Cafe de HK - Carlingford

To compare honky style cafes, my partner decided to eat at Cafe de HK and see how it compared to Cafe Aroma.

At Cafe de HK, my partner opted for a set meal. There's a variet y of pork, chicken and beef meals (grilled or deep fried with a variety of cream, black pepper, or tomato sauce). There is soup on the house (Russian Borsch) which was actually really quite light but tasty. Less tomatoey compared to the one at Cafe Aroma. In terms of the meal, my partner chose the deep-fried pork cutlet with tomato sauce with spaghetti (rather than rice) and with chips. It also came with a drink of your choice. In terms of the pork, it was tasty and tender. Quite yummy indeed. The spaghetti and chips wer every average though.

deep-fried pork chop meal

I decided to order a stir fried instant noodles with chicken. This was a super HUGE mountain of instant noodles with chicken, chinese mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, and shallots and HEAAAAAPPPS of salt. OMG - if you want to die from sodium chloride shock, eat this. My partner said that it's what happens when you use the whole packet of seasoning when you cook the instant noodles. Despite the salt overload, I did manage to polish it off - guess you get used to the salt after a while! LOL

stir-fried instant noodles

All up, Cafe de HK is a place we've dined at for many many years. Over time, they've renovated and they've upped the prices but luckily, the food is still decent :)

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

Cafe de HK
Carlingford Village
Level 1, Shop 2, 372 Pennant Hills Rd
Carlingford
NSW 2118
tel: (02) 9871 1878

North and South Gourmet - Carlingford

After church, my friends and I typically go to lunch. Lunch which starts around 2-3pm for around 20-40 people means that we often visit the food court at Carlingford Village. In particular, mostly all of my friends buy from ONE of the takeaways (the one on the right), and from experience, when there's an influx of that many people ordering at the same time, it often means that it takes more than half and hour before we get our food.

As such, my partner and I have recently switched tacts - we buy takeaway from North and South Gourmet and bring it back to the foodcourt to eat with our friends. As we're normally there after 2pm, it means that we're in time for afternoon tea sets - bargain~!

There is a choice of quite a few meals for a measly $6 with a drink. BUT - you add $1 for cold drinks and 50c for takeaway. So, that adds up to $14.50 for the two of us - two meals and two drinks - which is pretty decent. For this particular Sunday, my partner decided to order steamed rice noodle rolls with beef brisket whereas I opted for instant noodles with egg and sausages. Drink-wise, it's pretty averagely decent - my lemon ice tea and my partner's coffee with milk tea mix - both good.

iced lemon tea and iced coffee with tea mix

My partner's rice noodle roll (churn fun) with beef brisket looked slightly average. Presentation is poor but the beef briskets seem tender and there was enough sauce to tastify the noodle rolls.

rice noodle roll with beef brisket

My instant noodles with egg and sausages were likewise OK. It's not authentic instant noodles (Nissin ramen), nor is it authentic instant noodle soup base. But - for $6, I'll take it!

egg and sausage instant noodles

Ratings:
Food - 6.5/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 26.5/40

North & South Gourmet
Shop G2 Carlingford Village
372 Pennant Hills Rd
Carlingford
NSW 2118
tel: (02) 9871 2819

Ichirang - Carlingford

IchiRang

Lunch after church rounded up just a small group of friends this week. Hence, surprisingly, we were actually able to fit inside a restaurant~~~

We decided to eat at Ichirang after a friend said that she wanted cold soba (then forgot that she wanted it). Anyway - I had (again) forgotten my camera and hence we all have to settle for my crappy phone pics :)

Situated in Carlingford Village, a place where the food court seems to get the most business, Ichirang did not have the most amount of customers which meant we were seated almost immediately. There are bento boxes (around $15 ish) and lunch specials. Lunch specials for today included the terriyaki chicken with rice and miso soup ($8.50), terriyaki fish ($9.50) or a udon and sushi set ($12).

The two of my friends who ordered the terriyaki chicken set both commented on how full they were after polishing off the plate. From that, I deduced that the meal was filling and must have tasted alright.

