Category: City

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

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
Braza Churrascaria

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8/10

Price: $47 All you can eat

Place: 8.5/10

Review:

I wanted to say Braza Churrascaria is just another all you can eat Brazilian restaurant that’s been flooding Sydney over the years… but I just couldn’t!

Why?

I’ll skip the part of explaining what Churrascaria is (you can look at the ‘Did you know?’ section) and let you know why I think you MUST visit this place. Look at the menu below or in this link and see an extensive list of things you can eat (including side dishes).

Let’s start with the obvious Rump Cap or Picanha. Seriously, if a Brazilian restaurant doesn’t serve a great picanha, don’t return! Picanha is the core element of a churrascaria. Still in the beef department, they also have flank, rump, hump and Scotch Fillet. The meat quality in Braza restaurant was incredible.

I have limited knowledge of food from the pork department. They have an assortment of Neck, Leg, and Belly. From the look of it, they were the least appealing in the restaurant. Strangely enough, you also got a chance to see a whole pig / pork meat sitting on the wooden trolley. They only have two lamb dishes: Leg and Rump. Both were nice and cooked correctly (i.e. no smelly lamb taste).

We’re now on to the white meat of chicken. They have a decent range from chicken with bacon to chicken hearts. They also have Chicken Drummetes and fillet. Personally, I love chicken hearts and can easily have a dozen of them.

Braza’s seafood range was extensive on easter with the addition of mussels and octopus. However, they were only limited to Fish and Prawns in a normal day. However, if you see the fish plate, please ask as much as you can. They were heaps good! I am not a big fan of the Chorizo in Braza. I think they were quite dry and tough.

So now we are on to the best part: Braza Churrascaria’s ribs. They prepared the ribs in a slightly different way. They would wheel around gigantic slab(s) of ribs on a wooden trolley and slice the meat in front of you. The ribs were really the highlight of the day. They were succulent, juicy, and best of all, not burnt! You can have an option of Beef ribs, Pork ribs, or Lamb ribs.

They have Halloumi Cheese, Pineapple and Garlic Bread as the main churrascaria offered. I had no less than five slices of fabulous pineapple throughout the night. You might want to slow down on the cheese and bread if you didn’t want to be full too fast.

They handled the side dishes quite differently. Instead of circling around the table, you will need to order them specifically. My favourite was Polenta chips. They were really nice and crunchy. We also always have a supply of Brazilian Chilies, Farofafa, and Tomato Salsa because I like a bit more flavour on my meat.

The final verdict for Braza Churrascaria

Braza Churrascaria is hands down the best Brazilian restaurant in Sydney. The assortments and quality of meat are unrivaled to those other Brazilian restaurants in Sydney. The only downside to their otherwise excellent review was the unavailability of complementing sauce. It’s a very minor item but unfortunately I like sauce on my meat.

Did you know?

When we were there on Saturday at around 8 PM, they had a Brazilian dance a la Carnaval de Rio with very loud Brazilian drums.

For those of you new to the concept, Churrascaria is a place where meat is cooked in Churrasco style. The meat is grilled to perfection with an iron skewer on a fireplace. The waiters and waitresses would then go around the table offering those meats and you could decide whether you wanted it or not (no obligation to take everything they offered!).

Details:

1-25 Harbour St, Darling Quarter

Darling Harbour NSW 2000

+61 2 9386 9534

http://www.braza.com.au/

Apr 8, 2013
Sky Phoenix

Rating:

7 / 10 Taste: 7/10

Price: $20-30 per person

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

If you read my review on Kam Fook restaurant, this review is almost too similar to it. Just like Kam Fook, Sky Phoenix also serves Yum Cha, is located in one of the best shopping centres in Sydney, has identical price structures, and (most importantly!) friendly service.

We always start our Yum Cha session with prawns: prawn dumplings (har gow), prawn siomay (shu mai, shaomai – however you want to pronounce it) and prawn rice noodles. They are the three not-to-be-missed dishes when I tried a new yum cha restaurant.

I also liked to order Beef Sticky Rice. The sticky rice was wrapped in lotus leaf. It was one of the dishes that could fill up my tummy pretty quickly. From the outside, it might not look appetising. However, it was very dense and heavy with egg yolk, mushroom and meat wrapped inside the sticky rice.

