Bilson's - Sydney

Life is full of dissappointments.

It's to be expected. It's to be experienced. It's to be accepted.

Now Bilson's is a three-hat restaurant. Supposedly one of the better restaurants of Sydney. So when we stepped in, we were full of excitment and expectations.

The atmosphere in Bilson's is awesome. Dimly lit, little flower floating in a small round fishbowl centerpiece. It really gives off a relaxing, intimate vibe. We only tossed around with the menus for a few moments before we decided the get the 'Fine Bouche' - the 10 course degustation.

Up first was the complimentary bread and butter - as expected at any good restaurant, especially if they were French. This bread was a little dissappointing. The crust wasn't as crunchy at it should be - somewhat tough as well, and the middle bits weren't as soft as it should be, and the butter was just average. Interestingly, unlike most other good restaurants we've been to, we weren't asked if we wanted more bread by the waiters when we were finished with the first piece. Now - to be fair, it's not because they don't ask people if they want more bread (I saw another table be asked) - they simply didn't ask us. My partner had to request more bread. Strike one for attentive service.

bread & butter

The Amuse Bouche comprised of a shot-glass filled with poached quail egg, deep fried bread stick (which really does resemble a chip), parsley foam and parsley juices down the bottom. For those who know me by now, I LOVE foam. But there really wasn't much foam here, and the instant you crack open the egg, the foam is kind of drenched and dissippates. Awww... It was an interesting and good mix of flavours and textures. But nothing really WOW. Just OK.

Amuse Bouche

The next course was dressed spanner crab sitting atop what seems to be apple or pear (cut so thin, I couldn't really tell), with verjus geleè on top. The flavours of this was subtle, nothing bold, yet I found it refreshing. The geleè bought with it a gentle coolness which complemented the crab meat well. In the middle of the dish was a stream of caviar. This was slightly salty but not overly so. On the right-hand side of the plate sat pink raddish and an interesting white meringue type column. This was sweet, crunchy, and somewhat odd and at ends with the rest of the dish. An interesting addition - looks good - but don't know that it matches. I'm not sure what the blue flower is... thought looks nice, didn't think it was meant to be eaten?

Dressed spanner crab

The next course was a tartae of abalone and black angus, sitting on top of three very thinly sliced pieces of beetroot and topped with horseradish ice-cream, a flower and other herbs. My general memory of this dish was chewy with an odd crunch here and there. The flavours of this was very well hidden. Not to say that it was bland. It just wasn't very flavoursome and not very rich and not very anything really. Expensive ingredients which work slightly at odds with horseraddish icecream (which also was not strong flavour-wise). By now, my partner and I were wondering, is subtlety their forte or are both of our millions of taste buds not working very well?

Abalone and black angus tartae

The scallop with leek and mango fondue was bought up next. This was drizzled with Beurre Blanc Champagne and butter sauce. Now I might be a bit biased. I love mangos - but I hate warm cooked mangos. The sauce of this dish was great though. Very tasty and yummy. However, the main character of this dish - ie. the scallop - was slightly overcooked. Slightly overcooked!!! We're talking a three hat French restaurant. I want my super plump juicy scallop cooked just right! To be fair, the scallop was still seasoned well.

Scallop

Onto the next seafood dish, which was Hiramasa kingfish sitting on top of braised octopus and black olive sauce, and boxed with cauliflower puree. My kingfish skin was not crispy. Very sad. They had this strip of what seems like thin toast which was crispy sitting on top of the skin, but crispy strip didn't make up for non-crispy skin. The octopus/black olive mix was interesting but not fantastic. And to top it all off, our fillets were slightly (just slightly) overcooked! However, I believe this dish redeems itself slightly (just slightly) because the cauliflower puree is rich, thick and pure awesomeness. The puree is possibly the highlight of the night!

