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.

Pier Restaurant

Update 17 September 2012: Unfortunately, Pier Restaurant has closed its doors in June.

Rating:

8 / 10 Taste: 8/10

Price: $100 pp ($119 degustation)

Place: 9/10

Review:

There are a few restaurants in Sydney with a more stunning view than Pier Restaurant whilst commanding a fantastic dining experience. Pier Restaurant is located in a posh suburb of Rose Bay with a view of the harbour and plenty of boats.

There were two choices of Market Menu or Six-Course Degustation menu. We thought that we would get more variety by ordering the Market Menu and I didn’t really fancy the degustation menu since they only served chocolate for dessert.

Cones of King Salmon – Ocean Trout

Our first dish was cones of king salmon and ocean trout. It was presented on a desk-like plate in a crispy cone. The fish was accompanied by capers, salt, and garlic. It was a really refreshing start to the day. I liked the trout better since it had more flavour than Salmon.

They could also serve kingfish or yellow fin tuna for this cone.

Whiting Carpaccio – soft herb leaves – lime water vinaigrette

Our first entrée of the day was whiting carpaccio. It was a very delicately and nicely decorated carpaccio with a surprisingly generous serving. The vinaigrette complemented the carpaccio well. It was light and had a touch of summer in this autumn season.

Spanner Crab Gazpacho – avocado mousse – almond oil

In contrast, the second entrée was a really heavy one. This was the chef’s representation of the Spanish Gazpacho. It was very rich in flavour and there was also this strong taste. The strong taste was softened by mixing the delicate avocado mousse. The centrepiece of it was soft-boiled spanner crab. It provided yet another dimension to the dish. Lastly, it was accentuated by green leaves and almond oil. Definitely not your typical Gazpacho!

Rangers Valley Sirloin – watercress – chips – bordelaise glaze

We ordered the only non-seafood main course in the menu, medium-rare sirloin. I was again amazed with the size of the sirloin. The steak was covered in black sauce and I had a suspicion that it was Indonesian’s traditional ‘Petis’ sauce. I am glad I was wrong and it turned out to be a nice complement to the steak.

Roasted Barramundi – braised cos – shimeji mushrooms – mushroom consommé

For the second main course, they poured the consommé after the dish was in front of us. This allowed the barramundi to be further roasted whilst on the plate. Cos was used to accentuate the plate on an otherwise monochromatic display. The fish was extra soft and perfectly cooked inside with a very crunchy skin.

Kiwi Fruit Vacherin – yoghurt meringue – apple sorbet – basil – mint

I didn’t need to ask the waiter what’s good for the dessert. The description said it all. It was just great, except for the meringue that looked a bit gooey. This dessert was a busy one. It showed multilayer of complexities, from the crunchy crumble, icy sorbet, basil seed and minty flavour.

Strawberry & Guava Soufflé – strawberry sauce – strawberry crème

My mind was made up even before I looked at the menu because I noticed it when the waiter brought this dish somewhere else. It was an eye-catching presentation with a little pre-serving routine. The waiter cut the soufflé open and poured the sauce in it. It literally melted in your mouth and was heavenly smooth. The cream provided an extra dimension of cold.

The final verdict: Pier restaurant’s dishes were surprisingly massive, compared to other degustation restaurants. It was a really long and satisfying lunch for us. High quality of food and service as expected from this one-hat restaurant. However, there wasn’t anything spectacular to warrant a comparison to a three-hat restaurant.

Did you know?

Pier was one of the top restaurants in Australia with three-hat status from 2007 to 2010. However, the unthinkable happened in 2011 where they lost two hats and had been a one-hat ever since.

Details:

594 New South Head Road, Rose Bay, NSW 2029

+61 2 9327 6561

http://www.pierrestaurant.com.au/ – The restaurant has closed and replaced by The Sailors Club

Apr 26, 2012
Kensington Peking Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7.5/10

Price: $25 per person

Place: 6.5/10

Review:

I have heard about this legendary Peking duck restaurant for ages but I haven’t got the chance to visit. I can proudly say that I have now visited Kensington Peking restaurant twice after my initial visit almost a month ago!

Without further ado, I present you the indescribable Peking duck. For the whole duck, we got three-course meal out of it – not bad for a $41 price tag! First course of the duck was Peking duck with side dishes of pancake, cucumber, spring onion, and hoisin sauce. I really couldn’t stop enjoying the crispiness of its skin and the juicy meat.

