Category: City

City of Sydney covers numerous areas. It can mean CBD, Chinatown or any other part of Sydney, except The Rocks

Ho Jiak Haymarket

Ho Jiak Haymarket Review:

There is a new-ish Malaysian restaurant opened earlier this year, called Ho Jiak Haymarket. They quickly gained fame in Sydney because of the use of unusual ingredients in their dishes, like ‘Indomee Goreng with lobster’. Yes… it’s not a typo… you get instant noodles with lobster!

One thing to note that compared to the other Malaysian restaurants, their price point is considerably higher. You will find most of their dishes are $20 or more. They also have a couple of monthly specials like the ‘crispy rendang’ below.

Kiam Ah Nui Kay – $12 – Stir-fried with salted egg yolk, butter and curry leaves

I know the description didn’t say it, but it’s basically chicken wings slathered with salted egg yolk. Also, given how rich it is, I recommend you to eat this dish with rice.

Sam Wong Dan – $15 – Silky steamed century, duck and chicken egg

We actually bought this dish for the little one. However, I ended up quite liking its taste. Sam Wong Dan is a Chinese-/Malaysian-version of chawanmushi. What we also didn’t expect was that the portion was big enough to be shared around.

Nasi Goreng Lembu – $25 – Fried rice with house-made shrimp paste. Choose from: Normal, special, Pattaya, Lembu, JUMBO, Lobster and Salted fish.

I guess you can only do so much in terms of presenting a plate of fried rice. However, you could potentially introduce an exotic ingredient into the dish. That’s what they are doing with Nasi Goreng Lembu. It’s a fried rice with wagyu beef!

They have a few other options with the fried rice.

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Indomee Goreng Lobster – $38 – Spicy stir-fried instant noodles with seafood. Choose from: normal, salted duck egg, king prawn, lobster

This is what we were here for. A $38 worth of instant noodles (yes, they actually wrote ‘instant noodles’ in the menu!). Obviously, the main attraction was what’s in the noodles. Lobster is quite a delicate crustacean, but Indomee was not typically known to be delicate. Hence, it took a skilful person to combine the two elements.

Crispy rendang with KFC Chicken – $38

I guess when there was an outcry about chicken rendang should not be crispy, Malaysian restaurants were actually racing to provide what the public was looking for: a crispy rendang. The Ho Jiak’s version of crispy rendang is to cover KFC-like fried chicken with rendang sauce. It was quite an interesting combo and I guess it would be enough to save that contestant from elimination. 🙂

Air Mata Kucing – $8 / $16 (Jumbo) – Luo han guo, dried longan and wintermelon

Air mata kucing is literally translated into ‘Cat’s tears’. It’s one of the famous Malaysian drinks that is very refreshing and cooling.

The final verdict for Ho Jiak Haymarket

Ho Jiak Haymarket is probably one of the best Malaysian restaurants in Australia. They are quite expensive but they backed it up with very nice taste.

Do you think I should go?
Definitely!

Rating for Ho Jiak Haymarket:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $30 – $40 per person with drinks

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

92 Hay Street, Haymarket 2000

+61 2 8040 0252

https://www.hojiak.com.au/

Sep 25, 2018
Pancakes on the Rocks Darling Harbour

Pancakes on the Rocks Darling Harbour Review:

This will be our third writeups about Pancakes on the Rocks. This time around is from one of their busier branches in Darling Harbour’s Harbourside shopping centre. The restaurant is almost always full and on most weekends you will need to queue.

A couple of years ago when I wrote about Pancakes in Beverly Hills, there were hardly any new thing on the menu, except for the introduction of ‘sidewinder’ wedges. This time around they have a few new items on the menu.

American Style Beef Brisket – $29.95 – Tender, 100-day Grain-Fed MSA, slow-cooked American Style Barbeque Beef Brisket. Marinated and grilled in tangy barbeque sauce, served with golden sidewinder wedges and mixed lettuce.

Beef brisket is one of those deliciously devilish indulgences for us. They are usually full of fat and all of the other yummy goodies – or evil, depending on how you are looking at it. The beef brisket from Pancakes on the rocks was even scarier with their usual barbeque sauce. Let’s just say it’s not for those of you who calories-counted your meal.

Pork Ribs – $35.95 – A generous rack of pork ribs grilled in your choice of marinade barbeque, teriyaki or honey soya. Served with golden sidewinder wedges and mixed lettuce.

