Category: Burwood

Burwood is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney. It is a home of Chinese food with a lot of restaurants to choose from.

Ginza Japanese Yakiniku

Ginza Japanese Yakiniku Review:

This week we were excited to try one of the newer Japanese Yakiniku restaurants in one of the newer buildings in Sydney: Ginza Japanese Yakiniku at the Emerald Square in Burwood. Everything in the area looked and smelled new. Parking can be quite troublesome in the weekend, but fortunately, we came in quite early.

Ginza Japanese Yakiniku has 2 set menu to choose from: the standard menu at $56.8 and the premium menu that would cost you $68.8. The main differences between the two menus are ox tongue, mixed tempura, oyster, scallop, and one more dessert. We decided that the premium menu didn’t really add that much more value… and went with the standard menu.

Ginza Japanese Yakiniku

Being in a yakiniku, the first question you might want to ask is: how many types of meat do they have?

The answer is 4 for standard and 6 (plus ox tongue) for the premium set. The good thing about Ginza was that they cut the meat to a bite size. That means you can cook it faster and you can enjoy it sooner!

Sashimi and Sushi

Despite only have two kinds of sashimi, the standard menu had a few other sushi to choose from, including our favourite: seared salmon nigiri. It is also pleasing to see that they use different plates for different order sizes.

Seafood

Outside the sushi and sashimi dishes, the standard menu only has a handful other seafood dishes. Whereas the premium menu has scallops, fishes and prawns that you can order.

Side dish

They have a whole bunch of side dishes available for both standard and premium menu.

Desserts

They have two ice cream flavours: taro and vanilla. Ginza Japanese Yakiniku is probably the only Japanese restaurant that serves taro but not green tea ice cream.

The final verdict for Ginza Japanese Yakiniku

We feel that Ginza Japanese Yakiniku is sitting on the more expensive side for a bbq restaurant in Burwood. Their standard set has quite a lot of vegetables. The premium set wasn’t too different and the selection didn’t really wow us.

Do you think I should go?
Ginza Japanese Yakiniku is still a pretty restaurant that is probably perfect if you want to impress someone. However, you could get similar quality dishes for cheaper price around the area.

Rating for Ginza Japanese Yakiniku:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.0 / 10

Price: $56.8 for standard and $68.8 for the premium set

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

Emerald Square Level 2, 27-31 Belmore Street Burwood NSW 2134

+61 2 9715 1456

https://www.ginzayakiniku.com.au/

Oct 23, 2018
Buddha Raksa Thai

Buddha Raksa Thai Review:

We were having a group dinner one day and a friend chose a restaurant closest to his place. It was a Thai restaurant called Buddha Raksa Thai.

You can see from the menu that they are not your typical cheap and cheerful Thai (the Zomato menu listing needs to be updated). Most of the dishes are above $20.

Makua Yao Num Pik Pao (signature dish) – $31.90 – Crispy eggplant cooked with chilli jam, onion, shallot and cashew nut.

Crispy eggplant is the signature dish of Buddha Raksa Thai. It costs a whopping $31 for a ‘mere vegetables’ dish. However, this dish was worthy of the title ‘signature dish’. It was by far the best dish of the night.

If you are not a big fan of chilli, they can make it not spicy.

Basil Fried Rice Beef – $20.90 – Thai style fried rice with basil, chilli, garlic and egg

The basil fried rice is spicy. We ordered it because one of our friends loves this kind of fried rice.

Free flow rice – $3 per person

I need to talk about this because of how they serve the rice. There were a couple of people who roam around the restaurant bringing two types of rice: brown and white.

Larb Gai – $21.90 – Spicy salad of minced chicken, sprinkled with lemon juice, fish sauce, ground rice, mint, onion, chilli and shallot. Served with garden salad.

Larb gai is a dish that is a ‘must have’every time we go to a Thai restaurant. It is a very refreshing ‘salad’ dish that tasted spicy and sour.

Pad See Ew Chicken – $21.90 – stir-fried flat rice noodle with egg, bok choy and thick soy sauce

Pad see ew is another staple for us. It is one of those Can’t-go-wrong types of dish.

