Category: Randwick

Randwick was named after the village in Gloucestershire, England, home of its Mayor of six periods, Simeon Henry Pearce.

Why Thai Restaurant

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Unfortunately, Why Thai has closed its doors for good.

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Review:

We went to Why Thai for a random weekday dinner. Since there were only three of us, we could only order a few dishes. The restaurant wasn’t that busy with quite a lot of people ordering for takeaway (including someone coming in in onesie). Service was also nice and friendly.

Web Spring Rolls (5 pcs) – $6.50 – Mixed minced prawn and crab meat in spider web-like wrap served with sweet chilli sauce

For the price, the portion was actually pretty decent. The spring rolls were actually pretty big and had a nice crunch.

Tamarind Infused Prawns – $17.80 – Deep fried light battered prawns tossed in WHY THAI signature sweet tamarind sauce with mixed vegetables

We were obviously drawn into this by the word ‘signature’ on the description. Generally speaking, anything with ‘signature’ is more special than the ones with the word ‘special’. However, it might be pretty beneficial to include ‘crispy egg noodle’ in the description.

I love how the dish was pretty colourful. The combination of tamarind and pineapple was also pretty refreshing!

Crispy Egg Noodle in Gravy Sauce with Seafood – $14.80 – deep fried egg noodle topped with Thai style gravy egg, oyster sauce and vegetables.

We ordered this dish because we were craving for a similar dish that is called ‘i fu mie’ in Indonesia. It is a tale of the halves: half crunchy, half soft, half dry, half soupy. However if you don’t eat it quickly enough, it will all be pretty soggy.

The final verdict for Why Thai Restaurant

We ended up having three deep fried dishes at Why Thai Restaurant. Granted that it might be better to have a curry or stir fried dish, but I quite enjoyed all of them. Service was also pretty good at the restaurant.

Did you know?

Thai restaurants often have eye-catching names like Why Thai Restaurant.

Rating for Why Thai Restaurant:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $12 – $19 per main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

52 Belmore Road, Randwick 2031

+61 2 9398 9552

Jul 21, 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
Chao Praya Thai

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Review:

Chao Praya Thai at The Spot, Randwick is probably one of the first restaurants in Sydney I have ever visited. However, I rarely go to Randwick for a meal these days. On this occasion, I went with quite a large group of friends. Some of us are vegetarian, so I include a little vegetarian section towards the end of this article.

The first dish of the day was Salt and Pepper Calamari Rings. My son thoroughly enjoyed every bite of it. We have other entrees in the vegetarian section.

Salt and Pepper Calamari Rings

Our next dish was Larb Bhet. Larb is a spicy minced meat salad that mainly uses mint leaves, lemon juice and chilli. Bhet (or bped) is duck. Pad See Ew Chicken was sort of a ‘safe bet’ when we ordered because the dish was so simple and kids would usually eat them.

Larb Bhet – Minced baked boneless duck sprinkled with lemon juice and just a touch of chilli, garnished with mint leaves – $16.90

Pad See Ew Chicken – Stir fried rice noodle, egg and Chinese broccoli with black soy sauce Thai style – $13.90

The most unique and best dish of the day was the Green Curry Salmon. It was the first time I had curry with salmon, and it was beautiful! The fact that it was priced at under $20 made us felt a lot happier! Our last main course of the day was Masamun Beef Curry. We usually try to find this dish when we go to Thai restaurant because it is possibly the mildest curry of them all.

Green Curry Salmon – Grilled salmon top with green curry sauce and mixed vegetables – $18.90

Masamun Beef Curry – Chunky tender beef slowly cooked in thick but mild tasty curry with peanut – $14.90

Since there were already too many dishes ordered, we only tried two desserts. The first one was Mango and Ice Cream. It was literally half a mango and a scoop of ice cream with a bit of whipped cream and caramel. The Deep fried Ice Cream was a bit more sophisticated.

Mango and Ice Cream

Deep fried Ice Cream

Vegetarian

They have quite a selection of vegetarian entrees. On this occasion, we ordered three of them: Satay Tofu, Curry Puffs, and Spring Rolls.

I did not try the main dishes, but they are the variation of Panang Curry and a choose-your-own noodles dish. The noodles dish was a choice of vegetables/meat, noodles, and sauce.

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The final verdict for Chao Praya Thai Restaurant

Chao Praya Thai restaurant is perfect for your everyday Thai fix. They also cater for vegetarian diners. One of their interesting items on the menu was their green curry salmon.

Did you know?

I wrote about another ChaoPraya Thai restaurant in Gold Coast. However, they are not connected to each other.

Rating for:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $12 – $19 per main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

33 Perouse Road, The Spot, Randwick 2031

+61 2 9399 5509

http://www.chaopraya.com.au/

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Feb 4, 2015
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
Moroccan Feast

Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7.5/10

Total Price: $86 before discount

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

Our first journey to the African cuisine started in a restaurant called Moroccan Feast. We went to the restaurant out of pure coincidence. We wanted to taste something different, yet still available at decent price, with the help of Entertainment book’s discount.

