Category: Brunch

The Palace Tea Room

The Palace Tea Room Review:

We went to The Palace Tea Room for the Mother’s Day brunch. Given that we could get in without even booking the place was a plus in my book. Unfortunately, there was a little ‘drama’ where our food was delivered extremely late due to clerical errors. However, they were quite apologetic about it and removed the drink bill off our total amount. Not bad!

Let’s talk about the food itself. Being in the historical Queen Victoria Building at the heart of Sydney, you would expect a sizable price point for the restaurant. Browsing through the menu, the price was actually quite acceptable.

Salmon & grilled vegetable salad with avocado, beetroot & feta, horseradish cream – $26

I ordered this for my main dish. However it ended up being taken over by my wife because her dish was unavailable (I think they ran out of pappardelle). She enjoyed everything about the dish.

Wagyu Beef Burger (tomato, lettuce, pickles, gruyere, bacon, onion, fried egg) with fries – $25.5

We had wagyu beef burger as a replacement. While I was still having the burger, the little one actually wanted to eat the fries. To his defence, the fries were pretty good. There was nothing special about the burger.

Buttermilk and blueberry pancakes, caramelised banana, honey butter and maple syrup – $17

The pancakes were very fluffy. It was probably a tad too big for a six-year-old kid.

Devonshire Tea – two scones, tea or coffee – $18

The devonshire tea is why we are eating here in the first place. We ordered two types of tea: Rose Floral and Cherry Blossom Tea. They were very nice. I didn’t eat too much of the scones (because I had to finish the pancakes).

The final verdict for The Palace Tea Room

A big plus for the palace tea room was availability during Mother’s Day and also how they handled crisis.

Did you know?
There are quite a lot of tea on offer at the Palace Tea Room. You could also purchase them to enjoy at home.

Rating for The Palace Tea Room:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $25 – $35 per person

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop L1 20 – 22, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney

+61 2 9283 2222

http://www.thepalacetearoom.com.au/

May 31, 2017
Three Blue Ducks Rosebery

Three Blue Ducks Rosebery Review:

When I first visited Three Blue Ducks in Rosebery for brunch, I saw someone in the counter that I felt was quite familiar. After a quick browse, apparently Andy from Masterchef Australia has joined Three Blue Ducks as a partner for the Rosebery venue. Being a Three Blue Ducks restaurant and ex-Kitchen by Mike venue, I placed quite a massive expectation for it. Regrettably, that first visit was forgettable.

In my second visit, I was there with my colleagues for an office lunch. Three Blue Ducks Rosebery has a different set of menu for lunch.

We ordered almost all of their starters. The two dippings were pretty good. The sourdough was the best value for money. However $20 for roasted veggie bowl seemed to be a bit too expensive. Considering that they also served vegetarian main dish for only $18.

Iggy’s sourdough with butter – $5

Sweet potato hummus, charred onions, black sesame & focaccia – $13

Babaganoush, toasted almonds, sumac, chives and focaccia – $13

Roasted veggie bowl with grains & fermented veggies & dukkah – $20

Amongst our group, we also ordered almost all of their main dishes. I wouldn’t be talking about most of them, but I’ll just show you their pictures. Personally, I ordered their special of the day. It was a rather big squid with pearl couscous, vegetables and a very yummy sauce.

According to my colleagues, the piri piri chicken was the best one. They actually got half a chicken! Charred occy, kingfish and sirloin steak were pretty good. Poke bowl was probably the one to forget. I also agreed with the justification for the poke bowl.

Poke bowl – raw fish, cucumber, avocado, radish, kimchi, brown rice, seaweed & softboiled egg – $27

Piri piri chicken, spiced yoghurt, chickpeas, parsley, tomatoes and preserved lemon – $32

Charred occy, corn, grapefruit, pickled chilli, mixed leaves & fermented radish – $28

Wood roasted kingfish on the bone, sweet potato puree, charred broccoli and corn, soy mirin – $34

400gr charcoal grilled pasture fed sirloin steak, burnt herb salsa, pickled onion & mustard – $34

The final verdict for Three Blue Ducks Rosebery

Three Blue Ducks is probably one of the better restaurants in Rosebery. However, given how good our dining experience in the Bronte one was, this one was subpar.

Did you know?

Looking at their website, there are actually three blue ducks restaurants in Australia (the other one being in Byron Bay).

Rating for Three Blue Ducks Rosebery:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $18 – $34 main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

1 / 85 Dunning Avenue, Rosebery 2018

+61 2 9389 0010

http://www.threeblueducks.com/rosebery/home-rosebery

Mar 7, 2017
Revolver Café

Revolver Café Review:

A few weeks ago, I met with Mike from Race Brunch Repeat in a Christmas party. In our conversation, he mentioned a café called Revolver in Annandale. Mike actually wrote two articles in his blog about Revolver Café… that has to mean something!

I decided to have a brunch at Revolver Café on a Thursday afternoon. The café was located in a quiet corner in Annandale. However, the café itself is definitely not quiet. They have quite an assortment of dishes for brunch and their baked eggs are quite famous. On this occasion, we had to skip the baked eggs for its special.

Lamb Cutlets – Special – Lamb cutlets with Harissa, quinoa, and feta cheese.

This dish was their weekly (?) special. We were sold on the combination of lamb cutlets and harissa. The cutlets were beautiful and the quinoa was very refreshing. To top it off, they served the lamb cutlets with a side of pita bread. It became this monstrous entrée and main dishes!