Gai Yang – $25.90 – Grilled marinated chicken fillet with Thai herb. Served with Nam jim kai (sweet chilli sauce).

Gai Yang is the Thai version of BBQ chicken dish. They are usually marinated with Thai herbs that made the chicken yellow-ish and served with Thai dipping sauce.

Duck curry – $26.90 – Boneless roasted duck cooked in a red curry sauce with pineapple and lychee

Duck curry is quite an unusual dish. Furthermore, it was served with pineapple and lychee. The end result is this sweet and sour curry with pre-roasted duck mixed in it.

Thai Milk Tea – $6.90

For $6.90, it is one expensive Thai Milk Tea. So far, I haven’t been able to differentiate between theirs and the other Thai Milk Teas in Sydney.

The final verdict for Buddha Raksa Thai

I love the signature dish from Buddha Raksa Thai. It is probably one of only a few vegetable dishes that I really like.

Do you think I should go?
Buddha Raksa Thai is probably not your average everyday Thai restaurant. You will also need to book if you are coming in on the weekend as it can get very crowded.

Rating for Buddha Raksa Thai:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $35 – $40 per person

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

135 – 137 Liverpool Road, Burwood 2134

+61 2 9747 5608

http://www.buddharaksa.com.au/

Apr 23, 2018
Sahara by the Park

Sahara By The Park Review:

Sahara by the park is located just outside Westfield Burwood. They had the fine dining section as well as the takeaway ‘kebab place’ setting. This time around, we went to the fine dining area. The restaurant had quite a nice middle eastern decor.

Looking at their menu, it’s a mixture of Middle Eastern dishes with some ‘local’ flavours, like salt and pepper squid and mushroom chicken.

Babaganoush – $10.50 – Chargrilled eggplant w yoghurt, tahini and garlic

If you go to a Middle-Eastern restaurant, you must be familiar with the cold bread wrapped in a plastic bag. That’s usually what you expect, even in a high-end restaurant.

At Sahara By The Park, they have two kinds of bread, homemade Turkish garlic bread served alongside the dip and the communal table bread. However, unlike other restaurants, their table bread was so good! It was warm and fresh. Their garlic bread was an icing on the cake.

For the babaganoush, it was probably a tad too much yoghurt in the mixture.

Shish & chips – $10.50 – Choice of adana or chicken shish

This is coming from the kids menu. It is pretty much the same shish, but only one skewer.

Beef Ribs – $29.50 – Served with chips & salad or roast vegetables

It used to be called 1kg beef ribs, but they greyed out the 1kg bit. The ribs were super tender and juicy. It also came with a bowl of thin sauce.

Although it is no longer 1kg, the ribs were pretty good.

Chargrill Platter – $29.50 – Adana, chicken & lamb skewers served with bread, rice & salad

Chargrill platter is how we differentiate a good shish from the average ones. Their shish could probably be categorised amongst the best in Sydney. They were very flavoursome.

Iskender – $22.50 – Thin slices of marinated lamb, layered over a bed of diced pide bread, topped with authentic red sauce & garlic yoghurt

They were quite generous in the serving for the Iskender kebab. It was served hot on a double plate with over-abundance of meat.

Kunefe – $14.50 – Baked shredded filo pastry, layered w/ unsalted cheese & topped with syrup

One of the things I did not see a lot of in a Middle Eastern restaurant in Sydney is the dessert Kunefe. The kunefe in Sahara By The Park was so good and they put an extra ice cream with it!

The final verdict for Sahara By The Park

We were pleasantly surprised with the quality of food at Sahara By The Park. It started off with the amazing garlic bread and flatbread to the very nice filo pastry, kunefe. It was a very nice experience.

Do you think I should go?

Sahara By The Park is one of the highest scoring Middle Eastern restaurants in my blog. So, yes… you must go and try!

