All About Food

Category: Balmain

The suburb is named after Dr William Balmain. It is one of the busiest suburbs in weekends due to its numerous restaurants in such a small area.

  • Kafeine Balmain

    Kafeine Balmain

    Kafeine Balmain review:

    It was a pretty uneventful Sunday and we just happened to be in Balmain. We decided to try a cafe called Kafeine. The cafe itself was quite busy but we managed to get a seat there.

    I was actually quite surprised when I browsed through the menu. The menu consists of a few Asian ingredients here and there. When I checked with the people at Kafeine, they mentioned that they were all from Indonesia. Some of the combination was quite interesting and we decided to give it a go.

    Kafeine Menu

    Kafeine Balmain – Menu

    Breakfast Tasting Plate – $22.90 – Corn fritters, eggs benedict, smoked salmon& black sticky rice porridge

    This is the one plate-fits-all approach at Kafeine. You basically don’t need to order anything else. You pretty much get entree, main and dessert in one plate. It is also the fastest way to try a lot of the menu in the store.

    I would like to mention that the black sticky rice porridge is actually pretty heavy. Make sure you save some space for that dessert.

    Salmon Paradiso – $22.90 – Grilled Atlantic crispy skin salmon, 65-degree Za’atar egg, pickled ginger, asparagus, currants, pecans & brown rice salad

    This is another pretty substantial dish that was available at Kafeine. They gave us a bucket load of brown rice. The dish itself reminds me of Hawaiian poke bowl but with grilled salmon.

    Volcano Dog – $18.90 – Fried egg, beef sausage, chili con carne, cheddar cheese on a croissant

    Chili dog on a croissant? who doesn’t want to try! It was a little bit harder to hold when compared to a hot dog as the croissant is notoriously flaky.

    Having said that, I actually quite like the combination. It was very filling but without the ‘stuffed’ feeling.

    Ice Chendol Flavour Pancakes – $17.90 – Pandan coconut pancakes, fresh cut fruit, coconut flakes, coconut palm sugar sauce and vanilla ice cream

    Ice Chendol is an Indonesian/Malaysian rice flour dessert that was usually served on glass with ice. They deconstructed this and made pancakes instead with vanilla ice cream and a few cuts of fruit. They keep the palm sugar sauce element intact.

    Chia Pudding – $15.90 – Soaked chia seed in coconut & strawberry juice, mango puree, toasted coconut & fresh cut fruits

    I love the chia seed pudding.

    Latte – $3.80

    Kafeine cafe at Balmain

    The final verdict for Kafeine Balmain

    We went to Kafeine in Balmain out of convenience. But we left the cafe already thinking about when we should go back!  

    Do you think I should go?

    Definitely!

    Rating:

    8.5 / 10

    Taste: 8.5 / 10

    Price: $15 – $23 main dish

    Place: 7.5 / 10

     

    Details:

    260 Darling Street, Balmain 2041

    +61 2 9555 1140

    http://www.kafeine.com.au/

    Kafeine Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

  • Blue Ginger, South East Asian Cuisine

    Blue Ginger, South East Asian Cuisine

    Rating:

    8 / 10

     

    Taste: 8.5 /10

    Price: $35 – $50 per person

    Place: 7.5/10

     

    Review:

    Blue Ginger has everything that I wanted in what South East Asian restaurant should be: Nice ambience, table setting that won’t let u kick your neighbour, and most importantly GREAT service – no grumpy old lady throwing plates on your table!

    There are choices of Banquet menu that we chose not to have because we weren’t too sure about some of the selection. We ordered 1 appetiser, 5 main dishes, and 2 desserts. For the appetiser, it was Salt & pepper squid. Definitely not the best one Sydney has to offer and quite frankly quickly abolished my hope of having a great night.

    We were made to wait for quite a while until the main course arrived but in the end all of them came at once – which was the most important feature of South East Asian dining experience. It didn’t take long before dim expectation turned into great experience.The slow braised black Angus beef short ribs (boneless) literally blew my mind away! Cut into bite sizes, the ribs were cooked to dry, glazed with special sauce and an optional cucumber relish and tamarind for an extra taste.

    The next one I tasted was Crispy skin chicken Maryland. Equally yummy with its unique trait, really really crispy skin! The black vinegar dressing complemented the chicken really well.Then, the stir fried eggplant & pumpkin was made special with the addition of chilli black beans and young corns.

    The next two dishes were my wife’s favourite. First one was Panang curry chicken. The curry was really smooth without any overpowering taste of the element. The second one was Stir fried Singaporean chilli prawns with snow peas. It was perfect for me due to the mild hotness of the chilli.

    Considering none of the dishes were disappointing, we were tempted to try out their desserts. Our choices fell to two of the following:

    –Panacotta with Palm Sugar and Pineapple Ice Cream

    –Kaffir Lime Crème Brulee

    In overall they were not mind blowing but more similar to Chat Thai with a Fusion to western desserts, with special credit to the Pineapple Ice cream.

    The final verdict: Blue Ginger charged quite a premium price but it was by far the best (South East) Asian restaurant in Sydney! Even the desserts are much better than one-hat restaurant we went to. The short ribs were the highlight of the day, shockingly excluded from the Banquet menu! They were just simply beautiful…

    Did you know?

    There are some nice spots in Balmain to relax and unwind, all in walking distance. Some of the nicer ones: Great coffee in Bertoni, Adriano Zumbo’s infamous Croquembouche and Macaroons.

    Location:

    241 Darling St, Balmain NSW 2041

    Website:

    http://www.blueginger.com.au/

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