Rowers Retreat - Haberfield

Situated in a fantastic location overlooking the bay, I was surprised by the restaurant/cafe's furniture and "look". It was all a bit dingy and old-fashioned... yet, when you have a crazily good view, almost all can be forgiven.

Food-wise, hubby ordered a  'Cozze Pazze' ($21.50). This was a big bowl of mussels tossed with garlic, capsicum and Napoletana, covered with a pizza crust and then oven baked. I ordered a chicken cottage pot pie ($20.50) which was a nice pot of house made pie with chicken, leek, carrot, peas and bacon in a creamy sauce served with a nice potato mash on the side. As we were hungry and unsure how long the food would take to come, a simple garlic bread was also opted for.

And lucky for us we did order the garlic bread. Not that it was crazily yummy or nice. Rather, it was a little bit burnt and the bread was a little chewy... but I was still so happy to get it into my stomach as our main orders of food took crazily long to arrive.

Garlic Bread - $3.50

When it finally did arrive, our food was heavenly delicious. My chicken pot pie was hot and creamy, the puff pastry top was nice and flaky and the mash was smooth and creamy too. Mmmm YUM!

Chicken Pie - $20.50

Hubby's mussel bowl was also really delicious. There was a rich tomatoey broth which smothered yummy perfectly cooked mussels. This was encapsulated by a pizza crust top (sprinkled with salt and rosemary) which made it really yummy too :)

Cozze Pazze - $21.50

So what we have here is a beautiful view with super tasty food. Yes the decor needs some revamping and the service needs to be a bit quicker but... worth the wait anyway?

Ratings:

Food - 8.5/10

Service - 6/10

Ambiance - 7.5/10

Value for money - 7/10

Overall - 29/40

Rowers Retreat

UTS Haberfield Club
Dobroyd Pde Haberfield
NSW 2045Tel: (02) 9797 8448

Sushi Tei - Sydney

A rainy miserable looking Saturday morning calls for a good sleep in. Add in extra time to debate about what activities can be done on a wet and windy day, a side trip to the markets at the Entertainment Quarter, and we've got ourselves a super late lunch. Lucky for us, Sushi Tei does not close its door between their lunch and dinner service. Famished, we both wanted to order way too much food than what we could stomach. Luckily, the waiter advised us on reasonable portions and we ended up crazily full without an astronomical bill. We initially wanted three different appetisers, but after much ponderance, opted for just the chuka kurage (jellyfish). This was really tasty and flavoursome, the texture was good and it definately whet our appetite.

Chuka Kurage (jellyfish)

A sashimi salad ($11) was also ordered. We opted for the sesame dressing to accompany this (which was a really good choice, according to our waiter), and were surprised at the bit pile of raw fish that atopped our greens. Tasty and fresh :)

Sashimi salad

On the specials menu, there were tempting photos of otoro (fatty tuna belly). We fell for the bait, but really, when our other experiences of Otoro were our (biased) memories from Japan, this Otoro was set to fail from the very beginning. And miserably it did. No 'melt-in-your-mouth' goodness was felt.

Otoro Nigiri

A sushi platter was also ordered. Small california rolls, sea-urchin, salmon roe and flying fish roe ships, and a selection of fish on top of nigiri... Nothing too impressive. The salmon roe was of particular disappointment as it didn't seem fresh at all.

sushi set

Sushi Tei also had their special spaghetti range. Falling for the promise of an 'onsen' style egg, I decided to order the spaghetti with teriyaki chicken. This spaghetti came as a kind of spaghetti soup. Sure the egg was delicious and the chicken was good... but the package as a whole was a bit odd. I think I'll stick to their creamy based 'onsen' style egg pasta next time :)

chicken teriyaki spaghetti

We were well and truelly stuffed by the end of the meal. Some hits and misses with the food. Not a bad place to hang when you're stuck at an odd time between lunch and dinner.

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7.5/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Sushi Tei (Chifley Square)
1 Chifley Square
Cnr Elizabeth and Hunter St
Sydney 2000
Tel: (02) 9232 7288

Air Coffee - Castle Hill

Most of the time, my church friends and I tend to spend hours thinking of what to eat after church such that we normally don't get to eat until 2pm on Sundays. This weekend was different. One of our friends who work locally recently found a decent cafe closeby. Hence, we exodused to this cafe.