Pork ribs have been their mainstays for as long as I can remember. I didn’t realise that you could ask for a different sauce for the ribs. There are better pork ribs out there. However, they usually weren’t accompanied by different kinds of desserts.

Beef Ribs – $35.95 – Tender and juicy marinated and grilled in tangy barbeque sauce. Served with golden sidewinder wedges and mixed lettuce.

Similar to pork ribs, beef ribs have also been there for quite a while now. They were relatively smaller than their pork counterparts.

Pancakes with Nutella – $15.95 – Buttermilk pancakes with Nutella, topped with cream, vanilla ice cream, and roasted hazelnuts.

Pancakes with Nutella – yeah I know everyone is putting Nutella into their menu these days – is actually one of the newer ones. I love how they add a few roasted hazelnuts in what already is a very nutty affair.

The Ultimate – $15.95 – Crepes filled with cream cheese and sultanas, served with raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream.

One of the only constants in our visit to Pancakes on The Rocks: The Ultimate. This is the main reason I always come back to the restaurant.

The final verdict for Pancakes on the Rocks – Darling Harbour

Going to Pancakes on The Rocks, you should expect the same quality of dishes throughout most of its branches.

Do you think I should go?
I’m pretty sure Sydneysider already makes up their minds about whether they like Pancakes on The Rocks or not.

Rating for Pancakes on the Rocks Darling Harbour:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $12 – $36

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 230, Level 1, Harbourside Shopping Centre, 2-10 Darling Drive, Darling Harbour 2000

+61 2 9280 3791

http://www.pancakesontherocks.com.au/

Jul 13, 2018
Do Dee Paidang

Do Dee Paidang Review:

There are probably more than 1,000 Thai restaurants in Sydney. So, if a Thai restaurant is getting noticed, they must be doing something right. That’s how I came across Do Dee Paidang. A friend of mine at work had been raving about it for years but I didn’t manage to go as we very rarely go to Sydney CBD.

If you are walking around Chinatown, you will not miss this restaurant’s bright red signage. There were usually queues outside the restaurant as well. Fortunately, we were quite early and could get a seat without waiting (despite the restaurant being almost full at that time). The specialty at Do Dee Paidang was their soup. We couldn’t order them this time around as some of us did not eat pork.

Som Tum Thai Pu – $13.90 – Green papaya mixed with chilli, tomatoes, lime juice, fish sauce, palm sugar, dried shrimps, and pickled crab.

Som Tum is the Thai green papaya salad. Traditionally they are very spicy…. and that’s what we got here! The one interesting thing about this salad is that you can add pickled crab. Pickled crab is quite an acquired taste as it can be super sour and super crunchy. It’s not actually a soft shell crab, so the shell is pretty crunchy.

Pad See Ew Chicken – $9.90

Pad see ew chicken is our personal staple as the little one ALWAYS wants to order one when we are in a Thai restaurant. Pad see ew is the Thai version of Malay’s char kwetiau. It is basically stir-fried rice noodles with sweet soy sauce. The dish was super simple, not spicy and usually loved by children.

Deep Fried Chicken Rice – $9.90

I usually love crispy, deep-fried chicken with rice. Unfortunately, their deep fried chicken was a tad too oily to my liking.

Keaw Tod – $3 / skewer

This quail egg wrapped in a deep-fried wonton on a skewer became our instant favourite. It was quite a yummy snack to have.

Pa Tong Go – $5.50

Pa tong go is my #1 favourite in a Thai restaurant. It is basically a derivative of Chinese doughnut (Youtiao) served with sweet pandan dipping sauce. I thought their pa tong go was pretty well made and not as oily as the chicken.

Nom Yen, Cha Yen – $4.50

When you are in a Thai restaurant, don’t forget to order either the Thai iced tea or the (super sweet) pink milk tea.

The final verdict for Do Dee Paidang

Do dee paidang provides a low-cost Thai restaurant without sacrificing taste.

Do you think I should go?

For years, I’ve always been a fan of one particular Thai restaurant. However, they have shifted to a more upmarket-y Thai restaurant. Do Dee is the cheap and cheerful option with same great taste!

Also, I know I didn’t write about it here, but they are famous for their soup!

Rating for Do Dee Paidang:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $10 – $20 per dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 9, 37 Ultimo Road, Chinatown 2000

+61 2 8065 3827

Jun 29, 2018
Kobe Wagyu BBQ

Kobe Wagyu BBQ Review:

This week’s review is from one of the newest all-you-can-eat restaurants in Sydney. Kobe Wagyu BBQ is located quite near to World Square in CBD. Being at the centre of the city, unfortunately, also means a very expensive BBQ restaurant. The buffet menu is $79 per person.

