Nadia's - Blacktown

A quick brunch with uni friends took us to Nadia's Cafe at Blacktown. The menu offered a lot of appetising-sounding choices and so, what to eat was definately a tough one this morning.

Drinks first. I ordered my usual - iced mocha with skim milk minus the cream (I hate the taste of full-cream milk and I hate the taste of cream) ($5.20). Mmm... tastey.

Iced mocha - $5.20

My friend's iced-chocolate ($5.20) complete and overflowing with cream. My friend said it was average too.

Iced chocolate - $5.20

Now... the awesome drink. A Snickers milkshake ($5.50). Omigoshhh!!! It was soooo Snicker's like I felt as though I was seriously drinking the chocolate bar. The Mars bad milkshake ($5.50) was also good - but not as great. Tasted more like a caramel milkshake.

Snickers milkshake (the Mars bar one looks the same but tastes less awesome) - $5.50

Foodwise - one of my friends opted for a chicken gourmet brie salad bagel ($11.90). She said it was awesome. My other friends who also tasted this thought otherwise.

Chicken bagel - $11.90

A simple turkish toast with melted butter and jam ($4.50) was a choice by another friend. Interesting choice - looks huge and filling.

Turkish toast - $4.50

A tandoori chicken wrap ($11.90) was also ordered. Very tandoori-like with avocado and other nice veges. My friend didn't like this toooo much (but he thought it was too chilli for his liking). It looked huge though!

Chicken tandoori wrap - $11.90

Now my dish - the most awesome of the lot (thought I) was the eggs benedict with ham ($13.90). The poached eggs were not as runny as I liked, but they weren't overcooked - so passes! The spinach and the ham and the sauce Mmmm......... I love eggs benedict and though this was not the best I've had, it still satisfied my cravings :)

Eggs Benedict - $13.90

The service here was not great - I don't think they bothered with us much. But the ambiance and food is acceptable.

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 26/40

Nadia's Cafe
K6, Lvl 2
Westpoint
Blacktown
tel: (02) 9671 2018

Takeru - Chatswood

Takeru

For mother's day, we visited Takeru - a Japanese restaurant in Chatswood. Recommended by a friend, expectations were high. We had a booking at 7.30pm and at 7.30pm, we got an apologetic waitress rather than a table - rather disappointing. Nonetheless, we eventually got seated. Service was minimal and similar to Wagaya, ordering is via computer screens.

Being hungry and cold, lots of food arrived on the table in a flash! One of the first to arrive was was ika sumi spaghetti ($10.50). Extremely squid-inky, it was tastey, and left lips and teeth black. Smile!

ika sumi spaghetti - $10.50

The Wafu Spaghetti ($10.90) came with a few tiny, almost pathetic looking, overcooked scallops. BUT, scallops aside, it was nice and creamy and cheesy. As I'm a fan of cheesy creamy pasta, this one was up my alley.

wafu spaghetti - $10.90

One for the dad, a lover of unagi, this was the unagi kabayaki ($14.50). I heard them say it was tasty? Mmm... I'll still skip on this one.

unagi kabayaki - $14.50

The wagu beef steak ($18.90) photo was taken super quickly (and hence the blurriness). Hmm... it was no where near as good as wagyu beef steaks from other restaurants. It tasted rather like ordinary steak - a little tough, a little chewy. None of that 'melt in your mouth' action was happening.

wagyu beef steak - $18.90

This blurr of bonito flakes is actually takoyaki or octopus balls ($5.80). Because there's only 5 of these and there were 7 of us, I was one of the ones who managed to miss out. But no complaints were heard from the others about this dish.

takoyaki - $5.80

In search of the okonomiyaki (which no longer exists on the menu), we settled for the Japanese style pizza ($9.90) instead. I think there was seafood on this - I don't quite remember. Afterall, it wasn't a very memorable dish.

Japanese style pizza - $9.90

Soft shell crab was another recommended dish from the friend. Unable to find this on the menu, we settled for the soft shell crab salad ($8.50). Surprisingly, this was quite nice. But having had awesomeness soft shell crab the day before at Sushi-Ya, it had big shoes to fill. It wasn't quite as good, but nonetheless, it wasn't bad.

soft shell crab salad - $8.50

As two pieces of soft shell crab is not enough to feed 7, we also ordered 2 lots of agedashi soft shell crab with tofu ($7.50). This was quite good. Again, covered in bonito flakes, and again not as great as Sushi-Ya, it still wasn't too bad.

agedashi soft shell crab with tofu - $7.50

Now the following picture makes this dish looks big. It also looked HUGE on the computer screen menu. It's just an illusion!!!

