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.

Old Thanh Huong

Review:

I seemed to be hanging around Marrickville these days and this week’s review is also from Marrickville! It is an interesting Vietnamese restaurant called Old Thanh Huong.

The interesting bit was that we were not there for its Vietnamese dishes. We went there because a colleague recommended a very good Indonesian dish from this restaurant (Yep, an Indonesian dish!).

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were a little bit sceptical. It was far away from hip or modern and the menu consisted of letters and numbers (no shiny pictures, etc). To compound our worries, the restaurant serves Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, and Indonesian food. It is usually never a good sign when you see quite a variety of dishes in a restaurant.

Nevertheless, we soldiered on and proceed with ordering the recommended dish: Chicken in Indonesian-Style Mentega Sauce. Indonesians usually refer it as Ayam Goreng Mentega. To our surprise, the portion was pretty decent and the chicken was awesome! It had a hint of chilli in it but they really nailed it. We also ordered the same mentega sauce but used rabbit as the other meat. Suffice to say, it did not work.

Our next dish was Crispy noodles with duck. It was quite a decent portion and probably the only non-spicy dish of the day. We also ordered XO Sauce Chicken fried rice. To my surprise, it was actually pretty spicy! My Indonesian friends loved it.

We also ordered Vietnamese Pancakes. This was our first time eating Vietnamese pancakes and we were very excited to see the size of the pancake (or technically more like an omelette). The pancake was filled with chicken, seafood and bean sprouts. You also need to eat it with lettuce and the Vietnamese fish sauce. It was very refreshing!

We closed our quite a big lunch with fried banana and ice cream.

The final verdict for Old Thanh Huong

Despite our early worries, Old Thanh Huong’s Mentega Sauce is the dish that will make us want to go back for more!

Did you know?

I know I did not write much about Vietnamese dishes. Chopin and My Saucepan actually ranked Old Thanh Huong the second best pho in Sydney! I actually tried it on my first visit there, but I didn’t take any pictures at that time.

Rating for Old Thanh Huong:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $11 – $20 per main course

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

356 Illawarra Road, Marrickville 2204

+61 2 99558 0863

Apr 7, 2015
The Gonis Schnitzelria

Review:

The restaurant that we reviewed this week is pretty well-known for its Schnitzel. As a matter of fact, The Goni’s Schnitzelria owned the bragging rights to be the Biggest Schnitzel in Sydney, probably matched by the Schnitzel Challenge by Austrian Schnizelhaus.

Four of us arrived at the restaurant feeling quite hungry and we decided to order three schnitzels and a bowl of chips (note: the schnitzels don’t come with chips). We were contemplating on ordering two bowls of chips but were quickly stopped by the waitress. In the end I can understand if she might think we were crazy for trying to order three schnitzels and two bowls of chips.

When the first schnitzel arrived, we quickly realised our blunders. The Mediterranean Schnitzel was a gigantic slab with generous parmesan cheese poured over it. Mediterranean is a chicken schnitzel with garlic, basil, pine nuts and walnuts with béchamel sauce.

Mediterranean Schnitzel – $24

We ordered veal for our next schnitzel, Criolla Schnitzel. It was veal schnitzel with a homemade beef mince sauce, corn and garnished with fresh chilli and parsley.

Criolla Schnitzel – $24

Our last schnitzel used cream sauce instead of melted cheese. The Boscaiola Schnitzel came with peas, mushrooms and bacon. The last one looked and felt very heavy. It looked heavy even if we removed the schnitzel!

Boscaiola Schnitzel – $24

Bowl of Chips – $6.50

We left the restaurant with three aluminium baking trays filled with more than half of our leftovers. Well, in the end, we know that we don’t have to cook any meals for the next couple of days!

The final verdict for The Goni’s Schnitzelria

Even with my love to eating big portions, I still could not finish even 40% of the schnitzel. That’s how big the portions were at The Goni’s Schnitzelria!

Did you know?

There are quite a lot of eating challenges that you can do in Sydney if you particularly love challenges. You can read some of them from a post by I ate my way through.

Rating for The Gonis Schnitzelria:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $24 – $27 per schnitzel

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

296 Marrickville Road, Marrickville 2204

+61 2 9560 2574

http://thegonisschnitzelria.com.au/

Mar 30, 2015
Planet Popcorn

Product Review

Around mid-January, I received an email with a header: We want to send your our Popcorn. I was so tempted to say ‘What are you waiting for?’. However, I am not used to the idea of a product review and have never really done it before.

Long story short, a box of popcorn with six different flavours arrived at my office and the fun started!

