Author: Ardi

Intermezzo Ristorante

Review:

This week we went to a restaurant in quite a premium venue, GPO Grand at Martin Place. The name of the restaurant is Intermezzo Ristorante. Their menu is predominantly Italian with French influence. It has all the cues of a fine dining restaurant. However, they are not a hatted restaurant and also not listed in Top 500 restaurants in Australia. The good thing about it is that you don’t put any expectations on the restaurant and anything good coming out of it is a bonus!

Sicilian Green Olives, Diced Marinated Roma Tomato with Fresh Herbs, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Sourdough – $9.50

It is quite a simple antipasto for little nibbles… and you might need to order a bit more sourdough.

Carpaccio di Bresaola – $21 – Cured Wagyu Beef, Marble Score 9+, thinly sliced with Rocket, Reggiano and Housemade Grissini

It was a pretty well made beef carpaccio and I quite enjoyed it.

Linguine Scampi – $36 – Linguine with Western Australian Scampi, Fresh Vine Ripened Cherry Tomatoes and Chilli

We chose to have the Linguine for starter because originally my wife thought she could share it with the little one. However, to our surprise, the chilli was actually quite spicy here.

Calamari Fritti alla Napoletana – $21 – Crispy Hawkesbury River Calamari Rings with Lemon and Chilli Oil

We had to order this as a backup plan to the kid. We asked for a tomato sauce to accompany the calamari rings and they actually gave us a proper tomato pasta sauce.

Bistecca Alla Fiorentina – $41 – Dry Aged Grain Fed T-Bone (400g) served with Roasted Potatoes and a Rocket and Parmigiano salad

I liked my steak medium rare. I think the t-bone was just a tad overcooked. The rocket salad was also quite sour.

Pesce al Cartoccio – $36 – Ocean Trout Fillet with Truss Tomato, Wild Mushrooms, White Wine and Herbs, served Steamed in Baking Paper

The other main was wrapped in baking paper and was quite small. Also, I could not taste any flavours from the trout.

Wild Rocket, Pear and Parmigiano Reggiano – $11.50

Just like the steak’s sald, the vinaigrette was quite over powering that made the rocket too sour to my liking.

Tiramisu – $15.50 – ‘Pick me up Dessert’ of Mascarpone Layered with Biscotti, Espresso Coffee and served with a Coffee Sorbet

Finally, a dish worth talking about. I always enjoy a good tiramisu. The deconstructed tiramisu was pretty special. It is not your traditional tiramisu and the coffee sorbet really lifted up the mood!

Pannacotta al Caramello – $15.50 – Caramel Pannacotta served with Pistachio Brittle, Honeycomb and Buttermilk Gelato

It is quite a unique take on pannacotta. Instead of the usual shape, this one was almost spherical. It looked quite lively but the pannacotta did not look like the centerpiece of the dish.

The final verdict for Intermezzo Ristorante

Dessert was the only saving grace for Intermezzo Ristorante. Their tiramisu was delightfully refreshing. In contrast, all I could remember from the main and entrée were the high price tag they put on them.

Did you know?

If you book online, apparently you can get a complimentary coffee. They also have different ‘menu of the day’ and the image below was from dessert of the day.

Rating for Intermezzo Ristorante:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5 / 10

Price: $35 – $41 main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

GPO Grand, 1 Martin Place, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9229 7788

http://www.gpogrand.com/intermezzo-italian-restaurant-sydney-cbd

May 25, 2016
One Tea Lounge

Review:

We went to One Tea Lounge solely because of its ramen burger. I have actually visited their ‘express’ restaurant at Hawker Lane in Chatswood and I was curious enough to try their main restaurant in the city.

One Tea Lounge and Grill is not your typical Japanese restaurant. ‘Funky’ might be the word that best describe the restaurant. The menu was even funkier. Peking duck fries anyone? Or what about Lava Stone grill?

Peking duck fries – $12 – with hoisin sauce & coriander

Obviously this is the first one I ordered (after ramen burger that is). When the dish arrived, it is a big bowl of fries topped with shredded Peking duck and coriander.

The strange mix of Peking duck with hoisin sauce and chips actually worked really well!

Popcorn curry chicken – $10 – with green tea lime mayo sauce

We ordered this for the little guy. However, he already made his mind up about Peking duck fries. The popcorn was actually pretty good as a snack.

Designer sliders – $21 – Choice of 3 sliders of our signature designer burgers to get started for the night

Ramen burger is actually part of the designer sliders. You can pick between three different sliders (ramen, rice, or matcha baoger) and four fillings: original wagyu beef, braised pork rib, teriyaki chicken, and miso tofu vegetarian. Matcha baoger is a Japanese bun with a hint of matcha.