kaisen don - $11.50

The kaisen spaghetti gratin ($14.50) looked and smelt great. It was also sizzling hot and topped with more seafood than most other dishes this night. This spag gratin was sooooooo rich and soooooo cheesy. Even a cheese lover like myself had not made an at-home spag as cheesy as this. Almost a cheese overload. Just almost...

kaisen spaghetti gratin - $14.50

Jap curry was also in order. The chicken katsu curry ($10.90). One of my friends thoroughly enjoyed this (and packed it home because we couldn't finish it).

chicken katsu curry - $10.90

We also ordered the negishio chicken steak ($9.80). Slightly chilli dusted and soy marinated, the chicken was umm... average ish. Kind of chewy and tough, but occasionally a nice piece. I guess that's expected for chicken on hot plate.

negishio chicken steak - $9.80

The hotate ebi prawn cha-han ($11.50) surprised me. Garlicy in flavour with the rice sizzling in a stone grilled bowl and with the odd piece of prawn here and there, this was actually awesome and super flavoursome but in a subtle way.

hotate ebi prawn cha-han - $11.50

Now dessert time. I think I was too excited about my icecream that I completely forgot about the need for photos. Cheesecake and green tea icecream ($6.50) and 2 scoops of either black sesame or green tea or mixed ($4.50) was super super yummy. Mmm ... not too creamy, not too icey. It's super yum! (or maybe I just like almost all icecreams). My dad ordered the ice green-tea latte ($4.50) and was disappointed with it's lack of coffee flavour (until I told them that it actually is just green tea and milk) LOL.

iced green tea latte - $4.50

Overall, ambiance-wise it was a little cramp. The heater was on very high so we were all a bit dozey and sleepy throughout dinner. Service... well... not too great (especially not happy about not getting the table at the reserved time). Nonetheless, I love computer screen menus :) (but I guess Wagaya has more variety). Ooo... and no sushi is on this menu so don't come here if you're looking for sushi.

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

Takeru
Victoria Plaza Shop 10
369 Victoria Ave
Chatswood
NSW, 2067
tel: (02) 9412 1203

Sushi-Ya - Artarmon

Again, because of my recent complaints about not going to our "regulars" for lunch or dinner, my partner and I decided to check-in on Sushi-Ya at Artarmon for lunch, one of my previously all-time favourites (mainly because it's decent Jap food for awesomely reasonable prices). Luckily, I was not dissappointed.

Green tea

My partner and I ordered a "Special Lunch Course" ($32.50) and a Combination lunch set with miso soup ($18.80). My partner felt as though he would need rice as well, but because of the friendly advice from the waitress who said it was not necessary, we decided to hold out on it - and lucky for us we did. There was SOOOO much food! It was quite insane for a lunch (AND we had enough for takeaway which would be the normal proportion of my normal lunches LOL).

Anyway - on with the food. As part of the special lunch course, we got an awesome salad. This salad comprised of your normal greens, and lotza seaweed (my favourite) and super delicious potato salad - all drenched with jap vinegary sauce! Mmm... I would have been happy if all I got was this salad! :)

Salad

Agedashi tofu was also part of the lunch special. This was was quite good especially if the tofu was dunked in the sauce. The tofu was nice and silken whilst the the batter did a great job in soaking the sauce leading to a combination of tastey smooth healthy tofu.

Agedashi Tofu

There were also edamame beans. Interestingly, the beans were warm. It was the first time I ate these warm - yet, it was quite good and lightly sprinkled with salt.

Edamame beans

One thing that came with the combination lunch set was the pork katsu and deep fried chicken. I thought that the chicken was awesome! It was so tender!!! My partner disagreed and said he's had better. Nonetheless he conceded that it was OK... The pork katsu caused another source of disagreement. My partner thought that this was probably one of the best pork katsu's he's had - super crispy and crunchy yet not too thick batter and nice tasting pork. What I thought was that the pork was not as tender as I would have liked... you had to chew it! it didn't melt in my mouth!!! (my partner told me that it wasn't supposed to melt in my mouth >.<).

Pork Katsu and Deep fried chicken

Miso soup - came with the combination lunch set. One of my friends told me that no matter where I go, the photo of the miso soup will be the same - and the taste will also be very similar. She was correct. Yet, on a cold day - hot soup is much welcomed.

Miso soup

Another item with the lunch set was the salmon lover's roll. This was super super good!!! Like a california roll (Yummm) with salmon on top (double yummm)!!! Too bad I only managed to eat one of these >.< (yes, I was close to full by now and there's much more food to come).

