Category: Cities

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

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2014
Sepia is once again the top restaurant for this year’s Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2014. The restaurant won this award in 2012 and was a three hat last year.

Other Awards in this year’s Good Food Guide 2014

Ross Lusted from The Bridge Room has won the Chef of The Year award. The Bridge Room is a two-hat restaurant.

Louis Tamayo (Claude’s) won the Service Excellence Award.

Young Chef of the year award was given to Louis Tikaram from Longrain.

New restaurant of the year is Mr Wong.

Award of Innovation went to Kylie Kwong.

Guillaume Brahimi received the Legend Award.

List of restaurants with hats

Three hats

There are five restaurants awarded with three hats as listed in the Good Food website:
- Sepia – Winner of 2014 and 2012 Restaurant of the year award.
- Guillaume at Bennelong – This iconic restaurant will close its doors permanently at the end of the year.
- Momofuku Seiobo – This restaurant has been a three hat ever since it opened its doors to public!
- Quay – 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2013 restaurant of the year. Quay is the only restaurant in this year’s list that I’ve been to.
- Rockpool – The group has several restaurants including two two-hat restaurants, Rockpool Bar and grill and Spice Temple.
As listed from the website, the rest of the hats are as follows:

Two hats

Aria, The Bridge Room, Buon Ricordo, Claude’s, est., Four in Hand Dining Room, Gastro Park, Icebergs Dining Room & Bar, Longrain, Lucio’s Italian Restaurant, Marque, MoVida, Mr Wong, Ormeggio at The Spit, Pilu at Freshwater, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Spice Temple, Tetsuya’s.

One hat

Aki’s Indian Restaurant, Ananas Bar & Brasserie, The Apollo, Arras, Balla, The Bathers’ Pavilion, Berowra Waters Inn, Billy Kwong, Bistro Moncur, Bistrode CBD, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Bodega, buzo trattoria, Cafe Sopra, Catalina, China Doll, Clareville Kiosk, The Devonshire, Flying Fish Restaurant & Bar, Foveaux Restaurant & Bar, Glass Brasserie, Gowings Bar & Grill, Hartsyard, Jonah’s Restaurant, Kepos Street Kitchen, Monopole, Ms.G’s, Oscillate Wildly, Popolo, Porteño, The Restaurant Pendolino, Saké Restaurant & Bar, Sean’s Panaroma, Sixpenny, Sokyo, Three Blue Ducks, Tomislav, Uccello, Ume Restaurant, Xanthi.
Sep 3, 2013
Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $2 – $2.5 per plate

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week, we will take you to a typical Indonesian restaurant with a pretty unusual (for some people) ingredient. Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri is a restaurant specialises in rabbit satay. Great-tasting restaurants in Indonesia have predominantly one champion dish with some other dishes that people rarely ordered.

As expected, the first ten items in their menu are all about satay and all of its variation. However, since it took a while to grill them, the first two that came was ‘Gule Kelinci’ and ‘Paha Kelinci Goreng’. ‘Gule Kelinci’ is a soup-based, curry-like dish that was a bit spicy and quite bone-full. ‘Paha Kelinci Goreng’ (deep fried rabbit’s thigh) on the other hand was quite yummy and perfectly accompanied by the pickles and tomatoes on sweet soy sauce.

Now comes the rabbit satay. The regular ‘Sate Kelinci’ came with the usual peanut and sweet soy sauce, with a side of pickles. Rabbit meat is considered a white meat, so it tasted quite close to chicken, although some claimed to be healthier. The second one was a variation of it, Sate Kelinci Barbeque. So, instead of the peanut sauce, they were soaked with pre-made barbecue sauce. It is definitely quite an interesting combo, but I still like the regular one.

The next two items weren’t on the menu but we know it’s there, because we asked them. The first one was Karedok. Karedok is a kind of vegetable salad with peanut and garlic sauce. It is a dish originated from West Java and you could pretty much find it in any traditional restaurants. The second one is called Otak-otak. It is a grilled fish cake wrapped in banana leaf. They are enjoyed with spicy peanut sauce. Otak-otak is a pretty interesting dish because it’s soft and charry with a rich peanut sauce taste.

The final verdict for Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri

Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri gave us an authentic lesehan experience with a nice and affordable serving of satay. This might not be the restaurant for rabbit lovers, or people allergic to peanuts, because there are plenty of them.

Did you know?

