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.

Wagyu House Korean BBQ

Review:

Everyone in my inner circle would know that my top two all you can eat restaurants in Sydney are Suminoya and Churrasco. This week’s restaurant we reviewed has proven itself to be a genuine contender for that spot! Wagyu House is an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant in Croydon. It is always busy on weekends and parking is very limited on the venue. So, I suggest you start early!

Wagyu House charges $29.90 per person and $12 for kids aged 5+… such a great deal for an all you can eat place! Bear in mind that the usual restrictions of an all-you-can-eat place applies here: 2-hour limit and finish what you take or you will be charged for excess.

They have quite a system when you go to the restaurant. You will need to get a table first, then go to the other building in the venue to pay for it. You need to get the meat from that other building and you can get the ice cream from there too. There are two big chillers full of meat. The left one is predominantly beef and pork while the right one is an assortment of chicken wings, pork, beef and calamari.

Back to the main dining hall, they have the kimchi station where you can get… well… kimchi and more than a dozen of Korean side dishes. You can also get Korean Pancake and Korean glass noodles at no extra charge!

One thing that I love about Wagyu House is that they still use charcoal (instead of gas) as a method of cooking! They have quite a decent exhaust system that doesn’t make our shirt to have that smoky smell… or probably we were there early enough and not that many people around us.

Obviously, when you see the price tag, you will immediately raise this question: How about their quality? Is it a compromise?

They don’t use the ‘fancy’ seafood and chicken pieces, in fact they only have calamari and chicken wings. They might also have a limited cut of beef. However, they covered that limitation by having different marinaded cuts.

The final verdict for Wagyu House

All you can eat for $30 with decent quality meat? It’s not a surprise they have customers willingly queue there!

Did you know?

I have to write this separately. They have an assortment of beef cuts in the chiller that is part of the $30 but individually packaged at about 400gr each. Apparently, this is the more ‘premium’ selection but have to be consumed as a package. I suggest you choose this over the regular cuts, just be mindful of your own eating capacity.

Rating for Wagyu House:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $29.90 per person

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

668-670 Parramatta Road, Croydon 2132

+61 2 9797 9999

Wagyu House Korean BBQ on Zomato

Jul 1, 2016
Tella Balls Dessert Bar

Review:

One of the few dessert places that I actually reviewed in my food blog. Tella Balls Dessert Bar was opened at the beginning of this year and so far I have never seen a shortage of customers on weekends. It is only one of a few dessert-only places in Inner West and… to make it rarer… they also open until quite late at night!

The original Tella Balls Shake (TBS) – $10 – topped with Nutella Tella Ball

This is the one that’s originally got everyone talking. When you think about it, it’s just a simple Nutella-filled donut sitting on top of a glass of Nutella milkshake. However, our naughty inner self seemingly could not resist the temptation of that ridiculously exciting guilty pleasure!

On a separate occasion, I also tried the salty caramel one with the different being the Salty Caramel filling instead of Nutella.

Tella Balls – $9 – Brioche Style Donut Balls injected with your favourite flavours (served with vanilla bean gelato)

If you want just a simple tella ball… well you can’t, unless if you order it for takeaway… the simplest you can get is tella balls with a scoop of vanilla gelato for $9. I guess it’s a good way to upsell and capitalise on the on-demand seats at the dessert bar.

Gelat-dough – $7 – doughy gelato that looks like a donut but tastes like the finest gelato.

One of the more eye-catching things at Tella Balls dessert bar are their gelat-doughs. It’s like multi-coloured donuts on a stick in a frozen chamber.

Ferrero Bowl – $13 – A smooth Ferrero Rocher mousse in a choc bowl (served with a vanilla bean gelato)

The same with the tella balls, if you want to enjoy their variety of desserts like the Ferrero Bowl, you will need to pay extra for the scoop of ice cream.

Tella Ball Pancake – $20 – 2 stack buttermilk pancakes with Canadian maple syrup, Cadbury Flake, Belgian chocolate chips, vanilla bean gelato & topped with a Nutella flavoured Tella Ball

If you thought the Tella Balls Shake was already ridiculous, wait until you see the Tella Ball Pancake. It looked like your weekly intake of sugar jammed into one plate. It’s a dream come true for Nutella lovers and definitely not for the health-conscious people.

