Author: Ardi

Mi Mamasita

Mi Mamasita Review:

Mi mamasita is one of the new establishments popping up in Rosebery in the last few months. Being pretty close to the office, I’ve had lunch there a few times. There were ups and downs with the biggest disappointment was one of our colleague’s order didn’t turn up 30 minutes later. However, they seemed to be refining their services. In our last visit, they took our orders from the table and the order arrived in an acceptable time frame.

Their menu is mostly consisted of Latin American dishes with a handful of typical Australian brekkie.

Soup of the day – homemade Mamasita style – $9.50

I did not order the soup but my colleague said the soup was nice. It was also recommended to take the extra bread roll option for $1.50.

Beef Asado – $17.50 – Asado, beef ribs in a dry rub of Argentinian spices, slowly braised in a beef and wine stock, coated with Chimichurri, accompanied with Patatas Fritas and a Side salad.

The description was quite mouthful. In simple terms, beef asado is BBQ beef, Spanish-style. Instead of BBQ, the Spanish bbq beef uses chimichurri as its sauce. I am used to eat this in abundance in a Churrasco restaurant, so having only a piece might not be the best decision I’ve made. The beef asado was pretty filling for lunch tho.

Huevos La Flamenca – $14.50 – Poached eggs, chorizo, Jamon Serrano, Rich Tomato sauce, served with toasted house bread

To be honest, I was expecting some kind of breakfast-y dish for this. However, Huevos La Flamenca was more of a tomato soup with crispy Jamon Serrano noticeably stood out. It reminded me of Tunisian/Middle Eastern Shakshuka dish.

El Grande Burger – $16.00 – Beef, cheese, fried egg, caramelised onions, smokey bacon, gherkins, cos, tomato & chipotle mayo, served with Patatas Fritas

El Chopete – $16.00 – Pulled pork, slow braised in apple cider with fennel, layered with Mi Mamasita slaw and jalapeno, served with Patatas Fritas

The final verdict for Mi Mamasita

Mi Mamasita has the potential to be a nice restaurant if they can fix the wait time and also pay more attention to the customers’ orders. Their breakfast and lunch menu was actually pretty good!

Rating for Mi Mamasita:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $6.50 – $17.50

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

C206/28 Rothschild Avenue, Rosebery NSW 2018

+61 434 485 679

Mi Mamasita on Facebook

Sep 21, 2016
SMH Good Food Guide 2017
Peter Gilmore’s flagship restaurant has done it again in Good Food Guide 2017! For the umpteenth time, Quay is the restaurant of the year.

Other Awards in this year’s Good Food Guide 2017

Best new restaurant of the year is Restaurant Hubert by Dan Pepperell. They are coming in to the list as a two-hat restaurant.

Federico Zanellato from LuMi Bar & Dining has won the Chef of The Year award. LuMi Bar & Dining is a two-hat restaurant.

Paper Daisy in Cabarita Beach was awarded the Regional Restaurant of the Year in 2017. Its head chef is Ben Devlin.

Leon Fink received the Legend Award.

Young Chef of the year award was given to Noel Jelfs from Eleven Bridge.

Astrid McCormack (Fleet) won the Service Excellence Award.

Food for Good award was given to Ravi and Della Prasad from Parliament on King. This award combined innovation, charity and sustainability.

If you want a good wine, you should go to Monopole as they won this year’s Wine List of the year.

Sommelier of the year went to Tim Watkins from Automata.

Best Bar Food can be found in Bar Brosé.

Best Bar is Continental Deli Bar & Bistro.

Best cheap eat is Bovine & Swine Barbecue Co.

People’s choice went to Dead Ringer.

List of restaurants with hats in Good Food Guide 2017

Three hats

There are only three restaurants awarded with three hats as listed in the Good Food Guide 2017 website:
- The Bridge Room – They captured the top prize in 2016.
- Quay – 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013 and this year’s restaurant of the year. Quay has once again reclaimed the top spot!
- Sepia – Winner of 2015, 2014 and 2012 Restaurant of the year award.
As listed from the website, the rest of the hats are as follows:

Two hats

ARIA, Automata, Bennelong, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Est., Ester, Guillaume, Icebergs Dining Room & Bar, Lucio’s Italian Restaurant, LuMi Bar & Dining, Momofuku Seiobo, Monopole, Mr. Wong, Ormeggio at The Spit, Oscillate Wildly, Pilu at Freshwater, Restaurant Hubert, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sixpenny, Spice Temple, Tetsuya’s

One hat

10 William St, ACME, Ajo, Aki’s Indian Restaurant, The Apollo, Baccomatto Osteria, Bar Brose, The Bathers’ Pavilion, The Bellevue, Berowra Waters Inn, Billy Kwong, Bistrode CBD, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Bodega, Buon Ricordo, Catalina, China Doll, Cho Cho San, Continental Deli Bar & Bistro, Cottage Point Inn, Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta, The Dolphin Hotel Dining Room, Felix, Firedoor, Fratelli Paradiso, The Gantry, Gastro Park, glass brasserie, Hartsyard, Izakaya Fujiyama, Jonah’s, Kepos & Co, Kepos Street Kitchen, LP’s Quality Meats, Master, Mercado, Ms.G’s, Nomad, One Ford Street, Otto Ristorante, The Paddington, Porteño, The Restaurant Pendolino, Sagra, Sean’s Panaroma, Sokyo, Stanbuli, Sushi-e, Uccello, Vini, Yellow

The following restaurants lost their hat status

The Four in Hand Dining Room, Bistro Moncur, Longrain, MoVida, Osteria Balla, Osteria di Russo & Russo, Sake Double Bay, Three Blue Ducks, Ume Restaurant.

