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.

Java Restaurant

Review:

I have wanted to go to this week’s restaurant for as long as I could remember, but we just kept delaying it… until now. Located in Randwick, Java Restaurant (the name is quite easy to remember, isn’t it?) is quite unassuming and you can easily miss it because of the old decor.

We were quite optimistic about the place because as we went for an early dinner, there were people already dined there. Sometimes good restaurants can simply be seen by the number of patrons eating there at odd hours of the day.

While we were there, we skipped all the regulars that we could find in other Indonesian restaurants around Sydney, with the exception of fried kwetiau. There were still quite a bit to choose from and we tried to order as much as we could eat them!

First off is Nasi Goreng Babat. It was Indonesian specialty fried rice with beef tripe (cow’s tummy). This dish came with traditional Indonesian crackers (melinjo), egg and sliced tomatoes. I have this guilty pleasure of enjoying quite about everything even when they are not the healthy option, because that’s where most of the great taste comes from!

Nasi Goreng Babat – $11.90 – Indonesian style fried rice with beef tripe and tomato slices

For the second dish, Semur Kepiting Sokak, I do not think the name reflects the description given. Traditionally speaking, semur is a rich, soup-based dish. Whereas this dish is deep fried soft shell crabs with sweet soy sauce and lots of onions and capsicums. It is still a great dish, but I think it should be named Kepiting Soka bumbu kecap (Soft shell crab with sweet soy sauce) instead of semur.

Semur Kepiting Sokak (Soft Shell Crab) – $20.90 – Lightly battered fried soft shell crab pieces topped with shallots, onions, and capsicum slices in butter sweet soya sauce

At the end of last month when we went to Ester, I was quite disappointed that they did not serve bone marrow. So I quickly made up my mind at the first sight of the word “bone marrow” in this restaurant. Better yet, it’s salt and pepper bone marrow with chopped chilli! They called the dish Sum sum Goreng.The Indonesian word for bone marrow is supposedly sumsum.

Sumsum Goreng – $14.90 – Salt and peppered lightly battered fried beef bone marrow pieces with cut chilli

Sumsum Goreng – $14.90 – Salt and peppered lightly battered fried beef bone marrow pieces with cut chilli

Kwetiau Goreng was our last dish of the day. It is quite a well balanced dish with good amount of chicken, fish cakes and prawns atop the thick rice noodles.

Kwetiau Goreng – $11.90 – Stir-fried thick rice noodles with chicken, egg, vegetables, fishcakes and small prawn pieces

Last, but definitely not least, Indonesians love to have avocado for desserts and/or drinks. Es Alpukat is a shaved ice (the menu said ‘crushed ice’) dessert with fresh avocado, coffe and condensed milk.

Es Alpukat – $5.80 – Fresh avocado pieces in coffee and condensed milk with crushed ice

The final verdict for Java Restaurant

There are quite a few ‘interesting’ descriptions in the menu at Java Restaurant. However in terms of taste, I must say they were up to my expectations!

Did you know?

A couple of months ago, my Dutch colleague asked me a question that he assumed every Indonesian should know: Where can I get a Rijst Tafel in Sydney?

Very clueless, I replied “What is Rijst Tafel? “. Apparently rijst tafel is a kind of extravagant, old-fashioned Indonesian meal that they have in the Netherlands that people spends countless hours preparing to impress their guests. They cook several Indonesian dishes and prepare them as a banquet-style meal where people share and enjoy the dishes together.

I knew NOTHING about it.

Amazingly, Java restaurant managed to actually have rijst tafel in their menu. So, I am even more impressed with them!

Rijst Tafel menu

Rating for Java Restaurant:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $10-20 for main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

151 Avoca Street, Randwick

+61 2 9398 6990

www.javarestaurant.com.au

Oct 14, 2014
Ester Restaurant and Bar

Review:

Mat Lindsay, Ester Restaurant and Bar Chef

Ester was named new restaurant of the year in this year’s Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2015, so we are obviously here to put the claim to the test! Thanks to Miss Piggy on her review about Ester, we already have pre-defined list of what we want to eat there.

