Category: Cities

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

Saap Thai Restaurant

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Unfortunately, Saap Thai has closed its doors for good.

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Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 /10

Price: $10-$15 per dish

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week we are going to review one of my favourite Thai restaurants in town and it is surprisingly the first Thai restaurant I’ve ever reviewed (I think Blue Ginger doesn’t fall to the category of ‘pure’ Thai). Another surprise that I found was that Saap Thai Restaurant actually opened till midnight (possibly to counter some Thai restaurants near the area that open till quite early in the morning!).

One of the great traits of Thai food was that they are fully customisable. You can swap veggies, beef, chicken, pork, and seafood with no problem and the original taste of the dish will still be there. I wrote the following in the order of our preference and sense of completeness.

The first dish to come at our table was Chicken Pad See Ew. In a few words, it was sweet soy sauce rice noodles. It was a nice serving of one with slightly too much oil. Then came Stir Fried Beef in Cashew Nut. This one had a more vibrant flavour with combination of vegetables and mushrooms. Unfortunately the rice bowls came after these two dishes, so we had to wait a bit to start eating.

After the rice came my most favourite (not purely) vegetable dish in the city, Deep Fried Morning Glory Salad. This dish was so good that we decided to order for a second plate before the night ended. It was basically deep fried morning glory with an authentic Thai-style sauce and topped with seasoned minced beef (or pork) and fried shallots and coriander. Although it looked red, it wasn’t actually spicy.

The next dish caused a little bit of confusion in our group. It was Som Tum Goong – loosely translated to Green Papaya Salad with Prawns. For chilli haters like me, I said this dish was really mild (as compared to the next two), but most people in the table agreed that this one was the hottest of them all. Regardless, the dish was really refreshing. The dish was actually the traditional Thai salad dish with amazing combination of flavours.

If you don’t like chilli, I suggest you to avoid the last two dishes. Green Curry Duck was possibly the hottest curry on the menu. It might look pretty harmless from the outside, but it surely can work you out. The last dish of the day was Steamed Fish with crazy hot sauce. The sauce was actually the Thai’s sweet fish and peanut sauce, with overabundance of chilli. It was nicely decorated, but too hot for me.

The final verdict: I know I don’t give a high rating on this one, but this is actually the most affordable (and nice) Thai dishes you can get in town. I give a much higher rating for its Deep Fried Morning Glory. I think this dish was brilliant. I could not find any vegetable dish better than this one around the city (you can take out minced beef).

Did you know?

Thai restaurants are always infamous for their hospitality. I have yet to find a restaurant that disappoint me, in terms of waiters/waitresses’ politeness to customers. There are massive senses of modesty and it was really pleasant.

Location:

378 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

Jun 3, 2011
Lime Street Cafe

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Unfortunately, Lime Street Cafe has closed its doors.

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Rating:

6.0 / 10

Taste: 6.5 /10

Price: $30 per couple

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

This week, we were fortunate enough to score one of the ‘deal of the day’ websites. It was a $30 per couple meal for the value of $70 at Lime Street Cafe. At first we were puzzled on the kind of food we’d had, but it turned out we could order anything from the menu up to the value of $70. That really drove our interest through the roof. The food themselves seemed reasonably priced for a King Street Wharf restaurant.

We ordered three appetisers and a salad. The first to arrive was Lightly Fried Calamari with rocket salad. It was too similar to my homemade deep fried calamari on a bed of rocket with a slice of lemon. Then we had Marinated Lamb Skewers. Although the skewers were pretty small, it was complemented with nice sauce.

The next tapas didn’t look as appetising. It was Prawns, chorizo and rocket with balsamic dressing. The chorizo was really dry and the salad was almost identical with all the sides of the day. Luckily, the prawns were to die for; it was cooked really perfectly. Similarly, Chicken Caesar Salad looked a bit of ordinary but it was the best tasting out of them all so far.

When the pizzas came, we barely had a room on our table for them. We ordered Pizza Pesto Chicken and Marinara. Unfortunately, both of them really looked and tasted like Pizza coming out of those pizza chain restaurants. The pesto looked more like clusters of green goo with no visual on the chicken. Thanks to the squids, the Marinara looked a bit more presentable, but it was still on par with those ordinary pizzas.

