Author: Ardi

Golden Century Seafood Restaurant

Review:

This week we are writing about one of the more famous Chinese restaurants in the city: Golden Century Seafood Restaurant. Despite being in Chinatown, there is usually no shortage of people queuing to dine at the restaurant. Early dinner is your best bet to avoid the queue.

You can see a few tanks filled with live lobsters, mud crabs, abalones and many different fishes. The price for these live seafood is driven by the market, so on a good day, you might actually snap up a bargain!

We were there in a big group of eight and had quite a number of dishes ordered. Unfortunately, as with any other Chinese restaurants in the area, service is not their forte.

Crab Meat and Sweet Corn Soup – $7.00

I thought it would be a small bowl of soup as the big bowl costs 10 times as much. I ordered three of these and three of the next one. It became apparent that we had ordered way more than what we needed.

Fish Head Bean Curd Vegetable in Soup – $7.00

This soup was a bit more ‘challenging’ to the previous one because of the head element in the menu. I actually enjoyed this one more. However, one must be careful of the sharp teeth that the fish has.

Marinated Duck Chin – $10.00

Another exotic dish of the night came in the form of duck chin. It was the lower half of duck beaks with tongues. Despite its appearance, it was actually quite a tasty dish.

Marinated Beef Shank – $11.00

This was the less ‘offensive’ version of the entrée. The same kind of marinate but using the less exotic ingredient: beef shank.

Salt and Pepper Squid – $25.00

The first glimpse of quality at Golden Century was the salt and pepper squid. Presentation was as simple as ever, but it tasted amazing!

Deep fried duck with plum sauce – $28.00

This dish further established that Golden Century’s quality was a cut above the rest. It was definitely the tastiest dish we had that night. It was also possibly one of the best ducks I have ever had.

Beef Brisket and Tendon with Turnip Hot Pot – $23.00

For those of you who need tasty (read: fatty) stuff in your system, this is the dish for you! The sauce was thick and rich but the dish had such a balanced flavour.

‘I don’t even know what this is’ dish

I definitely did not order this dish but the waiter convinced me that I had. It’s some sort of tofu with vegetables. On the other hand, my eggplant order never arrived.

Heavenly Braised Four Vegetables – $20.50

Any dish that start with the word ‘heavenly’ will almost certainly attract people to order! As usual, I am not a keen vegetable eater and this was more of a dish to make a ‘complete’ meal.

Live Perch with Ginger and Shallot – Market Price

It was supposed to be the ‘main attraction’ of the day. Unfortunately the fish was overcooked. The redeeming factor was its delicious ginger and shallot sauce!

Complimentary Desserts

Despite their service (or lack thereof), Chinese restaurants’ best feature was usually their complimentary (it must be costed somewhere!) desserts. Golden Century restaurants actually gave us quite a few (rice bubbles, cake and watermelon).

The final verdict for Golden Century

Golden Century served great food (and possibly one of the best!). However, service is just as poor as any other Chinese restaurants in the vicinity. Unfortunately, the exorbitant price tag and service considerably damaged its rating.

Did you know?

Golden Century used to be a one-hat restaurant. I don’t think it’s a surprise why they lost their one-hat status.

Rating for Golden Century:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $20 – Market Price

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

393 – 399 Sussex Street, Sydney 2000

02 9212 3901

http://www.goldencentury.com.au/

Sep 25, 2015
El Jannah

Review:

When I wrote about a charcoal chicken place in Petersham, a name came up in the conversation: El Jannah. Some people reckoned it was one of the best in Sydney. Jannah in Arabic means paradise, so I was looking forward to the thought of eating charcoal chicken in Paradise!

They have three outlets in Sydney but we went to the place where it all started, Granville. It was a pretty big place for a charcoal chicken joint and there was always a queue when we were there. Their burgers and rolls are pretty good value for money (for around $12 with chips and drink)! On this occasion, we are more interested in trying their ‘eat in’ menu.

Shawarma Plate – $12.00 – marinated beef, parsley, onion, pickles, tomato, tahini and bread

It was the least tasty dish of the day. The overall feel was very salty, especially the tahini. There was also way too many vegetables on the plate ^_^

Coleslaw – $5.50

I love a proper coleslaw (not the kind of coleslaw that KFC has) and El Jannah’s coleslaw is a proper one!