What we were not aware of was the fact that the food in the menu is meant to be shared for the whole table! They have the option of a la carte or a banquet menu of seven dishes for $65 pp. The six of us decided to have the a la carte option that ended up costing us $60 pp including drinks. We had four entrees, four main dishes and two desserts.

Entrees

Order the house baked bread if you do not plan to order chicken liver pate, because the chicken liver pate came with the house baked bread. I encouraged you to order this dish as the liver pate was smooth and tasty. They provided sliced beetroot to balance the strong pate taste.

house baked bread 3 p.p.

chicken liver pate 17

I had a mix feeling for the next two entrees. We had a massive expectation for the roasted oysters (you can order one, half or dozen). However, I think my expectation was a bit too high when comparing it to Tetsuya’s Oyster Vinaigrette. It’s still a nice oyster with quite a lot of garlic.

roasted oysters 4/22/40

The lobster sausage sanga on the other hand was awesome! Served on top of warm white bread, the sausage was incredibly juicy and obviously sharing one plate was not enough!

lobster sausage sanga 9 each

Our last entree was ricotta gnudi with lobster sauce. Gnudi is a variant of gnocchi with ricotta as its filling. I love the fluffy texture of the gnudi and they mixed really well with the strong tasting of lobster sauce. For the complete experience, I suggest you to order this dish with the next one on the main dishes part.

ricotta gnudi / lobster sauce 16

Main Dishes

King prawns, with brown butter and capers, is the name of the dish. They gave you three gigantic prawns per dish and you can also opt for an additional prawn depending on the number of guests on your table. The prawns were grilled to perfection and I think the dish was perfectly priced.

prawns / brown butter / capers 26

The only vegetables dish of the day came in the shape of cauliflower with almond and mint. The cauliflower was grilled maybe a bit too much but the mint sauce and almond worked quite well. It was actually quite refreshing!

cauliflower / almond / mint 16

As there were quite a few of us, we decided to order the whole snapper rather than the fillet. The snapper came with saltbush and vinegar. Luckily we have a skilled debone person in house, so we had no problem eating the fish.

whole snapper / saltbush / vinegar 45

The last main dish of the day was a special, off-the-menu item: Crispy Roast Duck with burnt honey and fennel seeds. I wonder why he doesn’t make this the mainstay on the menu because it was incredibly tasty! The duck was perfectly cooked with very crispy skin and very juicy meat. I really couldn’t get enough off it! I think this is the best value for your money!

Crispy Roast Duck / burnt honey / fennel seeds 39

Desserts

I hope you save your tummy for desserts as the two that we ordered were excellent. First we had three milks. I know the name sounded really lame and unappealing with a little hint of curiosity. “What is ‘three milks’?” might probably be the most frequently asked question at the restaurant. Three milks is a combination of dulce de leche (aka caramel), panna cotta and sheep’s milk foam. You get the crunchy caramel and crumbs, nice and sweet panna cotta and sour and airy sheep’s milk foam. If you love desserts, you would NOT want to share this!

three milks 11

Last, but definitely not least, is the salted caramel semi-freddo. I thought when they talked about freddo, it’s that frog from Cadbury. Semifreddo is an Italian word for half cold or semi-frozen. The salted caramel was quite sweet and flavoursome.

salted caramel semi-freddo 4

The final verdict for Ester Restaurant and Bar

There is no mistake that Ester Restaurant and Bar was crowned the 2014 Best New Restaurant in Sydney by Sydney Morning Herald. Everything we had there was terrific! Three milks is the one that you must order when you are there!

Did you know?

Ester changes their menu depending on the seasonal availability. Keep an eye on Bone marrow dish if it’s available at the restaurant when you dine there. We were unlucky as the dish was not on the menu when we were there.

Rating for Ester Restaurant and Bar:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $50-60 per person or $65 banquet menu

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

46 – 52 Meagher Street, Chippendale

+61 2 8068 8279

http://ester-restaurant.com.au/

Sep 29, 2014
Dish’d Launch Event with Jacques Reymond

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One day, an email came into my mail box with a subject: dish’d and Jacques Reymond invite you to experience a delicious evening of discovery… And my first reaction was: Who is Jacques Reymond?