Our table was even more crowded when Seafood Risotto arrived. Yet again, it looked really bland and the risotto tasted like… well… steamed rice. Fortunately, we remembered the prawns’ taste from the previous dish and it was still the same. I really have no comment for the last dish of the day, Beef Lasagna. It’s just another ordinary dish. Not bad and not good…

The final verdict: Granted that we did not have to pay full price for these dishes, but the taste just did not deliver. The first three dishes created the illusion that the nights were going to be a ‘great deal’ but eventually the Pizzas and pastas were sub par.

Did you know?

It’s worth checking all those deal of the day sites, granted that you might get a sub par experience once in a while, but it’s really worth to find out how they are with half the price, rather than paying the full amount.

Location:

60 Lime Street, King Street Wharf, Sydney, NSW 2000

Website:

May 26, 2011
Kam Fook

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Unfortunately, Kam Fook has closed its doors for good. In its place, there is another Yum cha place called Zilver.

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Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 /10

Price: $25++ pp

Place: 7/10

Review:

This is one of the hardest reviews I’ve ever made and also one of the toughest to predict in terms of the price. I present you Kam Fook. I will review their Yum Cha, which literally means drinking tea (with the accompaniment of Dim Sum dishes). Just like any good yum cha places, be prepared to wait for quite a while if you are not early enough.

In a Yum Cha session, there is a little piece of paper on the table for the waitresses to stamp your orders. Waitresses will come with their trolley to your table offering you little dim sum plates. There are a lot you can choose from and unfortunately they only provided brief description in English. So you would need to be really familiar with the dishes you really wanted or it might be a challenge for you. I will try to cover as many dishes as possible in this review, but most importantly, none of these were bad.

Starting from the basic availability in Yumcha, we ordered Steamed Prawn Dim Sum and Siomay (Shu Mai). These dishes are always available in any restaurants and if you tasted a hint of disappointment, I suggest you pack up straight away. These are the dishes that shouldn’t go wrong.

These next two might rather be unusual for Westerners, Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf and Chicken Feet. It was one pretty messy dish in sticky rice. This one was kinda like Bakcang (or Rouzong) or sweet sticky rice with stewed meat and egg yolk. I’ll skip the chicken feet explanation and only say ‘Yummy’.

From the deep fried department, we ordered Whitebait and Prawn Dumpling. I always need some crunchy stuff when eating, thus this completed our experience.

For the staple food, we normally ordered Fried Rice Noodles with Peanut (and possibly Hoi Sin) sauce and Green Vegetables. Rice noodles were my personal favourite, lightly fried and went really well with the sauce.

There are also special dishes trolleys. On this occasion we ordered Pipis in XO Sauce. You might especially want to skip these dishes (including Peking Duck, Oysters, etc) if you don’t want your bill to skyrocket. I suggest you ordered one or two as a highlight for the day.

One thing that we never miss is the dessert. It has always been Mango Pudding and Pancake. They could’ve done better than just to put the pudding on a plastic cup, but nevertheless that’s the common ‘practice’ in a Yum Cha place.

The final verdict for Kam Fook:

Granted that the price might be a little bit more expensive for some of you, but Kam Fook presented the best thing a Yum Cha place is seriously lacking, Great Service – i.e. u don’t get kicked out as soon as you chew your last bite. I would also contest the term ‘pricey’ since I believe most Yum Cha places charge that amount with significantly less quality and crappy service.

Did you know?

Little did we know that Kam Fook obtained one hat chef for the SMH’s Good Food Guide in 2004. I guess that explained why they charged above average meal.

Location:

Shop 6010, Level 6, Westfield Shopping Centre, Bondi Junction, NSW 2022

May 19, 2011
Sushi Tengoku

Rating:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 8 /10

Price: $20 – $30

Place: 6/10

Review:

Before I start this review, I must give you several advanced warnings when visiting Sushi Tengoku. 1. For your convenience, you MUST book in advance. 2. If you want to order Baked Scallops, you MUST mention it when you make the booking. 3. Be prepared to allocate 1 – 1.5 hours of dinnertime since the dishes will sometimes take a while to be served.

