Category: Cities

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

Cafe Mix

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $75 buffet dinner

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

Prior to this review, I’ve been to Cafe Mix at Shangri-La Hotel a couple of times before for both its buffet and a la carte dinner. However, we decided to write on their buffet dinner. Available only on weekends, they have a buffet dinner called Spectacular Seafood Buffet at Cafe Mix Shangri-La, a big and catchy name for sure. So, how was it?

The buffet was divided into four sections with the first one strategically located just after the entrance. It was a crepe station with a fondue fountain filled with loads of goodies: strawberries, churros, marshmallow, and lollies. It would definitely grab instant attention for kids and adults alike.

The second one was its centrepiece: seafood buffet bar. There were a lot of chilled seafood dishes, like Balmain bugs, crabs, oysters and prawns. There was also whole poached salmon. Squid, octopus, scallops, and white baits were made into different kinds of salad. There was also a selection of salads for vegetarians. There were two Japanese dishes (sushi plates and miso soup) fitted awkwardly next to the seafood buffet. I didn’t like the sushi and didn’t even try the soup.

The third section comprises of a mixture of hot dishes, mostly of Asian influence, like roasted pork belly, BBQ pork, and noodles. There were also some European dishes, including Arancini mushrooms, carbonara pasta and mussels in white wine. At the other end of the table, there were several Indian dishes, like Mango Chicken and basmati rice with pappadums (love the pappadums!). However, I skipped most of them (including some vegetable dishes I didn’t bother to check) to reserve my tummy space for its dessert.

Lastly, we have the dessert section. As I am a big fan of macarons, my eyes were fixated on them. They still couldn’t beat Baroque’s in terms of taste, but were more than okay for ‘free’ ones! I am also a big fan of crème brûlée, but I could only taste my wife’s crème brûlée as they weren’t available when I tried to get it! Other notable desserts include: apple crumble, some chocolate desserts, meringue and jelly.There was also a selection of cheese if you fancy them.

The final verdict for Cafe Mix at Shangri-La

There was definitely abundance of choices when you dined at Cafe Mix. However, these dishes were simply too ordinary for the listed price. I did hog on the Balmain bugs as they were pretty uncommon and quite similar to lobster.

Details:

Level 1, Shangri-La Hotel

176 Cumberland Street, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW 2000

02 9250 6000

http://www.shangri-la.com/sydney/shangrila/dining/restaurants/cafe-mix/

Jan 20, 2014
Xanthi Bar and Restaurant

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Unfortunately, Xanthi Restaurant has closed its doors in March 2014.

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Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $35 per person

Place: 8 / 10

Review:

Our review this week came at the back of an ad hoc visit to a one-hat restaurant, Xanthi Bar and Restaurant (Greek: ????h?). To give you a perspective on how rare this was, we only went to a hat restaurant on special occasions, like birthdays.

The original title of our first dish was BBQ Calamari, but we had it changed to Crumbed Calamari ($16) because it suited our son better and they were willing to accommodate that. As expected, the calamari was perfectly fried. Our second dish of the day was a staple in a lot of Mediterranean/Greek restaurants, Dip Selection ($10). I think it was a great bargain for its price. You got tarama (salmon roe), split pea, and tzatziki dips and toasted pita bread.

This next salad/fruit combination might be a bit unusual to some people, Watermelon and Manouri Salad ($11). It was a combination of watermelon, manouri cheese, candied almonds, and vanilla & honey vinaigrette. It turned out to be quite a refreshing dish with a playful sweet and savoury taste to it. Conversely, the Seafood Filo Rolls ($22) suggested by the waitress fell short of my expectations. The dish sounded really fancy: prawns and scallops with a cayenne pepper, coriander and flaked almond cream sauce, served with cos lettuce and cucumber ribbon salad with an olive oil vinaigrette dressing.

