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.

Fish Shack Manly

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $15-$32 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week we go to a relatively new shop in Manly, called Fish Shack. We came across the shop as we strolled around Manly beach. I was particularly interested in their worn-out beach shack setting.

It was lunch time when we came and the restaurant was fairly buzzing, there were some people outside waiting for their takeaway orders (another give away that it should be a good restaurant!).

We only ordered two share items on the menu. The first one was Fisherman’s basket for two. At $32 a dish, I think it was a good deal, considering you get all of these stuffs (2 each of prawn cutlets, crumbed calamari, fillets of market fresh fish, fresh oysters, large chips, lemon, tartare). The oysters looked a bit out of place, but the rest was fantastic, especially the chips. We couldn’t get enough of the chips. They were perfectly cooked! There was that very crunchy bits on the outside with very soft potato inside.

Our other dish was Bucket of crisp fried soft shell crab, lime aioli. It was quite pricey ($18) when compared with Fish Shack’s fish and chips ($15). There was a hint of spicey, peppery taste on the soft shell crab and quite sour aioli.

The final verdict for Fish Shack Manly

One review I read about Fish Shack recommended us to stick with the fish and chips (and I fully agreed with her!). Their fish and chips were very nice and fresh.

Did you know?

Fish Shack’s take away menu is far cheaper than their restaurant menu. We actually were interested to try because we saw a seafood basket of $20.

Details:

33 South Steyne, Manly 2095

+61 2 9976 3886

Fish Shack Manly on Facebook

Aug 7, 2013
Ippudo Sydney

Rating:

8 / 10 Taste: 8.5/10

Price: $10-$20 per person

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

When I first heard people saying ‘Ippudo opened their shop in Sydney!’ I was pretty sceptical. In my mind, what’s the big fuss? Is it really that good? Then I saw it being the top restaurant in Urbanspoon for many months! Coupled that with more people saying how good it was and how people queued for it, it really got my attention. I then decided it must feature in my blog!

When I arrived at the venue, it was quite empty (I arrived quite early for lunch tho)! So, I thought it must be our lucky day. I could see a line was prepared there, presumably for later on. First glance at the lunch menu, I couldn’t find any ramen without pork! So, don’t come here at lunch time if you don’t eat pork.

Our first dish of the day was a very disappointing Ippudo Shrimp Bun ($5) – it was steamed bun with deep fried shrimp and Ippudo original sauce. It was an average tasting and looking shrimp/prawn bun with a little bit vegetable and sauce.

Akamaru Shinaji Tamago Ramen ($18) excerpt from the menu: Ippudo original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. A refined, modern-style ramen served with thin noodles, pork belly, black mushroom and shallots.

As you can see from the description above, Ippudo paid very special attention to its ramen. They have three different kinds of ramen and we chose the one that sounded different to a ‘normal’ ramen. With Akamaru ramen, they used pork belly instead of pork loin and fragrant garlic oil to enhance the thick soup based. It was seriously mind-blowing, even with a very high expectation coming into the restaurant with!

Next, we got Hot Stone Unagi Rice ($10) – it was a small hot stone of grilled Japanese eel on rice with original Kabayaki sauce. Yes, you can get twice as much unagi rice in other restaurants and they tasted equal.

Our last dish of the day was Ippudo Vegetarian Ramen. My wife said it was the best tasting vegetarian dish she had ever tasted. There were quite a lot of elements in the ellipse bowl, including avocado and green vegetables.

The final verdict for Ippudo Sydney

When you visit Ippudo Sydney, just stick to the ramen! I know it commanded a slightly premium price, but you get the best quality ramen in Sydney!

Details:

Westfield Sydney Level 5 (Shop 5021)

+61 2 8078 7020

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

Jul 30, 2013
Societe Food and Wine Bar

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Unfortunately, Societe has closed its doors for good.

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Rating:

6.5 / 10 Taste: 6.5/10

Price: $15-$25 for breakfast

Place: 7/10

Review:

Societe Food and Wine Bar is the latest upmarket, modern Australian restaurant. We went there for breakfast, towards lunch time. I can see they have a lot of tapas, but we didn’t order them.

Let’s start with my order: Societe BIG benny. Along with Societe big breakfast, it was the biggest and most expensive serving dish on the menu at $ 25.5. Directly taken from the menu, it was smoked salmon, haloumi, poached eggs, avocado, spinach & hollandaise sauce on Turkish bread… a whole lot of stuff for a breakfast! It was beautifully presented and pleasing to see. The salmon and eggs were nice but forgettable hollandaise sauce and pretty salty haloumi cheese.