Rating for Sahara By The Park:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $30 – $40 per person

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

100 Burwood Road, Burwood 2134

+61 2 9747 4540

Sahara By The Park

Mar 5, 2018
兰州 Chinese Noodle Bar Burwood

兰州 Chinese Noodle Bar Review:

We went to this restaurant last week because one of us wanted to eat in a Halal Chinese restaurant. Chinese Noodle Bar is the name of the restaurant in English. I think in Chinese it’s called ‘Lanzhou La Mien‘ or Noodles from Lanzhou.

Being a noodle bar, I think it comes as no surprise that their menu predominantly features noodles in any shapes and kinds.

Crispy jellyfish and cucumber in sauce – $8.00

Jellyfish is one of my favourite cold dishes in a Chinese restaurant. It is kind of a safe bet as most restaurants would serve this nicely.

Tofu with preserved egg – $9.80

The price might seem a bit much for a cold dish in a Chinese restaurant. However, if you see the portion, it was actually quite big for a cold dish. Lots of tofu, that’s for sure!

House Specialty Beef Noodle Soup – $10.80

Our first noodles dish is the soup one. The kids truly enjoyed this dish so much that they ordered an extra serving of noodles.

Stir-fried noodle with Mix Seafood & Veg – $14.80

The portion for this stir-fried noodles was quite massive.

BBQ Lamb Skewer – 1 for $3 / 4 for $11.00

The skewers were well presented but I don’t think it can match the ones I have had before.

Pan fried dumplings (Beef/Chinese chives and egg) – $12.00 – 12 pieces

$12 for 12 pieces of pan fried dumplings? Don’t you think it’s a very good deal?

Personally, I think this is the best value and best overall dish in the restaurant. Also, it is particularly hard to find halal pan fried dumplings in Sydney.

Shallot Pancake – $8.00

The pancake was quite soggy and lacking the taste.

Main Noodles Dish – flat rice noodles with potatoes and chicken

Apologies, I could not find the name of this dish. It is the first signature dish on the menu.

The dish came in three sizes (S, M, L). We ordered the medium one and they said it was perfect for 2-3 people. We believe it’s more for 4-5 people!

The dish was quite spicy and we believe there was not enough sauce.

Mapo Tofu

The final verdict for 兰州 Chinese Noodle Bar Burwood

Chinese noodle bar was quite okay if you live around the area. It is also a good place if you are looking for dishes with massive portion. One thing to note tho, the pan fried dumplings are a must!

Rating for 兰州 Chinese Noodle Bar Burwood:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5 / 10

Price: $15 – $20 per person

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

183 Burwood Road, Burwood 2134

+61 2 9744 6680

Aug 26, 2017
Tim Ho Wan – Burwood

Review:

Tim Ho Wan was arguably the biggest name to appear in Sydney’s culinary world in 2015. Tim Ho Wan restaurants in Hong Kong are considered to be the world’s cheapest Michelin-star restaurant. When they announced that they would open a restaurant in Chatswood, the earth shook… well maybe not to that extreme, but the anticipation was suffocating. For the first few weeks, queue could be seen outside its store and people waited up to four hours (or more) for it!

Fast forward to mid-2016, we went to one of their branches in Burwood and there was no queue. Mainly, it was because a lot of people over-expected the restaurant to have the same quality as the ones in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, Tim Ho Wan Burwood was still decently filled.

We have never been to Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong and our comparison was based on Yumcha restaurants in Sydney. Instead of having trolleys pushed around the restaurant, you need to order the food in Tim Ho Wan.

Braised Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce – $6.80

I love a good chicken feet dish! It was quite a decent portion and pretty well presented at Tim Ho Wan. However, there was an apparent deficiency in the taste department.

Prawn Dumpling – $8.30

Wasabi Salad Prawn Dumpling – $7.80

There were only four options for dumplings at Tim Ho Wan and they were all seafood. We tried steamed prawn dumpling and deep fried wasabi salad prawn dumpling. They were quite on par with dumplings in other Yumcha place.

The next three plates are part of dishes that were called Big Four Heavenly Kings in Tim Ho Wan

Vermicelli Roll with Liver – $7.50

Vermicelli perhaps isn’t the best word to describe the dish. I have never seen a rice noodle roll dish with liver.

