Category: Sydney

All About Food Blog is currently based in Sydney, Australia. It is obviously THE place to be if you want to find food from all over the world.

Saab Wer Thai Esan

Saab Wer Review:

We went to have lunch in Newtown on the weekend. Our choice went to this bright pink restaurant that is closer to the University of Sydney than the Newtown station, Saab Wer Thai Esan.

Their lunch menu is super cheap (by Sydney’s standards). Most of the dishes are $7.50. You will need to pay more for seafood or duck meat. Just like most Thai lunch places, you order the dish you want with the meat of your choice.

Soft Shell Crab – $7.50

It was quite a generous portion of soft shell crab. It was also not disappointing taste-wise.

Laad Na Mee Krob – $7.50 – Crispy egg noodles, Chinese broccoli, egg and gravy sauce with chicken

This dish is known in Indonesia as Ifumie. It is a combination of thick egg soup and crispy egg noodles. It was one of my favourite dishes growing up in Indonesia. The difference in this dish was in the noodles. Instead of the usual thin egg noodles, we got a bowl of massive egg noodles.

Beef Thai fried rice – $7.50 – with eggs and vegetables.

The obvious safe option when you are trying a new restaurant. Their portion was quite big for the price.

The final verdict for Saab Wer Thai Esan

Saab Wer Thai Esan is a good place if you want to have fast and painless lunch with acceptable quality and big portion.

Did you know?

There are a lot of Thai restaurants in Newtown, especially along King Street. Most of them offered similar range of dishes. Saab Wer Thai Esan chose to compete for price-sensitive customers.

Rating for Saab Wer Thai Esan:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $7.50 – $11 per lunch main

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

105 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042

+61 2 8580 1345

http://www.saabwer.com.au/

Nov 3, 2016
Medan Ciak

Medan Ciak Review:

Another brand new restaurant we went to for this week’s blog entry. I was quickly drawn into the restaurant because of my friend. He visited this new establishment fairly regularly in the past few weeks and always said that it was worth a visit. Considering he is from Medan and the restaurant is called Medan Ciak, I guess there is no hurt in trying.

The menu was quite a simple one-pager. These days, I like having to choose from a smaller list. So that we can minimise our errors in choosing the wrong dish.

Yong Tofu – Weekend special

Every weekend, Medan Ciak has a special menu. For the weekend we were there, the special menu was Yong Tofu. It was a slightly spicy meatball soup with assortments of meatballs, including whole-chilli meatball!

Medan Cah Kwe Tiau – $13 – Fried flat rice noodles with BBQ pork, Chinese sausage, prawn, fish cake, egg, shallot, bean sprout

I went with my usual choice of kwetiau. Kwetiau is one of a few baselines I used to decide on my scoring. They gave quite a generous portion for the price. The ingredients are not premixed, so you are able to exclude some of the ingredients from the list (i.e. you can ask for no pork or no seafood).

Nasi Lemak Komplit – $11 – Coconut rice served with fried chicken, beef curry, boiled egg with sambal, peanut, anchovy fish, crackers, cucumber, fried shredded coconut

Nasi lemak originally comes from Malaysia. However, some parts of Indonesia (especially Sumatra), does offer similar rice dish and call it ‘nasi lemak’ as well. Their fried chicken, albeit quite small, was quite good. However, the sambal potato was the star of the dish. They were so good.

Nasi Simangunsong – $13 – Steamed rice served with stir fry kangkung (water spinach) & fried chicken.

Nasi simangunsong is the one thing that we have never heard of. It’s quite an interesting mix of fried chicken and water spinach. I am quite curious about the prawn they put on top of the rice. Although it’s a nice surprise addition for us. People with seafood allergies might not be too thrilled.

The final verdict for Medan Ciak

I quite enjoyed the kwetiau from Medan Ciak. Their other dishes really felt like having a real Indonesian dish in a typical Indonesian restaurant.

Did you know?

Medan Ciak can be quite busy these days due to the sheer number of Indonesians eager to try.

Rating for Medan Ciak:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $11 – $14 per main

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 3 / 460 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010

+61 403 363 326

https://www.facebook.com/MedanCiak/

Oct 26, 2016
Osaka Trading Co

Osaka Trading Co Review:

Osaka Trading Co. had literally just been opened for one week when we were there. The restaurant is located in Harold Park Tramsheds. Originally the building was Rozelle Tramway Depot that has been transformed into a food precinct.

Osaka Trading Co designed their menu in line with the current trends: everything is made to be shared! However, I think their perception of small and large is different than mine. I kinda feel like the size was small and super small. Have a look at the dishes below and let me know what you think!

Edamame with seaweed salt – $6

Edamame is the usual starter that you would order in a Japanese restaurant.

Market sashimi, fragrant ponzu sauce – $21

Our first dish is from the ‘small’ share section. As you can see, I would be more inclined to refer to it as ‘tiny’ than ‘small’.