On a lighter note, there was Euro Bruschetta for $15.9 or $3 more for one poached egg. Without the egg, it would be a nice vegetarian dish consisted of avocado, basil, tomato, grilled haloumi and drizzled with olive oil on Turkish bread.

Not so very different than these two, my friend ordered B.L.A.T. ($16.5). It stands for Bacon, green Leaves, Avocado and Tomato. It was prepared on a wooden chopping block with aioli on Turkish bread with chips.

Breakfast is incomplete without a cup of coffee, I ordered Latte like I always did. The best thing of the day came in the form of babycino. It was frothed over the top and sprinkled with hundreds and thousands.

The final verdict for Societe Food and Wine Bar

There was really nothing outstanding for Societe Food and Wine Bar to command such a premium price on their breakfast menu. The only redeeming factors about the restaurant were their dishes’ presentation and my son’s happy face looking at babycino.

Details:

1/ 9 – 15 Danks Street

Waterloo NSW 2017

+61 2 9698 8899

Apr 16, 2013
Braza Churrascaria

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8/10

Price: $47 All you can eat

Place: 8.5/10

Review:

I wanted to say Braza Churrascaria is just another all you can eat Brazilian restaurant that’s been flooding Sydney over the years… but I just couldn’t!

Why?

I’ll skip the part of explaining what Churrascaria is (you can look at the ‘Did you know?’ section) and let you know why I think you MUST visit this place. Look at the menu below or in this link and see an extensive list of things you can eat (including side dishes).

Let’s start with the obvious Rump Cap or Picanha. Seriously, if a Brazilian restaurant doesn’t serve a great picanha, don’t return! Picanha is the core element of a churrascaria. Still in the beef department, they also have flank, rump, hump and Scotch Fillet. The meat quality in Braza restaurant was incredible.

I have limited knowledge of food from the pork department. They have an assortment of Neck, Leg, and Belly. From the look of it, they were the least appealing in the restaurant. Strangely enough, you also got a chance to see a whole pig / pork meat sitting on the wooden trolley. They only have two lamb dishes: Leg and Rump. Both were nice and cooked correctly (i.e. no smelly lamb taste).

We’re now on to the white meat of chicken. They have a decent range from chicken with bacon to chicken hearts. They also have Chicken Drummetes and fillet. Personally, I love chicken hearts and can easily have a dozen of them.

Braza’s seafood range was extensive on easter with the addition of mussels and octopus. However, they were only limited to Fish and Prawns in a normal day. However, if you see the fish plate, please ask as much as you can. They were heaps good! I am not a big fan of the Chorizo in Braza. I think they were quite dry and tough.

So now we are on to the best part: Braza Churrascaria’s ribs. They prepared the ribs in a slightly different way. They would wheel around gigantic slab(s) of ribs on a wooden trolley and slice the meat in front of you. The ribs were really the highlight of the day. They were succulent, juicy, and best of all, not burnt! You can have an option of Beef ribs, Pork ribs, or Lamb ribs.

They have Halloumi Cheese, Pineapple and Garlic Bread as the main churrascaria offered. I had no less than five slices of fabulous pineapple throughout the night. You might want to slow down on the cheese and bread if you didn’t want to be full too fast.

They handled the side dishes quite differently. Instead of circling around the table, you will need to order them specifically. My favourite was Polenta chips. They were really nice and crunchy. We also always have a supply of Brazilian Chilies, Farofafa, and Tomato Salsa because I like a bit more flavour on my meat.

The final verdict for Braza Churrascaria

Braza Churrascaria is hands down the best Brazilian restaurant in Sydney. The assortments and quality of meat are unrivaled to those other Brazilian restaurants in Sydney. The only downside to their otherwise excellent review was the unavailability of complementing sauce. It’s a very minor item but unfortunately I like sauce on my meat.

Did you know?

When we were there on Saturday at around 8 PM, they had a Brazilian dance a la Carnaval de Rio with very loud Brazilian drums.

For those of you new to the concept, Churrascaria is a place where meat is cooked in Churrasco style. The meat is grilled to perfection with an iron skewer on a fireplace. The waiters and waitresses would then go around the table offering those meats and you could decide whether you wanted it or not (no obligation to take everything they offered!).

Details:

1-25 Harbour St, Darling Quarter

Darling Harbour NSW 2000

+61 2 9386 9534

http://www.braza.com.au/

Apr 8, 2013
Garyu Art and Dining

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Unfortunately, Garyu has closed its doors for good.

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Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7.5/10Price: $8.5 – $18 for lunch

Place: 7/10

Review:

Just in time for Easter, I present you Garyu Art and Dining. Garyu Art and Dining is located in the former site of Chikyu-Ya in Bondi Junction. For some reasons, the owner is still keeping Chikyu-Ya’s sign board outside the restaurant.