I have never found this restaurant to be empty during dinnertime, maybe if you arrived past 9 PM you would have better ambience. The tables were quite densely arranged. They had a very simple menu (a 2-sided list of food) and if you knew your Japanese food, you could order any Sushi, even they were not on the menu!

If you only exclusively eat the Sashimi or the raw Sushi then you might be able to blitz thru the night because they are always the first ones to arrive. With that being said, our first dishes of the night were (surprise surprise) Aburi Scallops and Salmon. These were not your everyday Sushi. They were gigantic! They were so big that you could not even see the rice below the fish (with the case of Scallops, they put two on one rice).

We then had the entrees dishes, Takoyaki and Crabmeat and Avocado Salad. The takoyaki was just average. The salad looked pretty bright and tasted nice. Both dishes were sort of a staple dish that you can get out of any Japanese restaurants in town.

The next dishes that came to our table were the Salmon Head Teriyaki and Sushi Rolls. The first dish might not be for everyone, but I do love fish head. This one particularly was fabulous. They deep fried the fish and dip it in Teriyaki sauce, creating a crunchy, yet soft, fish skin and meat.We ordered two Sushi rolls on this occasion, Soft-shelled Crab and Tamago Roll. The rolls were brilliant, and massive. The crab was crunchy and the tamago (egg) was soft and sweet.

One of our longest wait was the Baked Scallops. But I’m telling you it was worth the wait. It was a quite small dish of baked scallops and salmon on a bed of mayonnaise and fish roe. The real turn off was really the wait, but other than that everything was so perfect.

The final verdict: If you can get past a long waiting time, slightly above average price, and average table setting, then Sushi Tengoku is a good place to eat. I was going to give a higher rating for this one for the taste, but other factors dragged them down considerably.

The sushis are massive and baked scallop is just over the top. If you don’t mind a fish looking at you, then the Salmon Head is really a bargain!

Did you know?

Kensington is also one of the suburbs without an outstanding restaurant. There are several non-chain restaurants but I am not sure of their quality.

Location:

121 Anzac Parade, Kensington NSW 2033

May 11, 2011
Indo Rasa Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 /10

Price: $12 – $17

Place: 7/10

Review:

This will be my first review of Indonesian restaurant in Sydney and I decided to go to one of the newest, Indo Rasa Restaurant. They face a daunting task of competing with well-established Indonesian restaurants in Kingsford.

Upon entering the restaurant, you felt the décor was more thoughtfully done than the others’. There was a sense of blandness in the middle of the restaurant. There are plenty of foods to choose from the menu. You can either choose the set rice menu or share plates.

In the order of appearance, the first one to arrive was the Lamb Satay with peanut and sweet soy sauce. It’s a rich lamb satay with a nice grilled taste. There’s an optional fresh lime if you want a little taste of sourness. Then came Sambal Eggplants. Though sambal translated directly to chilli, this dish was not hot at all. I think the bright red came mainly from the tomato sauce. The dish was also rather sweet.

The next one was probably one of the better dishes of the night. It was Grilled Squid. This was the only way I like my squid to be grilled. Basted with sweet soy sauce, the squid left no hint of soggy-ness. It was perfectly dry and yummy.

We also had Ca Kangkung (Stir fry water spinach). This and the next one are more like Indonesian-Chinese dish. I particularly like this one because it was half-soupy dish. Then, the very last dish served was Ayam Goreng Mentega (Butter Chicken). I must stress out that this was NOT Indian’s butter chicken. The Indonesian adaptation of butter chicken was actually more like a sweet soy and chopped-onion fried chicken. The highlight for this dish was the chicken. It was mighty tender, yet tasty.

There were a side dish and a dessert that can only be enjoyed with an acquired taste. Fried gizzards dish was basically the complement of chicken’s liver. They had a chewy texture and were usually served plainly on a side plate. Then, there was also Iced Durian. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Durian had this unique smell that was fantastic (to me). This particular dessert was a combination of fresh Durian fruit and Durian ice cream.