Silken tofu, shiso tapenade – $9.5

Our next dish from the ‘small’ section fits the bill. The tofu was very nice and refreshing. It matched perfectly with the shiso tapenade.

Grilled ocean trout, miso milk sauce, herb oil – $26

This is part of the ‘large – to share’ dishes on the menu. Personally, I think it is more on the medium range. It was also quite hard and messy to share.

Karaage chicken, Japanese tartare sauce – $18.5

Another ‘large’ dish that looked even smaller than the first one. The karaage was acceptable but there was no distinction to any other karaage in a much cheaper restaurant.

Kipfler potato salad, asparagus, onsen egg, miso mayonnaise – $10

The vegetables dish that is usually part of side dishes was actually the same size as the karaage dish above. This is the dish that I enjoyed eating the most.

The final verdict for Osaka Trading Co

In terms of design and concept, there is no doubt Osaka Trading Co is following the current trend. However, we feel that the execution is a bit lacking at the moment. With a bit of adjustments, they can be pretty good in the future.

Did you know?

There are quite a few notable restaurants opening up their shop at Harold Park Tramsheds. Osaka Trading Co. is the second restaurant opened by Tokyo Bird team.

Rating for Osaka Trading Co Restaurant:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $18.5 – $36 per large dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

T18/200 Ross St, Forest Lodge 2037

+61 2 8880 0717

https://www.facebook.com/OsakaTradingCo/

Oct 18, 2016
Sake Japanese Restaurant

Sake Japanese Restaurant Review:

We had a birthday celebration this week and I wanted to have an Omakase dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Omakase is a Japanese term that is loosely translated into ‘leave it up to the chef’. So, instead of choosing from the menu, we let the chef choose our meal for the night. We went to Sake Japanese Restaurant at The Rocks on this occasion.

Sake Japanese Restaurant used to have Omakase on its menu. However, they are no longer offering it. Luckily, on this occasion, we were granted a slightly modified version of Omakase – in which the chef have already decided in advance what we will be having on the night. The price was $125 per person.

Omakase Menu from Sake Japanese Restaurant

Pacific Oysters – with Japanese salsa (ponzu, sweet garlic, tomato salsa)

Each of us got three oysters with three different dressings. Half of the table chose the sweet garlic and the other half chose ponzu as the best one for the night. Despite offering the freshest tasting oyster, the tomato salsa dressing was dead last.

White Soy Snapper – thin slices of sashimi snapper, sesame seeds

The serving of sashimi (9 pieces for 2 people) was quite generous on this occasion. It was quite the perfect continuation of three servings of oysters.

Tuna Ceviche – Lemon dressing, coriander, jalapeno, tomato, crunchy fried onion

The menu listed jalapeno as one of the ingredients. However, this version of ceviche wasn’t spicy at all. Instead, we got this sour-tasting tuna with quite a lot of crunchy onion.

Steamed Prawn shumai – spicy ponzu

The prawn shumai was arguably the strangest Japanese shumai skin I’ve ever seen. Instead of the usual ‘wrapper’, we got noodles wrapping around the prawn meat. The shumai went pretty well with the spicy ponzu. Each of us only received two shumai.

Scampi Tempura – amaze ponzu, red onion, jalapeño, coriander

If they served scampi, I usually ordered two at most in a Japanese restaurant, due to scampi’s more premium nature (in price) compared to the other meat. I was pretty excited that each of us got three scampis. On one side, I thought having a scampi as tempura was quite a wasteful avenue as I would rather eat them as sashimi. However, the scampi tempura that they presented was close to perfection. It was probably one of two highlights of the night.

Caramelised Miso Toothfish – den miso, aji amarillo, shimeji

This was the only dish on the night that truly amazed me. There was that ‘oh my, what was that I just put into my mouth?’ moment. It was probably one of the best fish I have ever tasted. The toothfish’s texture was super smooth with slightly sweet taste.

Nigiri Sushi – tuna, scallop, seared salmon belly, kingfish belly, tamago, red snapper

There were Six beautifully laid out nigiri sushi on the plate. Each one of us got a whole plate for ourselves. I am quite happy with this arrangement, although it might be a bit too much for our partners.

Dragon Egg – Dark chocolate, passionfruit, chocolate mousse

There was a touch of theatrics when they poured the liquid nitrogen onto the dragon egg. Personally, I felt that the dessert was a tad underwhelming. However, my little one had no issue devouring it.

When you cracked it open, you could see another layer of chocolate encasing the passionfruit and chocolate mousse.

Additional:

These two are not part of the Omakase, but we ordered it separately. The edamame as the opening course (would have been nicer if it was an amuse bouche.. but no -_-). The chicken teriyaki is for my little one who still could not eat degustation.

Edamame – $9 – lightly salted soy beans in the pod

Chicken Teriyaki – $29 – sweet teriyaki | bok choy | spring onions

The final verdict for Sake Japanese Restaurant

We had an enjoyable evening at Sake Japanese Restaurant. The portion was also enjoyable, meaning I wasn’t too hungry nor too full.