Our next dish was the most expensive of the night, 250gms Lamb ‘Horiatiko Souvla’ (from the spit) ($38) – Served with toursi (greek pickles), tzatziki, Greek salad and chips. I am a big fan of its crispy lamb skin! It was seriously crunchy like pork crackling and I’ve never tasted lamb skin cracked like that!

Our last dish of the day was Deconstructed Seafood Saganaki (34). We got two skewers of marinated prawn and calamari with spicy seafood sauce and creamed feta complemented the decoration.

The downside of our visit there was that they missed the extra order, we wanted Lokaniko Spetsofai (sausage), but it never came.

The final verdict for Xanthi Bar and Restaurant

As expected from a one-hat restaurant, Xanthi Bar and Restaurant delivered us quality meal in their dishes. However, with the exception of its Horiatiko Souvla’s crackling, there was really nothing spectacular either.

Details:

Westfield Sydney Level 6

02 9232 8535

http://xanthi.com.au/

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Jan 15, 2014
Malacca Straits on Broadway

Rating:

8 / 10 Taste: 8 / 10

Price: $50 per person

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

We always have a grand fiesta at the start of the year, not only to celebrate the New Year but also to celebrate birthdays of people around me. For the first restaurant of the year, we went to Malacca Straits on Broadway that has a unique specialty: BYO Crab! For $20 per mud crab (they only take this one!), they will cook your mud crab in one of three sauces. It is actually a very good price if you buy one gigantic mud crab (2+ kgs), considering that most places would charge $85+ / kg for similar dishes.

However, I must admit that the star dish was the first one out of the kitchen, Golden Sand Prawn ($26.80) – Crispy prawns served in a batter of duck egg yolks. This dish was perfect in many ways – Crunchy, savoury, yummy all rolled into one! We even ordered a second serving, despite being the more expensive dish of the night; it’s THAT good!

Consequently, the Marmite Chicken ($14.80) – Chicken pieces cooked in honey and Marmite sauce – and Oyster Omelette ($16.80) – Oyster pieces in fried egg batter and served with a tangy chilli sauce – that came afterwards fell short of the high expectation set by the prawn.

It went much better when they brought out Chick Kut Teh ($14.80) – Claypot chicken and oyster mushroom in savoury herbal soup – traditionally made with pork, this Halal, Malaysian restaurant changed the meat to Chicken. It provided the clear and refreshing feeling out of the heavy tasting dishes. Kangkung Belacan ($12.00) – stir-fried water spinach with sambal belacan – further cleansed our palate for the finale.

When the waitress brought the mud crabs to our table, they really made heads turned. They looked very delectable! Our first mud crab was cooked as Dry Curry Crab the menu stated that it was “Our knockout ‘dry’ curry sauce” and the owner (I think) actually said that customers loved this sauce more than the chilli crab. It was the right spice but I felt that it lacked that juicy leftover sauce that you could scoop out of the chilli crab.

The second mud crab had to be cooked Singapore Chilli Crab (Sweet and savoury tomato and chilli-based sauce) way! They offered whether we wanted more chilli or the non-spicy version, and I asked for the way they normally cooked it. Perhaps the only piece missing on the night was the deep-fried bun as they do not serve this.

The two desserts that we ordered weren’t exactly light either. Sticky Rice Pudding with Egg Custard ($5.00) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and coconut milk was probably nice if you haven’t had that much to eat. Kuih Ketayap ($5.00) – Pandan-flavoured crepe filled with toasted coconut and palm sugar and served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream – might be better suited for this occasion.

The final verdict for Malacca Straits on Broadway

If you want to eat Chilli Mud Crab on a budget, then Malacca Straits on Broadway is the place to be! However, you must also try its Golden Sand Prawn as they were literally golden!

