Revolver - Annandale

One of our friends recommended a nice little café called "Revolver" in Annandale. He was, however, unsure of whether or not air conditioning was available at this place which really was worrying as the temps for the day soared towards 40 degrees. Luckily, our gamble payed off and this bustling café did come complete with cool air.

Many breakfast and drinks options were available - all sounding absolutely delicious! My friend said that the cheeseburger ($14.50) was a go - hence, that's what he and hubby ordered. As promised, the beef patty was succulent and tasty. The beef came with old school pickles, smoked mozzarella cheese and a blob of tomato, salad and beetroot came encased between two soft buns. Seasoned chat potatoes (instead of chips) came with the burger. Hubby and my friend said that this was pretty good. Except... the missing magic ingredient was the fried egg. Hubby washed down his burger with a old school chocolate milkshake with malt. Not a bad lunch :)



cheeseburger

chocolate milkshake with malt

I opted for the parmesan scrambled eggs with sumac cured bacon, a heap of fennel and rocket salsa  all on a yummy buttered wholegrain slice of bread ($14.50). This was really yummy. Sure, the scramble could have been a bit runnier, but the rest of the package was great! My iced coffee was also pretty yummy and tasty for the hot summer's day.

parmesan scrambled eggs with bacon and rocket

iced coffee

My other friends ordered the eggs benedict (which I pretty much drooled over) and also the ricotta hotcakes (which was so super thick~). Everything here looked and smelt delicious. Definitely a good local corner joint :)











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

Revolver
291 Annadale Street
Annandale
NSW 2038
Tel: (02) 9555 4727

Sushi Bar Rashai (2) - Annandale

My mum wanted to eat Japanese one night. Hence, my hubby and I took our parents to Sushi Bar Rashai. My mum likes sushi and sashimi and my dad is a huge fan of eel. So a dinner with both these elements would suit us just fine.

We ordered a party sushi and sashimi platter for 2. This had a good variety of salmon (natural and lightly seared), tuna, king fish and another variety of white fish. All were in cut to perfect thickness. All were nice and firm and fresh and tasty. Super YUM. The sushi pieces, however, were pretty normal ish. Nothing too special.

party sushi and sashimi platter

Before ordering, my mummy eyed the vege tempura which landed on a neighbouring table. Hence - it became something on our order. Lightly tempura battered bit of veges (including beans, lettuce, carrot, sweet potato, onion), nicely deep fried and awesomely crunchy :)

Vegetable tempura

I wanted to try their Sapporo hotpot which was on their specials menu. The soy-milk based hot pot with seafood (prawns, scallop, fish), enoki mushrooms, and asian veges were super yum. Slightly overly tasty... but yum nonetheless. OK - it might be my bias in that I love all ingredients in it :P

Sapporo hot pot

My daddy's favourite- the Unadon - came on a large dish. Unfortunately, it was slightly luke-warm and not quite hot enough... and the eel was slightly not saucy or tasty enough... but, it was just there to quench my daddy's cravings.

unadon

Service here is friendly. Food here is tasty... not the best jap food I've had, but not bad either.

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

Sushi Bar Rashai
241 Parramatta Road
Annandale
NSW 2038
Tel: (02) 9560 3007

Sushi Bar Rashai - Annandale

I drive past Parramatta Road quite a bit and every time I pass Sushi Bar Rashai I get quite intrigued. I get intrigued by the slightly bad English plastered on their window - "Bit slow but friendly" and "If you do not enjoy your meal - it's simple you don't pay". Interesting. For a restaurant to be putting their service speed down. AND for a restaurant to be so confident and bold about how awesome their food is they're willing for you to not pay for the meal... Has to be worth a try, right?

As my partner and I stepped into the restaurant, albiet super early for dinner, the first thing that caught my eye was all the "reserved" signs... on almost every table. The lesson to be learned here? Call up to book in advance. Lucky for us, as we were so early, they offered us a seat anyway.

Seated, we are met with a double-sided A3 size menu as well as a 'chef's special'. The food is okay-ishly priced and the dishes are just your ordinary average ones. Hence, we chose our ordinary average options.

The seaweed salad ($6.80) was just like every other seaweed salad. Marinated, sesame oiled and a hint of chilli throughout. Love seaweed salad - so quite pleased with this.

seaweed - $6.80

We also ordered the tofu salad ($9.80). We anticipated that we'd like the salad dressing and hence, opted for their "extra sauce" option. This came out as a nice and big plate of fresh bean curd with fresh greens. Their salad dressing was pretty awesome. Lots of onion with vinegar to make a dull brownish yellowish semi thick semi liquid paste which complements the greens and the tofu triangles really really well.

tofu salad - $9.80

Last but not least, we ordered the small party sushi and sashimi combination ($42.80). The presentation of this did not wow us by any amount. Meh - ordinary looking, nothing special. HOWEVER, the freshness of the sashimi DID manage to wow us. The salmon was awesomely awesome! Thickness was just right and regardless of whether they seared and flamed it a bit or whether it came natural or even in the sushi roll, it was creamy and super fresh. The other sashimi (tuna, kingfish, scallop) was likewise, very fresh and appetising. If only they fixed up the presentation of the platter ...

party sushi and sashimi combination (small) - $42.80

So overall, the restaurant is quite decent. Yes- we did end up paying for the meal and surprisingly, for a restaurant which claims slightly slow service, our dishes came out in no-time (but friendliness is to be questioned). Next time, though, I think we'd better book :)

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

Sushi Bar Rashai
241 Parramatta Road
Annandale
NSW 2038
Tel: (02) 9560 3007