Upon Googling for more information, I discovered that he is a very famous chef who ‘retired’ from his self-titled restaurant ‘Jacques Reymond – Cuisine du Temps’ in Melbourne last year. Over the last 27 years, he managed to collect 80 hats (that was no small feat!).

Dish’d Launch Event with Jacques Reymond

I came into the event pretty early as the expected traffic jam along the way did not really happen. I quickly realised that there were quite a few famous people amongst the crowd. I didn’t really know their names, except maybe a select few like Justine Schofield from Masterchef or Rosie Henshaw from The Voice. Yes… I was getting a little bit starstruck here!

There were three big stalls (five if you include the two bars) setup during the event.

The Comfort Stall

This is the stall I frequented the most when I was there. They had a very yummy Spinach and Mascarpone Pizza. They also had the Lamb backstrap perfectly combined with Chimichurri rice.

Seafood and Pasta Stall

I love the idea of chilled pearl couscous salad combined with marinated scallops.

Dessert Stall

Dessert Stall – Crepe Suzette, Love Apples, Black Pearls

By far, the biggest stall of the night. It had loads of goodies. Despite the irresistible smell of the Crepes Suzzete, I was only able to eat its Tiramisu al mascarpone.

Dish’d: The Story

Dish’d Food store started in Melbourne back in 2011. They delivered a full range of meals from finger food to mouth-watering cakes and tarts.

Their food is delivered for free if you spend more than $80. Obviously, you could microwave it for instant result, but it’s best to follow the other cooking instruction.

Jacques Reymond

Beside Tetsuya Wakuda, Jacques Reymond is probably the only other three-hat chef I’ve ever met. We have not been in luck with the other chefs when we visited their restaurants.

As I mentioned earlier, for almost 30 years, he has won countless awards and hats. 17 of those years were spent as a three-hat chef! His restaurant is now called Woodland House, operated and run by his chefs Thomas Woods and Hayden McFarland.

He joined the dish’d team in February 2014.

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Sep 23, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2015
Sepia is the defending champion in this year’s Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2015. Since Sepia opened its doors in 2009, the restaurant has won three restaurant of the year awards (2012, 2014 and 2015).

Other Awards in this year’s Good Food Guide 2015

Brent Savage from Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Monopole, and Yellow has won the Chef of The Year award. Bentley is a two-hat restaurant and the other two are one-hat restaurants.

Vicki Wild (Sepia) won the Service Excellence Award.

Young Chef of the year award was given to Julian Cincotta from Nomad.

New restaurant of the year is Ester.

Award of Innovation went to Pasi Petanen from Cafe Paci.

Sustainability Award was given to Fins Restaurant.

Peter Doyle received the Legend Award.

List of restaurants with hats

Three hats

There are four restaurants awarded with three hats as listed in the Good Food website:
- Rockpool – The group has several restaurants including two two-hat restaurants, Rockpool Bar and grill and Spice Temple. We were very pleased with Rockpool restaurant when we went there for lunch earlier this year.
- Quay – 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2013 restaurant of the year. It has been a while but I always remembered its Snow Egg!
- Sepia – Winner of 2015, 2014 and 2012 Restaurant of the year award.
- Momofuku Seiobo – This restaurant has been a three hat in the Good Food Guide ever since it opened its doors to public!
As listed from the website, the rest of the hats are as follows:

Two hats

ARIA Restaurant, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Berowra Waters Inn, The Bridge Room, est., Ester, Gastro Park, Icebergs Dining Room & Bar, Lucio’s Italian Restaurant, Marque, Mr. Wong, Ormeggio at the Spit, Pilu at Freshwater, Porteño, Rockpool Bar & Grill, sixpenny, Spice Temple, Tetsuya’s.