The following restaurants closed permanently

Rockpool (3-hat), Marque (2-hat), Cafe Paci (2-hat), Moon Park

Note: Green is a new entry to the list. Orange is the one who lost a hat
Sep 7, 2016
Manoosh Pizzeria Enmore

Manoosh Pizzeria Experience:

For this week review, we were invited by Margaret and Charlie from Manoosh Pizzeria to try their establishment in Enmore. Manoosh is not your typical pizzeria, as you have probably guessed by reading their name. They are heavily influenced by Lebanese cuisine and more than half of their menu have Lebanese ingredients.

When we were there we saw a few regulars to the restaurant greeted the owners. It gave you a nice comforting feeling when you see this thing in a restaurant.

Kebbeh – $9 – ½ dozen of minced lamb, pine nut & onion filling encased in a burghul and lamb football

Kebbeh is usually the first thing we look for in a Lebanese restaurant. Although we usually look for the raw one, we would also settle for the cooked one. It was quite filling for an entree. Because basically you will be getting meat and carbs.

Babaghannouj – $5 – Smoked eggplant and tahini dip

The eggplant dip is already pre-packaged in a tub (just like the ones you see in the supermarket). The good thing about it is that you can actually take it home if you can’t finish it on the spot. For an extra $2.50, you can order the hot bread to go with your babaghannouj.

Pepperoni Cheese Steak – $17 – Cheese, beef fillets, pepperoni, onion & pickles topped with mustard on a tomato base

This is quite an interesting pizza. In addition to your usual pizza toppings, you get two kinds of pickles and mustard sprayed across the surface. They added a different dimension to the usual pizza. If Lebanese pickles are not your thing, probably this isn’t the best pizza for you.

Meat Lovers – $17 – Cheese, ham, chicken, pepperoni, sujuc & cabanossi on a BBQ or tomato base

I am a big fan of meat lovers. There is nothing like a whole bunch of meat in your pizza! The picture should be self-explanatory, shouldn’t it?

Sujuk Pizza – $7.5 – Cheese, sujuk (sausage), olives, capsicum & tomato

Sujuk pizza came from a different section, called Lebanese Style Pizza. I’m still not quite sure how they worked on the price. This pizza was just a tad smaller than the other two but it costed way less than them.

Ben and Jerry – $4

Ben and Jerry ice cream is a treat for your little ones (or yourself!).

Manoosh Pizzeria

We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of food in Manoosh Pizzeria! They were distinctly better than the two big pizza chains and had a distinct Lebanese personality to the pizzeria!

Did you know?

Manoosh pizzeria has also opened a store in Marrickville. However, the Marrickville store is more a takeaway shop than a sit-down restaurant.

Details:

170 Enmore Rd, Enmore 2042

+61 2 9550 6606

http://www.manoosh.com.au/

Sep 5, 2016
Pasticceria Papa

Pasticceria Papa Review:

In Sydney, you can spend $65 for four fragile and sophisticated-looking desserts. Unfortunately, we are not talking about that for this week. Instead, we will be talking about one of the best Italian desserts place in Sydney… and most of their cakes are around $5 or less. How good is that!

For those of you living in Inner West, the name Pasticceria Papa will not sound too foreign for you. Their shop in Haberfield has been around since 1988. They started off as a bread and pastry shop. Now, they have a full-fledged restaurant in addition to the shop.

Mini Ricotta Cake – $4.50

This is what Pasticceria Papa famous for. Mini ricotta is the smallest that you can get… perfect to be devoured by yourself… no sharing!

The ricotta cake is scalable to be as large as you wish. I’ve been to a birthday party where they have a 20-person ricotta cake from Pasticceria Papa.

Vanilla Baba – $3.50

I was quite curious about this dessert… well, partially because it was rum-soaked. Vanilla baba is a yeast cake with vanilla custard on top of it.

Arancini – $4.50 – Chicken / Veal / Mushroom

We came across the arancini completely by accident. We were looking for something savoury at Pasticceria Papa but we were not that interested in the pesto pasta at that time. There was only one mushroom arancini left at that time and we had no expectation whatsoever.

Pizza – $5.50 – Mushroom / potato

It was quite a sorry-looking pizza slice and we weren’t interested in ordering. However, the little one managed to choose that for his dinner and ended up finishing it.

The final verdict for Pasticceria Papa

Getting a decent dessert for less than $5 is pretty unheard of these days. Pasticceria Papa delivers that with a taste of Italian desserts that is unmatched in Sydney!