The final verdict for Indo Rasa Restaurant

Indo Rasa is just another Indonesian restaurant. The dishes are all decent and the portions are slightly bigger than other Indonesian restaurants in the area, but nothing really stands out. If I have to choose, my favourite would be the Grilled Squid.

Did you know?

As I mentioned on the first paragraph, there are a lot of Indonesian restaurants in Kingsford area that you can try. I am indifferent towards any of them, since I think nothing stands out and I tend to choose whichever has less people.

Location:

Shop 1, 309 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032

Website:

https://www.facebook.com/indorasa.sydney/

May 5, 2011
Bentley Restaurant and Bar

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Bentley Restaurant has moved to a new venue in Radisson Blu Hotel.

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Bentley Restaurant’s Rating:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 /10

Price: $85 per person

Place: 8.5/10

Review:

This is our anniversary week and we are in for a treat. We had the honour of experiencing Australia’s two-hat restaurant, Bentley Restaurant of Surry Hills. Once we stepped into the restaurant, it was a totally different experience. Instead of spotless white tablecloths and brightly lit rooms, we were taken to sort of dark bar décor with wooden tables and a simplistic table setting.

Duck Liver Foie Gras Parfait – with Puffed Rice & Pickled Raisin

We started off the night with this ‘Appetisers to share’. Beautifully decorated Foie Gras with Rose Petals ensured the night started off with a bang. The combination of strong duck flavour was complimented by the sweetness of the raisins. It was the ‘OMG-I-can’t-believe-it’s-very-good’ dish of the night.

Balmain Bug – with Lamb Sweetbread, Black Bean & Coconut Curd

The Entrée for the Mrs and another nicely arranged. We weren’t really paying attention on the details at first and thought the sweetbread could’ve been a brain. However, the overall combination was lovely and the sauce’s bitterness was just the right amount.

Ocean Trout – with Ocean Trout Mousse & Fennel Pollen

Unfortunately this one was less appealing, presentation-wise. My wife reminisced the sauce to be the same as Indonesian traditional’s pepes, which I wasn’t really fond of. The trout had a really nice texture and the mousse was really soft.

Brussel Sprouts – with Smoked Yoghurt

This was the side dish for the night and it added a little green in what otherwise be a ‘meaty’ night.

Roast Spatchcock – with Sweet Corn Polenta, Pistachio & Asparagus

The spatchcock was roasted to perfection. The polenta and pistachio further enhanced this Game bird’s taste with a hint of crispy texture from one element on the dish I couldn’t quite work out.

Slow Roast Duck Breast – with Cuttlefish & Mushroom

I always enjoy a good duck and – I know it could be disastrous if not handled properly – this one was definitely one of the good ones. The duck was really tender with a hint of sweetness. I’d have to guess that the black grainy thing was the mushroom, but it was very tasty. The combination of the three key ingredients created a unique experience.

Frozen Goats Cheese Mousse – with Violet, Buckwheat Praline & Passionfruit Ice Cream

There were quite a few elements on this plate, the cheese mousse, the sweet and sour passion fruit, the cake, the granules, and the sweet green sauce.

Our opinion was divided on this one. I think that the mousse was perfect without the overpowering taste of passion fruit, whilst she thinks that the passion fruit actually balanced the strong goats cheese’s taste. So you have to try and experience it yourself.

Malted Milk Marshmallow

Technically, it was just a well-burnt marshmallow on a stick, but they presented it in a nice board and a nice-looking stick with malt powder.

The final verdict for Bentley Restaurant

Bentley certainly had the complexity of a fine dining restaurant. Every dish was presented beautifully and tasted wonderfully. Love the different ambience and unique décor of the restaurant. Unfortunately the share plate, Foie Gras, was much better than the rest of the night.

Did you know?

There is also a degustation menu that they offered for $120, but I found it disappointing since it only listed one main and 4 entree from the regular menu, which is not an incentive for me to try.

Surry Hills is a suburb full of exciting restaurants. However, you are wise to check the reviews on these restaurants or you might be left with a high bill and feeling disappointed.

Location:

320 Crown Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010

+61 2 9332 2344

http://www.thebentley.com.au/

Apr 25, 2011