Trout Rosti – $17.5 – House smoked, Tasmanian ocean trout on a corn rosti with caper crème fraiche, baby spinach and avocado DF

I love ocean trout… I love smoked ocean trout… I love corn rosti (we, Indonesians, know it as bakwan/dadar jagung). This dish was begging to be chosen!

I was pretty happy looking at the gigantic rosti arrived on my table. It was so big that the trout looked like tiny sprinkles. The caper creme fraiche managed to tie the different elements beautifully.

Boost – $4.0 – Echinacea, Siberian ginseng, spearmint, ginger & yuzu citron honey

Sometimes presentation is equally, if not more, important than the actual taste. It gives you an extra dimension of enjoying something, even if it’s as simple as drinking tea. With Revolver’s boost tea, they give you a little hour glass to let you know when the tea is ready to be enjoyed. Oh, last but not least, the boost tea tasted great!

Iced Coffee – $4 small / $6 large

When it’s 37 degrees outside, you will want this iced coffee!

The final verdict for Revolver Café

With everything costs less than $20 at Revolver Cafe, it is obvious that they are one of the best brunch destinations in Sydney! To top it off, their dishes, drinks, and service were great!

Rating for Revolver Café:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $10 – $17.50

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

291 Annandale Street, Annandale NSW 2038

+61 2 9555 4727

http://revolver.com.au/

Dec 6, 2016
Osaka Trading Co

Osaka Trading Co Review:

Osaka Trading Co. had literally just been opened for one week when we were there. The restaurant is located in Harold Park Tramsheds. Originally the building was Rozelle Tramway Depot that has been transformed into a food precinct.

Osaka Trading Co designed their menu in line with the current trends: everything is made to be shared! However, I think their perception of small and large is different than mine. I kinda feel like the size was small and super small. Have a look at the dishes below and let me know what you think!

Edamame with seaweed salt – $6

Edamame is the usual starter that you would order in a Japanese restaurant.

Market sashimi, fragrant ponzu sauce – $21

Our first dish is from the ‘small’ share section. As you can see, I would be more inclined to refer to it as ‘tiny’ than ‘small’.

Silken tofu, shiso tapenade – $9.5

Our next dish from the ‘small’ section fits the bill. The tofu was very nice and refreshing. It matched perfectly with the shiso tapenade.

Grilled ocean trout, miso milk sauce, herb oil – $26

This is part of the ‘large – to share’ dishes on the menu. Personally, I think it is more on the medium range. It was also quite hard and messy to share.

Karaage chicken, Japanese tartare sauce – $18.5

Another ‘large’ dish that looked even smaller than the first one. The karaage was acceptable but there was no distinction to any other karaage in a much cheaper restaurant.

Kipfler potato salad, asparagus, onsen egg, miso mayonnaise – $10

The vegetables dish that is usually part of side dishes was actually the same size as the karaage dish above. This is the dish that I enjoyed eating the most.

The final verdict for Osaka Trading Co

In terms of design and concept, there is no doubt Osaka Trading Co is following the current trend. However, we feel that the execution is a bit lacking at the moment. With a bit of adjustments, they can be pretty good in the future.

Did you know?

There are quite a few notable restaurants opening up their shop at Harold Park Tramsheds. Osaka Trading Co. is the second restaurant opened by Tokyo Bird team.

Rating for Osaka Trading Co Restaurant:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $18.5 – $36 per large dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

T18/200 Ross St, Forest Lodge 2037

+61 2 8880 0717

https://www.facebook.com/OsakaTradingCo/

Oct 18, 2016
Oishii

Oishii Review:

Oishii is located in quite a prominent place in Hunter Valley. To be honest, we were never interested to even try because of the weird combination that they pitched their restaurant as: Thai and Japanese restaurant.

However, on this occasion, we decided to eat some rice and noodles as we have already had way too much cheese and bread… and apparently there are little to none options around the area.

Fried Rice with Seafood – $19.00

Considering we were here for the rice, fried rice was the obvious choice. The seafood fried rice at Oishii may seem like a very expensive one (especially when compared to most Sydney’s Thai restaurants). However, the portion was quite large and they put quite a lot of seafood toppings!

Chicken Teppan Yaki – $22.90 – barbequed on sizzle plate with stir fried Vegetables

It was a simple chicken teppanyaki with stir fried vegetables. The portion for the teppanyaki was bigger than what I expected.

Pad See Ew – $20.50 – thick white rice noodles with chicken and vegetables

We usually prefer having pad see ew more than pad thai because of the use of dark / sweet soy sauce. Again, Oishii’s pad see ew follows the trait of the other two dishes: quite a big portion with decent amount of meat.

Salmon and Avocado Hand-Rolled Maki – $6.50

The hand-rolled maki was actually an extra dish that I ordered because I was curious about their sushi roll. The temaki was suspended nicely like an ice cream cone.

Deep fried ice cream – $8.50

Deep fried ice cream is our son’s most favourite dessert at the moment. They have the usual three toppings to choose from: strawberry, chocolate and caramel.

The final verdict for Oishii

From the outside, Oishii might seem like an overpriced Asian restaurant with quite a weird combination of cuisines. However, upon closer inspection, their taste was pretty decent and their serving size was massive!

Did you know?

Hunter Valley is the wine region in New South Wales. They are famous of their vineyards and cellar doors.

Rating for Oishii:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $16.50 – $28.90 per main

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Tempus Two Winery, Hunter Valley

Corner of Broke Rd & Mcdonald Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320

+61 2 4998 7051

http://www.oishii.com.au/

Sep 29, 2016
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