Category: Cities

This is a category for cities. All about food have reviewed restaurants in cities like Sydney, Singapore, Bali Island, Surabaya, and Bandung.

Coffee Tank

Coffee Tank Review:

I had a catch up for a brunch with a friend of mine who is also a coffeeholic, WPF. He suggested we went to Coffee Tank because he has never been there. It was just a stroll from our place. Coffee Tank is a relatively new coffee shop in Marrickville (more like in between Marrickville and Dulwich Hill).

They have quite the ‘usual suspects’ in a cafe’s menu. Looking around the restaurant, they are also pretty big on the vegan and organic bowl stuff.

Fill the Tank Brekkie – $19 – eggs, bacon, chorizos, mushrooms and haloumi served with toasted sourdough

This is the biggest dish on the menu. They put in quite a generous serving of everything. I guess they are focusing more on the quantity in this dish.

Morning Bowl – $17.50 – Kale, quinoa, mushrooms, haloumi, sesame-coated avocado, pomegranate and poached eggs

Kale and avocado have been popping up in Sydney’s cafe scene in recent years. Throw in pomegranate and quinoa and you get the trend of 2017 in one dish.

Benny Stack – $17.50 – English muffin, spinach, mushrooms, poached eggs and salmon topped with hollandaise sauce

Benny stack is one of the more traditional brekkie options at the cafe. You can probably measure how good a cafe is based on its eggs benedict. It is a safe bet.

The final verdict for Coffee Tank

We had quite an enjoyable brunch at Coffee Tank. However, I.

Do you think I should go?

Coffee tank seems to be the destination for people living in the area. However, they are facing a lot of competitions with the sheer number of brunch places in Inner West.

Rating for Coffee Tank:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5 / 10

Price: around $20 per person

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

1/395 Marrickville Road, Marrickville 2204

+61 433 468 568

Jan 26, 2018
Mentmore and Morley

Mentmore and Morley Review:

I walked past this restaurant pretty often but have not been to it until recently. The price point at Mentmore and Morley isn’t exactly within my ‘office lunch’ budget. We had a chance to taste it when one of our colleagues had a farewell party.

They serve quite a modern-esque Australian cafe dishes with dishes like haloumi and polenta, burgers, and poke. They also serve quite a few local beers.

M&M Burger & Sweet Potato Fries – $18 – 160g prime beef pattie, bacon, provolone, dill pickle, tomato chutney, cos leaves

My friend told me that the burger was pretty good. He would rate it a ‘7’. You can also choose chicken burger instead of beef pattie.

Polenta & Haloumi – $18 – fried polenta, haloumi, asparagus, avocado, Raw Sisterhood sauerkraut salad, fried egg, yuzu dressing

This dish is very pretty! I’m not usually a veggie eater, but I would gladly eat this dish!

Caesar Salad – $14/18 – anchovy aioli, cos lettuce leaves, streaky bacon, grana parmesan, free range egg, sourdough croutons

If you are more into the traditional dish, then the Caesar salad is for you.

Chilled Soba with Salmon – $16/20 – Tasmanian flaked salmon, chilled soba noodles, cucumber, spring onion, sesame seeds, chia seeds, wakame salad edamame, dashi broth, ginger & shallot dressing

Mentmore and Morley had a nice twist to the Japanese cold soba. The dish does look predominantly green and fresh.

Salmon Poke Bowl – $18 – with brown rice, edamame, wakame, enoki, avocado, ginger & soy mirin dressing

Poke bowl is part of the ‘dish of the day’ on the menu board.

The Great Roast – $15/18 – Beets, parsnip, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, shallots, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, pine nuts peas, salsa verde & goats cheese

I’m sure if all salad can look this good, kids will be happy to eat them!

Cape Byron Sirloin Steak – $28 – crushed kipfler potatoes, greek salad, salsa verde & jus

This is the dish that I actually ordered. The steak was grilled to my liking. There was probably a tad too much salt on it even after dipping in Salsa Verde. The crushed kipfler potatoes went really well with the jus.

The final verdict for Mentmore and Morley

Mentmore and Morley served pretty dishes. All of our dishes had that aura of ‘Oh… I don’t mind eating that although I don’t like what’s in it’. However, it is still beyond my normal office lunch budget.

Do you think I should go?
If I don’t live in the area, I probably would go here for weekend brunch.

Rating for Mentmore and Morley:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $18 – $28 main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

55 Mentmore Rd, Rosebery 2018

+61 2 9697 3617

Jan 18, 2018
Jang Ta Bal

Jang Ta Bal Review:

As you can see from the menu below, Jang Ta Bal is not a cheap restaurant. It is probably one of the more expensive Korean BBQ restaurants in Sydney. What about the quality? please continue reading…

Jang Ta Bal is a BBQ restaurant, so as you might expect the menu is dominated by raw meat and seafood. It is quite interesting to see that one person is responsible for all of the meat cutting and portioning for the whole restaurant. It reminds me of a sashimi chef in a real Japanese restaurant. The boss would never relinquish the task to someone else.