Did you know?

We visited Pasticceria Papa in Haberfield. They have two other stores in Sydney: Bondi Beach and Five Dock. The Haberfield and Bondi Beach stores are also setup as a proper Italian restaurant. But maybe that’s for next time.

Rating for Pasticceria Papa:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $3.50 – $5.50 per slice

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

145 Ramsay Street, Haberfield Sydney NSW 2045

+61 2 9799 9531

http://ppapa.com.au/

Aug 26, 2016
678 Korean BBQ Restaurant

678 Korean BBQ Review:

My friends told me that 678 Korean BBQ was one of Sydney’s hottest restaurants at the moment. It was quite early in the evening when we got there but the queue was already quite stifling. So, my expectation was already pretty high.

Customary in any Korean restaurants, we were given Banchan (Korean side dishes) upon sitting down at our table. The side dishes were so many that we hardly had any space left for our main dishes!

Being a Korean BBQ place, obviously the spotlight was placed in the BBQ dishes. The good thing about it was that they use charcoal for cooking… grilling with charcoal on a mesh is so much better than gas!

Our choice went to a few BBQ dishes that were staple to our group, like beef tongue and short rib. Their price ranges from $21 (for the beef tongue and brisket) up to $38 for Wagyu Chuck Tail Flap.

For four adults, our table was extremely full. You really need to get busy real fast or you won’t be able to move!

The menu was divided into three big sections: BBQ, lunch, and meal. There are also a few meal dishes that we ordered on the night.

Marinated Fresh Wagyu Beef Sashimi – $29

One of my favourite dishes in life. Known in Japanese as Yukke, this delicate dish has to be top notch or you will be in all kinds of problems consuming it. My only problem with this dish was the price. The place that I frequently visited include yukke in their buffet set.

Spicy seafood soft tofu stew – $16

Korean soups are always good to have in cold winter days.

Egg Soup – $2

For $2, it’s quite a bargain!

The final verdict for 678 Korean BBQ

It was apparent that quite a lot of people enjoyed dining at 678 Korean BBQ restaurant. However, I think my friends sold it a tad too much to me.

Did you know?

678 Korean BBQ is actually located in the 1st floor. The entrance to the building was quite narrow and there was only a sign outside the building.

Rating for 678 Korean BBQ:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $15 – $36 per dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Corner Pitt St and Goulburn St, Sydney NSW 2000

+61 2 9281 8997

https://www.facebook.com/678Sydney/

Aug 19, 2016
The Henson

The Henson Review:

In the last few years, we have seen a trend in Sydney where pubs tried to transform their image to a more family-oriented establishment. One of the more successful pubs to have transformed their image is The Henson in Marrickville. They transformed the back of the pub into this family-friendly garden with a spacious place for the little ones to play games including ball pit.

This week’s review of the Henson actually came from our two visits to the restaurant: one in the afternoon and one at night time.

‘K.F.C.’ Haloumi w smokey BBQ sauce – $8

The Haloumi cheese was shaped like chicken nuggets. It was looking okay-ish until we tasted the smokey BBQ sauce… whoa!

Avocado and Lime Smash – $6 and White corn chips -$4

We were planning to just order the avocado and lime smash. Then, the lady at the counter asked us whether we wanted the chips to go with the avocado. I guess it was pretty reasonable to have the chips!

½ Kilo Buttermilk Chicken Wings, verde picante – $17

The buttermilk chicken wings were the reason why I wanted to visit the Henson in the first place. In the picture below it looked like a regular chicken wings. However, I think it was the salsa sauce that got everyone hooked… just like the smokey BBQ sauce for the Haloumi cheese… better yet, mix the salsa with BBQ sauce!

‘Knuckle’ Sandwich – $19 – wagyu brisket, fennel slaw, swiss cheese, smokey mayo on rye + chips

I had the sandwich on my second trip to the Henson. I think it was the perfect lunch meal. It wasn’t the ‘traditional’ pull-apart brisket but it was more of a soft-textured beef. It was pretty good, but the sandwich was a tad small for me.

Dirty Bird – $26 – ½ flame grilled ten spice free-range chicken, yellow rice & raw slaw

My wife ordered the dirty bird. It was quite big and quite frankly too spicy for my taste buds. It’s also quite rare to have yellow rice in Sydney.

There is quite an extensive list of kids menu at the Henson. The two dishes below were from that list.

Beef Burger w/ cheese + chips – $10

Macaroni with Sugo Sauce + cheese – $6

Milkshake – $4 (kid’s size) – Salted Caramel, Real Vanilla Malt

The picture below is for the adult-sized milkshake.

The final verdict for The Henson

The Henson is a great pub restaurant to go to if you have small children in the party. We think that the finger food was a slightly better value than the main meal.

Did you know?

You should try their mulled cider ($6)… it’s a pretty good drink to be enjoyed in winter time! Also, there is a condiment called Tamari… get that! So Good!

Rating for The Henson:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $14 – $30 per main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

91 Illawarra Road, Marrickville NSW 2204

+61 2 9569 5858

http://www.thehenson.com.au/

Aug 9, 2016