There are quite a few of ‘Sate Kelinci’ restaurants on the way to Lembang. However, we picked Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri restaurant because it has a pretty spacious parking and the restaurant looked pretty presentable. This restaurant is pretty un-miss-able because it is located at a right bend of the road.

You can either enjoy your meal the normal table and chair way, or ‘lesehan’. ‘Lesehan’ is when you enjoy food in a restaurant where you sit on the floor/mat-covered floor, instead of sitting on the chair. I always choose lesehan, because it creates a sense of informality.

Details:

Jalan Raya Lembang, West Java, Indonesia

Aug 26, 2013
Fish Shack Manly

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $15-$32 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week we go to a relatively new shop in Manly, called Fish Shack. We came across the shop as we strolled around Manly beach. I was particularly interested in their worn-out beach shack setting.

It was lunch time when we came and the restaurant was fairly buzzing, there were some people outside waiting for their takeaway orders (another give away that it should be a good restaurant!).

We only ordered two share items on the menu. The first one was Fisherman’s basket for two. At $32 a dish, I think it was a good deal, considering you get all of these stuffs (2 each of prawn cutlets, crumbed calamari, fillets of market fresh fish, fresh oysters, large chips, lemon, tartare). The oysters looked a bit out of place, but the rest was fantastic, especially the chips. We couldn’t get enough of the chips. They were perfectly cooked! There was that very crunchy bits on the outside with very soft potato inside.

Our other dish was Bucket of crisp fried soft shell crab, lime aioli. It was quite pricey ($18) when compared with Fish Shack’s fish and chips ($15). There was a hint of spicey, peppery taste on the soft shell crab and quite sour aioli.

The final verdict for Fish Shack Manly

One review I read about Fish Shack recommended us to stick with the fish and chips (and I fully agreed with her!). Their fish and chips were very nice and fresh.

Did you know?

Fish Shack’s take away menu is far cheaper than their restaurant menu. We actually were interested to try because we saw a seafood basket of $20.

Details:

33 South Steyne, Manly 2095

+61 2 9976 3886

Fish Shack Manly on Facebook

Aug 7, 2013
Ippudo Sydney

Rating:

8 / 10 Taste: 8.5/10

Price: $10-$20 per person

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

When I first heard people saying ‘Ippudo opened their shop in Sydney!’ I was pretty sceptical. In my mind, what’s the big fuss? Is it really that good? Then I saw it being the top restaurant in Urbanspoon for many months! Coupled that with more people saying how good it was and how people queued for it, it really got my attention. I then decided it must feature in my blog!

When I arrived at the venue, it was quite empty (I arrived quite early for lunch tho)! So, I thought it must be our lucky day. I could see a line was prepared there, presumably for later on. First glance at the lunch menu, I couldn’t find any ramen without pork! So, don’t come here at lunch time if you don’t eat pork.

Our first dish of the day was a very disappointing Ippudo Shrimp Bun ($5) – it was steamed bun with deep fried shrimp and Ippudo original sauce. It was an average tasting and looking shrimp/prawn bun with a little bit vegetable and sauce.

Akamaru Shinaji Tamago Ramen ($18) excerpt from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. A refined, modern-style ramen served with thin noodles, pork belly, black mushroom and shallots.

As you can see from the description above, Ippudo paid very special attention to its ramen. They have three different kinds of ramen and we chose the one that sounded different to a ‘normal’ ramen. With Akamaru ramen, they used pork belly instead of pork loin and fragrant garlic oil to enhance the thick soup based. It was seriously mind-blowing, even with a very high expectation coming into the restaurant with!

Next, we got Hot Stone Unagi Rice ($10) – it was a small hot stone of grilled Japanese eel on rice with original Kabayaki sauce. Yes, you can get twice as much unagi rice in other restaurants and they tasted equal.

Our last dish of the day was Ippudo Vegetarian Ramen. My wife said it was the best tasting vegetarian dish she had ever tasted. There were quite a lot of elements in the ellipse bowl, including avocado and green vegetables.

The final verdict for Ippudo Sydney

When you visit Ippudo Sydney, just stick to the ramen! I know it commanded a slightly premium price, but you get the best quality ramen in Sydney!