The burgers were flavoursome. As ‘sliders’, they were not really that small.

Lava Stone Grill 9+ Wagyu Beef 180gr – $48 – Sizzle the best quality wagyu beef with shimeji and enoki on a hot lava stone at the table. Served with 3 dip sauces – matcha sea salt, green tea hollandaise & yakiniku sauce

One of the mains in the menu with quite an eye-catching name and also one of the more expensive ones. It was quite justifiable as they used marble 9+ wagyu beef. The sauce also married up perfectly with the quality beef!

Matcha Fries – $7 – with green tea salt, seaweed or shichimi spicy

The matcha fries was quite standard when compared to the other fries at One Tea Lounge. I guess you can compare it yourself by the picture below.

Matcha Fondue (for 2) – $23 – Fresh fruit, Green tea castella, macarones, cookies with Matcha white chocolate dip sauce

I had a hard time taking a picture of matcha fondue. Everyone seemed to be wanting to dive in straight away! If you look at the pictures below, you’d understand. It has quite a lot of little bits to dip into the pool of heated green tea!

The final verdict for One Tea Lounge

One Tea Lounge and Grill have quite an interesting list of dishes in their menu. If I could, I would try every single one of them!

Did you know?

You should really try their Asahi burger from the lunch menu. I tried it when I visited Hawker Lane in Chatswood

Rating for One Tea Lounge:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $10 – $58

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Upper Ground Floor, 73 York Street, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9279 3311

http://www.onetealounge.com.au/

May 20, 2016
Zeus Street Greek

Review:

If you haven’t driven along New Canterbury Road in recent years, you might be in for a surprise. There are two new eateries that attract huge crowd, especially on the weekend. One of them is Zeus Street Greek. It is one of a few outlets that Zeus has.

The menu was quite simple and had a good mixture of salad, sides, dips and main dishes. The entrees that we ordered were beetroot, corn cobs, pita bread and chips. We ordered the pita bread to accompany one of the main dishes.

Beetroot – $12.50 – Beetroot, feta, walnuts, honey and mint (GF)

Corn cobs – $9.50 – Roasted corn cobs with grated kefalotiri (GF)

Pita bread (2) – $3.00

Probably the one thing that I remembered the most was the chips. They were quite different. It was quite large, thin and very crispy.

Chips – $6.50

The main dishes are divided into two: pitas and nude. Before you start thinking something x-rated… I think they said ‘nude’ because it’s comparatively bare and uncovered when compared with the ones wrapped in pita bread.

There are three nude dishes and all served with a side of tzatziki and lemon. They are only available in one size only, 200 gr. It’s not bad for a light dinner.

Don’t forget to order an extra pita bread if you order these ones or any other sides as they don’t come with any.

Nude Lamb (200gr) – $18.50 – Our signature lamb from the souvla served with a side of tzatziki and lemon (GF)

Nude Chicken (200gr) – $15.50 – Our signature chicken from the souvla served with a side of tzatziki and lemon (GF)

The two pitas that we ordered on this occasion are both lamb. I cannot really tell the difference between the two, but they were both quite enjoyable.

The Zeus – Lamb – $12.50 – Our signature lamb with Aegean slaw, smoked eggplant, onion and parsley.

Uncle ‘Tzimmy’ Lamb – $12.50 – Our signature lamb with tomato, tzatziki, onion, paprika and chips, wrapped in pita.

The final verdict for Zeus Street Greek

Zeus Street Greek is quite a good place to have a quick lunch and dinner.

Did you know?

The other eatery that attracted a huge crowd in the vicinity is Tella Balls.

Rating for Zeus Greek Street Food:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $10.50 – $18.50

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 2-3, 362-372 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill 2203

+61 2 8315 5600

http://zeusstreetgreek.com.au/

May 11, 2016
Bamiyan Restaurant

Review:

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article in Broadsheet about ‘where to eat Afghan food in Sydney’ and not long after that we dined at one of the restaurants in the article, Bamiyan in Five Dock.

Bamiyan restaurant is quite a standout yellow building in the corner of First Avenue and Cashmans Lane. The restaurant was very busy when we got there. Considering that this is our first Afghan cuisine ever, we took our time in browsing through the menu. The following four were the ones that interest us the most:

Seekh Kabab (charcoal grille) – $12.90 – Traditional Afghani Shami Kabab marinated lamb mince grilled on natural charcoal served with salad and chutney.

When half of your entree menu is filled with kabab, you are bound to choose one. Our choice went to Seekh Kabab and it was the right one! It was our favourite dish of the night, despite its not-so-appealing presentation. It came with a chutney that was too spicy for me.