We went to Garyu for lunch as they have the daily lunch special for a bargain price of $8.5. Every day, they have a different daily lunch special. Since we came on a Friday, the daily special was Chicken Katsu. In addition to the usual main dish + rice dish, you will also receive salad with miso paste, miso soup, and three side dishes. The chicken katsu was nice and soft in the middle with crunchy, golden brown batter. It was definitely the best $8.5 meal deal you can get.

One of the more interesting items on Garyu’s menu was its One Plate Lunch ($11). The set didn’t include rice but you were given eight sushi rolls. You can choose between Salmon Avocado, California or Vegetarian rolls. You also needed to choose from Salmon Teriyaki, Kara-age Chicken, or Sashimi as your main dish. The non-optional part of the One Plate Lunch was its salad and miso soup. It was a seriously tough task to choose for just a ‘One Plate Lunch’.

There was a side dish worthy of a special mention at Garyu. It was their Okonomiyaki. It wasn’t like any ‘normal’ Okonomiyaki you found in any Japanese restaurants. These ones were shaped like a kebab stick and deep fried to perfection. The ingredients were just like any other okonomiyaki with squid and cabbage. How does it taste? Because of its shape, it actually had a lot more crunchy taste. Granted that it might not be as big as the normal okonomiyaki, but it was certainly enough to build your appetite.

The final verdict for Garyu Art and Dining

It was certainly value for money, having lunch at Garyu Art and Dining. Its daily lunch special is more than just rice and main dish.

Did you know?

Before Garyu opened in Bondi Junction, we were invited to a birthday party in its old site in Bondi Road. They had a special baby food for the occasion.

Details:

106 Ebley St, Bondi Junction NSW 2022

+61 2 9386 9534

Mar 31, 2013
Kingsford Chinese Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

7.5 for the trinity!
Taste: 7/10

Price: $8.5 – $12 per person

Place: 5.5/10

Review:

This week’s review was arguably the hardest review I have ever done in my life. Kingsford Chinese Restaurant is iconic in many ways and I might be risking the wrath of hundred thousand UNSW students who had no doubt tasted the food in this restaurant during their uni years and beyond. This might be the cheapest restaurant you could ever get in Sydney! For the price, the food was arguably the best amongst the rest of ‘cheap’ restaurants in town.

So what’s the catch: Service! In this place, the owner is the queen. If you ever expressed your discontent to her, the most she’d reply would be ‘Meh’. I guess she doesn’t need snobbish customers when people still line up for her food. So, anyone from owner to waiters/waitresses doesn’t really care about you.

Anything else you need to know? The restaurant is tightly spaced on the first floor. If you come with seven or more people, the second floor is pretty spacious. You might also want to dry/clean up your cutleries as they might not be properly dried.

Let’s get down to business. Why do people want to come to this restaurant are they still willing to queue outside? It’s because of the trinity; the three dishes that 90% of visitors would at least have one of them.

The first one was the infamous Sang Tung Chicken ($11). I particularly liked this one because of the portion and also the sweet taste. They were seriously overabundant and tasty. The top part of the dish was actually boneless meats and the bones spread out under them.

We called the next one Long Bean Belacan ($11). On the menu it was called Braised Green Bean with Malaysian Chilli Sauce. Don’t worry; it’s not a spicy dish! Belacan is a fermented shrimp paste that usually comes with chilli and garlic. This was one od the few vegetable dishes I didn’t mind eating.

My favourite would be the Salt and Pepper Calamari. It is officially named Deep Fried Calamari with Pepper Salt ($11). It was the most awesome(est!) Calamari I have ever tasted. They were incredibly crunchy but still soft in the middle. Hint: Don’t eat this without rice!

Since we had a bit more people, we ordered two more dishes: Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup and Stir Fried Rice Noodles with Beef. The soup was so-so but it only costed us $3.5. The stir-fried noodles dish was acceptable for a dish under $10.

The final verdict for Kingsford Chinese Restaurant

Kingsford Chinese Restaurant provided the best tasting food for its price. There are three staple foods: Salt and Pepper calamari, Sang Tung chicken and Long Bean belacan. If you want very fast service, order those three and nothing else! Oh, and try not to complaint too much…

Why do I give a seven?

I feel that I need to justify my scoring system here.

Kingsford Chinese Restaurant might not give you the perfect dining experience. It might on the other be your worst nightmare if you were a difficult and picky customer. However in terms of quality and what you get for your dollars, it was an exceptional value.

Details:

426 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032

+61 2 9663 1728

Mar 7, 2013