Category: Leichhardt

Leichhardt is the Italian suburb of Sydney that is categorised in the inner-west part of Sydney. It is predominantly influenced with great Italian food.

Braza Leichhardt

Braza Leichhardt Review:

We visited Braza in Darling Harbour back in 2013. Braza has been one of our favourite all you can eat restaurants in Sydney ever since. Our review this week is from its main branch (if I’m not mistaken) at Leichhardt in Sydney. Braza Leichhardt has been around for longer than the Darling Harbour one. It is located near the entrance of Leichhardt in Norton Street.

The best thing about Braza Leichhardt is their ability to rotate the supply of meat. Most of the time when you go to have dinner in this kind of restaurant, you will get the cheap cuts… but not Braza. They are able to give you variety of cuts throughout the course of your dinner.

Their menu is still the same. It is plain and simple $49 and you can eat as much as you want.

Side Dishes

Braza has quite a few different side dishes for you to choose from. However, instead of presenting them all on your table, you have to order. There is an exception for the cheese balls where you can only have a limit of one cheese ball per person.

Beef

There are way too many cuts to remember. Obviously being in a Brazilian restaurant, you want to get your hands on their most famous beef cuts: Picanha (or Rump Cap).

Chicken

It is easier with chicken as you can only have chicken thigh or breast. However, in addition to those two, you can also get chicken hearts, chicken drumsticks and sometimes chicken with bacon!

There are also a whole assortments of pork like pork belly and chorizo.

Ribs

This is the bit that I love the most about Braza Leichhardt: the ribs! I love good ribs! What about unlimited supply of good ribs? Even better!

Seafood

Seafood is also probably one of Braza’s strongest offerings. Despite only having two types of seafood, fish wrapped in leaf and prawns, they are still two more than most churrasco restaurants.

Desserts

They are not really sophisticated desserts. However, it is enough to end the night with. Obviously, you could also end the night with a couple of caipirinhas!

The final verdict for Braza Leichhardt

I’m sure you know how my verdict will be considering that Braza is one of our favourites! The Leichhardt branch is no different… or probably slightly better than the Darling Harbour one!

Did you know?
Just in case Leichhardt and Darling Harbour is too far for you, Braza also has restaurants in Manly and Miranda.

Rating for Braza Leichhardt:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $49 all-you-can-eat

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

13 Norton Street, Leichhardt 2040, NSW

+61 2 9572 7921

https://www.braza.com.au/

Jul 7, 2017
Aperitivo

Review:

A few weeks ago, there was a discussion amongst Sydney Food Bloggers about the best pizza restaurant (pizzeria) in Sydney. Some of them mentioned Aperitivo. Aperitivo is a member of AVPN, an organisation that guarantees true Neapolitan pizza. My curiosity surfaced and thought I had to go to the restaurant!

Upon reaching Leichhardt, I realised I went past this restaurant several times on the way to the infamous Bar Italia. My impression was that the restaurant was always buzzing. However, it resembled a bar more than a pizzeria!

As a big fan of nice pate, we ordered the Pate di fegato di pollo e giardiniera. The chicken liver pate was presented with pickled vegetables on a wooden board. The texture was more on the coarse and heavy side.

Pate di fegato di pollo e giardiniera (Chicken Liver pate), $10

Quite a lot of options for the pizza, so you might want to take your time in finding the perfect combination that suit your needs. The interesting thing on this menu is that they have two Margherita pizza. One is the normal Margherita and the other one is Margherita Bufala STG. So, what made it so special and warranted an increase of $7? The footnote gave a little bit of explanation about STG. In 1996, Margherita was recognised as a Specialità Tradizionale Garantita. Technically, you are guaranteed that the pizza you enjoyed is of traditional quality. You also got buffalo mozzarella instead of the normal cow’s milk mozzarella.

Margherita Bufala STG, $24

The other pizza we ordered was Pizza Lampara. This one is the less-traditional seafood pizza. The toppings included sauté calamari and prawns with rocket. I found that this one was tastier than the Margherita one.

Pizza Lampara, $24

We ordered Aperitivo Tiramisu for the dessert. The tiramisu had quite a convincing description: Soft sponge, mascarpone semifreddo, salted caramel, strawberry compote and chocolate crumble. Despite its nice appearance, it fell short in the taste department.

Aperitivo Tiramisu, $12

The final verdict for Aperitivo

There is no mistaking that Aperitivo’s pizza had the nice quality. However it is not enough to dethrone my personal favourite.

Did you know?

There are four members of the prestigious Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (The True Neapolitan Pizza Association) in Sydney. They are Lucio Pizzeria, Gigi Pizzeria, Pizza Mario and Aperitivo. Its main goal is to promote and protect the “true Neapolitan pizza” according to a very strict standard.

As mentioned above, we love going to Bar Italia for its Mascarpone (pictured below).

Rating for Aperitivo:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $14 – $24 per pizza

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

163 Norton St, Leichhardt NSW 2040

+61 2 9564 0003

http://aperitivo.com.au/

Nov 6, 2014
Eiger Swiss Restaurant

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Unfortunately, Eiger has closed its doors for good.