Mantu (Beef-Dumplings) – $13.90 – Afghani favourite meal, ground beef, onions, dumplings with same spice and toppings with yogurt sauce, chick pea tomato and ground mince sauce, garnished with ground mint.

Mantu is a traditional Afghan dish. It is the Afghani version of dumplings. There were quite a lot of elements on the plate and it looked like a hybrid between Bolognaise sauce and dumplings. I usually am not a big fan of yoghurt in my savoury dish. However, this one is very nice!

If you really like it, they are also available as a main for $25.90.

Kabuli Pallow – $28.90 – Traditional Afghani rice slowly cooked flavoured with cumin powder & cardamom, filled with chicken pieces topped with a layer of Julian caramelized carrots, sultana and almond nuts, served with chicken korma.

Kabuli Pallow is the most expensive dish in Bamiyan. There were two plates for this. The first plate is the Afghani rice with quite a lot of fragrance flavour.

There was also a plate of chicken korma as part of the dish. It was an Afghan chicken curry with potatoes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best korma curry I’ve ever tasted.

Banjan Boranee (Eggplant) – $18.90 – Traditional Afghani dish with Fried eggplant covered with cooked tomato sauce and yogurt sauce, garnished with mint.

The eggplant was cooked with onions and green peppers. It was also drenched in tomato and yogurt sauce. It was quite similar in taste with the mantu, except for the absence of meat and dumplings.

Afghani Garlic Naan – $4.50

The final verdict for Bamiyan

Considering that this is our first time ever trying an Afghan cuisine, Bamiyan gave us a very nice impression! The dishes were bursting with flavors and were actually quite filling!

Did you know?

Bamiyan has two other restaurants in Sydney, Dural and Baulkham Hills. However, the other two are a bit too far from where I live.

Rating for Bamiyan:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $16 – $29 per main

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

175 First Avenue, Five Dock

+61 2 9712 7801

http://www.bamiyanrestaurant.com.au/

May 6, 2016
2016 Top 100 Restaurants in Australia by Financial Review

This is the second year the Australian Financial Review published the Top 100 restaurants in Australia. Instead of being judged by food critics / food bloggers / some random people, the list was actually made by the top 500 chefs in Australia. Being at the top of the list means that your peers agreed that your restaurant is the best in Australia. I am pretty sure that’s the best recognition that you could possibly get.

Attica is at the top of this list of 2016 Top 100 Restaurants in Australia. Australia’s Top Chef award is given to chef Dan Hunter from Brae in Birregurra region in Victoria. On this occasion, Australian Financial Review also asked the public to vote for their top Australian restaurant with an award called The People’s Choice. The People’s Choice winner for 2016 is Akiba in Canberra. We went to Akiba last year and we were pretty impressed with the dishes that they served. Sepia, last year’s winner, was awarded Top Service award for 2016.

From the 2016 top 100 restaurants in Australia list, All About Food have only reviewed 10 of them:

Quay at number 4, Ester at number 5, Rockpool at number 8, Mr Wong at number 11, Bentley (at the old venue) at number 12, The Bridge Room at number 13, Tetsuya’s at number 22, est. at number 39, Marque at number 40, and Golden Century at number 60.

The number of top 100 restaurants by state:

NSW 46 (45 in 2015)
VIC 37
SA 5
WA 5
QLD 4
TAS 2 (3 in 2015)
ACT 1

They also have the more extensive top 500 restaurants in Australia if you are interested to know.

The full list of 2016 Top 100 Restaurants in Australia by Financial Review

1. Attica VIC
2. Brae, Birregurra VIC
3. Sepia NSW
4. Quay NSW
5. Ester NSW
6. Sixpenny NSW
7. Bennelong NSW
8. Rockpool est. 1989 NSW
9. Automata NSW
10. Franklin TAS
11. Mr Wong NSW
12. Bentley Restaurant & Bar NSW
13. The Bridge Room NSW
14. The Town Mouse VIC
15. Cumulus Inc. VIC
16. 10 William St NSW
17. Flower Drum VIC
18. Cutler & Co VIC
19. LuMi Bar & Dining NSW
20. Supernormal VIC
21. Tipo 00 VIC
22. Tetsuya’s NSW
23. Minamishima VIC
24. MoVida, Melbourne VIC
25. Fratelli Paradiso NSW
26. Billy Kwong NSW
27. Biota Dining, Bowral NSW
28. Cafe Di Stasio VIC
29. LP’s Quality Meats NSW
30. Momofuku Seiobo NSW
31. Porteno NSW
32. Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney NSW
33. ACME NSW
34. Embla VIC
35. Vue de Monde VIC
36. Firedoor NSW
37. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal VIC
38. Chin Chin VIC
39. est. NSW
40. Marque NSW
41. The Apollo NSW
42. Lake House, Daylesford VIC
43. Oscillate Wildly NSW
44. Saint Crispin VIC
45. Guillaume, Sydney NSW
46. Fleet, Brunswick Heads NSW
47. Africola SA
48. Orana SA
49. Restaurant Amuse WA
50. Silvereye NSW
51. Pilu at Freshwater NSW
52. Moon Park NSW
53. France-Soir VIC
54. Lee Ho Fook VIC
55. Bar Louinhã VIC
56. Icebergs Dining Room & Bar NSW
57. Ormeggio at the Spit NSW
58. Estelle by Scott Pickett VIC
59. Rockpool Bar & Grill, Melbourne VIC
60. Golden Century NSW
61. Spice Temple, Sydney NSW
62. Sean’s Panaroma NSW
63. Cottage Point Inn NSW
64. Gerard’s Bistro QLD
65. The European VIC
66. Monopole NSW
67. Long Chim Perth WA
68. ARIA NSW
69. Provenance, Beechworth VIC
70. Coda VIC
71. Lalla Rookh WA
72. Yellow NSW
73. Luxembourg VIC
74. Wasabi Restaurant & Bar, Noosa Heads QLD
75. Master NSW
76. 4Fourteen NSW
77. Clarke’s of North Beach WA
78. Esquire QLD
79. Muse Restaurant, Pokolbin NSW
80. Monster Kitchen and Bar ACT
81. Grossi Florentino Upstairs VIC
82. Cho Cho San NSW
83. The Long Apron, Montville QLD
84. The Press Club VIC
85. Lucio’s NSW
86. Ethos Eat Drink TAS
87. Anchovy VIC
88. Vasse Felix Restaurant, Cowaramup WA
89. Lume VIC
90. Tonka VIC
91. Mister Jennings VIC
92. Union Dining VIC
93. Igni, Geelong VIC
94. Sokyo NSW
95. Peel St SA
96. Hentley Farm, Seppeltsfield SA
97. Lau’s Family Kitchen VIC
98. Fino, Seppeltsfield SA
99. Epocha VIC
100. Il Bacaro VIC

May 4, 2016
Al Aseel Restaurant – Greenacre

Review:

Al Aseel Lebanese Restaurant is consistently mentioned in any “top 10 Middle Eastern restaurants in Sydney” lists… and we are going to put it to the test!

Kibbe Naye – $15 – traditional finely blended raw lamb mixed with burghol, our secret herbs & spices topped with extra virgin oil and mint.

This is the first dish that we were very interested to try. We have eaten raw seafood, vegetables, and beef before. However, eating raw lamb feels like a whole new dimension!

It was presented quite plainly with mint leaves and raw onions. The meat was pretty dense and heavy. Obviously, this is not for everyone to try. But if you are quite adventurous (it was also our first time trying Kibbe Naye!), it was actually a nice dish to have!

Vine Leaves – $10 – rolled grape vine leaves stuffed with rice, tomato, onion & parsley served in a delicious olive oil & lemon juice dressing (4 pieces per serving)

I actually don’t mind eating this vegetarian dish and it was quite filling because of the rice wrapped inside the leaves.

Lamb Shank – $25 – rice cooked with lamb mince meat served with a braised lamb shank & served with yoghurt

I am a big fan of lamb shanks and will always be interested to order every time I see one on the menu. I first tried the combination of rice and yoghurt almost six years ago. I can eat a little yoghurt with the rice, but I still cannot eat a blob of them with rice!

Al Aseel Mixed Skewers – $32 – 2 skewers of marinated bbq chicken breast, 2 skewers of lamb & 2 skewers of kafta served with garlic dip

They have quite a few mix and match for the skewers, but I felt that this is the one that’s worth buying… Six skewers and garlic dip!

It was one of the better Lebanese skewers we’ve ever tasted in Sydney. They were quite big and was perfectly grilled!

For your information, the other skewers give you tabouli, baba ghanouj, hommus and falafel along with 3 or 4 skewers for around $3 or $4 less. So, if you prefer to have a more variety of vegetables, you might want to get them.

The final verdict for Al Aseel

Al Aseel truly deserves to be mentioned in the top 10 middle eastern restaurants in Sydney. Their skewers was very nice and the raw lamb (Kibbe Naye) was truly an eye opener!

Did you know?

There are five different Al Aseel restaurants in NSW (including one in Wollongong). The Greenacre one is the original venue.

Rating for Al Aseel Restaurant:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $30 – $40 per person

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

18 Waterloo Road, Greenacre 2190

+61 2 9758 6744

http://alaseel.com.au/

Apr 28, 2016