1/2 chicken – $10.50 – with garlic, pickles and bread

This is the very reason why we came to El Jannah. The Lebanese-style is enjoyed with garlic sauce, pickles and Lebanese bread. However, it wasn’t as mind blowing as we had hoped. Also, I would rather have the chicken with chips instead of the bread. The chips were a lot fresher!

EJ Platter – $19.90 – 3 skewers, chips, homus and baba ganouj, garlic and chili bread

The EJ platter was the redeeming factor at El Jannah. Their skewers were very nicely done and worked pretty well with the usual condiments and hot chips! On top of that, they also gave us homus and baba ganouj which added an extra complexity to the dish!

For the skewers, you have a choice between lamb, mince beef and chicken.

You can actually create your own wrap with any of the dishes above.

The final verdict for El Jannah

The chicken did not live up to the hype for me at El Jannah. Their EJ Platter on the other hand was something else! The coleslaw was also worth mentioning.

Did you know?

There were a lot of halal restaurants in Granville that I could see when we were there!

Rating for El Jannah:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $6.50 – $20 per dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

4 – 8 South Street, Granville NSW 2142

02 9637 0977

http://eljannah.com.au/

Sep 21, 2015
Akiba

Review:

This week’s review is our first ever review of a restaurant in Canberra. Our choice went to Akiba, a restaurant located just outside Canberra Centre. Despite the Japanese name, the restaurant is a mashup of Asian dishes. It also seemed to be one of the more popular destinations in Canberra.

Our dishes for the night comprised of Thai, Korean and Japanese cuisines.

Kingfish, coconut, nam jim, coriander – $14

This is a carpaccio-style kingfish with Nam jim. Nam jim is a Thai-based dipping sauce that is a combination of spicy, salty, sweet and sour.

Smoky potato, dill, black garlic, mayo – $9

This side dish was recommended by our table attendant. It was humongous for a side dish. In addition to the smoky flavour, the potatoes were pretty slimy (possibly because of the cooked mayo).

In addition to the smoky potato, we also ordered steamed rice. I know $7 is quite steep but you actually got a large bowl of it and they were nice.

Charcoal roasted T-bone, garlic soy butter, gochutgaru (800gr) – $38

800 gr worth of T-bone for $38 is actually a pretty good value for money. The T-bone was already sliced to a ‘bite size’ (although the middle bits were a bit bigger than what we could chew). Gochutgaru is a Korean red chilli pepper powder that was made into a dipping sauce for the steak. I am quite fussy about steak and I quite liked theirs!

Japanese fried chicken, lemon braised onions, parmesan – $16

This was the only Japanese cuisine on the night. They are usually known as chicken karaage. The fusion bit came from the lemon braised onions with parmesan sprinkled on the karaage. Each element was pretty good on their own, but I don’t think the fusion works on this occasion.

Supercharged – $2

This is actually just an extension of the Japanese fried chicken. It is only a little bottle of Japanese ‘kewpie’ mayonnaise and Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. The absence of mayonnaise in the original dish has made this a mandatory. However, if you don’t like mayo and chili sauce, you can skip this altogether!

The final verdict for Akiba

Having an Asian fusion restaurant is pretty risky, especially when there are a diverse range of cuisines in the region. Akiba generally served pretty good dishes.

Did you know?

Akiba has a ‘just feed me’, an 8-course banquet, for $45 pp.

Rating for Akiba:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $14 – $38 per main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

40 Bunda Street, Canberra ACT 2601

02 6162 0602

http://www.akiba.com.au/

Sep 14, 2015
Hawker Sydney

Review:

We were interested to go to Hawker Sydney because of the pictures uploaded by Simon Food Favourites and Jugernaut in facebook. One of them was Goreng Durian (more about it later). Hawker Sydney offers Malaysian street food and is located in the busy Sussex Street.

In addition to goreng durian, there were also quite a few unusual dishes in the restaurant.

Hainanese Chicken – $16 – Poached white chicken served boneless at room temperature for a moist and succulent texture. Served with chilli ginger sauce.

Although it is one of Singapore’s national dishes, Hainan Chicken rice is also a staple in many Malaysian restaurants. It was a pretty generous serving of Hainan Chicken in Hawker and was quite flavoursome.