Obviously the first one to go was the Original Planet Popcorn as you want to know how ‘the original’ is supposed to taste. The popcorns were a bit bigger than your usual cinema popcorn and they were very round (like a planet !). The Corn Soup popcorns had a well-balanced flavours. However, I find the name ‘corn soup popcorn’ has a bit more corn than it’s supposed to…maybe some fancy name like ‘salt and sugar popcorn’ suits better 🙂

The next two flavours were more on the spicy side. Basil Chicken and Kimchi. It was actually pretty spicy when compared to your normal snacks. My partner is a huge fan of spicy food and quite a hater of snacks. However, she enjoyed the Kimchi popcorn so much that she actually could not wait Planet Popcorn to officially open in Australia!

Then we have the ‘dessert’ type popcorn: Double Chocolate – Premium limited edition put it in the fridge to get the best taste – and Coffee.

These two were more in the sweet side of the spectrum. Double chocolate is supposedly the premium limited edition variant. However, I am not really a big fan of chocolate, so I’m not sure whether I should talk about Double Chocolate.

My Personal Favourite: Corn Soup! I think the Corn Soup flavour from Planet Popcorn has the right combination of sweet and salt.

Additional Information from the people at Planet Popcorn

Planet Popcorn was founded in 2010 by a team with energetic and creativity. With the mission of spreading enjoyment and dismissing boredom, we turn plain and ordinary popcorn into a spiritual antidote that rich in enormous power of joyfulness, bringing you an unprecedented experience of happiness!

Where can you buy Planet Popcorn?

They are opening their first Australian store in Hurstville Westfield Shopping Centre on Level 1 on the 13th April 2015.

How much does Planet Popcorn cost?

The small pack is $ 9.90 and the medium pack is $ 13.90. Their limited edition – Double Chocolate will be selling in small pack only and it’s $ 13.90.

You can also read the following Planet Popcorn Media Release.

Mar 19, 2015
Koh-Ya Randwick

Review:

One of my favourite restaurants in Sydney just got a new baby sister in Randwick! Koh-Ya Randwick is part of a group that includes Yakiniku restaurants and noodle bars. Yakiniku is a type of Japanese cooking that let you grill the meat yourself.

Koh-Ya Randwick has a few a la carte dishes. However, the one that got us interested is their buffet menu. They have two types of buffet: Koh-Ya Buffet and Special Bufet. Koh-Ya buffet costs you $36.90 and you can choose from 50 different dishes, three different desserts, and it’s all you can eat.

Although it’s an all-you-can-eat restaurant, you are only given an hour and 30 minutes at the restaurant. Additionally, you are only allowed to order in the first 60 minutes. That might sound a bit short (especially when compared to 4-hour degustation), however it should be enough time for intense cooking-and-eating combo!

There are only five extra items on the menu for Special Buffet: ox tongue, wagyu beef ribs, spicy chicken, and sashimi salmon and tuna). For these extra items, you will need to pay $8 more. If you are a big fan of sashimi, then the special buffet is a must for you!

I know most of the things I eat in all you can eat restaurant are either meat or seafood. However, there are some dishes in Koh-Ya to consider, like different types of rice bowls and soups and quite a number of salads.

The final verdict for Koh-Ya Randwick

The good things about Koh-Ya Randwick are that they open pretty close to where I live at the moment and they don’t use charcoal for Yakiniku – which translates to less smoke.

Did you know?

Koh-Ya also has a branch in Neutral Bay.

The best thing about Koh-Ya Randwick is probably the fact that there is a small children playground on the side!

Rating for:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5.0 / 10

Price: $36.90 for buffet

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

36 Perouse Road, Randwick 2031

+61 2 8068 0522

Koh-Ya Randwick’s facebook page

Mar 11, 2015
El Topo Mexican

Review:

Before I decided to write about it, I have been to El Topo Mexican restaurant twice: The first one was a small lunch with colleague and the second one was a bigger lunch with friends and family. El Topo Mexican is located on the rooftop of The Eastern in Bondi Junction.

Without further ado, lets get on with the food!

Chapulines – Roast Crickets, Chile Garlic & Lime – $7

It is not a typo from carrots nor the name of an Australian sports. It is really a bowl of roast and crispy crickets for you to enjoy. I asked a Mexican friend of mine who happened to have lunch with us that day. He confirmed that it was a genuine dish from Mexico although it might not be as common in Mexico City.

I must say it’s quite challenging for my friends to try these out.

Chapulines

Taco

For lunch time, they have a deal of any 3 tacos for $15. They have several tacos to choose from and individually they are $6 – $8.