San choy bow was the second duck course. It was not really my favourite dish since there were a lot more vegetables involved than I would like to. The third course was Noodles with shredded duck. This one was actually a distant last in the actual order of appearance, as with any noodles in a Chinese restaurant.

My group and I had a different opinion about the next dish, drunken chicken. Most of them didn’t like it since it was cold and looked unappetising. On the other hand, I found that the chicken was really great with the rice wine and it was the cheapest dish of the day! I also liked our next dish, Shredded beef, and this time I wasn’t alone. The beef was extra crunchy, fried to perfection and a lot less oily.

Just when you thought you had enough of anything fried, we also ordered salt and pepper white bait. It’s just like the better tasting white baits all over town. The white baits here were slightly fatter, thus meatier, than normal. I kinda like the crunchy one, but the taste was still better than the average. Steamed fish ginger and shallot had a bit more than average shallots but the fish fillets.

I wouldn’t comment the last two dishes since they were just stir-fried vegetables. One was all greens and the other had tofu and beansprouts.

The final verdict: Kensington Peking really lived up to my expectations! They have (in cost-benefit term) the most cost effective Peking duck compared to its taste.

Did you know?

There were plenty of Easter shows happening around Sydney. We went to the one in Entertainment Quarter. It was a free event with a lot less goody bags, but it was still heaps of fun.

Details:

172 Anzac Parade, Kensington NSW 2033

+61 2 9313 7100

Apr 16, 2012
Musashi Dining Bar

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $35 per person

Place: 8/10

Review:

Musashi dining bar is a special type of Japanese restaurant called Izakaya. Wikipedia defined izakaya as ‘Japanese drinking establishment for after-work drinking’. Historically, izakaya paid more attention to its assortments of drinks. However, Musashi also developed a nice range of platters that can actually be enjoyed on its own.

Two of our first dishes came in sizzling hot plates. It was perfectly cooked BBQ John Dorry slices with sides of vegetables and Teriyaki sauce. We were then indulged by the succulent Wagyu Yakiniku. I couldn’t get enough of medium-rare beef, wagyu-style.

Their Aburi Salmon Sushi was really interesting. It was very lightly grilled and pre-soaked in soy sauce. 5 slices of sushi were laid out on top of pandan leaf with a blob of wasabi. If you need more rice and less meat, I suggest you order Onigiri Sake – Salmon Onigiri. It’s a traditional Japanese rice ball with a twist of salmon.

Personally, I think Musashi’s best dish of the night was its Musashi Bento Box. It was a bento box like no other and packed with loads of goodies: 1 crumbed deep fried prawn, 1 crumbed deep fried fish fillet, 1 potato croquette, 4 pieces sushi, 2 pieces sushi roll, teriyaki chicken and 10 pieces sashimi. This bento was like a showpiece of half of the menu!

As an izakaya, Musashi had a nice range of mocktails and cocktails. For me, it couldn’t get any better than a refreshingly sweet Musashi Blue – Lychee. If you still have enough room after all these, then Green Tea Brulee would be the perfect ending to the night.

The final verdict: If you were to order one dish, then my advice was clearly the Musashi Bento Box in Musashi Dining Bar. It had the most complete elements in a bento box!

Did you know?

Musashi is located on the Capitol Square. It is also the home of Capitol Theatre, best place in town to watch plays. For computer enthusiasts, the second floor of capitol square is a heaven on earth.

Musashi used to have an excellent okonomiyaki. For some reasons, they are not doing it again.

Details:

447 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

+61 2 9280 0377

http://www.musashirestaurant.com.au/ (The Website is currently inactive)

Mar 27, 2012
Tetsuya’s

Rating:

9.5 / 10
Taste: 9.5/10

10-course Degustation: $210

Place: 9.5/10

Review:

Tetsuya’s used to be in the Top 50 restaurants in the world. Over the last couple of years they’ve slid down the ladder, but still in the Top 100. Critics mentioned lack of ‘innovation’ as one of the reasons. Tetsuya’s serve 10 courses of French-style Japanese Cuisine. They also had the best view of replica Japanese Garden and situated on a heritage-listed building.

