Category: Cities

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

Catalina Rose Bay Wedding
Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

This is probably one of my most memorable reviews of the year. We went to Catalina Rose Bay to celebrate my ex-work/gaming/foodie mate’s wedding. Catalina has been a Good Food Guide’s one-hat restaurant for a few years.

Catalina was also voted as the people’s award winner for 2015 by Australian Financial Review. The restaurant overlooked a beautiful bay with yachts and sunset view.

So, having a wedding venue that is a combination of great food and great view isn’t that bad, is it?

Travelling Entrée (or some might say roaming canapé) – Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

According to the Assistant Manager, the travelling entrée is not part of the regular menu at the restaurant. We get 10 (yes, TEN!) different travelling entrée. Being a travelling entrée, it was quite hard to get a picture of all of them although they were eventually put on display for the bridal party.

They were all quite simple but yummy entrée. Here they are in no particular order with my best guess of ingredients:
- Smoked salmon with cream cheese and caviar on crostini
- Fresh oysters with lemon and Catalina’s vinaigrette
- Fresh tuna with vinaigrette and peas puree
- Zucchini flower with goat cheese
- Beef with pastry
- Eggplant
- Sausage rolls with tomato sauce
- Mozarella arancini balls
- Battered prawns
- I am not quite sure what the last one was!
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Main Course – Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

What separate Catalina from wedding venues I attended before was its main course. Instead of having alternate main course for the table, they actually asked which of the two you prefer!

Roasted lamb rack with minted pea puree, baby beetroots & tomato jus

I sort of ‘cheated’ and asked the groom whether I should order the barramundi. He told me that I would love the lamb rack… Great advice! The dish came with TWO racks of lamb!

No surprise it was quite a sweet dish considering that it was complemented by beetroot, tomato and minted pea. It was a decent portion for main.

Roasted lamb rack with minted pea puree, baby beetroots & tomato jus

Roasted lamb rack with minted pea puree, baby beetroots & tomato jus

Crispy skin Cone Bay barramundi with spanner crab ravioli, enoki mushroom, avruga, sage & eschalot cream

Being on the main table, I could not find someone that I could pinch the barramundi from. It did look very pretty and (without a doubt) grilled perfectly!

The complements further enhanced the seafood character of the dish.

Crispy skin Cone Bay barramundi with spanner crab ravioli, enoki mushroom, avruga, sage & eschalot cream

Dessert – Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

For the dessert, it was a no-brainer for me. I do not like dark chocolate and I tried hard to find someone who wanted to swap if I did get the dark chocolate… surely I did get the dark chocolate (which I quickly swapped with the other groomsman!)

Unlike the main course, the dessert was served alternately between guests.

Strawberry pavlova with lime curd & strawberry coulis

The two-tone pavlova looked elegantly simple.

Unfortunately when I got to the table, the ice cream was completely melted – we took way too many pictures! I was also quite full from the 10-course travelling entrees.

I did finish the pavlova to the last scoop and I think it was up to the one-hat standard.

Strawberry pavlova with lime curd & strawberry coulis

Dark chocolate mousse with wattleseed ice cream & cocoa tuile

As I am not a big fan of the dark chocolate, I had to ask my friend how it tasted and he said ‘it was nice’.

The technical aspects were quite apparent on the dish.

Dark chocolate mousse with wattleseed ice cream & cocoa tuile

Petit Fours at Catalina

Sommelier Adam and Port

Catalina Rose Bay Wedding

Details:

Lyne Park, Rose Bay, NSW 2029

+61 2 9371 0555

http://catalinarosebay.com.au/
Feb 9, 2016
Komune Beach Club

Review:

In our last leg of our holiday at the end of last year, we went to an area in Bali (possibly) least visited by tourists called Candi Dasa. It was a very nice and peaceful area where divers love to visit. However, the place has a huge drawback: food. There was practically none that’s worth mentioning.

Luckily one day we went a bit out of the area and was recommended to this restaurant by my cousin who live in Bali: Komune Beach Club. It was a pretty modern beach club with beach-side pool and a nice bar area. The menu sounds very Australian with Australian slang such as chook.

Super club sandwich – 85k – Grilled chicken tomato lettuce avocado fried egg and bacon

It was quite a regular club sandwich that you can find in Sydney (I guess it can be considered ‘super’ in Indonesia). They also give you wavy potato chips.

‘Island of the Gods’ salad – 80k – Freshly seared sliced tuna on a bed of mixed greens, sesame seeds and mushrooms, with A special Asian dressing.

I am not going to talk about the mixed greens salad because… well… it’s just a mixed greens salad. I’m more intrigued with the seared sliced tuna. For a country not known for fresh fish eaten semi-raw, the tuna was actually pretty good!