The tacos were quite small but they had nice fillings. Most of us chose the cochinita pibil (i.e. roast annatto pork) which apparently was the most famous toppings.

Taco de cochinita pibil

Taco de pollo en mole amarillo, taco de pescado frito

Ensalada de nopales y garbanzos – Cactus, chickpea, corn, tomato & parsley – $10

The second exotic dish of this restaurant is cactus salad. The texture and taste were pretty similar to pickled paprika in a salsa. It was very refreshing even for a non-vegetables eater like me!

Ensalada de nopales y garbanzos

Ceviche de pez real – kingfish ceviche, achiote, watermelon, radish & finger lime – $16

The ceviche had a gorgeous presentation. Unfortunately, I think there were way too many other items but the ceviche on the plate. The squid ink watermelon provided an interesting colour to the dish.

Ceviche de pez real

Barbacoa de costilla de res – 12 hours beef short rib, barbacoa sauce, pickled cabbage & baby onions – $32

This dish was the main reason why I decided to come back. I was very tempted to order this on my first visit but $32 and a giant beef rib would not do well for my after-lunch work.

However, I can tell you that the beef rib was very yummy. You don’t even need to use your knife to cut through the meat!

Barbacoa de costilla de res

Flan roto de coco con chocolate y cajeta – Flan of coconut, single origin Mexican chocolate hazelnut & goats milk caramel – $14

I was interested in ordering the flan because of its glowing review in Jugernauts. I think I was over-expecting it a bit too much. It was a nice dessert, but not for $14.

Flan roto de coco con chocolate y cajeta

Bunuelos con chocolate – Mexican doughnuts & chocolate sauce – $12

I love doughnuts… any shapes and sizes! I love them even more when they were freshly made!

Bunuelos con chocolate

The final verdict for El Topo Mexican

I’m pretty sure El Topo Mexican is the only place in Sydney (or Australia) that has crickets and cactus on the menu.

Did you know?

There are two El Topo in this premise: El Topo Basement and El Topo Mexican (on the top floor).

Rating for El Topo Mexican:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $15 – $32 per main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Level 3, 500 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction 2022

+61 2 9387 7828

https://www.theeastern.com.au/venues/

Mar 6, 2015
Willis Canteen

Review:

One day a friend of mine asked me a question: Do you want to eat gado-gado? At first I admired his courage in offering me something that I don’t eat that often (vegetables) and obviously my subsequent question ensued: What’s so special about this one?

He said “This is the best one in Sydney and you even need to call them up in advance or be prepared to wait for an hour”. I was really tempted to say: are you mad? I’m not going to wait for an hour for my meal!

However, there was that ‘call in advance’ method (I still had my doubts at that time) that we can utilise so that we don’t need to wait for an hour.

We went on a Sunday afternoon and the restaurant was quite packed (good indicator of a nice restaurant!). Willis Canteen is the name of the restaurant. There were no big dramatic sign boards and no fancy decors. It was a plain and simple canteen!

As we were a bit late (because somehow we went to a different location!), my friend was already there with the gado-gado my wife ordered already on the table! She pointed out that this gado-gado was very similar to the ones in her city. Gado-gado literally translates into mishmash or mixes. It is a mixture of boiled vegetables with homemade peanut sauce. This peanut sauce is the very reason the preparation time was long. It wasn’t from that pre-packaged stuff you get from Asian groceries. They were passionately (and freshly) made by the chef.

Gado-gado – $12

I ordered another variant of peanut-based dish, Ketoprak. I will let you read the description in Wikipedia for ketoprak. Ketoprak is slightly different than gado-gado, but if you get the elements wrong it will be called something else. Their ketoprak was fabulous!

Ketoprak – $11

We also ordered Iga Penyet and Rendang. Iga penyet was a lot simpler in presentation. It was beef ribs with just a couple of vegetables and a small stone mortar with spicy sambal (chilli). In Indonesia the term ‘penyet’ is actually used for smashing the sambal with the main (usually soybean cake, eggplant, or chicken). The beef rendang was the icing on the cake on the already nice lunch.

Iga Penyet – $12.50

Rendang – $12.50

The final verdict for Willis Canteen on facebook

Willis Canteen surprised me in many good ways! I can feel the owners’ passion for food in every dish they served.

Did you know?

Seriously, if you are told that you will be waiting for a long time for your gado-gado, it means you WILL be waiting for a long time. If you want to order the peanut-based stuff, please call them in advance!

Rating for Willis Canteen:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $10 – $15 per dish

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

197/392 Jones Street, Ultimo

+61 2 8040 8372

Willis Canteen on facebook

Feb 26, 2015