Terriyaki Chicken - $8.50

The beef don (looked a bit like beef bolgogi), mixed katsu don, and of course, the cold soba was also ordered. The beef was mixed with lots of onions and a big pile of rice underneath. Same with the mixed katsu don - looked like a heap of deep fried meat. The cold soba was seriously - just cold soba - a huge lump of green cold carbs complete with soba sauce and chopped shallots lOL :)

Beef Don

Mixed Katsu Don

Cold Soba

I ordered a non-jap meal - the Korean pancake ($11), panfried with mixed seafood and shallots. The taste was a little bit bland. It was helped slightly with the sauce. The seafood also seemed like the tiny marinara mixes you get frozen at the shops. Wasn't hugely tasty - but wasn't too horribly bad either. Also - it was huge~ I could not stomach it all.

Korean Pancake - $11

Overall, the service did not bother much with us. The food came in huge portions. Nonthing spectacular taste-wise, but not horrible tasting either :P

Ratings:
Food- 7/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 26.5/40

IchiRang
Shop G21A, Carlingford Village
372 Pennant Hills Rd.
Carlingford,
NSW, 2118
tel: (02) 9872 2629

Queen Cake Bakery - Carlingford

When does food get too cute to eat?

It just should not be done. Cute food needs to be preserved, not gobbled :P

At Carlingford Village, we found super cute buns at this Queen Cake Bakery store.

Queen Cake Bakery

There were mini crabs and piggies and turtles. The crab wasn't as cute so we only bought the Piggy and the Turtle. The piggy was a spam and cheese bun. The turtle had chocolate filling.

Lil miss Piggy

Lil tiny turtle

Ngawwww.... look at the cute adorable turtle? How can any one even contemplate eating these?
I couldn't (stares iffily at my partner ... grrrr).

Well, to check out the bun quality at this backery, I bought a normal looking sausage bun. And the verdict?

Errr... let's just stick with how cute the bun was :)

Queen Cake Bakery
372 Pennant Hills Road,
Carlingford,
NSW 2118
Tel: (02) 298726088

QQ Pot - Carlingford

A bunch of 20 or so of us were looking for a lunch spot after church. We did settle for Carlingford Village Food Court and were all lining up for the food court chinese takeaway until one of us suggested going to a newly opened "viet" place (and what looked like a super popular takeaway disappeared in a flash!). I think the place is called "QQ Pot"... but... umm...

So what's enticing about this "Viet" (but not actually viet) restaurant? Not really too much. The decor was kind of interesting, with newspaper stuck on as wall paper. The place looked kind of like a cafeteria... However, the waiters (who spoke wierdly accented canto) were friendly and I loved how you get to just tick the meal you wanted (kinda like how you would order dim sims at yum cha in HK).

ticking menu

We ordered thai fish cakes ($8.80) and viet spring rolls ($6.80) for starters. The fish cakes were of the frozen packet variety. Mmm.. very average. The spring rolls were miniature and quite peppery. However, not too appetising... even though I was STARVING (and that's saying something...)

thai fish cakes - $8.80

spring rolls - $6.80

Some of my friends ordered sizzling clay pot rices (all $10-12). There were chicken and chinese sausage clay pots, chicken and chestnut clay pots, pork ' n vege pot... etc etc. The clay pots came out before any of the other dishes... which is kinda wierd (as it normally takes around 20 mins for one of these to be done)... and kind of gives you an indication of how slow it took the food to come out. However, my friends seemed to much appreciate these clay pot rices :)

clay pot rice varieties

Another friend ordered pork chop with fried egg rice. Mmm... I don't really know what to make of this dish. I ordered a malaysian noodle in casserole ($9.80). The picture on the menu looked much better than it actually was. What it essentially was is a small bunch of tiny frozen marinara mix, shrivelled pork pieces, bits and pieces of veges and a fried egg on top. This was... ermm.... essentially tasteless. LOL

pork chop rice

Malay noodle hot pot - $9.80

This was the last dish to come out on our table (some many many many minutes later). It was crispy chicken with tomato rice. According to my friend, the rice was extremely extremely soggy. The chicken seemed alright though.

crispy chicken tomato rice

Overall, the food here was very non-consistent. Other than the clay pot rices, the other dishes were quite plain and ordinary-ness. I think most of us would have preferred to eat outside in the food court. However, the service was quite good. They didn't kick us out even though we were making a huge ruckus :P

Ratings:
Food - 6/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 6/10
Overall - 26.5/40

I.T (??? ... I don't actually remember what this place is called)
Carlingford Village Shopping Center
372 Pennant Hills Rd,
Carlingford
NSW 2118‎