Fish and chips – 55k – Fresh local fish delicately crumbed served with fries and salad

The fish and chips that we ordered was from the kids menu section. It was quite a decent portion for a kids menu. I also love that they actually gave salad for the kids!

Cheese burger – 70k – Homemade 180gram juicy beef pattie with sliced cheese topper

Cheese burger was the one that I actually ordered in Komune Beach Club that day. I would normally think that 180gr is a bit small but I had to take what’s available. It was quite a decent burger with (interestingly) pasta-like sauce, crinkle cut chips and a curious side of pickled gherkin and salt.

It wasn’t the most amazing burger ever, but it was quite an antidote for our deprivation of good quality food.

The final verdict for Komune Beach Club

Komune Beach Club menu is heavily influenced by Australian cuisine. The portion is quite big when compared to regular Indonesian dishes.

Did you know?

I later found out that Komune also has a hotel in Gold Coast. I guess that explained the Australian theme.

Candi Dasa, and its surrounding area like Padang Bai, is actually a well-known diving area.

Rating for Komune Beach Club:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $5 – $10 per dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Keramas Beach, off Jalan Prof Dr Ida Bagus Mantra Bypass, Bali

+62 361 3018888

http://www.komuneresorts.com/

Jan 28, 2016
The Cut Bar and Grill

Review:

When people talk about the best steakhouse in Sydney, you will always hear The Cut Bar and Grill as one of them. That’s why when a group of friends from overseas came to visit and wanted to try the famous Australian steak, I dared myself to take them there. It was sort of a gamble for me as I personally haven’t tried it before and I would really hate to have over-hyped and overpriced steakhouse.

There were eight of us and was one day before New Year’s Eve. I actually did not expect to be able to get a seat at The Cut. However, long story short, we were seated (and possibly the most underdressed bunch ever set foot in the restaurant).

As if the square boxes on the menu are not clear enough for you, I’ll make it clearer: when you are in the restaurant, ORDER A STEAK!

They have quite a large range of cuts with marble score ranging from 2 to 9+ (translate: If it is cooked properly, it is so friggen’ good!).

Côte de Bœuf – $145 – 1kg Grasslands Grass Fed served with two sides and two sauces

This steak is (supposed to be) designed for two people. It also comes with two sides and two sauces – that’s a $30 value!

When the steak arrived, it was eye-catching, looked juicy and perfect.

However, we seriously doubted that it was 1kg… or the fat was probably burned down by the 650ºC Broiler. In the end, we felt that one of us could finish this easily by ourselves.

Signature Upper Cut – $65 – 400g 4-hour slow roast F1 Wagyu Standing Rib

The 400g was ordered by our other friend. However, the funny thing was that it looked bigger than our 1kg steak!

I did try the steak from my friend and it was pretty amazing. My friend even said that this was “The Best Steak in my life”.

Flat Iron Steak “The Butchers Cut” – $43 – 250g Rangers Valley Pure Black Angus MS 3-5

It looked pretty sad and small on that big plate. However, we have to consider that it’s only 250g.

Sauces – $4 – Bearnaise, Chimichurri, House Steak Sauce, Mushroom, Shallot Red Wine Bordelaise

I was actually quite intrigue with the chimichurri, but in the end we opted for House Steak Sauce and Bordelaise. I liked the house steak sauce better than the bordelaise.

Whipped Potato – $10

Cauliflower, Blue Cheese Dressing – $12

These two were the extras we ordered with our steak. We were also considering Rocket salad (my favourite vegetables), but the blue cheese dressing eventually got my vote.

Roasted Button Mushrooms, Thyme, Smoked Speck – $13

It’s a nice and quite complex mushrooms side dish.

2013 Yellands & Papps Vin de Soif Grenache Mataro, Barossa Valley – $59

They have a good range of wines. My friend selected this for the group.

The final verdict for The Cut Bar and Grill

My guests were very impressed with the quality presented at The Cut Bar and Grill… and I agreed.

Did you know?

For those of you who got outvoted into this restaurant, they do have non-steak dishes as appetizers and mains. They also have a selection of desserts.

Rating for The Cut Bar and Grill:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $43 – $145 per steak

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

16 Argyle Street, The Rocks, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9259 5695

http://www.cutbarandgrill.com/

Jan 21, 2016
Black Coffee Lyrics

Review:

This week’s review comes from a restaurant in the Gold Coast called Black Coffee Lyrics. It was an interesting experience coming into this restaurant. It is actually a tapas-style bar without your usual Spanish dishes (the restaurant name doesn’t sound to Spanish-y, does it?). The restaurant was located in quite a dodgy-looking building in the middle of Surfers Paradise. When we came in it was quite dark with bar-type décor.