The coffee blend offered here was quite good. Smooth and creamy but unfortunately, relatively cold :(

skim mocha and regular cappuccino

Food-wise, there was breakfast and lunch options. There were also simple cakes, pastries and a fruit salad option. A few of my friends decided on a roasted salmon rocket salad. It was meant to come with potatoes... but if it was present, it must have been in the sauce. When my friends ordered it, they were expecting a bigger or heavier dish with a bit more salmon. Instead, they seemed to find it too salty (with ample capers and pickles) and very little fish.

salmon salad

Another friend opted for a bruschetta with asparagus, poached eggs and ripe vine tomatoes. I was very surprised as to amount of tomato that was available. It looked fresh and tasty.

bruschetta with asparagus, poached eggs and vine tomato

My hubby opted for a simple ham and eggs on toast. The poached egg looked gorgeous. But in general, it was a pretty simple put-together of two slices of ham, capsicum/tomato thing from a jar, poached eggs and bread. Nice.

ham and eggs

I have to say that my dish far outshone all the other dishes. I ordered a salmon with herbed eggs on toast. This was a crazy amount of smoked salmon sitting atop a heavily mayo-dressed herbed egg salad on two large pieces of toast. I donated a slice of this to my friends who had the salad as I couldn't even finish one slice of this. It was really heavy and extremely filling. Tasty though! Definitely value for money.

salmon with herbed eggs on toast

All up, it was quite a decent meal in a chillaxy place. Wouldn't mind coming back here every now and then.

Ratings:

Food - 7/10

Service - 7/10

Ambiance - 8/10

Value for money - 7/10

Overall - 29/40

Air Coffee

Unit 1/ 10 Salisbury Road

Castle Hill

NSW 2154

Tel: (02) 8850 4017

ZenQ Desserts - Chatswood

Feeling like a snack after a friend's wedding which was around Chatswood, I eyed this dessert place as we drove past in the car. I'd been talking about and craving mango snow ice (ice which is shaved in super thin slices that when you spoon it up, it's as light as eating snow) for a while and as they had a picture of this dessert in the window, ZenQ Desserts was the only logical place for us to eat.

ZenQ Desserts

It was an odd time in the afternoon for desserts - not quite 'just after lunch', and at a slightly weird hour for desserts before dinner. Yet, there were still a few patrons in the shop. My hubby ordered the milk pudding with grass jelly and pearls. This was an average dish... nothing too special or spectacular. The pearls were chewy, the grass jelly bought about a slimy refreshingness to the dish whilst the milk pudding added the sweetness you'd want.

milk pudding with grass jelly and pearls

My mango snow ice came with a few idle cubes of mango. I would have appreciated more mango, but I guess in our current economic climate and non-mango season, it would have been too big an ask. The snow ice was soft and fluffy but didn't quite taste as awesome as the ones from HK. The flavour of the ice was a little off from what I had in mind, but it was still fluffy and melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

mango snow ice with fresh mango cubes

Not a bad chill out place. Average food. Most people were craving for the large toast cubes with cream and fruit fillings or honey and stuff... maybe we'll come back and see what that's like... maybe.

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29/40

ZenQ Desserts
Shop 223, Westfield Chatswood
Chatswood
NSW 2067
Tel: (02) 9411 6882

MoJee - Strathfield

We were walking around  Strathfield one day and wondering where to eat when we noticed a cute little sign for an upstairs Korean cafe. Intrigued, we wandered upstairs to check it out.

The menu and the atmosphere here feels more relaxed and casual. Hubby opted for a Kimchi soup and I ordered a fish cake soup. We also decided on a leek and seafood pancake to share.