Sourdough and White Bread with Truffle Butter

Throughout the night, these breads were offered for those of you needing extra carbs. The truffle butter was to die for. The smoothness of spiced butter infused with truffle was so amazing that I couldn’t stop asking for it. My little baby loved it so much too!

Chilled Pea Soup with Mint Ice Cream

Our first course of the night was chilled sweet peas blended to perfect smoothness. It was a very nice and interesting way to start the special night. A refreshing taste combination between pureed pea soup and mint ice cream cleansed our palate before the first savoury dish.

Steamed Savoury Custard with Dashi (Seaweed stock) and Avruga Caviar

Our second course was Tetsuya’s own interpretation of chawan mushi. The delicate taste and the smooth texture of the custard was a perfect harmony, as it melted directly in my mouth. The seafood taste from dashi and avruga caviar completed its beauty.

Marinated Yellow-Fin Tuna with Shishito Pepper and Garlic Chips

The third course was another simple dish of Tuna sashimi with a nice and sweet marinade and shishito pepper. As an Indonesian, I found it really weird to actually mention garlic chips on my dish since we normally put heaps on them in an Indonesian dish. Some leaves of garlic chips gave different texture and accentuation to this dish.

Grilled NZ Scampi Tail with Chicken Liver Parfait & Walnut Vinaigrette

Scampi and chicken liver, all time favourite ingredients! Another delicately simple dish Tetsuya’s presented. It’s interesting to have the walnut vinaigrette to accentuate Scampi’s already-sweet taste. Yumm, such a spoiling moment for my tastebud!

Confit of Petuna Ocean Trout with Shaved Fennel, Unpasteurised Ocean Trout Caviar and Konbu – Tetsuya’s Signature Dish

The fifth course was the legendary signature dish, Ocean Trout. It always lives up to anyone’s expectations. The confit tasted perfect, as the softness of the ocean trout harmoniously combined with the fennel, caviar, and konbu. Definitely one of the best dishes I ever tasted!

Steamed Queensland Spanner Crab with Bean Curd, Foie Gras, and Junsai

Presentation wise, it was plain – just looked like one white cylinder steamed tofu (bean curd). However, we could taste the delicacy of the spanner crab since the first bite! The beautiful foie gras and junsai completed its sweet taste.

Breast of Quail with Quail Leg Rillettes and Hammond

The seventh dish was very nice, with the exception of its size. I am not a big fan of the spring onion, so I had to separate it from the rest of the elements. The dish still worked really well.

Slow roasted De-Boned Rack of Lamb with Sheep’s Yoghurt and Kale

The last savoury dish of the day was a medium-rare, glossy, no-smell rack of lamb with the always perfect accompaniment of yoghurt. It was then softened up with Kale (wiki: cabbage’s family).

Pione Grapes with Grape Sorbet + Bread & Butter Pudding

Our first dessert of the day was a double treat. I really loved the sweet taste of grape sorbet. It was highly refreshing, especially after a nice array of savoury dishes. The pudding was glazed with brulee and it was slightly heavier than the sorbet which I think was perfect, considering most of the bread and butter pudding was very heavy.

Double Chocolate Pave with Cream Cheese Ice Cream & Cinnamon Twigs

The last dish of the day was chocolate. I was amazed by the techniques presented on this dish and I thought the cream cheese softened the pave considerably. Unfortunately, I’m still not a big fan of chocolate. There’s no chocolate that can make me ecstatic.

Chocolate Fondant with Hazelnut and Praline – Birthday Cake

Tetsuya’s gave us a different dish for people who celebrated their birthdays there. On this occasion it was a chocolate fondant. It was softer in taste than the pave but it was still a bit too strong for me.

Petit Fours and Café Latte

Lastly, we also received complimentary dish of Petit Fours (although it’s technically only one) and Café Latte.

The final verdict for Tetsuya’s Restaurant:

Critics can say whatever they want, but for first time visitors (and even return visitor like me), Tetsuya’s still presents the best dining experience in Sydney. Tetsuya’s delivered the 10-degustation without any of them being ‘average’.

Did you know?

Despite being in the Top 100, Tetsuya’s was not listed as three-hat in Sydney’s Good Food Guide this year. I found it weird since especially since only one restaurant in that three-hat category was higher than Tetsuya’s in the world’s list.