Hiramasa Kingfish

Next up was the roasted partridge with foie-gras stuffed fig. My partridge was yummy, juicy, tender and delicious. My partner thought little of his. However, he loved the fig with stuffed foie gras. I couldn't stand it. It was probably tasting how a fig ought to taste (which is something I don't like) - soft, soggy, and super sweet and super mushy >.<. It was surrounded by the brown sauce made of partridge juices and the green pesto sauce with pinenuts.

roasted partridge

Other other carnivourous dish was the dry aged black angus striploin with a stack of layered potato (with something else in it... I don't quite remember). The steak was pretty tender. And tasted pretty average. It was marinated well - flavours rose out of the meat. But it wasn't anything you couldn't get at the normal steakhouse. The potato stack wasn't just potato. I think (don't quote me on this), it had potato layered with garlic, anchoivies, and olives? Well, it was a flavour hit compared to most other dishes of the night, and I generally like potatos so I enjoyed it.

black angus

Next up was out "petit sucre". This was basil icecream with short-crusty crumbs topped with curly bits of carrot. It was umm... interesting? It was probably Bilson's way of being adventurous. However, other than the short-crusty bits, I didn't really like the taste of the icecream and I really really didn't like the gingery-tasting carrots on top. It was a weird dish.

Petit Sucre

The dessert was the "raspberry and the rose". The waiter tried to explain to us what was in it, but to me, what I heard was "raspberry with raspberry with raspberry with raspberry". Just LOTS of raspberry. LOL. In this dish was fresh raspberry, rasperry macaroon, raspberry sorbet, raspberry sponge, raspberry crisp, raspberry powder, raspberry something-that-looks-and-tastes-like-a-soggy-roll-up, and rose jelly with a raspberry center topped with gold-flake. If you couldn't guess, this whole thing tasted lots like raspberry. Too much raspberry for a non-raspberry lover. The rose jelly was a heavenly break from all the raspberry - until you hit the raspberry centre. I think if you liked raspberry - you would like this dish. Unfortunate that neither myself nor my partner are fans of raspberry.

Raspberry and Rose

Our next dessert was 'Autour du Chocolat'. This was essentially "chocolate with chocolate with chocolate with chocolate". Being a chocoholic myself, I should have loved this dish. And essentially, I liked most of it. The chocolate cake with a crunchy peanut butter toffee base was absolutely heaven. The white chocolate icecream on top was just average. The dark chocolate icecream was good but the chocolate powder it was sitting on was nicely cocoa-tasting. And the chocolate sauce on the plate was OK. However, me - the chocoholic - did not want to put the chocolate pudding in my mouth. It was wierd. Watery. Not very chocolate tasting. So whilst I love chocolate, this dessert plate decent but not excellent~

Autour du Chocolat

Now comes to one of the most dissappointing bits of the night - the coffee and the petit fours. The coffee (sorry, forgot photo) was brewed with good coffee beans. It had a strong coffee aroma - but just not creamy or smooth like a cappaccino ought to be. It was watery yet slightly bland >.<>

Petit "fours"

So the food wasn't at all awesome or WOW. The service - the waitresses were all smiley and friendly and they did direct us to the bathroom when we needed to. However, not only did they not ask us if we wanted more bread, the sommelier also didn't get around to pouring the "matching wines" until after we finished the course THREE, that's right, THREE times. *sigh*

I expected a bit more from a three hat restaurant. Really.

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 5/10
Overall - 26.5

Bilson's
27 O'Connell St
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 8214 0496

Taste of Shanghai (2) - Ashfield

Taste of Shanghai

My partner and I were both craving ribs. HUGE rack of ribs. We've been craving ribs for many weeks, even months now. How on earth did we end up in Ashfield eating Shang instead of a huge rack of tender juicy pork ribs???

It was my fault. I was craving ribs, but I was also craving sweet black sesame dessert dumpling. So whilst I was doing my web-search on ribs, I also happened to "accidently" stumble upon some awesomely enticing photos of black sesame dessert dumplings which just so happened to also house some awesomely enticing photos of blue-swimmer crab vermicelli in a paper fire-pot. Amazingly, after much debate, the ribs plan (though still at the back of out minds) was momentarily aborted and we found ourselves at 'Taste of Shanghai' in Ashfield.

For a suburb which abounds in Shanghainese food, I was quite amazed to find a line at this place. We had to wait awhile before we got seated, adding to our anticipation of awesome blue-swimmer crab vermicelli in a paper hot pot setting. The anticipation ... then the disappointment. "Sorry, blue swimmer crab sold out". NOOOOO - how could they do that to us? I think it was the anticipation of awesome crab vermicelli which allowed my partner to talk me into getting the crab vermicelli anyway - even if set-priced small blue swimmer crab was being substituted with $25.80 / 500g live mud crab. I wasn't surprised when the crab vermicelli didn't come in the paper hot-pot version I expected but instead, came in a normal glass plate. Expected - but still slightly disappointing.