If you like deep fried stuff, there are lots of options in Sky Phoenix, including whitebait. This time, tho, we ordered Taro Dumpling and the all-too-standard Spring Rolls. Taro dumpling is an interesting little dish. It was mashed taro deep fried with mushrooms, egg yolk and meat fillings.

Our only green of the day came from Steamed Gai Lan with Oyster Sauce. As a matter of fact, I could not find any other green vegetables other than this one.

If you still need more carbs after all those dishes, these next three would guarantee you leave with full tummy. Fried noodles are the obvious fast choice or you can also try carrot / turnip cake. However, my most favourite is Fried Rice Noodles with peanut, sesame and hoi sin sauce.

The next two dishes you would most likely need to order (or skip altogether). They were chicken feet and beef tripe. The good thing about it was the dishes were made to order, so more often than not you get nice tasting chicken feet. They were soft with a hint of sweet and chilli sauce.

In addition to the usual suspects (Mango Pancake and Mango Pudding), our desserts also consisted of Dou fu fa. Indonesians have different names for this dish, with the most common being Kembang Tahu or Tahu Tauwa. They are layers of silken tofu, served warm with sweet ginger syrup.

The final verdict for Sky Phoenix

If you want to eat Yum Cha without having a sense of rushed, Sky Phoenix is the place to be.

Did you know?

Yum Cha, directly translated from Cantonese, means ‘drink tea’. According to Wikipedia, this ritual of morning or afternoon tea is usually accompanied by eating dim sum dishes.

Details:

Level 6, Shop 6001 Westfield Sydney, 188 Pitt Street, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9223 8822

http://www.phoenixrestaurants.com.au/sky-phoenix/about

Jan 31, 2013
Arisun

Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7.5/10

Price: $25 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

Arisun was the restaurant I always passed by on the way to Darling Harbour, until one day my friend suggested us to go there. Ever since that day, we always go there for a quick fix of fried chicken.

Did I say fried chicken? Yes, but not that kind of chicken joint you see in every suburb. The price seemed to be a bit much for a bowl of fried chickens, listed at $30 a bowl, but you did get a whole lot of chickens. Our favourite was the Sweet Soy sauce deep fried chicken. They were cooked to golden brown perfection and delight-ably crunchy. On the other end, you can get yourself Hot and spicy chicken with cheese: Melted cheese poured in a deep fried chicken with hot and spicy sauce. The cheese one will surely fill your tummy in no time.

If you want ultra-fast service, try one of their hotpots. They will bring it to you as soon as your waitress leaves you (I think they already have them prepared in the kitchen). My most favourite here is the Beef and Enoki Hotpot. It was a massive pot of soup with a generous serving of enoki and bulgogi (Korean beef). It was also filled with glass noodles and all kinds of vegetables. A seriously great options for winter.

The other two that we have tried so far are the Sausage Hotpot and Spicy Rice Cake, Mixed Tempura Hotpot ($24). Both of them were hot and spicy. Personally, I didn’t like either of them since there was a monotonous feel to it. The tempura one for example didn’t remotely look like a tempura. It’s more like fish cakes. The two tone noodles (rice noodles and instant noodles) were questionable at best.

Last but not least, their Seafood Black bean Noodles ($12) are to die for! I think this is THE gem that most food blogs missed out. It looked kinda gross with the dark colour goo, but taste wise, it was fantastic. There was also a vegetarian option for this.

The final verdict for Arisun

Well, there is only one verdict, isn’t there? Chicken! The front page of the menu said it, the first page of the menu showed it… There was one other dish I would recommend: Black bean noodles! I came back to Arisun because of these two.

Did you know?

Like any other Korean restaurants, it can be quite expensive if you eat in with just two people. However, if you are with a group of people, the cost can be significantly lower.

I don’t suggest their Seafood pancakes since they weren’t as good as other seafood pancakes in Sydney.

Details:

1 Dixon Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Phone: +61 2 9264 1588

Dec 21, 2012
Suminoya

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8.5/10

Price: $55 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

I have always loved Suminoya for as long as I can remember. I’ve wanted to write about it, but I always had a problem putting together writing and pictures that represent Suminoya. My apology since there is a discrepancy between picture and real life condition. The price has now increased by $5.