The final verdict for Tella Balls

If you live around the area, it’s worth to buy the Tella Balls for takeaway. If you live outside the area, it depends largely on how much you love Nutella as Tella Balls are heavily featured in the menu.

Did you know?

Their takeaway menu is a lot cheaper than the dine-in one… and you can buy the Tella Ball for onl $4.50.

Rating for Tella Balls Dessert Bar:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $9 – $20 per dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Shop 5, 370 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill

+61 2 8384 4500

Tella Balls Dessert Bar on Facebook

Jun 21, 2016
Tim Ho Wan – Burwood

Review:

Tim Ho Wan was arguably the biggest name to appear in Sydney’s culinary world in 2015. Tim Ho Wan restaurants in Hong Kong are considered to be the world’s cheapest Michelin-star restaurant. When they announced that they would open a restaurant in Chatswood, the earth shook… well maybe not to that extreme, but the anticipation was suffocating. For the first few weeks, queue could be seen outside its store and people waited up to four hours (or more) for it!

Fast forward to mid-2016, we went to one of their branches in Burwood and there was no queue. Mainly, it was because a lot of people over-expected the restaurant to have the same quality as the ones in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, Tim Ho Wan Burwood was still decently filled.

We have never been to Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong and our comparison was based on Yumcha restaurants in Sydney. Instead of having trolleys pushed around the restaurant, you need to order the food in Tim Ho Wan.

Braised Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce – $6.80

I love a good chicken feet dish! It was quite a decent portion and pretty well presented at Tim Ho Wan. However, there was an apparent deficiency in the taste department.

Prawn Dumpling – $8.30

Wasabi Salad Prawn Dumpling – $7.80

There were only four options for dumplings at Tim Ho Wan and they were all seafood. We tried steamed prawn dumpling and deep fried wasabi salad prawn dumpling. They were quite on par with dumplings in other Yumcha place.

The next three plates are part of dishes that were called Big Four Heavenly Kings in Tim Ho Wan

Vermicelli Roll with Liver – $7.50

Vermicelli perhaps isn’t the best word to describe the dish. I have never seen a rice noodle roll dish with liver.

Baked Bun with BBQ Pork – $7.80

This is the dish that got everyone talking about and at the same time criticised Tim Ho Wan: Baked Bun with BBQ pork. The bun looks like an under-baked PappaRoti bread. It had quite the right fluff and, according to my friend, it was pretty nice and sweet.

Pan-Fried Radish Cake – $6.00

The radish cake has pork meat inside. Excluding the desserts, the whole dish in Tim Ho Wan is meat-based. So, if you are a vegetarian, you might want to stay away.

Vermicelli Roll with Beef – $7.50

It was similar to the other vermicelli roll, but this time it was filled with beef instead of liver.

The final verdict for Tim Ho Wan

I think Tim Ho Wan has been heavily criticised for being sub-par to its main branch in Hong Kong. After the hype has died down and the chefs can concentrate on producing the food instead of being a fast-churning production line, we could see that it was a decent restaurant.

Did you know?

If you have never been to a Yumcha but you are not a pork or seafood eater, you might want to reconsider your visit. There are only a handful of dishes that you can choose from in Tim Ho Wan that are neither pork nor seafood.

Rating for Tim Ho Wan:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $5.80 – $9.90 per dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Shop 173 – 175 Westfield Burwood

100 Burwood Road, Burwood 2134

+61 2 8719 9888

http://www.timhowan.com.au/

Jun 1, 2016
Intermezzo Ristorante

Review:

This week we went to a restaurant in quite a premium venue, GPO Grand at Martin Place. The name of the restaurant is Intermezzo Ristorante. Their menu is predominantly Italian with French influence. It has all the cues of a fine dining restaurant. However, they are not a hatted restaurant and also not listed in Top 500 restaurants in Australia. The good thing about it is that you don’t put any expectations on the restaurant and anything good coming out of it is a bonus!