Side dishes-wise we got two plates of kimchi. Nothing too spectacular, but not bad either. The "leek" in the pancake was really just shallots. There were crazy amounts of shallots in it but very little amounts of seafood. It was really tasty though :)

kimchi

leek and seafood pancake

Hubby's kimchi soup was soaked redness with clams, tofu, enoki, potato starch noodles and loads of kimchi. Hubby seemed to enjoy it much. My fish cake soup was really simple and seems to be something someone can take out of the freezer and boil in fish stock... nonetheless, it whet my appetite as I really like the fish cake stuff ;)

kimchi soup

fish cake soup

Ratings
Food - 7.5/10

Service - 6.5/10

Ambiance - 6.5/10

Value for money - 7.5/10

Overall - 28/40

MoJee Korean Restaurant

Shop 1, 27 The Boulevard 

Strathfield

NSW 2135

Tel: (02) 9763 7446

Libiyamo - Pyrmont

One of our friends has been going on about a restaurant in Pyrmont which serves awesome pizza. He said that his Italiano colleagues and friends all recommend this joint as the pizza is relatively authentic. So on one cold autumn night, we set out to check it out.

We ordered 4 pizzas, 2 pastas and a salad to share between the 6 of us. The pizzas were opted for were the Capricciosa, the Vegetariana, Romana, and the Margherita. All of the pizzas cam on a thin yet still chewy crust. The crispy and nicely burnt flavour from the wood-fired oven was a good addition, and a nice contrast, to the somewhat soggy middle of the pasta - made moist and floppy due to the thinness of the crust and tomato sauciness of the pizza. The toppings were quite appetising and whilst most of my friends found the anchovies on the Romana too salty, I thought that it was rather tasty.

Capricciosa - $23
ham, mushroom, italian sausage, roasted capsicum, mozzarella, tomato

Vegetariana - $22
Mushrooms, eggplant, olives, onion, roasted capsicum, tomato, mozzarella

Romana - $22
anchovies, capers, tomato, mozzarella

Margherita - $17
tomato, basil, mozzarella

For the pastas, we got sucked into the yummty description of the pasta of the day, which was a mud crab spaghetti with cherry tomatos. The pasta was flavoursome and rich, a touch on the salty side. And whilst there were massive chunks of crab lying on the side of a big heap of pasta, it was somewhat disappointing that there was no actual crab meat in the pasta itself. The other pasta was the tagliatelle al ragu di vitella. This was a tried and tested pasta (by our friends) but unfortunately, the chef must have misjudged the salt levels. Whilst the pasta was yummy and the veal was tender, it was sooooooo salty. We sent the pasta back to the kitchen and confused our waitress quite a bit by saying that we didn't want a new one.

pasta of the day - mud crab spaghetti

Tagliatelle al ragu di vitella - $24
house made tagliatelle with veal shoulder ragu slow cooked in white wine

The mixed garden salad comprised of lettuce, cherry tomatos and green olives. I don't eat olives but my friends all said that these were the best olives they have ever eaten.

mixed garden salad

The food here is good but probably not excellent. The pizza's are tasty but... we've probably had better elsewhere. The service here was rather apalling. I don't know if that's the norm, but our waitress looked really confused the whole night. We would order, she would give us a blank look in return. She asked if we wanted water. We said yes. She did not return with water until asked again. And if you're wanting a receipt... think again. We spent more than 10 minutes waiting for them to give us a receipt...which at the end, was a little docket with the correct 'total amount' but filled with items of things we did not order and none of the things we did.

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 27/40

Libiamo
2-14 Bunn St
Pyrmont
NSW 2009
Tel: (02) 9552 1509

Sushi Kanesaka (鮨かねさか) - Ginza

This was our second (and higher end) attempt at an edomae style sushi omakase dinner. This 2 michelin star restaurant was reported situated in a very hard to find place in Ginza so my hubby and I did our research to ensure we didn't get lost trying to find it. Stairs down to the basement were tucked in a little alleyway in a commercial building with only a small plain restaurant light and the red banners as your guiding light. Stepping downstairs, the restaurant probably could fit around 16 people (2 sides of 8 people with a chef personally servicing each side).

Kanesaka

Chef Kanesaka is really quite young-looking and he can also speak a little bit of English (with a bit of an accent). We had the option of a 20000 Yen or a 30000 Yen set, and being just a poor young married couple, we opted for the 20000 Yen (and were not disappointed). Below is what we were served :

Kobashira (baby scallop) - Baby scallops tasted nothing like the normal scallops we eat. Normal scallops are smooth and creamy. Baby scallops have more crunch, are more subtly sweet and were quite an interesting eat when mixed with the grated seasoned daikon raddish

oyster - being quite massive, it as neatly cut into two to allow for bite sized pieces. The oyster was smooth and creamy.