And the food… well, you can see it for yourself.

Alto Olives – $6.50 – Marinated, hand-picked and Australian-grown olives.

A simple assortment of olives is always pretty good to start the night with. The added decoration/enhancer orange rind was a nice touch!

Super Crispy Calamari Ribbons – $16 – Caramelised ginger and coriander pesto with fresh green peppercorns.

In line with its name, I think the calamari is super surprisingly good! Definitely one you must order!

Flat Bread – $6 – Charred flat bread, confit garlic, cumin and coriander salt, bocconcini and marjoram.

I actually did not get the bread. However, everyone said it was a really good bread.

Onion Bhaji – $8 – Tempura fried onion and vegetables, curry yoghurt, charred lime and curry leaves.

To be fair, it was a very different onion bhaji than the ones I tasted in Indian restaurants. However, I actually liked this version better. It was crunchy and a lot less dough-y.

Pork Belly – $18 – Vietnamese-style pork belly, coriander, chive, pickled carrot, cucumber and shallot salad, sweet chilli and crispy crackling.

My friends told me that the pork belly was very good and tasted pretty sweet. The crackling was already separated from the meat and there was quite a lot of fat!

Beef Short Rib – $18 – Slow stout-braised beef short rib, coffee sauce, deep fried shallot rings, carrot puree and horseradish crisp.

There were quite a lot of interesting ingredients in this dish: coffee sauce and carrot puree, anyone? Also, whenever you need no extra help from a knife, it means you have eaten a very good slow-cooked dish.

Beef – $36 – Scotch fillet, parsnip puree, beetroots, wilted kale and wholegrain mustard sabayon.

Size wise, it wasn’t that much bigger than the beef short rib (If size does matter, buy two ribs instead of this). However, the scotch fillet was more of a ‘complete package’ when compared to the ribs.

Charred Prawns – $15 – Charred king prawns, corn polenta, oregano, red capsicum and lemon butter.

In a tapas place like this, getting three king prawns for $15 was a pretty good deal. If you are not a big eater, I think this is a decent plate for a night out.

Vegetarian – $22 – Tomato base, confit garlic, caramelised onions, mushroom, spinach, walnuts and chili glaze.

Apologies… Obviously someone has taken one slice before I managed to get a snap! The vegetarian pizza was actually quite nice. The absence of meat actually got us to appreciate the pizza more.

The final verdict for Black Coffee Lyrics

What can I say? Black Coffee Lyrics surprised us… in a very good way!

Did you know?

As a bar, they have quite a few selection of beers and hard liquors.

Rating for Black Coffee Lyrics:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $15 – $36 per dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Shop 41, 3131 Survers Paradise Blvd, Gold Coast

+61 402 189 437

http://blackcoffeelyrics.com.au/

Jan 18, 2016
Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat

Review:

This week, we review a restaurant that has been generating quite a buzz in my hometown, Surabaya – Indonesia. I think most people just refer it to as ‘Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat’. It is a new-ish concept that they introduce by combining two restaurants into one gigantic all you can eat eatery. I am actually tempted to just say ‘Don’t read this and just go to the place’. You’ll know why…

We actually arrived at the Japanese wing of the restaurant. It used to be known as Kizahashi restaurant. There are three big stalls in this restaurant: Tempura, Teppanyaki, and assorted Japanese stalls. The tempura stall also serves udon, whilst you can get Japanese fried rice and okonomiyaki from the Teppanyaki stall. The other stall is the most exciting. You can get sushi, sashimi, sorbet, Japanese salad and some desserts. When we were there, they ran out of salmon sashimi and there was only a white fish sashimi and crab stick.

Japanese Tempura

Japanese Teppanyaki

Sushi, Sashimi and Salad

We now move to the Indonesian wing of the restaurant. I think officially they still use the restaurant name, Arumanis. The stall I was interested in the most was rujak cingur. It’s a traditional dish from Surabaya that use cow’s nose as one of the ingredients with vegetables and peanut-and-shrimp-based sauce. In addition to that they also have other Indonesian and Chinese-Indonesian dishes.

Rujak Cingur

Assorted Indonesian

The fun actually starts outside of these restaurants. They have more than a dozen of small stalls. The two things that I love to try when going to a new Indonesian restaurant (if available) are chicken satay and sop kaki. I am sure you should know about Indonesian chicken satay. Sop kaki is a bit more exotic. They are predominantly a soup made of cow’s leg and other innards (or you can always have the meat part).

Chicken Satay

Sop Kaki

Another dish that I always try to find when in Indonesia is Tahu Tek. It is a traditional fried tofu with egg and peanut-based sauce. It is usually enjoyed with rice cake and crackers. You can also find Shawarma in one of the stalls. However, it didn’t look to exciting for me. You could also find Kikil (a different version of cow’s leg soup) and martabak.