Salmon Lover's roll

So by this time, our table was filled with food - I could feel the presence of eyes staring at us, wondering why we ordered soooo much food (we didn't know!!! well... I assumed but my partner did not believe me). Nonetheless, the food kept coming.

Next from our awesome special lunch set was the sashimi. There was salmon, tuna and kingfish. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect Sushi-Ya to have good sashimi - but their salmon was excellente~ (surprisingly excellente). Super creamy and super fresh and super fatty and super smooth and super tastey. The tuna and kingfish were average.

Sashimi

Now- a special miso soup to complement a special lunch set. This was definately something special. It was sooooo sweet tasting because of the scampi in the soup. It was amazing! So much better than the normal miso soup. As I drank most of the normal miso soup (stupid me) my partner got most of the this scampi miso soup (*sobz*). But yeh - this was awesome!!! Need to put scampi in all my miso soups from now on!

Scampi miso soup

Out of a choice of soft shell crab or prawn tempura, my partner and I chose the soft shell crab. I know I've said in a recent post that the soft shell crab at Katsura was awesome - this is no less awesomeness!!! Soooo meatily juicy and yet soooo crisp on the legs bit. The crabby sweetness just flowed out. This is enough to bring a smile to anyone's face!

Soft Shell Crab

I told my partner that the special lunch set came with sushi - he did not believe me. It did not seem possible to him that there would be MORE food to come. But it came!!! Assorted sushi-goodness. The scampi one was super sweet, the scallop one was too and my partner said that the eel one was awesomeness!!! All the rest were pretty average. We were definately very full by now.

Assorted Sushi

Last to come from our special lunch course was dessert!!! Mmm... always room for desssert! There was green tea tiramisu and green tea icecream. And omigoshhh, this was deliciousness!!! (even on a full stomach). The green tea tiramisu was very green-tea-y, just right in sweetness, and just right in texture. I'm definately going to try and make this at home (and force my partner to eat it). And the green tea icecream? Just right as well - very green tea flavour, not too sweet, not too creamy, not too ice-y... just right! Mmmm...

Dessert! Green tea tiramisu and green tea icecream

All up, do the maths, and you'll find that our meal came to $50 ish dollars. The meal fed two hungry breakfastless individuals and enough to feed another person (in takeaway). The atmosphere is nice and cosy and the waitresses are nice and friendly. (I must say that she did try to warn us about the amount of food we ordered - we just decided to ignore her advice).

Ratings:
Food - 9
Service - 8
Ambiance - 8
Value for money - 9
Overall - 34/40

Sushi-Ya
10 Wilkes Ave
Artarmon
NSW, 2064
tel: (02) 9411 1377

Tingha Palace - Parramatta

Tingha Palace

One early Saturday morning, my parents and I decided to have yum-cha, which is something we hadn't done in a while. It was quite early (around 10.30am) when we got to Tingha Palace which was an added bonus for us - as it was nice and quiet, you don't have to wait for a table, and all the food comes out steamingly hot and fresh!

I was craving for siu mai (pork and prawn dumplings) and these little things certainly satisfied my cravings. If you notice that my photos are a bit blurry, it is most probably because there was soooo much steam coming from the dim sims (as they were ridiculously hot and fresh)... (and partly because I'm not a good photographer) LOL. I guess I couldn't sacrifice hot fresh dim sims and wait for them to cool so that I could get my photo... eating them seemed more important!

Pork and prawn dumplings

This was veges and prawn dumplings - again, they were steaming hot and fresh. Sooooo deliciousness!

Prawn and vege dumplings

These four golden brown things are savoury deep fried dumplings type thing. Inside is mince and some veges. And honestly? These have to be the best of the kind - but again, I think that that's because it was so fresh! the outer layer was soooo crisp and cruchy and the floury thing was nice and chewy (but not overly so) and the whole thing was just soo sooooo fresh!!! It simply blew me away! (especially since I'm not usually a fan of these)

Deep fried savoury dumplings

My dad's favourites - barbeque pork buns. Again, they were super fresh! But I guess since bun's don't taste too different being super fresh v 20 mins fresh, they were similar to the normal variety you can get at most yum cha places.

Barbeque pork buns

Mum's beef tendons - again steaming hot. And there were just so many many of them! Definately getting money's worth of these. I like how these were not too overly flavoursome and yet, were not bland either. They were chewy yet not tough.

Steamed beef tendons

Sweet Chinese Donuts - these were MASSIVE and straight from the deep frier. It was crisp, it was hot, it was plain and yet not plain, it was really nice! (again, it's not a thing I usually enjoy eating but this one... oh my, it was soo nice!) I think if there's anything I picked up from this experience... it's that yumcha tastes all that much better when the food is fresh. So maybe it is worth the sacrifice of waking up just that little earlier if it means getting super super fresh and steamingly hot dim sims!