One hat

4Fourteen, Aki’s Indian Restaurant, Alpha, The Apollo, Arras, Bar H Dining, The Bathers’ Pavilion, Billy Kwong, Bistro Moncur, Bistrode CBD, BLACK by Ezard, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Bodega, Buon Ricordo, Cafe Paci, Cafe Sopra, Catalina, China Doll, Cho Cho San, Clareville Kiosk, Cottage Point Inn, the devonshire, Farmhouse, Felix, Fish Face, Flying Fish Restaurant & Bar, Four in Hand Dining Room, glass brasserie, Hartsyard, Jonah’s Restaurant, Kepos Street Kitchen, Longrain, Lox Stock & Barrel, Monopole, Moon Park, MoVida, Ms.G’s, Nomad, Oscillate Wildly, Osteria Balla, Osteria di Russo & Russo, Otto Ristorante, The Restaurant Pendolino, Saké Restaurant & Bar, Sean’s Panaroma, Sokyo, sushi e, Three Blue Ducks, Uccello, Ume Restaurant, Vincent, Vini, Yellow.
Sep 2, 2014
Ippudo Experience

My Ippudo Experience

Ippudo is located on the fifth floor of the buzzing Westfield Sydney precinct. We have visited Ippudo a few times before, but it was always during lunch. On this occasion, we were invited for a three-course dinner meal at Ippudo. They have a lot more items on the menu when compared to the lunch menu.

Entrees

We ordered the Ippudo Pork Bun. Overhearing the loud conversation from the table next to us, this pork bun apparently has reached the ‘legendary’ status amongst food enthusiasts. We think it was quite a nice pork bun to set the mood for the evening. The braised pork was a perfect match with the sauce.

Ippudo Pork Bun – Steamed bun with braised pork and IPPUDO original sauce – $4

Our second entree of the night was Camembert Tempura. I love camembert cheese and I love crunchy stuff. Enter camembert tempura and I instantly got the best of both worlds! It was an interesting combo because both were pretty delicate and were masterfully fried whilst retaining its shape. The only thing missing here was the substitute for the cranberry sauce. Personally, I would love something sweet to accompany the tempura.

Camembert Tempura – Camembert cheese dipped in batter and deep-fried – $8

A La Carte

We were very pleased with the first a la carte dish, Sauteed Tasmanian Salmon. It was a very well-presented dish. The grilled salmon was presented with maitre d’hotel butter with an accent of Japanese shiso. The salmon was complemented with potatoes and asparagus. In the end, the salmon was mainly devoured by my son as he loved it so much. I only got to taste it a bit.

Sauteed Tasmanian Salmon with maitre d’ butter with an accent of Japanese shiso – $15

Presentation wise, the second a la carte dish, Wagyu Steak with Sauce Japonaise, was comprehensively beaten by the first one. However, the taste was quite on par. The steak was cooked according to what we wanted and laid out in a bed of bean sprouts atop a teppan plate. Its strength was in the sauce Japonaise. The inclusion of mirin and ginger invoked my memory about Tetsuya’s legendary vinaigrette. It worked very well with the steak!

Wagyu steak with sauce Japonaise – $18

These two dishes were more than enough to enhance my Ippudo experience.

Ippudo Ramen

It is not an Ippudo experience without their ramen. There are five different noodles dishes at Ippudo.

Shiromaru Motoaji

Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth served with thin noodles, pork loin, bean sprouts, black mushroom and shallots. Classic Hakata-style ramen.

The only ramen in the menu that we have not tried. Judging from the description above, this is supposed to be the ‘classic’ ramen.

Akamaru Shinaji

Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. Served with thin noodles, pork belly, black mushroom and shallots. A refined, modern-style ramen.

Akamaru shinaji is my personal favourite. The miso paste worked well together with the fragrant garlic oil! On this occasion, we did not order this because we wanted to try the other on the menu.

Ippudo Karaka Men

Description from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth with special spicy miso & ground pork.

Karaka Men Tamago – $20

Karaka Men was a pretty simple miso ramen. Unfortunately, I underestimated the word ‘spicy’ in the menu. The ramen was quite spicy for someone who only eats spicy food sparingly.

Tori Shoyu Ramen

Description from the menu: Topped with original chicken chashu, menma, leeks, naruto and nori.