However, the dish itself wasn't disappointing. The vermicelli was sooooo soaked in crab roe and crab juices. So tasty, so saucy, so delicious thick crab-tasting vermicelli. YUM. The crab itself was also pretty good. The crab was fresh and meaty and shalloty and roe-y flavoured cooked pretty much just right. The only downside to this was that the shell was SOOO thick. The kitchen probably tried to crack it but failed. I couldn't. My lovely partner could - but he complained about a sore wrist for the rest of the night. It was worth it I think :)

Live mud crab with vermicelli - $25.80/500g

We also ordered the steamed mini pork buns ($8.80). The filling was extremely tasty. Juicy rich pork flavour with porky, slightly oily slightly tongue-burning soup. The dumpling wrapper was less thick that the other Shang places (eg. New Shanghai, Shanghai Night) in Ashfield, but thicker than the ones at Din Tai Fung. So both my partner and I quite liked this combination of dumpling wrap and pork meat and juices. It was really quite YUM.

Steamed Mini Pork Buns - $8.80

My partner also couldn't resist but order the Chef's Recommendation of Garlic Bamboo Chicken ($16.80). Many tables were ordering this dish. It was everywhere! Deep-fried, crispy, lots of shattered bamboo garlicy bits showered everywhere. For not one second did I think this was a healthy dish. It was awefully tasty though. Tender chicken meat covered in unhealthy (yet surprising not oily) batter. Interesting dish.

Garlic Bamboo Chicken - $16.80

Last but first - (ie. even though we told the waitress that we wanted this dessert to be served last, it came first) were my red bean and sesame glutinous sweet dessert balls covered in powered yellow mung beans. These were warm, soft, chewy, and sweet. I love the sesame filling just flowing and oozing out. YUM. But by the end of the crab, I just couldn't really actually eat anything.

Red bean black sesame sweet glutinous dessert balls - $8.80

Overall, the food was quite excellent. Delicious. Yet, the service was definately so so. The couple next to us left coz the food came out so slow. They were replaced by an immensely loud talkative couple who basically gave us a life story unintentionally coz they were sitting so close. So I guess that service and ambiance was slightly poor. I'd probably come back just for the food though :)

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Taste of Shanghai
264 Liverpool Road
Ashfield
NSW 2131
tel: (02) 9798 2877

Prego - Burwood

Mid-week catch up in Burwood took us to a dim red-orange candle-litted cafe called Prego. There was a rowdy crowd outside so we took out seats indoors where we could atleast hear each other talk.

The menu was extensive but after a long decision-making process, we decided to order the "dump" (cheesey gravyed chips). This was $14.95 for a HUGE plate of chips which passed through the microwave to melt the tiny bit of cheese - meaning that the chips were soggy and uncrispy and full of fatty oil. Nonetheless, due to my hungry state, I ate it continuously anyway. The portion is much too much to two people. And the price seems much too much for the food offered.

The "dump"

My friend ordered the pesto chicken pasta as the main. With fettuccine, this was a galore of chicken, baby spinach leaves, tomatoes and creamy pine-nutty basilly pesto sauce. He seemed to like it quite a bit so it must have been tasty.

Pesto Chicken Fettuccine

My chicken "burger" was essentially a chicken "focaccia" - soft but untoasted. Filled with a succulent piece of chicken breast, avocado, tasty cheese and mayo, it was quite a good combination of tastes. The avocado mushed in with the chicken and cheese very yummily. The salad was a bit dismal though - the mayo was super runny and had not much taste to it.

Chicken Burger

So overall, the service wasn't too brill, the food was just so-so but the ambiance is pretty awesome. Would I come here again? I think I prefer Palm Breeze next door.

Ratings:
Food - 6.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Value for money - 6/10
Overall - 26.5/40

Prego
126 Burwood Rd
Burwood
NSW 2134
tel: (02) 9715 7730

Tingha Palace (2) - Parramatta

With family and close family friends, we decided to dine at Tingha Palace at Parramatta Leagues Club. The one inconvenience about this restaurant is that you have to sign into the club if you're not living in the area, or if you are, you have to join the club.

Lobster with egg noodles

We had 1.3kg of lobster with braised thin egg noodles. This was extremely tasty. Lots of lobster, each piece soaking up the juices of stock, ginger and shallots - but the noodles were the highlight for me. But I am biased. I love noodles especially noodles soaked in lobstery sauce. All coloured-glasses aside, the lobster was cooked quite well, was fresh and was extremely meaty.