Did you know?
Sake Japanese Restaurant charges 10% fee on top of your bill when you are in a big group of 10 or more. If you happen to reduce the number to less than 10, they still put that charge on top of your bill.

Rating for Sake Japanese Restaurant:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $125 Omakase

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

12 Argyle Street, The Rocks NSW 2000

+61 2 9259 5656

http://www.sakerestaurant.com.au/

Oct 7, 2016
Oishii

Oishii Review:

Oishii is located in quite a prominent place in Hunter Valley. To be honest, we were never interested to even try because of the weird combination that they pitched their restaurant as: Thai and Japanese restaurant.

However, on this occasion, we decided to eat some rice and noodles as we have already had way too much cheese and bread… and apparently there are little to none options around the area.

Fried Rice with Seafood – $19.00

Considering we were here for the rice, fried rice was the obvious choice. The seafood fried rice at Oishii may seem like a very expensive one (especially when compared to most Sydney’s Thai restaurants). However, the portion was quite large and they put quite a lot of seafood toppings!

Chicken Teppan Yaki – $22.90 – barbequed on sizzle plate with stir fried Vegetables

It was a simple chicken teppanyaki with stir fried vegetables. The portion for the teppanyaki was bigger than what I expected.

Pad See Ew – $20.50 – thick white rice noodles with chicken and vegetables

We usually prefer having pad see ew more than pad thai because of the use of dark / sweet soy sauce. Again, Oishii’s pad see ew follows the trait of the other two dishes: quite a big portion with decent amount of meat.

Salmon and Avocado Hand-Rolled Maki – $6.50

The hand-rolled maki was actually an extra dish that I ordered because I was curious about their sushi roll. The temaki was suspended nicely like an ice cream cone.

Deep fried ice cream – $8.50

Deep fried ice cream is our son’s most favourite dessert at the moment. They have the usual three toppings to choose from: strawberry, chocolate and caramel.

The final verdict for Oishii

From the outside, Oishii might seem like an overpriced Asian restaurant with quite a weird combination of cuisines. However, upon closer inspection, their taste was pretty decent and their serving size was massive!

Did you know?

Hunter Valley is the wine region in New South Wales. They are famous of their vineyards and cellar doors.

Rating for Oishii:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $16.50 – $28.90 per main

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Tempus Two Winery, Hunter Valley

Corner of Broke Rd & Mcdonald Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320

+61 2 4998 7051

http://www.oishii.com.au/

Sep 29, 2016
Mi Mamasita

Mi Mamasita Review:

Mi mamasita is one of the new establishments popping up in Rosebery in the last few months. Being pretty close to the office, I’ve had lunch there a few times. There were ups and downs with the biggest disappointment was one of our colleague’s order didn’t turn up 30 minutes later. However, they seemed to be refining their services. In our last visit, they took our orders from the table and the order arrived in an acceptable time frame.

Their menu is mostly consisted of Latin American dishes with a handful of typical Australian brekkie.

Soup of the day – homemade Mamasita style – $9.50

I did not order the soup but my colleague said the soup was nice. It was also recommended to take the extra bread roll option for $1.50.

Beef Asado – $17.50 – Asado, beef ribs in a dry rub of Argentinian spices, slowly braised in a beef and wine stock, coated with Chimichurri, accompanied with Patatas Fritas and a Side salad.

The description was quite mouthful. In simple terms, beef asado is BBQ beef, Spanish-style. Instead of BBQ, the Spanish bbq beef uses chimichurri as its sauce. I am used to eat this in abundance in a Churrasco restaurant, so having only a piece might not be the best decision I’ve made. The beef asado was pretty filling for lunch tho.

Huevos La Flamenca – $14.50 – Poached eggs, chorizo, Jamon Serrano, Rich Tomato sauce, served with toasted house bread

To be honest, I was expecting some kind of breakfast-y dish for this. However, Huevos La Flamenca was more of a tomato soup with crispy Jamon Serrano noticeably stood out. It reminded me of Tunisian/Middle Eastern Shakshuka dish.

El Grande Burger – $16.00 – Beef, cheese, fried egg, caramelised onions, smokey bacon, gherkins, cos, tomato & chipotle mayo, served with Patatas Fritas

El Chopete – $16.00 – Pulled pork, slow braised in apple cider with fennel, layered with Mi Mamasita slaw and jalapeno, served with Patatas Fritas

The final verdict for Mi Mamasita

Mi Mamasita has the potential to be a nice restaurant if they can fix the wait time and also pay more attention to the customers’ orders. Their breakfast and lunch menu was actually pretty good!

Rating for Mi Mamasita:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $6.50 – $17.50

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

C206/28 Rothschild Avenue, Rosebery NSW 2018

+61 434 485 679

Mi Mamasita on Facebook

Sep 21, 2016