They back up their pricing with amazing BBQ burner where the smoke actually got sucked back down. This actually creates a non-smokey environment with no giant overhead exhausts in sight. They also use touch screen ordering system where you can just click your orders. They did impose limitations on the number of plates you can order in one serving.

Japanese BBQ place usually has only two different soy sauces. Kobe Wagyu BBQ has three: yakiniku, ponzu and soy.

BBQ – Brisket Navel End (Karubi), Outside Skirt (Harami), Chuck Eye Roll, Flap Meat, Oyster Blade, Rib Eye Cap, Rib Finger, Short Rib, Tri-tip, Beef Tongue
Chicken Soft Bone, Chicken Thigh, Pork Loin, Pork Neck, Pork Belly, Pork Sausage

The first part of the menu (and probably the most often you will visit) is the BBQ. They have quite a few different cuts of meat, as seen above. They also have an extra option to either marinade it in sauce or salt.

Seafood – Baby Octopus, Calamari, King Prawn, Callops, Garlic Chilli Prawn, Scallop with Roe

If grilled seafood is your thing, you might be looking to order from one of these options. Unfortunately, fish is not part of it. But you can technically use the sashimi cuts and just grilled them.

Sashimi and Sushi – Salmon, Tuna, Snapper, Kingfish, Scallop, Salmon Carpaccio, California Roll, Lobster Salad Roll, Salmon Avocado roll, asparagus hand roll, eel hand roll, wagyu beef hand roll, tobiko hand roll, salmon hand roll

As a group, this is the place where we went the most. We love all you can eat sashimi! We could order plates upon plates of Sashimi.

Vegetables, Salad, and Side Dish – Asparagus, cabbage, capsicum, onions, shiitake mushrooms, corn with butter, sweet potato, zucchini, pumpkin, button mushroom, king brown mushroom, crab salad, sashimi salad, potato salad, seaweed salad, wrap lettuce, Japanese radish pickles, kimchee, radish kimchi, onsen tamago, asparagus with sesame sauce, spinach with soy, tofu

On the contrary, I hardly go to the vegetables and salad area. It’s not worth my time in all you can eat BBQ.

Bites – Crab claw, prawn croquette, chawanmushi, mentaiko cuttlefish, pork dumpling, vege spring roll, sesame oil & salt, garlic slice, agedashi tofu, bite-size tempura prawn, burdock chips, takoyaki, chicken karaage, yukke, curry croquette, shrimp karaage, chicken wing dumpling, deep fry lotus root, deep fry chicken soft bone, edamame

Bites are a good starting point if you want something to eat while waiting for your meat to cook. I love eating yukke (raw beef with egg yolk) and chicken soft bone to start my dinner.

Soup, Rice and Noodles – rice, eel rice, rice ball, salmon flake rice, soba, hot udon, green tea soba, egg soup, miso soup, seaweed soup, vongole miso soup

This is the tummy stuffer. People usually leave this out when eating at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. You can get full really quickly if you eat too much of this.

Desserts – black sesame, green tea, mango ice cream, rice cake

There are not a lot of options in the desserts area. It is basically just three kinds of ice cream and a rice cake. The rice cake is pretty interesting as you need to grill them before you can enjoy them with the condensed milk. A little tip: please change the grill before you start grilling the rice cake.

Optional Extras

You have to be careful that not everything is included as part of the buffet. Some items in the touch screen menu have a price tag attached to it. You will need to fork out extra dollars for those items.

The final verdict for Kobe Wagyu BBQ

Kobe Wagyu BBQ is one of the pricier all-you-can-eat restaurants in Sydney. The big plus is the almost-smoke-free environment. They also have quite a number of meat cuts and seafood.

Do you think I should go?
If all-you-can-eat and sashimi are your things, definitely!

Rating for Kobe Wagyu BBQ:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $79 buffet menu

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

Level 1, 605 George Street, CBD, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9283 2268

http://www.kobewagyubbq.com.au/

May 2, 2018
Hicksons Izakaya
Hicksons Izakaya Experience:

Chef Hiro, Omar and their team at Hicksons Izakaya invited us to try the food at this fairly new restaurant at Walsh Bay. We went there at lunchtime during the festive season. We were lucky as the weather was quite friendly at that time. It could get quite hot and steamy in the area as I have experienced in the past.

