Saigon Chef - Wollongong

Saigon Chef

If you ask me or my partner - "where should we eat when in Wollongong?", the first answer you would probably get is ... fish and chips by the beach. Yes, we are touristy. But when you ask my church friends - "where should we eat when in Wollongong?" they take you to Wollongong Central's food court, or a random Viet restaurant just for fun - to spite our English pastor (who just happens to be of Viet origin).

What that means for our stomachs, however, is a bit of suffering on slightly ish tasting food ... LOL. ah hem... I mean - errr... tastes great! hahahaha.

At this place, I ordered a char kway teow. To be honestly honest - it wasn't too bad. It was average. Sure, the seafood and meat and stuff in it isn't the best. But the noodles... you can't really get it wrong. Slightly too spicy for my liking... it was more a soy sauce based stir fry flat rice noodles compared to a char kway teow flavour... but meh - i like noodles :)

char kway teow

My partner was slightly less lucky in his order. He ordered a kari ayam (curry chicken). This was... umm... interesting? super thickly battered chicken pieces coated with yellow guk? and surrounded with oily but fresh tasting prawn crackers.

kari ayam

The dishes ordered by my fellow church friends were also hit and miss. Some decent. Some okay. Some .... yeh. Oh wells- it's just lunch afterall.

Ratings:
Food - 5.5/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 5.5/10
Value for money - 6/10
Overall - 23/40

Saigon Chef
Shop 2, 171 Keira St
Wollongong
NSW 2500
tel: (02) 4228 6728

Diggies - Wollongong

Diggies

Exploring Wollongong beaches on a cloudy day - I figured that Sydney actually has some pretty good beaches.

We were checking out the menus of different places - and we stopped here, at Diggies, because I eyed one of the juices on the menu. This was the "Byron" ($6) - which essentially was pinapple, apple and ginger juice. My partner ordered this juice and it tasted very pineapple-y (to my partner) and also very gingery (to me). Not bad - maybe needed to be a touch colder.

The Byron - $6

I wasn't hungry on this particular day (due to a heavy breakfast) and opted for an ice-cold "Georgiacino" ($6) - an ice-coffee frappe. Mmm... very coffee-ish, reminiscent of StarBucks (which I do miss).

Georgiacino - $6

I also managed to sneak some of my partner's meal in my stomach. Interestingly (and against my will), my partner really wanted the classic fish 'n' chips ($18.50). I tried to direct him towards the yummy-looking all-day breakfast menus, but the boy wouldn't budge. So grenadier fillet deep fried in super crisp (and I mean super super crisp) batter with salad and chips it was~

It wasn't bad tasting - quite super super thick and crisp batter on the fish. The chips weren't as nice as LeVendi - but okay nonetheless.

Fish 'n' Chips - $18.50

Service was... hmm... somewhat lacking - but they came upon request. Situated beach-side, this cafe was definately a chillaxy.

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

Diggies
1 Cliff Road
North Beach
Wollongong
NSW, 2500
tel: (02) 4226 2688

LeVendi - Wollongong

LeVendi

Treking down to Wollongong on Easter Sunday, my partner and I were cruising around looking for a nice cafe to lunch at. However, we didn't drive much further than LeVendi - we saw the crowds and decided that that was the place to be.

It was already around 1-2pm and it felt as if all of Wollongong was down at this small ish takeaway fish and chips joint.

A long look at the whiteboard menu and a long discussion after, my partner and I decided on the Habour Pack ($22.50). This pack had like... everything!!! 2 flathead portions (which ended up being 4), 2 prawn twisters, 4 squid tentacles, 2 salt & pepper squid, 2 crumbed scallops, 2 crab ragoons, all with large chips, lemon and tartare sauce. Seemed like a feast! (and it really was!)

The wait aside (around 20 mins), this feast was nicely tastey and super filling - and, as expected, we didn't finish it. But it sure did explain why this place was flocked with people - in fact, it seems that this place won the 2008 takeaway joint of the year (for Wollongong).

The Harbour Pack - $22.50

Ratings
food - 8/10
service - 6/10 (a bit on the slow side... but they were super packed)
ambiance - 8/10 (ahh... beachside takeaway)
value for money - 7/10
overall - 29/40

LeVendi
Belmore Basin
Cliff Road
Wollongong
NSW 2500
tel: (02) 4227 2989