Details:

Westfield Sydney Level 5 (Shop 5021)

+61 2 8078 7020

http://www.ippudo.com.au/

Jul 30, 2013
Ninety-nine Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $15++ per person

Place: 8/10

Review:

This week’s restaurant is located in the most posh mall in Jakarta Indonesia, Grand Indonesia. Ninety-nine restaurant promised a casual-yet-exclusive place with a rustic feel of European setting. Expectedly, it was nice-looking but I couldn’t shake out the feeling of being in a food court, a pricey food court. The menu was designed to capture all (too many!) interests: from European to Seafood to steak, they also have Indonesian and Chinese food.

How is their food? Our first two dishes of the day were the entrees: Breaded Onion Rings with Mayonaise and Tomato Ketchup and Mushroom Fritto Misto with fried garlic and chilli salt. We were really blown away by them. The onion rings were very crunchy and perfectly matched with the condiments. The assorted mushrooms were even better! I liked how they combined different mushrooms to create an interesting assortment of textures.

The next two were from the seafood section of the menu. There was an interesting combination for the Grilled Norwegian Salmon. It was served with tomato and mushroom butter rice and lemon sauce. The other one was Dory fillet with almond thyme crust, leaf spinach, whipped potatoes and lemon caper butter.

My father decided to go with Indonesian’s traditional Sop buntut goreng. It was a clear vegetable soup with fried oxtail and emping (crackers from gnetum gnemon). There was also the Hainan poached chicken – I must say it looked pretty standard when compared to Singaporean ones.

The last dish of the day was the one I actually ordered. It was Croque monsieur. The sandwich was pretty big by Indonesian standard and it was grilled beef ham with swizz cheese and mornay sauce. This is one of the dishes that I could only eat in Indonesia, because the real croquet monsieur was typically served with ham. The sandwich was delectable! It was crunchy, tasty and add an extra tomato sauce if you want to enhance it a bit more.

The final verdict for Ninety-nine Restaurant

There are some issues that restricted me in giving a higher score to Ninety-nine restaurant. The obvious one was its price! It was seriously expensive for the food court setting. The food was generally nice with a decent serving.

Details:

Grand Indonesia LG Floor East Mall

Jl. MH Thamrin No 1, Jakarta 10210

+6221 23581196

http://www.ninetynine.co.id/

Jul 24, 2013
Steak Hotel by Holycow

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8/10

Price: $10 per person

Place: 8/10

Review:

For regulars who like to skim-read: Okay… before I started the review, go back and have a look at the price above. That is NOT a typo, $10 for a 400gr steak! Unless you are a profesionnal Steak griller, I don’t think you can get any better deals than this!

The other amazing thing about Steak Hotel by Holycow (I went to the one in Sabang) is the fact that they have a children playground! It’s incredibly rare for a restaurant in Indonesia to have a children playground (except that golden arch brand 🙁 )!

So, thumbs up for the couples @Dimas_Subagio and @sophia_hage who recommended this @Holycow_Radal. The biggest question then arises: How can their steak stack up against other steakhouse or even an Australian steakhouse?

Let’s see what they have to offer, starting from (of course) the 400gr steak, (strangely named) The Holy! Steak Authentic PART2. ‘Be ready for a big portion of a steak’, that’s their promise on the menu. Whilst it’s true for most Indonesians, they’re certainly not big for Australians – considering we can find a 1kg slab of meat in many restaurants in Australia. Personally, the size should be good enough. They didn’t offer rarity of the steak as they said it should be ‘perfectly cooked’. When the steak arrived, it was more on the medium-rare to medium region.

I should have ordered that, but instead I ordered the much smaller Wagyu Sirloin (medium-rare). It wasn’t that much more expensive and had a bit more taste to it, but (again) only half the size. Both steaks were served with a side of chips and trivial green veggies and a tomato. They also have three kinds of sauces that I suggest you to try them all.

After you are finished with your main meal, if you tweet to the twitter handle (@Holycow_Radal), you will get a free dessert! They are famous for the Tiramisu, but when we were there, they didn’t have it and had a mini cupcake instead.

The final verdict for Steak Hotel by Holycow

Steak Hotel by Holycow surprised me in many ways, but the facts that they served decent-sized steak on a local price and had a playground on the premise really did it for me.

Did you know?

Once upon a time, Steak Hotel by Holycow had a twin sibling Holycow! Steakhouse, however they were no longer related.

If you are interested in learning more about it, Rayns Raymond drew an interesting comparison between the two in his blog.

Details:

Lt 5, Gedung Seremanis

Jl KH Agus Salim No 16, Jakarta, Indonesia

+6221 31906420

@holycow_radal

http://www.hellocarnivores.com/

Jul 11, 2013