Details:

529 Kent Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

+61 2 9267 2900

http://www.tetsuyas.com/

Mar 7, 2012
How to Cook Kobe Beef

Review:

This week I am not going to review a restaurant or any particular events, but I am going to share information on how to cook one of the rarest, if not THE rarest, beef in this world. Kobe beef is technically a type of wagyu beef that have marbling score of 6 or more. It also has strict conditions to qualify the ‘Kobe’ status, as seen on this page ‘http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_beef’. I have never found this beef in Sydney, but by a chance I found it on David Jones Bondi Junction meat department.

Due to its delicate nature, we need to cook it perfectly. It is important to not have the Kobe beef in frozen condition prior to cooking. You might need to thaw them in your fridge for a day if it was frozen. With the seasoning, it’s best to just have a bit of salt and pepper. Marinade is strongly not recommended because you will lose the meat’s distinct texture.

Cook Kobe Beef

After the preparation, everything else is done only in two or less minutes. We want the end product to be medium rare towards rare. Most people start the cooking process with pre-heating the non-stick pan. We heat up the pan with maximum heat until the surface produces light smoke (Important!). We also don’t use any oil since the fat itself will cover it. When the pan is ready, seared the meat on to the pan and immediately turns down the heat. Allow 15 seconds of cooking on each side, then with an even lower heat, cook them for a further 45 seconds – 1 minute for each side.

You can have a side sauce according to your taste, but the Japanese-style sauce is a combination of soy sauce and mirin with a little bit of sesame oil and Grape seed oil.

Details:

David Jones Bondi Junction

Feb 5, 2012
Na Zdrowie

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $50 per person ($25 main)

Place: 7/10

Review:

Concurrent to the one from my blog ardipradana.com, this will be my first review originally published in this blog. Please update your bookmarks accordingly.

It is nice to start of the New Year with a part of the world I have never been before. Na Zdrowie is an authentic Polish restaurant with a nice brick and wooden interior design. Their table settings and choice of dishes also reflected this authenticity.

The first dish of the day was quite unique. It was called Smalec – Delicious seasoned lard with apples and onions, served with rye bread & Polish pickles. This was definitely my favourite! The lard was served cold with some crunchy elements to it. The combination of lard, rye bread and pickles was fantastic. I felt like eating the whole jar of Smalec myself.

There was also Serek – Fried crumbed camembert cheese with cranberry sauce – – for entrée. Nice and gooey camembert with cranberry sauce… nothing can go wrong! Zurek – Sour rye broth with potato and polish smoked sausage – was a very interesting soup because it was both sour and smoky. The soup was served in a nice traditional bowl and lid.

On this occasion, we ordered three mains. I almost thought these mains were gigantic, but apparently they were just enough. For the first main we had Kaczka – Duck roasted in apples & served with kopytka. It was a perfectly roasted half duck with nice apple sauce. It was also complemented by kopytka (seared potato dumpling) and shredded carrots. I think the apple sauce was a tad strong since it was literally half an apple.

Then came Schabowy – pork loin (or chicken) schnitzel served with potatoes & mizeria. This one was just schnitzel. The only difference on this dish was the Polish cucumber (Mizeria). For the finale, we ordered Pierogi – Traditional Polish dumplings with delicious fillings (Mushroom, cheese, or meat). This dish was strangely similar to the Chinese dumplings with the exception of their fillings (my friend strenuously denied this). This dish actually gave me an interesting insight on what can be put into dumplings.

For the drinks, we originally just ordered the Polish beer, Zywiec. However, half way through the meal, I saw the waiter brought this drink to the table next to me. The drink was called Kompot (not to be confused with Polish Heroin or the dessert compote). It was a clear fruit drink with an ultra-refreshing taste. I am not quite sure what was in it, but I am sure they tasted really nice. According to Wikipedia.com, kompot is a drink made of fruits boiled in water with sugar and left to cool and infuse.

The final verdict: There was a thick traditional and authentic feeling in Na Zdrowie restaurant. Unfortunately, I think the entrée and the drinks far outperformed the main dish. I strongly suggest you to order Kompot and Pierogi. Both are the authentic Polish dishes.

Did you know?

Na Zdrowie has a meaning of ‘Cheers’ in Polish.

Details:

161 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, NSW 2037

+61 2 9660 1242

http://www.nazdrowie.com.au/

Jan 10, 2012