Details:

66 Mountain Street, Broadway 2007

02 8021 7069

http://malaccastraitsbroadway.com.au/

Jan 9, 2014
Shou Sumiyaki

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $160 or $220 set menu

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

This is our last review of the year and also last review in our Melbourne trip and we would like to wish you all a happy holiday!! For this festive season, I present you a grand banquet from Shou Sumiyaki Sake Bar and Grill. There was quite a few of us and we ordered two of its sets: Wagyu Sumibiyaki Set ($160) and Wagyu and Seafood Sumibiyaki Set ($220). So, did the ‘seafood’ bit worth the $60 extra value? You can be the judge by reading the review below.

Side Dishes

Let’s start with the boring stuff and the part with the least difference. You only received an additional Brocolli wrap for the more expensive one. The common dishes were: Steam Rice, Miso Soup, Lettuce Wrap and Mushroom Wrap.

Entrée

It was two very distinctive menus for the Entrée. For the regular sumibiyaki, you get Salmon Sashimi, Kani Tempura, Chilled Pickled Yuzu, and Octopus Salad with Daikon & Salmon Roe.

The seafood sumibiyaki offered more sophisticated names for the entrée: Shou Assorted Sashimi Plate, Kaisen Harumaki (Deep fried Japanese-style seafood spring roll) and Horenso no Gomeae (Cooked Spinach with sesame dressing and bonito shaving).

Strangely enough, I think that the regular sumibiyaki actually presented a better value when compared to the seafood one.

Sumibiyaki Dishes

The regular sumibiyaki was quite straight forward. The list was dominated by Wagyu beef: Rump, rib finger, scotch, oyster blade, and a Marble 8 wagyu chuck roll for a total of 650 gr and a pork scotch (substituted with Chicken for us – at 150gr)

There were definitely a lot more qualities in the Wagyu (according to the menu) than the regular sumibiyaki: rump cap, Marble 8 rib finger, Marble 8 scotch, oyster blade, harami for a total of 500 gr. From the cost point of view, a marble 8 beef can cost twice as much as a marble 6 or 5. In addition to those beef cuts, you also got Scallops (100gr), Salmon fillet (150gr), squid (4 pieces), and 4 large tiger prawns.

From the value proposition, the seafood sumibiyaki definitely came up top. However if you don’t really know how to cook marbled wagyu, it might be hard to judge what’s with all the fuss.

As my personal favourite, we have also ordered Wagyu Beef Yukke ($12.50).

The final verdict for Shou Sumiyaki Sake Bar and Grill

The price point might be a bit steep in Shou Sumiyaki, especially for a four-person sumibiyaki. For a non-seafood eater, it’s a no-brainer that they would choose the regular one.

Details:

160 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

03 9654 3933

http://www.shousumiyaki.com.au/

Dec 21, 2013
Meat Market South Wharf

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $20++ main course

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

For our second Melbourne review, we went to a steakhouse called Meat Market South Wharf. As a reminder to readers, steakhouse faced quite a tough challenge in convincing me as I am very particular about my steak and I love to grill a steak at home!

Meat Market South Wharf has an interesting concept of an open kitchen. It was quite impressive that there were only three people inside the kitchen!

We were not going to order any starters, but our waiter warned us it would take around 40 minutes for the steak to arrive. Our choice fell to the House Made Dip ($16) – Olives, Feta, freshly baked buckwheat sourdough. This description omitted the most important piece (and the yummiest) of the dish, pumpkin dipping sauce.

We did quite the unthinkable in a steakhouse by doing a shared dish for our main courses. We did it because of this sole reason: Meat Sharing Platter ($90) – chef’s selection of today’s cuts to share, mixed leaf salad and a selection of sauces (we chose peppercorn jus and blue cheese butter). It was a plate of three different cuts (if I’m not mistaken) – scotch fillet, eye fillet, and dry aged beef – for a combined size of 500gr. The presentation was quite appetising and the extra sauce and butter added a nice dimension to the steak.

Another interesting point here was the absence of potatoes (and their variances) from the plates. It might not be good news for a big eater like me as you would need to fork out an extra $9 or $10 for each of the companions. There were quite a few options here, but our choices went to Crumbed Onion Rings ($9) and Hand cut chips, spicy ketcup ($10). I always loved a good plate of onion rings and this one hit the spot for me. The chips on the other hand, I wasn’t a big fan of.