Baked Bun with BBQ Pork – $7.80

This is the dish that got everyone talking about and at the same time criticised Tim Ho Wan: Baked Bun with BBQ pork. The bun looks like an under-baked PappaRoti bread. It had quite the right fluff and, according to my friend, it was pretty nice and sweet.

Pan-Fried Radish Cake – $6.00

The radish cake has pork meat inside. Excluding the desserts, the whole dish in Tim Ho Wan is meat-based. So, if you are a vegetarian, you might want to stay away.

Vermicelli Roll with Beef – $7.50

It was similar to the other vermicelli roll, but this time it was filled with beef instead of liver.

The final verdict for Tim Ho Wan

I think Tim Ho Wan has been heavily criticised for being sub-par to its main branch in Hong Kong. After the hype has died down and the chefs can concentrate on producing the food instead of being a fast-churning production line, we could see that it was a decent restaurant.

Did you know?

If you have never been to a Yumcha but you are not a pork or seafood eater, you might want to reconsider your visit. There are only a handful of dishes that you can choose from in Tim Ho Wan that are neither pork nor seafood.

Rating for Tim Ho Wan:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $5.80 – $9.90 per dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Shop 173 – 175 Westfield Burwood

100 Burwood Road, Burwood 2134

+61 2 8719 9888

http://www.timhowan.com.au/

Jun 1, 2016
Palm Breeze Cafe

Rating:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5/10

Price Range: $18 – $33

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

I had a very good first impression when we first stepped into Palm Breeze Cafe. It had a very nice and cosy ambience, friendly staffs, and our table was prepared within seconds. Upon glancing the menu, I was impressed with the wide arrays of cuisines they offered. They have pretty much everything from the Mediterranean to Western dishes.

After looking around for a few minutes, I decided to taste their Scotch Fillet and Ribs combo. I was fully aware that by doing this, I was ready to directly compare the café with household names like Kelly’s and Hurricane’s. I pictured the combo would be of similar size of Hurricane’s because other steaks that went past me were huge. However when it came, the steak and ribs were tiny. I only got a rack of lamb ribs and a very tiny slice of Scotch Fillet. The fillet was cooked nicely but the ribs were quite bland. The other main that I tasted was Vitello Oscar. It is grilled veal with creamy garlic prawns on top. It had the best presentation for the night. The cheese would melt right through the prawns and veal. The prawns were really nice but the veal was a bit overcooked.

The next two that we ordered from the menu, I did not really taste as my friends ordered them. The first one was Moroccan Chicken Salad. It was a quite colourful salad and had a quite big portion. In addition to the usual salad, they also put in onions, cucumbers, cashew nuts, and Moroccan-style grilled chicken. The other one was Schnitzel Parmigiana. It was the least interesting plate of the night. It was practically a chicken schnitzel with a little bit of cheese and sauce on a bed of chips and salad.

For desserts, the five of us picked two of our most favourite desserts: Crème Brulee and Tiramisu. Again, presentation wise, the two desserts were above average. They really stimulated our curiosity. However, upon tasting, we found that the crème brulee’s caramelised top was too thick and the layer of cream was also too thick. We had similar experience with the Tiramisu lacking the ‘memorable’ taste.

The final verdict: It was a nice place to spend the night. The food presentation was really nice. In terms of flavour, it lacked the wow factor that made me want to return to try other stuffs on the menu and was kind of par rating.

Did you know?

This café is located in the Sydney’s suburb, Burwood. It is one of the first suburbs that I am familiar with due to the fact that my game store is located there. It is also home of the last destination of Sydney’s longest bus service route 400 (In my opinion). The bus goes from Bondi Junction – Randwick – Maroubra – Eastgardens – Airport (Domestic & Int’l) – Rockdale – Campsie – Burwood. Six times (or more) the travelling time of trains or cars!

Location:

128 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

http://www.palmbreezecafe.com.au/ (The website is currently inactive)

Sep 19, 2010