Buri (Yellow Tail) - Quite a yummy cut of sashimi. But it didn't really stand out in any way.

Awabi (abalone) - this as pulled from some delicious broth. It was sooooooo super tender and tasty. Everyone got a quarter of the abalone - the chunks were massive!

baby shrimp with snapper liver - this was my favourite sashimi for the day. The baby shrimp was really sweet and was complimented well by the creamy, relatively strong flavour of the snapper liver. I could eat platefuls of this yummy delicacy!

Snapper - this was the first of our edomae style sushies. The technique by which he makes the rice balls was astounding to watch. He then expertly slaps a bit of wasabi on the fish, squishes it to the right place on the rice ball and then lightly brushes soy sause on time. Pro-ness...

Chutoro (medium-fat tuna belly) - I don't think my camera captured it well. There were more obvious white fatty bits on this slice when he first bought out the fish but I think that the fat melted into the meat as it slowly warmed a bit (kind of like what happens to marbled steak?). Nonetheless, it was flavoursome and delicious.

Otoro (super fatty tuna belly) - this was a step higher than the chutoro in that the fatty content made it simply 'melt in your mouth'. I've heard it said before that amazing Otoro is so crazily 'melt in your mouth' that if it were not for the rice, you probably wouldn't have to chew... well, I didn't understand what that meant til now.

Maguro (marinated tuna) - although it lacked all the fattiness that the previous 2 pieces of tuna provided, this was still amazing piece of sushi. The marinade must be some kind of sweet soy mixture which helps break down the sinews of the fish... or something like that...because it was still soooo crazy smooth and easy to eat - not at all like the tuna sushis we get in Sydney. I think that this sushi piece was on par (if not even yummier) than the chutoro piece.

Ika (squid) - Gone are the days where squid is chewy and tough and your teeth can't seem to escape the 'bubble-gum' feel. Ika in Japan is just so fresh (or cut so well) that it's easy to bite through, allowing the sweetness of the squid to fill your senses without your teeth going through such hard chewing actions.

Ebi (prawn) - the way Kanesaka described it was "prawn with shrimp powder sweet taste". Not entirely sure what he meant but it did taste very sweet and yummy.

Kohada (spotted sardine) - my new favourite fish to eat at a sushi joint! The skin was delectably smooth and the flesh was just so tasty and sweet. It's the most popular edomae style sushi in the region for a reason!

Aji (horse mackeral) - hubby's favourite. Again, I think it tastes like 'hainan chicken rice'. The ginger is hidden beneath the fish this time, with only the shallot mixture visible. Really smooth 'chicken' like texture :)

giant clam - this clam gave a really 'fresh' and crunchy feel. It wasn't altogether super flavoursome but it was 'fresh'.

Hamaguri (Clam) - This looked like one mean looking clam :) A thicker tastier sauce was brushed on and this clam was amazingness!

Uni (sea urchin) - I'm not a big fan of sea urchin, neither was my hubby. But he claims that after this sea urchin, with it's creaminess and tastiness, he is converted to be a sea-urchin lover.

Anago (eel) - markes the last of the fish in the 'edomae' style sushi. I normally don't eat eel, but I ate it here (impolite not to do so) and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Hubby loved it. 

Kampyo maki (marinated gourd rolls) - 'sweet' roll to finish. The marinated gourd veges were nice and sweet... but hubby and I were both blown away by the amount of wasabi Kanesaka placed in this. We were definitely both teary and trying to hold it in.

Tamago (sweet egg) - our dessert was this really smooth sweet egg cake thing. It was kind of like a hard pudding. Very sweet and very eggy in flavour. Not to my liking, but it's very popular in Japan to mark the end of your sushi meal.

Kanesaka being camera-shy and looking away

This was a truely amazing meal. Though we had so much food, the meal didn't really last that long - maybe like an hour? Kanesaka san knew limited English and we had fun trying to communicate with each other. He told us that he only closes his shop for the national holidays - super hard working!!! I guess his hard work pays off as his skills are immaculate!

Ratings:

Food - 9.5/10

Service - 9/10

Ambiance - 8/10

Value for money - 8/10

Overall - 34.5/40

Sushi Kanesaka

Basement floor, 8-10-3 Ginza, 

Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Tel: 03-5568-4411