When we first came to Ippudo, we did not see this menu. It was quite an option for people who doesn’t eat pork. Instead of miso-based, this ramen was soy-based (shoyu) and that gave the clearer soup based. However instead of chashu looking chicken, the meat looked more like thinly-sliced chicken breast fillet.

Tori Shoyu Ramen – $15

Vegetarian Noodles

Description from the menu: Topped with avocado, cherry tomato, cucumber, yogurt, mandarin, corn flakes, mixed nuts, and a side of greens. Noodles mixed with a special sesame based sauce and topped with balsamic vinegar.

The vegetarian-version of the noodles was actually a dry one. I am not a big fan of large amount of vegetables, but my wife said that this dish was her favourite in Ippudo.

A few interesting things about Ippudo:

– You are not allowed to have BYO at Ippudo Sydney.

– When you ordered the soup-based noodles, you were offered how well you wanted the noodles to be cooked (Soft, Medium or Hard).

– You can’t book the restaurant in advance.

Details:

Westfield Sydney Level 5 (Shop 5021)

+61 2 8078 7020

http://www.ippudo.com.au/

Updated Information on Ippudo

They will open their second restaurant around mid-September at Central Park. The address is: Level 1 RB07, 28 Broadway, Chippendale, NSW 2008.

Jul 23, 2014
Darband Persian Restaurant

Review:

We are on a roll reviewing the West part of Sydney! This week, we take you to the best Persian restaurant in Sydney (claimed one of my Iranian friends), Darband Persian Restaurant. Looking at their website, they said they open seven days a week for lunch and dinner from 11 am – 9 pm (that’s a huge commitment!).

They have a very simple one-page menu with pictures of dishes you can order. They also give you a plate of mint and raw onion if you think your dish is not tasty enough. They also give you pita bread. The bread goes really well with the Shirazi Salad (Finely diced cucumber, tomato and Onion with lime, black pepper and mint dressing) or Kashk-e-Bademjan (Eggplant pan-fried with mint and onion with whey dressing).

The dishes were quite simple, you choose between a combination of meat that you want. We ordered Barg (lamb back strap marinated in onion) and Shahi – Combination of Joojeh (chicken in Lemon Juice) and Koobideh (Lamb mince marinated in Onion). To be honest, I’m not sure how they work on the pricing, but I think the backstrap is a lot more expensive than the chicken and lamb mince. When the dish came, it was on a massive oval plate that has a combination of white and yellow rice with a side of grilled tomato and butter. Apparently you need to mix the butter with the rice to accentuate flavour. If I eat this much rice in a Thai or Indonesian restaurant, my tummy would explode.

Barg – $13

Shahi – $14

I am interested in the two pictures at the bottom of the page Baghali Polo (Lamb shank with broad bean rice and dried dill) and Zereshk Polo. This time around, I chose the first picture, Baghali Polo. If you think the dishes above were crazy, you should check this one out. Instead of sharing the plate between meat and rice. I was given two plates for this dish, one exclusively for the humongous portion of rice and the other for the lamb shank. The lamb shank was slow cooked perfectly and fell of the bone!

Baghali Polo – $12

Since I felt quite adventurous, I also ordered a jug of Doogh. It is a Persian home-made yoghurt drink. They gave you a tall glass filled with mint to drink the Yoghurt with. It was an interesting and light yoghurt that doesn’t overpower like dessert-type yoghurt.

a jug of Doogh – $6

The verdict for Darband Persian Restaurant:

They give you a mountain of rice at Darband Persian Restaurant! However, the rice was incredibly light that anyone could possibly eat the whole plate full of it.

Did you know?

Auburn is home of the largest mosque in Australia, Auburn Gallipoli Mosque. It is an Ottoman-style mosque that took around 13 years to complete.

It is also home of Australia’s oldest Hindu temple, Sri Mandir.

Rating for Darband Persian Restaurant:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $11 – $21 per plate

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

9/45 Rawson Street, Auburn 2144

02 9646 4466

http://darband.com.au/

Jul 21, 2014