Considering that it’s an izakaya, they mostly served tapas-style Japanese food and sushi/sashimi platters. They also serve substantial bento boxes and main dishes if you feel a bit peckish.

Junmai Sake – $15 – Sweet – Carafe 180ml

A nice, sweet and cold sake is what you need on a hot Sydney summer.

Seared Scallops with Honey Ponzu and Fish Roe – $14.50

I love scallops and it’s no surprise that the first dish that I ordered was seared scallops. The scallops were seared perfectly. They also had a very nice honey ponzu sauce.

Seared Bonito – $15

Just like the seared scallops, the bonito fish was also seared delicately.

Teriyaki Chicken Bento Box – $24 – served with Five Sashimi pieces, salad, rice, miso soup & daily special side dish

Our little one ordered this bento box. It was probably a bit too big for his tummy. The teriyaki chicken was quite different than the ones in a typical Japanese restaurant. The teriyaki chicken in Hicksons Izakaya was neither super sweet nor sticky.

Slow Cooked Beef Stew Bento Box – $26 – served with Five Sashimi pieces, salad, rice, miso soup & daily special side dish

The beef stew bento had a similar composition, but the main dish was beef stew instead of teriyaki chicken.

Salmon Fillet – $24 – Seared Salmon Fillet with Yuzu Green Salad

Salmon fillet was probably the best main dish of the day. It went really well with the sauce provided.

Chocolate Sushi Roll – $14

As you probably know, I am not the biggest fan of chocolate. However, I was quite intrigued by the fact that they made a chocolate sushi roll!

We quickly found out that we had to fight over this sushi roll because it was so good.

Macha Ice Cream – $9

For this dessert, it was just a simple couple of scoops of matcha ice cream.

A few interesting things about Hicksons Izakaya
- Hicksons Izakaya is located right opposite of Sydney Theatre Company at Walsh Bay. It makes them a very busy destination for pre-theatre dinner.
- Great view of Walsh Bay
- Get that Chocolate Sushi Roll.
- Seriously… GET THAT CHOCOLATE SUSHI ROLL!!!
Details:

Shop 5/17A Hickson Road, The Rocks, Sydney

+61 2 9252 2274
Jan 5, 2018
Feast – a world of flavours | Sheraton on The Park

Feast – a world of flavours Review:

This week we will talk about one of the most well-known all you can eat restaurants in Sydney, Feast – a world of flavours. You might know it simply as ‘that all you can eat place in Sheraton, Hyde Park’.

Being in a five-star hotel, the price is obviously quite different than your normal restaurant. Their price depends on whether you eat at lunch time or dinner and also whether you are having it on weekdays vs weekend. Weekdays lunch is the cheapest, at $79 and weekend dinner is $99.

They have four big food stations, I simply refer to them as seafood, cold cuts, chef and sophisticated meals and desserts.

Seafood

When you step into the restaurant, you are greeted by the seafood station where you can see this overwhelming selection of seafood. I’m a tad disappointed that there are no Alaskan king crab legs there. However, they still have an assortment of seafood to make me happy. The seafood here is more on the ‘fresh’ side as it is cooked minimally so that you can taste their original flavour.

Cold cuts and the usuals
This is probably the station that I visited the least. They have all the staple all you can eat food, like cold cuts, salad, and bread.

Chef Station
I call this the chef station because there is an actual chef in this place. The chef would help you cut the roast or make you congee and noodles. They also have pizza here if you want to eat it for whatever reason.

Sophisticated meals and Desserts
I choose the word ‘sophisticated’ because unlike in the seafood station, this one is more for dishes that have been seasoned really well. The other side of this station is the desserts.

The one thing that I love so much from this station was its fish with (I presume) bernaise sauce.

… and the desserts. I think I don’t need to talk about it that much, except that they also serve ice creams!

More pictures of the food

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The final verdict for Feast – a world of flavours

The choices of food at Feast is unreal. There were only very few misses, but generally everything was pretty good.

Do you think I should go?
If it’s a special occasion and/or you have a spare $100, then go ahead… However, most places that do All You Can Eat usually charges up to half of it.

Rating for Feast – a world of flavours:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $79 – $99

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

Level 1, Sheraton on the Park
161 Elizabeth Street, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9286 6000

http://www.feastsydney.com.au/

Oct 26, 2017