Jang Ta Bal still uses charcoal for their grill. I love having BBQ on charcoal rather than electric gas as it has a nicer flavour. They also give out a lot of different side dishes. The waitresses were also quite attentive in changing the grill plate and refill the side dishes.

Beef Set – $69 – Marinated beef ribs, wagyu intercostal, wagyu scotch fillet

If you are in a Korean BBQ place, you don’t want to miss the marinated beef ribs. That’s exactly what we did in Jang Ta Bal. You might probably be able to see how nice the texture was in that beef!

Squid and Shallot Pancake – $16 – Pa Jeon

Squid pancake is synonymous to a Korean BBQ restaurant in our book. We always order one whenever we visit a Korean restaurant.

Wagyu Bulgogi – $24

We ordered an extra plate of meat as we are all a bit of a meat eater.

The final verdict for Jang Ta Bal

Jang Ta Bal has great quality meat and very attentive wait staff. The restaurant itself was probably a bit under-represented for the price point, but who cares? It’s barbecue, your shirt will be smelly at the end of the dinner.

Do you think I should go?
Jang Ta Bal is not cheap. However, if you are looking for the best Korean BBQ in town, then Jang Ta Bal can be one of the candidates! Also, we missed it this time but there seemed to be a lot of people ordering the egg soup when we were there.

Rating for Jang Ta Bal:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $40 – $60 per person

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

48A, The Boulevarde, Strathfield 2135

+61 2 9747 2800

Jan 12, 2018
Hicksons Izakaya
Hicksons Izakaya Experience:

Chef Hiro, Omar and their team at Hicksons Izakaya invited us to try the food at this fairly new restaurant at Walsh Bay. We went there at lunchtime during the festive season. We were lucky as the weather was quite friendly at that time. It could get quite hot and steamy in the area as I have experienced in the past.

Considering that it’s an izakaya, they mostly served tapas-style Japanese food and sushi/sashimi platters. They also serve substantial bento boxes and main dishes if you feel a bit peckish.

Junmai Sake – $15 – Sweet – Carafe 180ml

A nice, sweet and cold sake is what you need on a hot Sydney summer.

Seared Scallops with Honey Ponzu and Fish Roe – $14.50

I love scallops and it’s no surprise that the first dish that I ordered was seared scallops. The scallops were seared perfectly. They also had a very nice honey ponzu sauce.

Seared Bonito – $15

Just like the seared scallops, the bonito fish was also seared delicately.

Teriyaki Chicken Bento Box – $24 – served with Five Sashimi pieces, salad, rice, miso soup & daily special side dish

Our little one ordered this bento box. It was probably a bit too big for his tummy. The teriyaki chicken was quite different than the ones in a typical Japanese restaurant. The teriyaki chicken in Hicksons Izakaya was neither super sweet nor sticky.

Slow Cooked Beef Stew Bento Box – $26 – served with Five Sashimi pieces, salad, rice, miso soup & daily special side dish

The beef stew bento had a similar composition, but the main dish was beef stew instead of teriyaki chicken.

Salmon Fillet – $24 – Seared Salmon Fillet with Yuzu Green Salad

Salmon fillet was probably the best main dish of the day. It went really well with the sauce provided.

Chocolate Sushi Roll – $14

As you probably know, I am not the biggest fan of chocolate. However, I was quite intrigued by the fact that they made a chocolate sushi roll!

We quickly found out that we had to fight over this sushi roll because it was so good.

Macha Ice Cream – $9

For this dessert, it was just a simple couple of scoops of matcha ice cream.

A few interesting things about Hicksons Izakaya
- Hicksons Izakaya is located right opposite of Sydney Theatre Company at Walsh Bay. It makes them a very busy destination for pre-theatre dinner.
- Great view of Walsh Bay
- Get that Chocolate Sushi Roll.
- Seriously… GET THAT CHOCOLATE SUSHI ROLL!!!
Details:

Shop 5/17A Hickson Road, The Rocks, Sydney

+61 2 9252 2274
Jan 5, 2018
Rashays Punchbowl

Rashays Punchbowl Review:

This week’s review comes from a restaurant that opens on Christmas Day, Rashays. It is a franchise restaurant and we went to the one in Punchbowl.

Their menu is quite interesting. It actually starts from desserts and drinks instead of appetisers. Being a franchise, you can rely on uniformity of its taste in their restaurants.