Moroccan Feast’s interior design was dominated by clay, from the tables to the main dishes’ tagines. This exotic design coupled with the hospitality, we knew we were prepped for a treat. I tried their drink Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon Stick – $3.50 – and it was a really nice and soothing drink. Incredibly to begin with, especially with its glass and not a mug, but once you got rid of the steam, you would find a sweet cinnamon and sour apple drink – perfect for winter!

The night didn’t start so well with the average-looking dish, Duck Pate served on a crunchy pita base (5 pieces $11). It was an orange dish of five grey blobs with a bowl of sauce in the middle. It quickly turned 180° when the waiter gave us a shot of honey. It interacted with the duck pate really well and added an extra sweetness to the bitter and savoury pate.

Our next entrée had quite a bit of explanation, Agadir Feast (small – $18). It was a combination of 4 salads and/or dips with pita bread. There were nine different items, but here were the four we got: Casablanca Carrot (Moroccan herbs and chilled), Fez Matbuh (marinade of tomato, capsicum, chilli garlic), Eggplant Dip (farlic lemon salt), Cabbage salad with coriander and fresh herbs. I have always been a sucker for eggplant dip, so I am really subjective in this part!

We were wowed by the main dishes since they came in full tagines (plus the waiter used mitts to deliver it to us!). For the first one we chose Marrakesh Chicken (on the bone) – $23 – the menu stated that the dish was cooked with paprika, tomato and Moroccan spices and served with cooked olives on the side. All of the main dishes came with couscous. I think it’s the perfect combination to the dish.

The best dish came in last: Lamb Tajine ($27) with caramelised onion, slow cooked prunes, sultanas, almonds and cinnamon. It was one of the most amazing lamb dishes I’ve ever had. The lamb was so perfectly cooked it came off the bone rather easily. The combination of sultanas, caramelised onion, cinnamon and prunes created an exotic sweetness to the dish. Super soft lamb, not smelly, in a rather big portion… what’s not to love about it?

The final verdict for Moroccan Feast

Moroccan Feast restaurant delivered a great culinary experience. Excellent customer service with nice food also created an evening to remember. I can still remember how nice their Lamb Tajine was.

Did you know?

This is officially our first review of African cuisine. I had a brief look in Wikipedia for Moroccan cuisine and saw that the names of dishes in Moroccan Feast restaurant represented a vast range of important names in Moroccan food history. One thing that I didn’t order was the traditional Moroccan mint tea.

Details:

127 Avoca Street, Randwick

+61 2 9399 9882

Moroccan Feast on facebook

Sep 4, 2012
Aseana Food Village

Update: Aseana Food Village has closed its doors for good and I haven’t heard about the Chef reopening somewhere else / some time soon.

Southeast Asian Food Cuisine

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: <15 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

Aseana Food Village offered us a ‘casual street side dining’ experience according to their website. They did deliver the experience by its restaurant décor, hospitality, and most importantly authentic Singaporean (+ Malaysian and Burmese) Cuisine.

To illustrate the price range, we didn’t have shared plates like in the usual South East Asian dining but instead we ordered individual rice dishes. In the Mains menu, Beef Rendang is definitely the dish that you should try.

Also available as a main menu, our first dish of the day was Lee’s Stewed Duck. This was the only dish that has a person’s name on the menu, so I guess it must mean something to them – I couldn’t find it in Google. The duck was served on a bed of green veggies. It was incredibly tender and came off the bone easily. It also had a very unique taste to it.

Then, Nasi Lemak was brought in a wonderful leaf-like green plate. This is a traditional Malaysian dish with coconut rice and a mixture of condiments (pickles, anchovies, sambal, and egg). You could also have a choice of three add-ons to it. Nasi Goreng Kampong came up next. It was fried rice with anchovies, prawn crackers and a fried egg. Both dishes were just spot-on. They delivered a combination of complementary tastes in each of its elements.

For the dessert, I had the Aseana Toast Set. I absolutely love this set, although it was supposed to be enjoyed as breakfast. It was a set of traditional toast (with a choice of three toppings – Butterkaya for this occasion), soft boiled eggs and kopitiam drinks (I chose hot Teh Tarik). They provided you with a full guideline on how to enjoy the set and condiments to enhance the taste to suit yours. There was also Es Bandung (no affiliation to the city in Indonesia!) that was made of Rose syrup and condensed milk.

The final verdict: Aseana Food Villageis a perfect place to savour wonderful and authentic Singaporean dishes. All of my dishes (and some that I have also tried but excluded on this occasion) were really nice. My most favourite would have to be the Aseana Toast Set.

Did you know?

As a point of reference, my Singaporean friend has made Aseana’s Bak Chor Mee his personal favourite in Sydney. He said that this was as close as he can get to the original taste in Singapore.

Details:

Shop 1/149 Alison Road, Randwick NSW 2031

02 9399 7010

http://www.aseanafoodvillage.com/

Nov 2, 2011