If you see the menu, there are plenty of dishes to choose from. You have a choice between gourmet and premium buffet. With premium buffet, you can order as much Sashimi as you want with other fantastic additional dishes along the way. It’s no brainer that I would choose the premium buffet, considering that you only pay $8 more for it. There is also an option to get as much Calpis drink as you want for an extra $5.

I will start off with the Sashimi. They have a range of Salmon, Kingfish, Tuna, Beef, and Squid. Even if you eat just the Sashimi for the whole night, you’ll get a massive value for your money! In line with the Sashimi, they also have Yukke. It’s a marinated raw beef with egg yolk. I know some people might stay away from it, but if you are really adventurous you really must order this. This is the best Yukke I have ever tasted.

With premium buffet, you can order unlimited number of plates for Beef Tongue and Beef Ribs Finger. You get one plate each for the gourmet one. The good news is, they have upgraded their beef to Wagyu for the new menu! There is also Chicken Gristles for bone-crushers. This dish requires a good understanding on how to cook chicken and you really must not eat it raw.

From the seafood department, you can always order Scallops, pre-chilled Unagi, and Garlic Prawns. Like its Sashimi, this seafood was incredibly fresh. It is highly recommended that you cook them through to avoid any food poisoning.

For those of you who don’t really like to cook your food, Suminoya also provided you with a small range of cooked dishes. On this occasion, I tried to order Beef Komutan which is a soup-based dish. There is also a range of salad like Seafood Salad and the always tasty dried seaweed.

The final verdict: Suminoya is one of my favourite restaurants in Sydney. Their Yukke and Sashimi are to die for!

Did you know?

I am really ecstatic to see that Suminoya is now part of the Entertainment Book. Since this is the restaurant that I will always go to, 25% off doesn’t sound so bad!

Do me a favour and buy this book… You won’t regret it and I guarantee you’ll save a lot more than what you pay for the book!

PS: I wasn’t paid to say all these!!

Details:

1 Hosking Place, Sydney, NSW 2000

+61 2 9231 2177

http://yakiniku.com.au/suminoya/

May 9, 2012
Musashi Dining Bar

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $35 per person

Place: 8/10

Review:

Musashi dining bar is a special type of Japanese restaurant called Izakaya. Wikipedia defined izakaya as ‘Japanese drinking establishment for after-work drinking’. Historically, izakaya paid more attention to its assortments of drinks. However, Musashi also developed a nice range of platters that can actually be enjoyed on its own.

Two of our first dishes came in sizzling hot plates. It was perfectly cooked BBQ John Dorry slices with sides of vegetables and Teriyaki sauce. We were then indulged by the succulent Wagyu Yakiniku. I couldn’t get enough of medium-rare beef, wagyu-style.

Their Aburi Salmon Sushi was really interesting. It was very lightly grilled and pre-soaked in soy sauce. 5 slices of sushi were laid out on top of pandan leaf with a blob of wasabi. If you need more rice and less meat, I suggest you order Onigiri Sake – Salmon Onigiri. It’s a traditional Japanese rice ball with a twist of salmon.

Personally, I think Musashi’s best dish of the night was its Musashi Bento Box. It was a bento box like no other and packed with loads of goodies: 1 crumbed deep fried prawn, 1 crumbed deep fried fish fillet, 1 potato croquette, 4 pieces sushi, 2 pieces sushi roll, teriyaki chicken and 10 pieces sashimi. This bento was like a showpiece of half of the menu!

As an izakaya, Musashi had a nice range of mocktails and cocktails. For me, it couldn’t get any better than a refreshingly sweet Musashi Blue – Lychee. If you still have enough room after all these, then Green Tea Brulee would be the perfect ending to the night.

The final verdict: If you were to order one dish, then my advice was clearly the Musashi Bento Box in Musashi Dining Bar. It had the most complete elements in a bento box!

Did you know?

Musashi is located on the Capitol Square. It is also the home of Capitol Theatre, best place in town to watch plays. For computer enthusiasts, the second floor of capitol square is a heaven on earth.

Musashi used to have an excellent okonomiyaki. For some reasons, they are not doing it again.

Details:

447 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

+61 2 9280 0377

http://www.musashirestaurant.com.au/ (The Website is currently inactive)

Mar 27, 2012