

veges

All up, it was an alright meal. The food wasn't super flash but it was definitely bargain with the 50% discount. They also have a salad bar where people can fill up their plate with as much salad as possible - we had a good laugh looking at how people stack up their salads both at the restaurant and the creative ways people could do it online :P Maybe we could try it someday~

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance- 7/10
Value for money - 8.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Ruby Tuesdays (Tsim Sha Tsui branch)
Shop 304, 3/F, Silvercord
Tel: +852 892 0883
Web: http://www.rubytuesday.com.hk

The Deckhouse - Woolwich

One of our friend's weddings was hosted at the Deckhouse at Woolwich. It was at one of those spectacular venues that the moment you arrived, you just absolutely wished there was more sunlight because the view was breathtakingly stunning (as was the wedding itself ofcourse!).

Whilst everything was amazing, lets take a bit of a closer look at their food. There were a few canapes going around - some good, some just misses the mark (sorry no photos!). For instance, the oysters and the salt and pepper squid were both yummy but the peking duck pancake was unfortunately a bit fail.

As per usual, all the dishes were alternate drop. For entree, there was the quail or the scallops. The quail was wrapped in prosciutto and was served with a mixed leaf olive salad and balsamic glaze.  Many people couldn't tell that this was quail. And personally, I liked the seared scallops a bit more. The scallops was served with parsnip fennel puree which was really tasty and smooth, crispy pancetta and a mixed herb salad.

For mains, there was a fish and a beef. The Barramundi fillet was served on a bed of lemon risotto with a buttery and dill sauce, and zucchini. It was cooked okayly well - particularly the butter sauce haha! The beef tenderloin came with a baked blue cheese souffle and a potato stack all in a rosemary lemon jus. This was alright too if memory serves me correctly.

Dessert is almost always a course that is forgotten at weddings because they tend to be served after the dance floor is opened. However, I was glad we came back to the table for these. The chocolate fondant was deliciousness and was accompanied with a milk icecream. The honeycomb icecream parfait was also sweetly delicious and served with mixed berry and a delicious peppermint toffee bark. I think that the desserts were the highlight of the meal~

So all up, the food here is decent. It's not amazingly awesome - but you don't expect it to be at weddings :)

The Deckhouse
Clarke Road
Woolwich Wharf
NSW 2110
Tel: (02) 9817 4394

Black by Ezard - Pyrmont

For hubby's birthday, we decided to test out some yummy steak at Black by Ezard at the Star. Stepping though really big and heavy automatic door brings you into a dimmed, very nicely and elegantly decorated area. The music choice, however, was interesting and not particularly to my taste.

To start, complementary brioche was given. The loaf was super flaky (like a croissant), really buttery and awesomely soft. I loved it! Hubby didn't. I think he likes your normal bread rolls. He found it too fluffy or airy.

freshly baked brioche

Entree-wise, shared some oysters and their famous organic farm egg ($25). The farm egg was poached and lived in a crispy noodle ball. It all sat on some really tasty potato cream and a light herb salad was atop it. On the side, there was a very thin but crazily delicious slice of iberico jamon. All up, it felt a lot like breakfast. I swear I would be over the moon getting this for a weekend brunch but as an entree, it was a little bit odd. Tasty but odd.

organic farm egg - $25

The oysters ($4 each) that we got were served with yuzu and wakame jelly. The jelly was a crazy flavour explosion - recommended to be eaten with the oyster and not on its own (trust me).

oysters with yuzu and wakame - $4 each

For the main, we really didn't know which steak to order. Hence, we decided to share the Wagyu Trio ($170). This was wagyu 9+ marble scored rumpcap, flat iron and striploin. Normally at Black, you tend to get a tiny tiny piece of steak on a massively otherwise empty white plate. So we got considerable more steak than the norm - and it proved to be almost impossible to finish (atleast for me). Every bite was absolutely deliciousness! The beef was really tasty and really tender, each bite was 'melt-in-your-mouth'. Superb - and I guess for that price, it had to be! We had our steak with the marrow and shallot sauce ($4) which was super tasty also.

Trio of Wagyu - $170 (to share)

marrow and shallot sauce - $4

For sides ($10 each), we had a gratin with leek, brioche, chives and gruyere cheese, and a potato puree. In retrospect, I definitely would not have ordered these two sides. WAAAYYY to rich and WAAAAYYYY to cheese and buttery. I love the potato puree though - was like eating pure buttery heaven, so I probably would have ditched the gratin in favour of some sort of salady green.

leek gratin - $!0

potato puree - $10

I really wanted dessert. The chocolatey peanuty ball was crazily tempting but my stomach just would not comply. I was completely fully stuffed and could not eat ANYTHING. So next time, I'd go for just a tiny steak with just one side and definitely try to leave room for dessert.

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

Black by Ezard
Level G, Harbourside, The Star
80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Tel: (02) 9657 9109

Riverview Hotel - Balmain

We decided to eat out at Riverview Hotel one night. Unfortunately, at night, there was definitely no riverviews in Balmain - nothing but pitch-blackness. For this Sunday night, there was a decent small crowd at both the bar and the restaurant bits of this hotel.

Being seated, I have to say, service was a little lacking. I don't think they intentionally lacked smiles, but I didn't feel very warmed or welcomed. Sourdough was served with butter to start. Nothing great but nothing bad about the bread.

sourdough bread

We decided to share in entree of scallops and beef cheek ($20). The scallops were cooked well and the beef cheeks - though tiny - was quite melt-in-your-mouth and wrapped in crispy pastry. There was some pumpkin puree and some radish on the side too. Was quite tasty but not really WOW.

scallop and beef cheeks - $20

We also decided to share a potato pizza bread ($14). This was thinly sliced potatoes on a thin and crispy base with white anchovy and bits of rosemary sprinkled on top. I liked this quite a bit. It's not smack-bang full of flavour but it's subtly nice and delicious.

potato pizza bread - $14

Hubby wanted to order their black angus scotch fillet. Unfortunately, because it was Sunday, they said that they don't serve it - they only serve their Sunday roast. This was an angus roast with roasted veges and yorkshire pudding. The  beef was served medium rare and really tender. The veges were hearty and the yorkshire pudding not bad. Not a bad dish really.

Sunday Roast

I opted for the Cone Bay barramundi ($33). The skin was scored and super crispy skinned. Cooked quite well in my opinion. I also liked the fennel puree. However, the rest of the stuff - ie. the vinegared tomatoes was wayyy too over-the-top vinegary. Venturing towards the inedible side.

barramundi - $33

Last but not least, we couldn't pass on the hand cut chips ($10). This was deliciousness! Crispy skinned big chunks of soft potato, super awesomely seasoned with rosemary salt, and then dipped in delicious aioli. LOVED it! (hint: need to eat it when hot - coz when it becomes cold, it loses all the crispiness)

hand cut chips - $10

We had no room for dessert and nothing on the dessert menu really piqued my interest. Hence, we passed on it.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Riverview Hotel Restaurant
29 Birchgrove Road
Balmain
NSW 2041
Tel: (02) 9810 1151