Category: King’s Cross

The Red light district of Sydney with the infamous Coca-cola sign board. It is also infamous for its bars and clubs.

House Bar and Bistrot
House Bar and Bistrot Experience:

One morning, an invitation email came into my mailbox. It was a long and elaborate email from Mauro, the head chef of House Bar and Bistrot. Mauro was a chef in a number of high-end restaurants in Sydney before he decided to open his own. The suburb that he chose to be the place for his restaurant is Potts Point. The restaurant looked like two regular houses from the outside.

According to Mauro, everything on the menu was made in-house with local fresh ingredients. The menu is constantly changing, according to the seasonal availability. He has the non-vegetarian menu as well as the vegetarian menu. This was the non-vegetarian menu that he had when we visited.

Starters on Sourdough Bread

House Bar and Bistrot only has one kind of starter: starters on sourdough bread. The difference was the topping. You can choose five different toppings on that day. The starters are kind of like Italian bruschetta with different toppings.

White Anchovies – $12 – Butter – Lemon Zest

Krauti and Shredded Apple – $12

Sides

If sourdough would never get you full, like myself, then you might want to think about what sides to have.

Although we ordered only Cabbage Almonds sides on that day, you must order their potatoes an onion… see the main section for the reason!

Cabbage, Almonds and Parmesan Salad – $18

Mains

Tagliatelle – Braised Pork Belly – Duck egg – Parmesan – $26

There are quite a few different mains on that day, but this one was one of our choices because it had duck egg on a tagliatelle!

Sirloin Beef Steak – Roast Potatoes, Onions, Red wine gravy – $28

However, the second main really stole the show. We could not stop thinking about that roast potatoes… OMG they were so good! The steak was also cooked to perfection but probably on the lighter side of the gravy.

Desserts

There were three dessert options from both menu, but we felt on that day the coffee gelato was the clear winner. It was smooth and strong at the same time!

Coffee Gelato – $12

Figs Gelato – $12

Menabrea beer on draft – $9

One of the main selling points when Mauro wrote me that invitation email was that he had Italy’s Menabrea beer on tap.

A few interesting things about House Bar and Bistrot
- Sourdough and pasta freshly-made on a daily basis.
- Menus are constantly evolving, according to seasonal availability
- You must really get the roast potatoes.. yum!
Details:

62 – 64 Kellett Street, Potts Point 2011

+61 450 633 892

https://www.housebarbistrot.com
Feb 14, 2018
Wilbur’s Place

Review:

Welcome to our second brunch review in as many weeks as this month we caught up with quite a lot of friends! We went to Potts Point for a small café in an alley called Wilbur’s Place.

The menu is the usual modern rustic dishes with quite a long name. In Wilbur’s Place, the name isn’t quite as long!

Mushrooms, Poached Eggs & Crispy Pancetta – $18

I actually did not order (and try) the dish and it looked pretty monochromatic. However, I was told that the Pancetta was delightfully crispy.

Crispy Polenta, Soft Egg, Slippery Jack Mushrooms & sage butter – $18

This is the dish that you MUST choose if your next visit to the café is your first one. It was probably the yummy-est polenta I’ve ever tasted especially when combined with the mushroom and butter!

I love everything about this dish even when this was not actually the one I ordered! (Luckily my wife liked the dish that I will talk about next so we traded off).

Flatbread, Pickles, Runny Egg, Flaked Trout & Avocado – $19

This dish is perfect for those of you who like brunch that feels light and refreshing. I think this dish portrays what the word ‘rustic’ is all about. It was plain and simple but packed a lot of punch!

Brussel Sprouts, soft egg, Parmesan, Bacon & Anchovy – $15

This is the only dish of the day that actually have green vegetables on the plate. However, the bacon and anchovy were barely visible because it blended perfectly with the colour of the bread. I think it would be better to see bacon sticking out on the plate when it’s on the menu.

Sourdough toast w Vegemite, Butter & Jam – $6

This is just a plain and simple vegemite toast for your children. The bread might not be suitable for younger kids as toasted sourdough can be too tough for them.

Toasted brioche ice cream sandwich w salted caramel – $13

Salted Caramel Milkshake – $7

Looks like salted caramel is the craze these days. It feels like everywhere we go we see salted caramel milkshake or dessert. In Wilbur’s place, you get both milkshake and dessert!

The final verdict for Wilbur’s Place

Wilbur’s place is probably one of the better brunch cafes that we have ever tasted in Sydney.

Did you know?

The name ‘Wilbur’ was taken from the pig in Charlotte’s Web.

Wilbur’s place is owned by Bourke Street Bakery.

Rating for Wilbur’s Place:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $11 – $19 for big dishes

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

36 Llankelly Place, Potts Point 2011

+61 2 9332 2999

http://www.wilbursplace.com/

Jun 12, 2015
Juju’s Restaurant

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Unfortunately, Juju’s has closed its doors for good.

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Rating:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7 /10

Price Range: $15 – $20

Place: 8/10

Review:

There’s nothing better to close off the year with one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in town, Juju’s. This is a really nice place to have dinner with friends and families. They also have karaoke on weekends. There are no chairs in this restaurant. They try to emulate a tatami with a twist. You will still be sitting on wooden floor, but there is legroom under the table.

Getting a decision on which food to order is not a simple task. There are a huge variety of dishes on the menu and we decided to have some that we can compare the taste with. They have quite a few options for beverages, but this time I sticked to the good old Hot Green Tea, Genmaicha. We also ordered Grapefruit Yakult.

For the first dish we had Yukke. It is raw slices of marinade beef with egg yolk. Unfortunately the beef was a bit warm and did not taste fresh, but it wasn’t disappointing. Then came the Sushi Platter. It was the exact opposite of the Yukke. It was a decent-sized platter with nice assortments of Sushi.

The unexpected dish came next, Okonomiyaki. It was massive! Okonomiyaki is kinda like a savoury pancake with some vegetables and any kind of meat, then sprinkled with shredded seaweed and generous pour of Japanese Mayonaise. It might be too big for one person to finish.

The Bentos are definitely value for money as well. Whether it was Chicken or Beef Teriyaki Bento, they come with a big bowl of rice, miso soup, a portion of mashed potatoes, salad, agedashi tofu and Japanese pickles. The teriyaki was really nice. However, apparently we didn’t try the chef’s signature dish, Mentaiko Basa.

Last, but definitely not the least, are the dessert. First one was the all-time favourite, Green Tea Ice Cream. You’d expect that in any good Japanese restaurants, the ice cream and red bean would taste pretty similar. Our next dessert was rather unconventional, Tempura Ice Cream. I’ve never seen a dessert like this before. Green tea and vanilla ice cream covered in tempura batter with a hint of coconut put over raspberry sauce. It was a combination of hot and cold dessert.

The final verdict: It was a really nice place to have a good meal, and possibly go to one of the nice bars nearby afterwards. The dishes were nice and there was a quite innovative in Tempura ice cream, with the exception of Yukke. It was nice, but unfortunately I’ve tasted a much better one in a similar restaurant.

Did you know?

JuJu is located in Sydney’s red-light district, Kings Cross. The restaurant is located at the same block as the big Coca-Cola sign (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_Cola_Billboard,_Kings_Cross), one of Sydney’s infamous landmarks.

This restaurant is also pretty famous for a waiter who looked like Brad Pitt (seriously!), although when we were there the last time, he wasn’t there.

Location:

82-94 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross NSW 2011

Website:

http://www.jujus.com.au/ (it doesn’t seem to work tho!)

Dec 30, 2010