Sicilian Green Olives, Diced Marinated Roma Tomato with Fresh Herbs, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Sourdough – $9.50

It is quite a simple antipasto for little nibbles… and you might need to order a bit more sourdough.

Carpaccio di Bresaola – $21 – Cured Wagyu Beef, Marble Score 9+, thinly sliced with Rocket, Reggiano and Housemade Grissini

It was a pretty well made beef carpaccio and I quite enjoyed it.

Linguine Scampi – $36 – Linguine with Western Australian Scampi, Fresh Vine Ripened Cherry Tomatoes and Chilli

We chose to have the Linguine for starter because originally my wife thought she could share it with the little one. However, to our surprise, the chilli was actually quite spicy here.

Calamari Fritti alla Napoletana – $21 – Crispy Hawkesbury River Calamari Rings with Lemon and Chilli Oil

We had to order this as a backup plan to the kid. We asked for a tomato sauce to accompany the calamari rings and they actually gave us a proper tomato pasta sauce.

Bistecca Alla Fiorentina – $41 – Dry Aged Grain Fed T-Bone (400g) served with Roasted Potatoes and a Rocket and Parmigiano salad

I liked my steak medium rare. I think the t-bone was just a tad overcooked. The rocket salad was also quite sour.

Pesce al Cartoccio – $36 – Ocean Trout Fillet with Truss Tomato, Wild Mushrooms, White Wine and Herbs, served Steamed in Baking Paper

The other main was wrapped in baking paper and was quite small. Also, I could not taste any flavours from the trout.

Wild Rocket, Pear and Parmigiano Reggiano – $11.50

Just like the steak’s sald, the vinaigrette was quite over powering that made the rocket too sour to my liking.

Tiramisu – $15.50 – ‘Pick me up Dessert’ of Mascarpone Layered with Biscotti, Espresso Coffee and served with a Coffee Sorbet

Finally, a dish worth talking about. I always enjoy a good tiramisu. The deconstructed tiramisu was pretty special. It is not your traditional tiramisu and the coffee sorbet really lifted up the mood!

Pannacotta al Caramello – $15.50 – Caramel Pannacotta served with Pistachio Brittle, Honeycomb and Buttermilk Gelato

It is quite a unique take on pannacotta. Instead of the usual shape, this one was almost spherical. It looked quite lively but the pannacotta did not look like the centerpiece of the dish.

The final verdict for Intermezzo Ristorante

Dessert was the only saving grace for Intermezzo Ristorante. Their tiramisu was delightfully refreshing. In contrast, all I could remember from the main and entrée were the high price tag they put on them.

Did you know?

If you book online, apparently you can get a complimentary coffee. They also have different ‘menu of the day’ and the image below was from dessert of the day.

Rating for Intermezzo Ristorante:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5 / 10

Price: $35 – $41 main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

GPO Grand, 1 Martin Place, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9229 7788

http://www.gpogrand.com/intermezzo-italian-restaurant-sydney-cbd

May 25, 2016
One Tea Lounge

Review:

We went to One Tea Lounge solely because of its ramen burger. I have actually visited their ‘express’ restaurant at Hawker Lane in Chatswood and I was curious enough to try their main restaurant in the city.

One Tea Lounge and Grill is not your typical Japanese restaurant. ‘Funky’ might be the word that best describe the restaurant. The menu was even funkier. Peking duck fries anyone? Or what about Lava Stone grill?

Peking duck fries – $12 – with hoisin sauce & coriander

Obviously this is the first one I ordered (after ramen burger that is). When the dish arrived, it is a big bowl of fries topped with shredded Peking duck and coriander.

The strange mix of Peking duck with hoisin sauce and chips actually worked really well!

Popcorn curry chicken – $10 – with green tea lime mayo sauce

We ordered this for the little guy. However, he already made his mind up about Peking duck fries. The popcorn was actually pretty good as a snack.