We also ordered the Catch (or fish) of the day. It was grilled salmon with beetroot sauce. The salmon was perfectly grilled but the plate looked quite barren with only a handful of vegetables and well-decorated spoonful of beetroot sauce.

The final verdict for Meat Market South Wharf

It took quite a long time (that’s after the waiter’s telling us it would take a long time) for the steak to arrive at Meat Market South Wharf. The steak itself ticked many approval boxes (including presentation), but there was really nothing sparkling about our experience there.

Details:

53 South Wharf Promenade, South Wharf, Melbourne

03 9008 8953

http://www.meatmarketsouthwharf.com.au/

Dec 12, 2013
Akachochin

Rating:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5/10

Price: $14 – $33 per plate

Place: 8.5/10

Review:

For the first time in our (short but eventful) history, we are reviewing a restaurant in Melbourne. To celebrate this, we will be reviewing Melbourne restaurants for the whole month of December! Since it’s such a short stay, we can rule out the three hats like Attica, Vue de Monde – we couldn’t even get into the two hats ones!

Luckily for us, Melbourne isn’t short of great food, and our first ever review goes to Akachochin Japanese Restaurant. Located strategically, just behind Melbourne Convention Centre and DFO, Akachochin is situated right by the Yarra River. In Japanese, ??? means red paper lantern. It is commonly hung outside Japanese Izakaya establishments. Being an izakaya, you are most welcome to try their sake. However, this time we will focus on their food.

Let’s start with a couple of classic Japanese cuisines: Miso Shiru ($6) and Sashimi Moriawase ($33). Two of the most common Japanese dishes that could hardly go wrong! The sashimi was quite pricey, given that there was only nine slices of fish and scallops. Although it was fresh and well-presented, I still wouldn’t order again for that price.

For half the Sashimi’s price, Hiramasa Namerou ($16) was the dish you should seriously consider. It was a Japanese-style kingfish tartare with wasabi stem and moromi miso. The interesting part of this dish was the introduction of the rice crackers. They truly balanced the strong taste of the tartare and added a crunchy dimension to the taste.

The Unagi Avodaco Roll ($14) was presented quite uniquely. Instead of the usual nori, it was wrapped with radish. The official description of the roll was: inside out roll with eel, avocado, sliced onion, masago, cucumber, and sweet soy. I wasn’t quite happy with the presentation of the Wagyu Yakimono ($18). The massive bowl of green leaves overpowered the small serving of the wagyu beef. The beef itself was perfectly grilled and was accentuated by the shimeji mushrooms.

It took a very long time for the last two dishes to arrive, but it is well worth the wait. We even ordered Unagi Dashi Chazuke ($16) – a chopped eel on rice with hot clear soup – because we thought we would need more food. It turned out that Akachochin Gourmet Chawan Mushi ($22) was quite massive for a chawan mushi. The steamed egg custard came in a large plate with generous servings of prawns, scallops, chickens, mushrooms and dressed with Kikuna leaves.

The highlight of the day came at the very end and it was actually recommended by the waitress (great job!!), Shake Miso Butter Mushiyaki ($30). It is a slow-cooked salmon steamed in miso butter and wrapped in cabbage. I was kind of hesitant when I saw my last dish of the night was wrapped in vegetables. It was quickly apparent why it was recommended in the first place. I believe I have never tasted such combinations before; it was sweet, salty, fresh, and tasty all blended into one!

The final verdict for Akachochin Restaurant

The combination of great food and great location merits Akachochin a very high score according to my standards. From the price point of view, it was pretty expensive from the average Japanese restaurant. Everything we had at the restaurant was masterfully prepared.

Details:

33 Dukes Walk, South Wharf, Melbourne

03 9245 9900

http://akachochin.com.au/

Dec 3, 2013