Tahu Tek

Shawarma

Kikil, Martabak and Nasi Bakar

Last but not least, we also tried a few nice desserts. The lightest of all is crepes with sprinkled cheese and chocolate. My favourite, although it doesn’t look apetising in the picture below is sweet martabak. They are very lovely! You can also have an assortment of drinks like Malaysian’s Teh Tarik and Indonesian ginger-based drink called Angsle.

Crepes

Martabak Manis

Teh Tarik and Angsle

There are also some stalls that I did not go to (just because I already felt really full!). Some of the food that I did not get to try: Soba, BBQ chicken, dumplings, steamed stuff, traditional drinks, ice cream, es teler, Javanese fried rice and noodles, and soto.

I have also included pictures of all of the stalls that you can try in Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat.

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The final verdict for Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat

Overall, it might not be the best restaurant in Surabaya. However, the vast number of dishes you can try at Hotel Bumi all you can eat was overwhelming, to put it mildly.

Did you know?

This all you can eat package is actually done by two different restaurants merged together.

Hotel Bumi was formerly owned by the Hyatt group.

Rating for Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $20 all you can eat

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

Jalan Jend. Basuki Rakhmat 106 – 128, Surabaya, Indonesia

+62 31 531 1234

http://www.bumisurabaya.com/

Jan 12, 2016
Akane Tokyo Cuisine

Review:

We came to this restaurant for dinner shortly after landing in Jakarta. It was ‘only’ 12-hour journey. Our trusted friends recommended the restaurant and guaranteed it was one of the better ones in Jakarta… So we went along with it!

The restaurant is called Akane Tokyo Cuisine and located in Crowne Plaza. The menu reminds me more of an Izakaya establishment (with a pretty limited number of drinks) than a restaurant. You can obviously nibble through the night with the likes of Edamame, onigiri or shisamo. However, if you want to eat something more substantial, read on…

Yakitori Omakase Mori – Rp 99k – 8-kind charcoal grilled chicken skewers

According to my friend, Akane is famous for its yakitori. They have either the salt or sweet soy sauce version of yakitori. There are quite a few chicken parts you can choose from or you can order the omakase where they showcased eight skewers of chicken parts.

If you are not into chicken, they also have beef and seafood yaki.

Nigiri Sushi Moriawase – Rp 198k – 12-kind hand-formed sushi

The biggest test for any Japanese restaurants in Indonesia is its Sushi and Sashimi. We actually dared to take the risk and ordered the biggest one: nigiri sushi moriawase. They are noticeably more expensive than the rest of the dishes (possibly due to the cost involved in acquiring that level of freshness). However, I think it showcased the ‘standard’ sushi fishes.

We also ordered a couple of other sushi platters below:

Saba Bozushi – Rp 64k – Mackerel Sushi cake

Maguro Zukushi – Rp 113k – Tuna sushi, fatty tuna sushi, tuna roll

Okonomiyaki – Rp 63k – Japanese pan cake

There were generous servings of bonito flakes and mayo on the okonomiyaki. It was actually a pretty good one!

Maguro Misodare Salad – Rp 68k – Semi-roasted tuna salad

Any salad that I want to eat deserved a mention in my blog!

Kiniko Donabe Yaki – Rp 68k – Butter fried mix mushroom in hot pot

It might not look much and pretty expensive for a mixture of mushrooms. However, this dish was pretty delicious and probably one of the good options for vegetarians.

Ika Butter Shoyu – Rp 68k – Butter fried squid

I must say that they give out too much veggies to my liking but it worked well for other dinner guests.

Big Hamburg – Rp 118k – Beef hamburger steak 300g

It was not designed to be ordered on the day. However, I was extremely curious about it – I think it’s the word ‘big’ that got me! When I finally ordered it, I was glad that I made the right decision to order!

Yuzu Iced Tea – Rp 28k and Almond pudding – free

I usually don’t talk about drinks unless they are worth mentioning. I am a big fan of Yuzu fruit and it’s a rarity even in Japanese restaurants. We definitely can taste the strong Yuzu flavour in the iced tea!

The final verdict for Akane Tokyo Cuisine

Akane Tokyo Cuisine served very nice dishes. Their Sushi was also pretty fresh – by Indonesian standard. There was only one big issue…

Did you know?

Akane allows people to smoke in the restaurant and they do not have any non-smoking sections. They would have rated better if they had one.

Rating for Akane Tokyo Cuisine:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $4 – $20 per dish

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

Crowne Plaza, Jalan Jenderal Gatot Subroto, Jakarta

+62 21 5268833

Jan 8, 2016