Kitchen By Mike - Rosebery

I know that Kitchen By Mike has a big following. But for some reason, I'd never been a fan. Like  I know that the produce is fresh and made relatively well, but for that price, I think that you can get the same or better elsewhere. However, it does have a large seating area, making it convenient for our group of 10+ to all fit.

So at Kitchen by Mike, their menu goes from breakfast to lunch at 12pm. You line up like a good little school child waiting at the cafeteria and you make your selection. Salads are $5+ and meats are around the $15+ range. Everything you put on your plate adds to the amount you pay at the end of the line.

For this meal, hubby made all the selections. We got a roast chicken and a pork belly, with a cabagge and apple slaw, roasted root vegetable and bread. Came to around $25pp. Really not that cheap for self-service, no presentation style food. The chicken was OK, maybe just a tid bit dry for my liking. The pork belly (was quite a small serve) had good crackling but a ton of fat. If you weren't into eating mouthfuls of fat, there would have been very little of this slab that you could have eaten. The slaw was good. Fresh. Good amount of dressing. And the root vegetable was also decent. Highlight for me was probably the bread and butter. The bread was super soft and delish. The butter was also well churned - creamy and tasty.

Kitchen by Mike is right next to Black Star - so of course that is the obvious dessert choice. I was heaps disappointed that the only cake that seemed to be widely available was the watermelon cake. And if you were buying a big slab like we were, it was the only cake you could purchase. Yeh yeh I know it's big and popular and all that. But I'm not a huge fan and even if it was their best seller, I would want a bigger variety and more choice.

Ratings:
Food - 6.5/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 5/10
Overall - 24.5/40

Kitchen by Mike
1/85 Dunning Ave
Rosebery, NSW 2018
Tel: (02) 9045 0910

Da Mario - Rosebery

I was catching up with a colleague after work today and she took me to a relatively new pizza joint in Rosebery. The brother to Pizza Mario, 'da Mario' is a open bistro-type restaurant serving pizzas and pastas, opened near Kitchen by Mike. We rocked up around 6.30pm and there were just a few table left in their no bookings dinner policy place.

We ordered a pizza each. My friend ordered a margherita pizza with prosciutto and rocket whereas I got the capricciosa (pizza with tomato, mozzarella, mushroom, artichoke, olives and ham). I wanted to add anchovies to my pizza but this was disallowed. They only do truely traditional pizzas - nothing extra, nothing subtracted. Even without my anchovies, both pizzas were really tasty and flavoursome. The base, however, probably wasn't my preferred. It was thin where the topping was - but slightly too soggy. The outer crust ring was a bit too doughy for my preference, but it was soft and bread-like, which my friend seemed to love. I guess that in general, it was a pretty tasty pizza ;)

margherita con ruchetta e crudo

capricciosa

Although we were both stuffed already, we couldn't pass the dessert which my friend recommended - the panna cotta with crushed pineapple and biscotti. The panna cotta was really smooth and creamy. It had the right amount of sweetness and matched with the pineapple really really well. On top of that, the biscotti bits added the right amount of crunch and almond flavour.

Panna Cotta

 All up, it was a pretty good meal. We both left clutching our stomachs, quite satisfied.

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

Da Mario
36 Morley Avenue
Rosebery, NSW 2018
Tel: (02) 9669 2242

Kuma Japanese Restaurant - Rosebery

A few years ago, there was no such thing as group coupon deals. Now, websites which offer heavily discounted meals, activities and travel are rife. If you are very diligent in purchasing and organising and using coupons, you can really save heaps from these deals. They also make pretty good presents. One such deal that I managed to get my hands on recently was a 6 course meal from Kuma for just $35 for 2 people offered by Groupon.

To be completely honest, hubby and I entered this place with really really low expectations. Afterall, a 6 course Jap meal for 2 people for just $35? Seems a little bit too good to be true. Amazingly, however, we were quite blown away by the value and quality which was offered. We were first offered a choice of drink - wine, sake, soft drink etc (which was also included). Miso soup was also complementary. There was some stock standard courses - the sashimi, salmon and avocado roll, tempura...but also some choices involved - deep fried vs pan fried gyoza (either pork or prawn), choice of main course, and flavour of icecream.

sake

The sashimi was good enough, as was the miso soup. No complaints there (but it wasn't WOW factor). The salmon and avocado roll had a little bit too much rice for my liking - but hubby thought it was alright.

entree sashimi

miso soup

salmon and avocado roll

The pan-fried pork gyoza was one of my favourites for the night. Pan-fried so that it was crispy on the bottom, still nice and soft on other sides, and heaps juicy and succulent inards. It was very much YUM. The tempura was alright. Slightly bit too floury for my liking but the prawns were really quite fresh. the tempura was also seasoned quite well.

pan-fried pork dumplings

tempura

In terms of the mains, hubby got the katsu chicken whereas I opted for the teriyaki salmon. The katsu chicken was average. You get your golden brown bread-crumbed crunchy outer-layer covering the tender chicken bits inside. Deep-fried chicken craving tick! My teriyaki salmon was a lot better than I expected. The fish wasn't over or under cooked. It was really really tasty and doused in that sweet teriyaki sauce. And it came with a mound of yummy veges. Liked it quite a bit :)

katsu chicken

teriyaki salmon

Last but not least was dessert. We had one of each flavour - green tea and sesame. The funny shape of the sesame icecream (how it's kind of cylindrical and has specific grooves on it) is indicative of how it came straight out of a store-bought container (the ones you can probably get at asian grocers). The green tea icecream on the other hand, came out nice and spherical. Amazingly enough, both icecreams were actually very deliciousness~ So store-bought or not, it was pretty good.

black sesame & green tea icecream

We were both quite surprised by what we got out of this meal. As it was a pre-paid meal, after we finished eating and felt like we chilled out enough, we just got up and left - how simple and convenient! :) Whilst this particular deal probably can't be purchased at the moment, there's still quite a lot of other restaurant deals offered by Groupon. Just by going here, you can eat to your hearts content for a fraction of the cost!

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

Kuma Japanese Restaurant
304/5-9 Rothschild Ave
Rosebery NSW 2018
Tel: (02) 9663 2902