Designer sliders – $21 – Choice of 3 sliders of our signature designer burgers to get started for the night

Ramen burger is actually part of the designer sliders. You can pick between three different sliders (ramen, rice, or matcha baoger) and four fillings: original wagyu beef, braised pork rib, teriyaki chicken, and miso tofu vegetarian. Matcha baoger is a Japanese bun with a hint of matcha.

The burgers were flavoursome. As ‘sliders’, they were not really that small.

Lava Stone Grill 9+ Wagyu Beef 180gr – $48 – Sizzle the best quality wagyu beef with shimeji and enoki on a hot lava stone at the table. Served with 3 dip sauces – matcha sea salt, green tea hollandaise & yakiniku sauce

One of the mains in the menu with quite an eye-catching name and also one of the more expensive ones. It was quite justifiable as they used marble 9+ wagyu beef. The sauce also married up perfectly with the quality beef!

Matcha Fries – $7 – with green tea salt, seaweed or shichimi spicy

The matcha fries was quite standard when compared to the other fries at One Tea Lounge. I guess you can compare it yourself by the picture below.

Matcha Fondue (for 2) – $23 – Fresh fruit, Green tea castella, macarones, cookies with Matcha white chocolate dip sauce

I had a hard time taking a picture of matcha fondue. Everyone seemed to be wanting to dive in straight away! If you look at the pictures below, you’d understand. It has quite a lot of little bits to dip into the pool of heated green tea!

The final verdict for One Tea Lounge

One Tea Lounge and Grill have quite an interesting list of dishes in their menu. If I could, I would try every single one of them!

Did you know?

You should really try their Asahi burger from the lunch menu. I tried it when I visited Hawker Lane in Chatswood

Rating for One Tea Lounge:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $10 – $58

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Upper Ground Floor, 73 York Street, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9279 3311

http://www.onetealounge.com.au/

May 20, 2016
Zeus Street Greek

Review:

If you haven’t driven along New Canterbury Road in recent years, you might be in for a surprise. There are two new eateries that attract huge crowd, especially on the weekend. One of them is Zeus Street Greek. It is one of a few outlets that Zeus has.

The menu was quite simple and had a good mixture of salad, sides, dips and main dishes. The entrees that we ordered were beetroot, corn cobs, pita bread and chips. We ordered the pita bread to accompany one of the main dishes.

Beetroot – $12.50 – Beetroot, feta, walnuts, honey and mint (GF)

Corn cobs – $9.50 – Roasted corn cobs with grated kefalotiri (GF)

Pita bread (2) – $3.00

Probably the one thing that I remembered the most was the chips. They were quite different. It was quite large, thin and very crispy.

Chips – $6.50

The main dishes are divided into two: pitas and nude. Before you start thinking something x-rated… I think they said ‘nude’ because it’s comparatively bare and uncovered when compared with the ones wrapped in pita bread.

There are three nude dishes and all served with a side of tzatziki and lemon. They are only available in one size only, 200 gr. It’s not bad for a light dinner.

Don’t forget to order an extra pita bread if you order these ones or any other sides as they don’t come with any.

Nude Lamb (200gr) – $18.50 – Our signature lamb from the souvla served with a side of tzatziki and lemon (GF)

Nude Chicken (200gr) – $15.50 – Our signature chicken from the souvla served with a side of tzatziki and lemon (GF)

The two pitas that we ordered on this occasion are both lamb. I cannot really tell the difference between the two, but they were both quite enjoyable.

The Zeus – Lamb – $12.50 – Our signature lamb with Aegean slaw, smoked eggplant, onion and parsley.

Uncle ‘Tzimmy’ Lamb – $12.50 – Our signature lamb with tomato, tzatziki, onion, paprika and chips, wrapped in pita.

The final verdict for Zeus Street Greek

Zeus Street Greek is quite a good place to have a quick lunch and dinner.

Did you know?

The other eatery that attracted a huge crowd in the vicinity is Tella Balls.

Rating for Zeus Greek Street Food:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $10.50 – $18.50

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 2-3, 362-372 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill 2203

+61 2 8315 5600

http://zeusstreetgreek.com.au/

May 11, 2016