Okra Belacan – $14 – Stir-fried okra with chillies and shrimp paste.

It is an interesting alternative to the usual ‘kangkung belacan’. I actually quite like this substitution as okra had a bit more crunch than kangkung.

Ikan Bakar – $16 – A local favourite. Grilled stingray with a tangy and spicy dipping sauce (Allow 15 mins).

The next dish can be found in the ‘snack’ section although it took 15 minutes to make. I think it can be more considered as part of the main course. The name ‘Ikan Bakar’ (or grilled fish) gave very little detail of what it really was. We got pretty excited when reading that stingray was the fish they use.

It was more of a nostalgic dish for me as I occasionally ate them when I was growing up in Indonesia.

Apam Balik – $6 – Crispy ‘turnover’ pancake with crushed peanuts, butter and creamed corn. Served with ice-cream.

I am always curious to try apam balik (more commonly known in Indonesia as ‘martabak manis’ – one of my favourite dishes in the world)! Hawker Sydney’s apam balik was quite different and pretty thin and crispy. It is a pretty good dish but did not have the ‘meat’ to make me full.

Apam balik has been declared a heritage food in Malaysian.

Goreng Durian – $8 – Crispy battered Musang King Durian. Served with ice-cream.

This dish is the main reason why we were here. Whilst the durian itself was nice and sweet, we felt that the batter was pretty bland and could use a bit more sweetness.

The final verdict for Hawker Sydney

If you like grilled stingray, Hawker Sydney might be one of only a few restaurants in Sydney that you could get it from.

Did you know?

According to Jugernaut, Hawker is owned by the same people who owned Mamak restaurant.

According to one of the people in Sydney food bloggers community, if you dined at Mamak the receipt can be used as a 10% voucher to dine at Hawker Sydney.

Rating for Hawker Sydney:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $10 – $18 per main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop G.02. 345B-353 Sussex Street, Sydney 2000

02 9264 9315

http://hawker.com.au/

Sep 9, 2015
SMH Good Food Guide 2016
We have a new winner in this year’s Good Food Guide 2016. The Bridge Room by Ross Lusted took the prize as well as upgrading their status to a three-hat restaurant!

Other Awards in this year’s Good Food Guide 2016

Best new restaurant of the year is Bennelong. The new restaurant by Peter Gilmore.

Pasi Petanen from Cafe Paci has won the Chef of The Year award. Cafe Paci was upgraded to a two-hat restaurant this year.

Fleet in Brunswick Heads was awarded the Regional Restaurant of the Year in 2016. Its head chef is Josh Lewis.

Janni Kyritsis received the Legend Award. I had the pleasure of dining with Janni on the opening of Chef’s Gallery Macquarie. He is truly inspirational!

Young Chef of the year award was given to Lauren Eldridge from Marque.

Cam Fairbairn (ACME) won the Service Excellence Award.

Food for Good award was given to Rob Caslick from Inside Out Organic Soup Kitchen and Cooking School. This award combined innovation, charity and sustainability.

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

Sommelier of the year went to Sebastian Crowther MS from Rockpool.

Best Bar Food can be found in Rockpool Bar & Grill.

Best Bar is Monopole.

Best cheap eat is Chaco bar.

People’s choice went to Catalina.

List of restaurants with hats in Good Food Guide 2016

Three hats

There are four restaurants awarded with three hats as listed in the Good Food Guide 2016 website:
- The Bridge Room – They gained one hat AND captured the top prize in 2016! Kudos to Chef Ross Lusted!
- Rockpool – The group has several restaurants including two two-hat restaurants, Rockpool Bar and grill and Spice Temple.
- Quay – 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2013 restaurant of the year. Quay is still one of the household names in Sydney’s fine dining… Although, it remained to be seen how Peter Gilmore operate two of the finest restaurants in Circular Quay!
- 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, Bennelong, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Berowra Waters Inn, Cafe Paci, Cottage Point Inn, est., Ester, The Four in Hand Dining Room, Guillaume, Icebergs Dining Room & Bar, Lucio’s Italian Restaurant, LuMi Bar & Dining, Marque, Momofuku Seiobo, Mr. Wong, Ormeggio at The Spit, Oscillate Wildly, Pilu at Freshwater, Porteño, Rockpool Bar & Grill, sixpenny, Spice Temple, Tetsuya’s.