Deep fried sweet chinese donut

All up, the service was nice and friendly, and it wasn't too pricey. I think for the three of us, it cost $30 ish... (dad footed the bill - so I'm not sure of the price).

Ratings:
Food - 9/10 (but may be because everything was super fresh)
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 30/40

Tingha Palace
Parramatta Leagues Club
13-15 O’Connell Street
Parramatta
NSW 2150
Tel: (02) 9890 1688

Masuya - Sydney

I have been complaining to my partner for quite a while now about why we haven't returned to some of our "regular" restaurants since the start of this blog. The thing is, there used to be a ton of restaurants we used to frequent, and yet, we've not had any chance of talking about these places!

After a lot of wingeing, my partner decided to book in Masuya, a Japanese restaurant we used to eat at for it's awesomeness soy-milk hot pot during the cold winter months.

Masuya Japanese seafood restaurant

Busy on a Saturday night as expected, the waiters and waitresses whisked us to our tables. Service after that was a little forgetful, not 100% attentive, but eventually gets what you want them to get.

Green Tea

Masuya Mojito

This particular night, we decided to order the Masuya Salmon Salad ($12.80). This comprised of marinated salmon, onion, creamy blue cheese, onion, and greens served with a rice vinigarette dressing.

Masuya's Salmon Salad - $12.80

I believe that this was my first time to see brocoli in salad - and there must be a reason for that! (brocoli in salad is just weird). On my first attempt at this salad, I wrapped a piece of salmon in a large green leaf and drenched it in the vinigarette. It was quite nice. Then I tried it with both the salmon and the blue cheese in a large leaf, again drenched with the dressing. It was heavenly! The cheese just adds that extra element to make this salad simply sublime~

Sushi and Sashimi - $29.80

After a long debate over several tasty-looking items on the menu, we also ordered the sushi and sashimi ($29.80). This comprised of four kinds of sashimi (salmon, king fish, tuna and scallop), and assorted sushis (sushi, salmon, tuna, king prawn and spider sushi roll). This dish was similar to any other sushi/sashimi set you can get at any other jap restaurants. The sashimi was fresh, but not spectacularly fresh, the sushis were also alrite - but again, not spectacular. Just very average, very normal, very expected.

Ooo... and the soy sauce on the left was for sashimi, the soy sauce on the right was for sushi. What's the difference? I guess one soy sauce was stronger than the other. The sauce for sashimi seemed less potent. I think...they were quite similar.

And now for the long awaited Sapporo hot pot ($45 - 2 person). As evidence of how long we haven't been here, this hotpot has changed. Whilst the soup base remained awesomenessly good - there is even a subtle difference. It is now comprised of soy milk and sweet miso, whereas before, it was soy milk, chilli and dashi. As a non-chilli eater, I was cheering for the change. They do, to compensate, provide a good side plate of chopped chilli, corianda and garlic (for those craving for the extra flavour). The more noticeable difference in this dish is that now they put all the ingredients in the pot at the beginning (exception beting the oysters). Before, all ingredients were on a plate and you could put them in when you want (like a normal hot pot). But because of the new design (everything in the pot at once), there is a very noticeable disadvantage - everything is cooked at once! and amazingly, you can't everything at once!!! The end result is that some items become dissappointly overcooked >.<

Sapporo hot pot (pre lid lifting) - $45

Oysters

This new invention also means that there is less food - there used to be more veges and udon. Now they cut down on the veges and udon becomes non-existent. Nonetheless, the soup is still awesome, the salmon and the chicken are likewise awesome. I love whatever vege they have in it. And my partner and I have mixed opinions on the blue swimmer crab. I believe that the crab meat is super soft and soaks in the soup. My partner will prefer a crab-less hot pot, partly due to laziness and partly because he does not appreciate the mushy texture of the crab. The scallops are unfortunately, yet expectedly, overcooked and no longer a highlight. However, because you get to cook the oysters yourself - oysters are still supberb. What else is in this hot pot? I think I just left out the fish balls - and these were quite average I thought.

By the end of all this food, my partner and I had no stomach left for dessert. Whilst a little disappointed at the change in the layout of the hotpot, my partner and I still left satisfied and Masuya stays on our list of decent Japanese restaurants.

Ratings:

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

Masuya Japanese Seafood Restaurant
Basement Level,
12-14 O'Connell Street
Sydney 2000
tel: (02) 9235-2717