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Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7.5 /10

Price Range: $35

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week, we will be taking you to the elusive dish from one of the best place in the world, Raclette of the Swiss Alps. Originated from the French word ‘racler’, which means to scrape, this dish was ‘found’ when farmers decided to scrape the melting cheese off a rock so that it won’t go to waste (http://www.raclette.com.au/raclette_info/what_is_raclette.html). It turned out that the type of cheese tasted better when melted.

Raclette is the national dish from Switzerland. I have never heard about this type of cheese-eating mechanism before my friend, Andrea, suggested me to this Eiger Swiss Restaurant. Apparently, Eiger is the only restaurant in Sydney to serve the Raclette. In order to enjoy this fantastic dish, you have to book two days in advance.

Before we go to the menu, I’ll show you what to do with the utensils on the table (it can be pretty intimidating for first time eater). You get a wooden scraper and a scoop-like metal. This is where you need to put your cheese in. Then there was a big double-decked griller in the middle of the table for maximum of eight people. The top is for sausages and the bottom one is for your scoop.

The Raclette came in a set menu for your total enjoyment. The set menu was simple. You will get 200 grams of Raclette Cheese (don’t worry it’s A LOT!!), A selection of Sausages, Pickles (Gherkins and Onions), and Potatoes.

Basically you’ll get a constant supply of these things. First thing to do is to heat up the cheese. Then you mash up the potatoes (or any other way you like). Pour the cheese all over the potatoes. You can add salt, pepper, and – ideally – paprika for your enjoyment. It’s wonderful to see the cheese slides thru the scoop to your potatoes. IMHO, the cheese does taste BETTER when heated up as opposed to eating it straight up.

At the same time, the sausages can be put on the top griller. Since sausages don’t take long to cook, make sure you keep an eye on them. The combination of this food created a (literally) warm feeling on the tummy. You will also get bread for starters, but I strongly suggest you avoid it, unless if you’re a massive eater.

In addition to the Raclette, this restaurant serves full course menu all native to Switzerland. Since my wife couldn’t eat too much cheese at this stage, she ordered Zurich Geschnatzeltes (Shredded veal in wine – mushroom –cream sauce). My friend told me that dish was also one of the national dishes of Switzerland.

The final verdict: I know that for Swiss people this is as close as it gets from home. And for Australian, it’s a great way to experience what the food is like on top of the Alps. However on this hot summer day, it’s a tad inappropriate to have this much carbs intake. Overall, it’s a nice food in a nice atmosphere.

Did you know?

This week’s Andrea is not the same as last week’s! Although this restaurant is only a couple of blocks away from Gioia.

Location:

552 Parramatta Rd, Petersham, NSW 2049

Website:

http://www.eigerswissrestaurant.com.au/eiger_001.htm

Dec 13, 2010
Café Gioia

Rating:

7.5 / 10

8.0 for Andrea’s effort!

Taste: 7.5 /10

Price Range: $20 – $30

Place: 7/10

Review:

Our friend, Tim, introduced us to this restaurant before I started this blog and we had a good impression of it. This time around, we decided to explore a bit more on the variety of menu they have. There were eight of us and we decided to get a four-person Antipasto, 2 large pizzas, a salad, Gnocchi, and Cannelloni. At the end of the day, they were more than enough to feed all of us.

Interestingly, the pizzas came in first, Lungomare, to be exact. This gourmet-range pizza had the freshest of ingredients with Salmon as the main attraction. The next one was Leichhardt Special. This one was very similar to one of the famous Pizza chains, Super Supreme. All of their pizzas are cooked in wood-fire pizza oven but somehow the Lungomare was much better than Leichhardt Special.

The next four dishes came at almost the same time, but luckily they were in the correct order. Salmon & Avocado Salad gave us a fresh and healthy salad with a hint of olives. What I like about it was the fact that there was a lot less ‘greens’ on the plate. The only salad in it was my all time favourite, Rockets!

The Antipasto was a little bit different. They had a fixed price for the first one, but there was a far less incremental fee for more than one portion. Technically speaking, Antipasto is the Italian starter for a dinner. It should have been the first dish that hit the table. It’s an assortment of cured meats, variety of cheese, and veggies. The combination of it creates an excellent and fresh antipasto.

The last two dishes were also great. First was Cannelloni. Two rectangular pastas filled with ricotta cheese (and possibly spinach and minced beef). It would be a good dish if the next one were not considerably better. Gnocchi Prawns and Asparagus was the pinnacle for the night. The combination of ultra-soft gnocchi and juicy prawns, served in orange-looking tomato sauce, was exquisite.

By now you might be wondering who this Andrea is. He is our waiter for the night. Claimed to be from both side of Italy, this Interisti truly entertained us with his energy, enthusiasm, and humour. With his efforts, this restaurant deserves an 8.0!

The final verdict: Everything that we ordered was great! From the perfect crust pizza, the invigorating Antipasto to the admirable Gnocchi! To top it off, the waiter gave us the perfect night with his positive personality.

Did you know?

Leichhardt is also known as the Little Italy in Sydney. It is famous for its Italian Quarter. Gioia is located on Leichhardt’s main street, Norton. They also have few private parking spaces, so if you’re early, you might be lucky!

Location:

126A Norton St, Leichhardt, NSW 2040

Website:

http://www.gioiacafe.com/

Dec 6, 2010