Loaded Fries – $15 – Hot crispy chips topped with premium slow-cooked beef, our signature RASHAYS creamy mushroom sauce & smokey BBQ sauce.

Loaded fries is part of the menu called ‘hot specials’. Hot specials is a slightly smaller version of the main course and priced under $20. I do not think the loaded fries is small at all. The chips is much more than what you get in your average pub steak.

I think it could very well be a main for some of us.

New York Steak – $33 – Darling Downs 300g MSA, 120-day grain-fed New York cut complimented with golden fried onion rings & RASHAYS dark mushroom sauce

There is only one type of steak on the menu in Rashays: New York Steak. You can then choose to have it with add-ons or not. On this occasion, we choose to have the steak with 4 onion rings for an extra $6.

Kids Steak & Chips – $15 – 180g New York steak served with chips & tomato sauce

It’s quite interesting to learn that the steak for the kids meal has the same size as the one in the ‘hot specials’ menu. However, instead of the mushroom sauce, you get a tub of tomato sauce instead.

The kids’ meal also comes with a soft drink or a plastic bottle of kids drink.

Iced Coffee Frappe – $7 – A shot of espresso & vanilla ice cream blended with ice & topped with whipped cream

This is so good. You have to order it. Period.

Churro Split – $6 – Creamy vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate syrup, crushed Oreo & cinnamon churros

Churro split is part of the kids menu as well. However, if you barely have enough space after the main, kids desserts are a decent option.

The Mega Breakfast – $25 – 180g MSA New York Steak, oven-baked eggs, toasted ciabatta bread, Mediterranean spiced beef chorizo, baby spinach, crunchy hash browns, haloumi & RASHAY tomato chilli jam

This is actually not from my visit to Rashays Punchbowl but from the Lidcombe branch. It deserved to be noted because of the great value for your money. You can easily share this with anyone and still have a decent breakfast.

The final verdict for Rashays Punchbowl

Rashays is a decent steakhouse with great value for money.

Do you think I should go?
Don’t come to Rashays if you are looking for the best steak in Sydney. It’s more about getting the same steak everywhere you go.

Rating for Rashays Punchbowl:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $15-$49 main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

The Broadway Plaza, 1-9 Broadway, Punchbowl 2196

13000 13000

Dec 29, 2017
Sven-san

Sven-san Review:

This week we went to quite a unique restaurant. Sven-san is a marriage between Swedish and Japanese cuisines. You can look at it again, it would still say Swedish and Japanese.

If you are planning to visit, it’s probably better to go there by bus, because the location is right at the end of Paddington and just before the centennial park. On this occasion, we selected the Chef Selection Banquet for $55. They also have the $70 version of the banquet.

Without furder ado (because there are a lot of dishes to cover!), here they are:

Edamame bowl, chilli salt

The first dish was a staple in quite a lot of Japanese restaurants: edamame. It was plain and simple.

Duck Croquettes + Hot sauce

I think croquettes are more of a Japanese dish than Swedish. It was quite a delectable dish.

Agedashi Tofu + Ginger floss

From the name you can guess that it is a Japanese dish. It was another light and easy dish.

Smashed Edamame “Hummus” and prawn crackers

I’m not quite sure why they chose to serve another edamame. If they chose something like Smörgåskaviar for the dipping sauce that would have been an awesome dish!

SFC – Sven’s Fried Chicken, Togarashi seasoning and Mayo

Fried chicken and mayo… I don’t think it’s Swedish.

Duck liver parfait, vodka – lingonberry gelé

I think this is the first dish that has a hint of Swedish with the introduction of vodka and lingonberry jelly. However the main is still heavily influenced by Japanese/French flavour.

Chips, Mix salad

These are the staple food to fill our tummy in.

Mushroom fried rice

The Japanese fried rice was actually the last one to come in.

Tassie Salmon Kombu butter, Spinach, Edamame

Salmon could easily be a Swedish dish. However, once again the Japanese influence was more prominent in this dish.

Grain fed eye fillet steak

I think this is probably the one dish that could represent Swedish dish. The pickled vegetables and mashed potatoes are a nice addition to it.

Salmon fish fingers and chips – $12.90
This is not part of the dish. I included this because it was our little one’s dinner at that time.

The final verdict for Sven-san

There seemed to be a lot more Japanese influence in Sven-san’s banquet dishes than the Swedish dish. It would be interesting if it could be more balanced.

Do you think I should go?
Their regular menu looked pretty interesting and I would suggest you try them.

Rating for Sven-san:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $55 pp – chef selection

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

495 Oxford Street, Paddington, NSW, 2021

+61 2 9131 8454

http://svensan.com.au/

Dec 20, 2017