Coral Trout cooked two ways

We also ordered coral trout cooked two-ways. One was pan-fried with beans and mushrooms, the other was cooked in a pot, deep-fried then stewed with barbeque pork, chinese mushrooms and veges. The fish meat was soft and tender. The fish cooked in the pot had a much heavier, richer taste whereas the stir-fry was a lot lighter and bought somewhat a fresher feel to it.

XO Scallops with greens

We also ordered XO scallops with greens. Slightly oily, the scallops were cooked quite nicely - not too cooked, and not too raw. The XO sauce was interesting though, it was all stuck to one side of dish. I don't think this was by special request by my parents - but it could have been. What it meant was that one half was spicy (for my standards), whereas the other was like a normal oyster-sauce type stir fry.

San Dong Chicken

Last but not least, we had the "san dong" chicken. The chicken was deboned. Normally, "san dong" chicken tends to be slightly chilli, a little sour and a little sweet. This one, on the other hand, was really quite sweet more than anything else. Well I didn't mind. The chicken was also quite tender - bonus.

Dessert

Dessert-wise, we got these cookies and these traditional chinese steamed white sugar cake which was really sugary fluffy airy. On top of that we got chinese sweet soup and oranges.

Overall, the dinner was pretty good. The service was slightly lacking at times but the food was tasty, came out hot, and was fresh. To top it all off, the dinner was pretty cheap considering what we ate.

Ratings:
Food- 8.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 30/40

Tingha Palace
Parramatta Leagues Club
13-15 O'Connell St
Parramatta
NSW 2150
tel: (02) 9890 1688

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

Ben & Jerry's - Manly

ICECREAM~!!!!
I LOVE icecream!!!
We drove all the way to Manly (actually - way way way past manly and then drove back down) for Ben & Jerry's! :)

Ben & Jerry's

Met with so many different flavours and temptations - I decided on peanut butter cookie dough, coffee buzz buzz buzz, and chocolate brownie fudge. Anddddd- didn't regret it.

icecream!!!

My three-scoop icecream

The icecream was AWESOME. The peanut butter one was extremely peanutty. The coffee one was super espresso tasting and the chocolate brownie fudge had HUGE chunks of chocolate brownies which were soooooo rich and chocolately. OMG - it was like, AWESOME icecream. A tad expensive though - paying over 7 bucks for 3 scoops... it's likely to be something I'll indulge in just once in a while :P

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - ?
Value for money - 6.5/10
Overall - 22.5 + ?/40

Ben & Jerry's
Shops 5 & 6
25-27 South Steyne
Manly
NSW 2100
Tel: (02) 8966 9219

sushi rio - Sydney

We were thinking of a lunching spot with my parnter's little cousin and we decided on Japanese cuisine. Sushi? Ramen? Jap food - other? Ahh ... life leaves us with so many decision-making points.

At the end of a long painful discussion, we decided on Sushi Rio, a sushi train with delicious, fresh, awesome sushi. To make it even better, the moment we sat down, we saw a sign going round and round and round advertising that all sushi was just $3!!! Score!

Sushi Rio

We ate sushi a-many. So much sushi until all three of us were fully stuffed and clutching our stomachs out of the store. And - the total bill was less than $60!

We got a vast array of sushis. The salmon was fresh. The eel was tasty (according to my partner and his cousin). The scallop was super super awesome - fresh and blow-torched. The surf-clam salad sushi was nicely mayoed and cold and fresh. And who can forget the soft-shell crab? It was FRESH - freshly deep fried, crunchy and surrounded by avocado, cucumber, lettuce, mayo ... Mmmm... YUM :)

Salmon & Avocado roll with onion

Tuna salad & Avocado roll

Scallop sushi

grilled scallop and salmon sandwich

Eel with philly cheese and cucumber roll

soft-shell crab with spicy mayo sushi

surf clam salad sushi

lobster salad sushi

sea urchin sushi

eel hand-roll

salmon and flying fish roe sushi

All up, all the sushi was awesomely fresh. Deliciousness. Good sized. and greatly priced. Definately worth going back for.

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 8.5/10
Overall - 31.5/40

Sushi Rio
Shop 7, 339 Sussex St
Sydney
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9261 2388