Blue Ginger, South East Asian Cuisine
Rating:
8 / 10
| Taste: 8.5 /10 Price: $35 – $50 per person Place: 7.5/10
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Review:
Blue Ginger has everything that I wanted in what South East Asian restaurant should be: Nice ambience, table setting that won’t let u kick your neighbour, and most importantly GREAT service – no grumpy old lady throwing plates on your table!
There are choices of Banquet menu that we chose not to have because we weren’t too sure about some of the selection. We ordered 1 appetiser, 5 main dishes, and 2 desserts. For the appetiser, it was Salt & pepper squid. Definitely not the best one Sydney has to offer and quite frankly quickly abolished my hope of having a great night.
We were made to wait for quite a while until the main course arrived but in the end all of them came at once – which was the most important feature of South East Asian dining experience. It didn’t take long before dim expectation turned into great experience.The slow braised black Angus beef short ribs (boneless) literally blew my mind away! Cut into bite sizes, the ribs were cooked to dry, glazed with special sauce and an optional cucumber relish and tamarind for an extra taste.
The next one I tasted was Crispy skin chicken Maryland. Equally yummy with its unique trait, really really crispy skin! The black vinegar dressing complemented the chicken really well.Then, the stir fried eggplant & pumpkin was made special with the addition of chilli black beans and young corns.
The next two dishes were my wife’s favourite. First one was Panang curry chicken. The curry was really smooth without any overpowering taste of the element. The second one was Stir fried Singaporean chilli prawns with snow peas. It was perfect for me due to the mild hotness of the chilli.
Considering none of the dishes were disappointing, we were tempted to try out their desserts. Our choices fell to two of the following:
–Panacotta with Palm Sugar and Pineapple Ice Cream
–Kaffir Lime Crème Brulee
In overall they were not mind blowing but more similar to Chat Thai with a Fusion to western desserts, with special credit to the Pineapple Ice cream.
The final verdict: Blue Ginger charged quite a premium price but it was by far the best (South East) Asian restaurant in Sydney! Even the desserts are much better than one-hat restaurant we went to. The short ribs were the highlight of the day, shockingly excluded from the Banquet menu! They were just simply beautiful…
Did you know?
There are some nice spots in Balmain to relax and unwind, all in walking distance. Some of the nicer ones: Great coffee in Bertoni, Adriano Zumbo’s infamous Croquembouche and Macaroons.
Location:
241 Darling St, Balmain NSW 2041
Website:
