Category: Banquet

Nine Fine Food

Review:

One evening, I was walking around with a couple of friends in Northbridge in Perth. We couldn’t decide where to eat and had to ask for advice from our faithful friend, Urbanspoon. We decided to dine in Nine Fine Food, because 90% out of 1,200 patrons liked it!

Our first impression was the restaurant was quite pricey for a casual dining. Little did we know that they were ranked in the top 20 in the Australian Good Food & Travel Guide list. Since I was only in Perth for a short period, we decided to have their most comprehensive menu: Chef’s Selected 5 Course Tasting Menu.

Everyone has the same dish for the first two courses and a choice of two dishes for the last three courses.

1^st Course

Spicy Tuna Sashimi – Spicy Miso Marinated Fresh Sashimi Tuna, Mixed Beans, Herbed Salad

The first course was quite a simple Tuna sashimi that had quite a bit of punch in the miso sauce.

I was just unsure about the red hair-strand lookalike at the top that’s actually quite hard to chew.

2^nd Course

Kinoco Caviar Pasta – Angel Hair Pasta, Mushrooms, Tobico Caviar, Onion, Creamy Rice Wine Sauce (Additional Soft Shell Crab 6.5 each)

The Kinoco Caviar pasta was quite a unique dish. It was presented in a small cup with a cracker. The top bit was covered with colourful tobiko (fish roe). The pasta was, expectedly, al dente. This was the dish that I loved the most for the night. It was pleasing to see and fun to eat!

3^rd Course

Salmon & Scallop – Roasted Salmon, Grilled Scallop, Yuzu Mascarpone, Orange Miso

This course was by far the messiest of them all. The sauce (possibly the yuzu mascarpone) was everywhere. The fish itself was beautifully cooked with the occasional burst of flavour from the salmon roe (ikura). I’m not quite sure why the tiny grilled scallop was even included there.

Pork Belly – Roasted Pork Belly, Tempura Bacon, Apple Mango Sauce!

None of us picked the pork belly on that day. However, the dish looked to have quite the perfect combination in the description.

4^th Course

Barramundi – Steamed Saltwater Barramundi, Herbed Salad, Plum and Chilli Miso

I chose the dish to be the cover because it looked the prettiest. I had a small bite of the barramundi and it was also cooked perfectly.

Lamb Duo – Braised Lamb Shoulder, Grilled Back Strap Fillet, Mash Potato, Balsamic Soy

The lamb looked quite dry in the picture but it didn’t really do justice. The grilled lamb was cooked nicely and complemented by the mashed potato. The braised lamb was more of a melt-in-your-mouth experience.

5^th Course

Tiramisu – Creamy Tiramisu, Bitter Espresso

Unfortunately none of us picked the Tiramisu either, so I could not comment on it.

Mattcha Brulee – Green Tea Custard Brulee

I love Creme Brulee and I will never miss a chance to order creme brulee when available. This green tea-flavoured brulee was enjoyable and had the right amount of green tea.

The final verdict for Nine Fine Food

We were very pleased with the service and quality of food delivered by Nine Fine Food!

Did you know?

The restaurant is actually located on the outskirt of Northbridge. Northbridge is well-known as the main nightlife district of Perth and has quite a vast array of cuisines.

Rating for:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $77 per person

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

227 Bulwer St, HighGate WA 6003

08 9227 9999

http://www.ninefinefood.com.au

Jan 8, 2015
Chefs Gallery Macquarie Opening Celebration – Part 2

Review:

In this second instalment of the Chefs Gallery Macquarie Opening Celebration, we focus more on the food that they served on the night. If you want to read about the celebration, please go to my Feng Shui Blessing post.

On Arrival – Chefs Gallery Macquarie

The evening started off with the usual canapés and drinks. Unfortunately, my camera went funny when I took the pictures of some of them: prawn and squid shu mai with avocado, and Jumbo prawn dumplings.

Luckily I managed to salvage a picture of the last entry on the ‘On Arrival’ menu: Spicy wonton chips. This dish is one of those ones that you cannot stop eating unless the plate is empty!

Chapas – Chinese Style – Chefs Gallery Macquarie

In line with the usual sharing tradition in Chinese cuisine, the service that they had for the evening was Chapas, presumably Chinese Tapas or some sort.

Macanese style mini burger filled with pork fillet, pork floss, lettuce and a sweet chilli mayo dressing

It was a light and fluffy start to our dinner service. The mini burger was small enough for me to swallow as a whole.

Shredded peking duck with cucumber, hoisin sauce rolled inside a fluffy Chinese roti

Peking duck was my favourite dish of the night. It was anything you could ask for in a Peking duck with the added extra kick of toasted Chinese roti. The Chinese roti tasted a lot closer to a Roti Pratha than the usual Peking duck wrap.

Crispy soft shell crab with fried shallots, garlic and chopped chillies, served with Chinese salad in a sesame soya dressing

Another dish that I have always enjoyed is a soft shell crab. In this dish, the crab was quite obscured by the garnish.

Crispy pork belly and barramundi pieces. Wrap both pork belly and fish in lettuce, topped with fresh basil and mint leaves. Drizzle with a dash of gula Melaka flavoured with cinnamon and mandarin peel

This dish has quite an interesting combination. It is also compounded by exotic flavours of cinnamon, mandarin and sugar (gula Melaka). You eat it similar to Korean BBQ where you wrap the meat inside a lettuce and dip it in the sauce.

For the next three dishes, it was quite a revelation for me that Chefs Gallery put so much pride on their noodles. Not only that they had special Noodle making session on the Opening Ceremony, they also served three noodles dishes (of different colours!) for the Chapas.

Spinach handmade thick noodles, wok fried with prawns, mussels in shell, baby calamari tubes, Chinese shitake mushrooms, dusted with seaweed and sesame powder.

Personally this is the one I liked best after the shredded Peking duck. From the appearance, it looked more of a seafood dish than noodles. It also had quite a strong seafood taste (too strong for Janni the chef). But, who wouldn’t want to try a green-coloured noodles dish?

Fish noodles served with chicken soup

Although it looked quite ordinary, there was nothing ordinary in terms of its taste. It was quite a unique noodles dish with texture I’ve never tasted before!

Knife-sliced sorghum noodles served with a Shanghainese spicy sauce

The sorghum noodles dish was also pretty interesting. It was slightly pink in colour and was cooked with wonton. I kinda like the taste, but unfortunately I wasn’t a big fan of spicy dishes.

Dessert – Chefs Gallery Macquarie

Signature “Piggy Face” sesame bun and “Totoro” marshmallow arranged in an edible garden setting, beautifully presented and served with ice cream.

We would have enjoyed the desserts a lot more if it wasn’t closer to 10 PM on the night and I wasn’t on my 12^th plate for the day. I have always loved the cute-looking ‘piggy face’ buns since the first time I went into the restaurant. It was delightful to see the playful, shared-plate dessert at the end of the banquet.

Details:

Macquarie Shopping Centre Shop 407

197-223 Herring Rd, North Ryde, NSW

+61 2 9267 8877

http://chefsgallery.com/

All About Food Blog was invited by White Works Public Relations to be the guest for the Chefs Gallery Macquarie Opening Celebration dinner.

Dec 8, 2014
Chefs Gallery Store Opening Feng Shui Blessing – Part 1

This will be a two-part chronicle as I think it’s important to tell the story on the actual procession and not just the food.

The second part (the food review) will be available for my next post. I will update you with the link on this page when it is published.

Chefs Gallery Macquarie

I went to the Chefs Gallery Macquarie Celebration Dinner / Feng Shui Blessing because I was invited by Stewart and Leonardo from Whiteworks Public Relations. The event was attended by quite a few notable names in the culinary industry, including chef Janni Kyritsis. Thanks to Chopinand from ChopinandMysaucepan.com, I was spared the blushes of not knowing his achievements!

There were quite a few attractions before the feng shui blesing ceremony started. We were entertained by Master Calligrapher (which I forgot his name – apologies) demonstrating his skills in writing our names using Chinese calligraphy. A friend of mine gave me a Chinese name “??” a long time ago, so I’m getting that calligraphy made.

In front of the master calligrapher, there was a Guzheng zither played.

After a few rounds of finger food and light refreshments, the procession was opened by the usual ribbon cutting ceremony by the owners.

The table was already pre-arranged and I was sitting next to Chopinand and the guy who sponsored the drinks for the night. On our table, we had three distinguished chefs, including Janni, the MC (Claudia Chan Shaw) and a news reporter. The table was beautifully presented and each of us received a token resembling ancient Chinese gold ingot in gold envelope.

Chefs Gallery Macquarie restaurant was decorated with Chinese Calligraphy all around the restaurant and there was a lot of hanging brushes for Feng Shui purposes.

More information about Chefs Gallery Macquarie centre can be found on their website and this media release.

Feng Shui Blessing

So what is Feng Shui blessing? Feng Shui House Blessing website offers quite an extensive article about the practise.

Claudia Chan Shaw (our host of the night) explained that Feng Shui literally meant wind and water. It is generally used to create a balanced chi for your establishments. It involved several steps including the cleansing rituals and appeasing the Gods (in this instance it included the God of kitchen).

The Cleansing Rituals

Appeasing Kitchen God

Appeasing Gods

Noodle Master Pei Lin Jai demonstrating his skills

The last ‘attraction’ of the night was Noodle making session by Noodle master Pei Lin Jai (aka Chef Panda). Just like in the video above, chef Pei Lin Jai masterfully demonstrated how he created four different types of noodles on the night.

The first was ‘regular’ noodles.

Noodle Making Session by Pei Lin Jai (LJP)

He then made a finer type of noodles.

Up to the point where the noodles were extra fine! They then lit up the noodles that we thought was almost borderline smoke hazard that would set off the smoke detectors.

Noodle Making Session by Pei Lin Jai (LJP)

In addition to those ‘regular’ noodles above, he also created specialty noodles: spinach thick noodles, fish noodles and sorghum noodles. Unfortunately I only had the sorghum noodles pictured below.

Noodle Making Session by Pei Lin Jai (LJP)

With this, I conclude my first part of the review. It is truly an amazing experience watching Feng Shui blessing.

Details:

Macquarie Shopping Centre Shop 407

197-223 Herring Rd, North Ryde, NSW

+61 2 9267 8877

http://chefsgallery.com/

Nov 25, 2014
Ostro Brasserie

Review:

A little narrative before I get to the review. We arrived in Auckland Sunday afternoon and we only had a couple of nights in Auckland. We faced quite a tough task to find a fine dining restaurant that opened on a Sunday night. Luckily, our friend suggested Ostro Brasserie & Bar. When we dined there, the restaurant was still quite reasonably filled. That alone can be a testament on how good the restaurant is!

Appetisers

Ostro Brasserie menu has a good balance between seafood and meats. They also serve a nice mixture of raw and cooked cuisines. Our night got off to a flying start with the delicately crafted Ostro stecca bread. The bread was very crunchy and it was perfectly served with seaweed butter. It was followed by fresh Cloudy Bay clams from the Marlborough region with lemon and shallot vinegar. I was very impressed with the freshness of my first raw clam!

Ostro stecca bread with seaweed butter – $7

Cloudy bay clams Marlborough – $3 each

Our third appetiser was Miso cured salmon. The name itself intrigued us, but then they also added Granny Smith Apple and basil into the mix! It was heavenly fresh!

Miso cured salmon, Granny Smith apple, shallot and basil – $18

Beef Carpaccio was actually the only dish classified as ‘appetisers’ in the menu. We were interested because of the combination of ingredients put into this dish. It included anchovy mayonnaise, black garlic and parmesan!

Beef Carpaccio, anchovy mayonnaise, black garlic, capers, parmesan, herbs and garlic chips – $19

Mains

Our first main was actually the first one I decided to have, because of the bone marrow. I was actually quite curious about the price because a bone marrow for two was priced at $90. Things got a lot clearer when the dish was served. The bone marrow was only its side dish. The main attraction was humongous 750 gr scotch fillets! The full name is Savannah Bone In Scotch. All of their beef cuts come with red wine jus plus a condiment of your choice: Bearnaise, cafe de Paris, Dijon/English/Whole Grain Mustard or Horseradish. You might actually be able to share this dish with two other people.

Savannah Bone in Scotch (for two), bone marrow, caramelised shallot and PX sherry, grass fed, dry aged, 750g – $90

We then had Roast duck ravioli served with parsnip puree, pickled pear and crackling. Had a small bite of the ravioli (it’s not mine!) and I loved how smooth the ravioli was!

Roast duck ravioli, parsnip puree, pickled pear and crackling – $24

Our last main was Canterbury lamb rump with charred aubergine, spring peas, harissa and yoghurt. It was quite a spicy dish, courtesy of the harissa in the mix. The lamb rump itself was beautifully cooked!

Canterbury lamb rump, charred aubergine, spring peas, harissa and yoghurt – $36

If you are a big eater like me, I suggest you to add a couple of side dishes, including its French Fries, they are pretty good and can get you filled up pretty quick.

French Fries Fresh herbs – $9

Clover Club – a legendary pre-prohibition cocktail. Tanqueray, fresh lemon juice, a touch of sugar, egg white and house-made berry compote – $17

The final verdict for Ostro Brasserie & Bar

Our short visit to Auckland became that much more memorable because of Ostro Brasserie & Bar. They served great food, had great service and provided great view!

Did you know?

At first I thought Britomart is some kind of a mall or shopping centre. It actually refers to the Britomart Transport Centre.

They go by the name of Seafarers for their online presence.

Rating for:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $60- $80 per person

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

Tyler Street, Britomart, Auckland

+64 9 302 9888

http://www.seafarers.co.nz/

Nov 17, 2014
Java Restaurant

Review:

I have wanted to go to this week’s restaurant for as long as I could remember, but we just kept delaying it… until now. Located in Randwick, Java Restaurant (the name is quite easy to remember, isn’t it?) is quite unassuming and you can easily miss it because of the old decor.

We were quite optimistic about the place because as we went for an early dinner, there were people already dined there. Sometimes good restaurants can simply be seen by the number of patrons eating there at odd hours of the day.

While we were there, we skipped all the regulars that we could find in other Indonesian restaurants around Sydney, with the exception of fried kwetiau. There were still quite a bit to choose from and we tried to order as much as we could eat them!

First off is Nasi Goreng Babat. It was Indonesian specialty fried rice with beef tripe (cow’s tummy). This dish came with traditional Indonesian crackers (melinjo), egg and sliced tomatoes. I have this guilty pleasure of enjoying quite about everything even when they are not the healthy option, because that’s where most of the great taste comes from!

Nasi Goreng Babat – $11.90 – Indonesian style fried rice with beef tripe and tomato slices

For the second dish, Semur Kepiting Sokak, I do not think the name reflects the description given. Traditionally speaking, semur is a rich, soup-based dish. Whereas this dish is deep fried soft shell crabs with sweet soy sauce and lots of onions and capsicums. It is still a great dish, but I think it should be named Kepiting Soka bumbu kecap (Soft shell crab with sweet soy sauce) instead of semur.

Semur Kepiting Sokak (Soft Shell Crab) – $20.90 – Lightly battered fried soft shell crab pieces topped with shallots, onions, and capsicum slices in butter sweet soya sauce

At the end of last month when we went to Ester, I was quite disappointed that they did not serve bone marrow. So I quickly made up my mind at the first sight of the word “bone marrow” in this restaurant. Better yet, it’s salt and pepper bone marrow with chopped chilli! They called the dish Sum sum Goreng.The Indonesian word for bone marrow is supposedly sumsum.

Sumsum Goreng – $14.90 – Salt and peppered lightly battered fried beef bone marrow pieces with cut chilli

Sumsum Goreng – $14.90 – Salt and peppered lightly battered fried beef bone marrow pieces with cut chilli

Kwetiau Goreng was our last dish of the day. It is quite a well balanced dish with good amount of chicken, fish cakes and prawns atop the thick rice noodles.

Kwetiau Goreng – $11.90 – Stir-fried thick rice noodles with chicken, egg, vegetables, fishcakes and small prawn pieces

Last, but definitely not least, Indonesians love to have avocado for desserts and/or drinks. Es Alpukat is a shaved ice (the menu said ‘crushed ice’) dessert with fresh avocado, coffe and condensed milk.

Es Alpukat – $5.80 – Fresh avocado pieces in coffee and condensed milk with crushed ice

The final verdict for Java Restaurant

There are quite a few ‘interesting’ descriptions in the menu at Java Restaurant. However in terms of taste, I must say they were up to my expectations!

Did you know?

A couple of months ago, my Dutch colleague asked me a question that he assumed every Indonesian should know: Where can I get a Rijst Tafel in Sydney?

Very clueless, I replied “What is Rijst Tafel? “. Apparently rijst tafel is a kind of extravagant, old-fashioned Indonesian meal that they have in the Netherlands that people spends countless hours preparing to impress their guests. They cook several Indonesian dishes and prepare them as a banquet-style meal where people share and enjoy the dishes together.

I knew NOTHING about it.

Amazingly, Java restaurant managed to actually have rijst tafel in their menu. So, I am even more impressed with them!

Rijst Tafel menu

Rating for Java Restaurant:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $10-20 for main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

151 Avoca Street, Randwick

+61 2 9398 6990

www.javarestaurant.com.au

Oct 14, 2014
Ester Restaurant and Bar

Review:

Mat Lindsay, Ester Restaurant and Bar Chef

Ester was named new restaurant of the year in this year’s Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2015, so we are obviously here to put the claim to the test! Thanks to Miss Piggy on her review about Ester, we already have pre-defined list of what we want to eat there.

What we were not aware of was the fact that the food in the menu is meant to be shared for the whole table! They have the option of a la carte or a banquet menu of seven dishes for $65 pp. The six of us decided to have the a la carte option that ended up costing us $60 pp including drinks. We had four entrees, four main dishes and two desserts.

Entrees

Order the house baked bread if you do not plan to order chicken liver pate, because the chicken liver pate came with the house baked bread. I encouraged you to order this dish as the liver pate was smooth and tasty. They provided sliced beetroot to balance the strong pate taste.

house baked bread 3 p.p.

chicken liver pate 17

I had a mix feeling for the next two entrees. We had a massive expectation for the roasted oysters (you can order one, half or dozen). However, I think my expectation was a bit too high when comparing it to Tetsuya’s Oyster Vinaigrette. It’s still a nice oyster with quite a lot of garlic.

roasted oysters 4/22/40

The lobster sausage sanga on the other hand was awesome! Served on top of warm white bread, the sausage was incredibly juicy and obviously sharing one plate was not enough!

lobster sausage sanga 9 each

Our last entree was ricotta gnudi with lobster sauce. Gnudi is a variant of gnocchi with ricotta as its filling. I love the fluffy texture of the gnudi and they mixed really well with the strong tasting of lobster sauce. For the complete experience, I suggest you to order this dish with the next one on the main dishes part.

ricotta gnudi / lobster sauce 16

Main Dishes

King prawns, with brown butter and capers, is the name of the dish. They gave you three gigantic prawns per dish and you can also opt for an additional prawn depending on the number of guests on your table. The prawns were grilled to perfection and I think the dish was perfectly priced.

prawns / brown butter / capers 26

The only vegetables dish of the day came in the shape of cauliflower with almond and mint. The cauliflower was grilled maybe a bit too much but the mint sauce and almond worked quite well. It was actually quite refreshing!

cauliflower / almond / mint 16

As there were quite a few of us, we decided to order the whole snapper rather than the fillet. The snapper came with saltbush and vinegar. Luckily we have a skilled debone person in house, so we had no problem eating the fish.

whole snapper / saltbush / vinegar 45

The last main dish of the day was a special, off-the-menu item: Crispy Roast Duck with burnt honey and fennel seeds. I wonder why he doesn’t make this the mainstay on the menu because it was incredibly tasty! The duck was perfectly cooked with very crispy skin and very juicy meat. I really couldn’t get enough off it! I think this is the best value for your money!

Crispy Roast Duck / burnt honey / fennel seeds 39

Desserts

I hope you save your tummy for desserts as the two that we ordered were excellent. First we had three milks. I know the name sounded really lame and unappealing with a little hint of curiosity. “What is ‘three milks’?” might probably be the most frequently asked question at the restaurant. Three milks is a combination of dulce de leche (aka caramel), panna cotta and sheep’s milk foam. You get the crunchy caramel and crumbs, nice and sweet panna cotta and sour and airy sheep’s milk foam. If you love desserts, you would NOT want to share this!

three milks 11

Last, but definitely not least, is the salted caramel semi-freddo. I thought when they talked about freddo, it’s that frog from Cadbury. Semifreddo is an Italian word for half cold or semi-frozen. The salted caramel was quite sweet and flavoursome.

salted caramel semi-freddo 4

The final verdict for Ester Restaurant and Bar

There is no mistake that Ester Restaurant and Bar was crowned the 2014 Best New Restaurant in Sydney by Sydney Morning Herald. Everything we had there was terrific! Three milks is the one that you must order when you are there!

Did you know?

Ester changes their menu depending on the seasonal availability. Keep an eye on Bone marrow dish if it’s available at the restaurant when you dine there. We were unlucky as the dish was not on the menu when we were there.

Rating for Ester Restaurant and Bar:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $50-60 per person or $65 banquet menu

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

46 – 52 Meagher Street, Chippendale

+61 2 8068 8279

http://ester-restaurant.com.au/

Sep 29, 2014