One hat

10 William St, ACME, Ajo Italian Restaurant, The Apollo, The Bathers’ Pavilion, Billy Kwong, Bistro Moncur, Bistrode CBD, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Bodega, Buon Ricordo, Catalina, China Doll, Cho Cho San, Felix, Firedoor, Fratelli Paradiso, Gastro Park, glass brasserie, Izakaya Fujiyama, Jonah’s Restaurant, Kepos Street Kitchen, Longrain, LP’s Quality Meats, Monopole, Moon Park, MoVida, Ms.G’s, Nomad, Osteria Balla, Osteria di Russo & Russo, Otto Ristorante, The Restaurant Pendolino, Sagra, Sake Double Bay, Sean’s, Sokyo, sushi e, Three Blue Ducks, Uccello, Ume Restaurant, Vini, Yellow.

The following restaurants lost their hat status

Black by Ezard, Cafe Sopra, The Devonshire, Flying Fish, Lox Stock and Barrel, Vincent, Sake (The Rocks), 4Fourteen, Aki’s Indian Restaurant, Alpha, Bar H Dining, Farmhouse, Clareville Kiosk and Hartsyard.

The following restaurants closed permanently

Arras, Fish Face

Note: Green is a new entry to the list. Blue is the one who lost a hat
Sep 8, 2015
Minh

Review:

Minh Vietnamese Restaurant is located in Dulwich Hill. We drive past this restaurant almost every day (and night).

There was a warm and homey greeting when we entered the restaurant. There are quite a lot of things on the menu, but one item stood out for me: bonfire.

Cua L?t Rang Mu?i Tiêu (4 pieces) – $14.00 – Salt and pepper soft-shell crab

Let’s look at the fact: 4 soft-shell crabs for the price of $14. That’s a good bargain any ways I see it. It tasted like the salt and pepper dish in a Chinese restaurant, but with soft-shell crab.

Bonfire – Quanh L?a H?ng – $22.00 – Premium beef cooked at your table, the meat are marinated with lemongrass, five spices and sesame seed, served with fresh herbs, salad, cucumber, pickles and rice paper.

The dish started off as a boring plate of raw beef, dry rice papers, and a plate of other condiments.

After they finished the preparation bit, the attendant lit up the bottom of the raw beef’s plate. We were already pretty amazed with this surprise. As the fire grew larger, he started stirring the beef – and told us they had already calculated that the fire would die down at precisely the time the meat was perfectly cooked.

He then dipped the rice paper into the water to make it edible and a tad sticky. He also asked us to add any amount of vegetables and meat onto the rice paper. The end result was pretty similar to the rice paper roll that you might find in a Vietnamese restaurant. The difference was of course in the way you made the rice paper roll yourself!

You can see a little video we made about the beef bonfire on YouTube.

I actually did not expect this kind of excitement from a Vietnamese restaurant. This is the dish that you should go to Minh for.

Pho Bo Dac Biet – $15.00 – Combination beef (including Tendon, Tripe, beef balls) noodle soup

The pho at Minh Vietnamese restaurant is actually not bad. However, it was overshadowed by the bonfire theatrical.

Vit Nau Ca ri Do – $16.00 – Roasted duck with curry and pineapple

The red curry duck is pretty similar to a Thai dish. I can’t really find the differences between the two. I originally ordered this dish because the four of us would still be hungry after the three dishes above. As it stands, it was a surplus to our requirements and had to be taken away for our lunch the next day.

Hot Vietnamese Coffee – $4.00 – with condensed milk

The final verdict for Minh

The beef bonfire was a pleasant surprise when dining at Minh. The dishes were also good value for money.

Did you know?

Apparently, Minh is also famous for its Noodle in Tomato Sauce (courtesy of The Hungry FoodTech). We tried it on our second visit to Minh in as many week and loved it!

Vietnamese restaurants are known in Sydney mostly for pork rolls and Pho, especially in the suburbs like Cabramatta, Marrickville and Bankstown.

Rating for Minh:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $10 – $18 per main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

506 Marrickville Road, Dulwich Hill 2203

02 9560 0465

Sep 1, 2015