Category: Surry Hills

The former number one restaurant in Australia resides in Surry Hills. It is also home of dozens great restaurants that All About Food Blog want to cover.

Suzuya Japanese Restaurant

Suzuya Review:

A while ago, I was introduced to this little restaurant by my work colleague, SR. Suzuya Japanese Restaurant is located in a small street in the middle of Surry Hills. Unless you are a local or someone referred you to it, you will most likely never heard about this place. It is now becoming a meeting place if I meet my colleague for lunch around Surry Hills.

Their menu is quite unusual. They have a lunch menu on the left hand side that is just marginally cheaper than the set menu on the right hand side. Suffice to say, I would strongly suggest to choose the set menu on the right hand side. You will see why…

Their set menu is like a flow chart that you need to navigate around it.

First stop, you must choose one from the following options: Sushi, Sashimi, California Roll, Salmon or Tuna & Avocado roll, or vegetable roll.

You must then choose one of the main meals: Teriyaki (A stir fry flavoured with sweet teriyaki sauce) Beef/chicken/fish, Katsu (Japanese style schnitzel) Pork/chicken, Tempura (Tempura-fried fish, prawns and vegetables), nabeyaki udon noodles

Most of the set menu comes with a bowl of rice, miso soup and agedashi tofu. Obviously the nabeyaki udon does not come with bowl of rice and miso soup.

All of that for only $16.9 or $18.9! Great deal eh?

Agedashi Tofu and Soup

Chicken Katsu

Teriyaki Beef

Tempura

The final verdict for Suzuya

They served massive portion for lunch at Suzuya Japanese restaurant. The taste does not disappoint either!

Did you know?

You really should know where you are going and have the GPS handy. Suzuya is not in the main road.

Rating for Suzuya:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: Under $20 lunch

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

210 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills

+61 2 8399 1639

Suzuya on Zomato

Aug 18, 2017
Alchemy Polish Cafe Restaurant

Alchemy Polish Cafe Restaurant Review:

Our review this week came from a Polish restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney, called Alchemy Polish Cafe Restaurant.I’m not quite sure why they decide to combine the word cafe and restaurant. This is only our second review of Polish cuisine. The cafe/restaurant is located in a busy food precinct. When you went into the restaurant you would feel like entering a traditional European home… but a very busy one!

You might want to familiarise yourself with the menu as there are probably a few menu items you have never heard before.

Dumpling (Pierogi) – $22.5 – 9 dumplings

This is the dish that you must order when dining at a Polish restaurant! Pierogi is the traditional Polish dumpling with predominantly potato and cheese filling. In Alchemy Polish Cafe, you can choose to have 9 or 6 dumplings with the following fillings: duck with apricot, beef, potato with cheese, sauerkraut with mushroom, buckwheat, and spinach. There is also a sweet pierogi with sweet cheese and blackberries for dessert. You can also choose between a boiled or fried pierogi. If you only want 6 dumplings, it will cost you $17.5

On this occasion, we had fried Pierogi with duck, beef, and cheese. Pierogi is probably eaten more as a main dish in Poland, but we ordered this as our entree with each of us having three dumplings.

Fried potato pancake with smoked salmon and sour cream – $17.5

The interesting thing about this dish was that the potato pancake was considered as the hero of the dish. Also, if you see the image below they give you two whole chili peppers as garnish. It’s an option if you want to spice it up a bit.

Rabbit with creamy sauce and mashed potatoes – $28.5

This is the dish that I ordered. Rabbit is one of the hardest game meats to cook, but one I enjoy the most. Any missteps will render the meat inedible. It was quite a big piece of rabbit but with one caveat: there were quite a lot of bones!

Once you got past the sea of bones, the rabbit itself was perfect!

Stuffed Duck (roulade) served with gnocchi – $29.5

You won’t need to put too much effort for the stuffed duck and gnocchi. It was soft. It was creamy. Last but not least, the duck was yummy and quite fattening!

Goose with pearls couscous – $39.5

The goose was the most expensive dish in the restaurant. On top of that, they only gave you a quarter of the goose. The meat was very tender and juicy. However, I’d probably pick the duck over this one because you pay $10 less with no bones involved.

Atlantic Salmon in foil – fillet of salmon with mango salsa, roasted potatoes and steamed veggies – $29.5

We almost did not manage to order this because they said we had to wait for 30 minutes for them to cook it. However, the chef then told us that by the time we were finished with our entree, it would already be more than 30 minutes anyway. It is quite a big dish for the little one but he enjoyed it a lot.

Cakes

We ordered way too many cakes but enjoyed every piece of it. I guess with cakes, you can just have a look at the pictures and decide yourself which one(s) you want.

Strawberry Cake

Hazelnut Cake

Mixed Cake

The final verdict for Alchemy Polish Cafe Restaurant

I must say we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the dishes at Alchemy Polish Cafe Restaurant. The food was great and the people there was warm and friendly.

Did you know?
They have quite a big list of exotic drinks, with Beer being constantly offered. However, in a rather chilly autumn night, our choice went to Polish Vodka Tea. You should seriously try it!

Rating for Alchemy Polish Cafe Restaurant:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $50 – $60 per person

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

572 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW 2010

+61 2 9699 2455

http://www.alchemy-restaurant.com/

May 25, 2017
Toko Contemporary Japanese Izakaya

Toko Japanese Izakaya Review:

Our review this week came from a Japanese izakaya restaurant, called Toko. The restaurant is located in a busy suburb of Surry Hills in Sydney. We were there to celebrate one of our friends’ birthday with a set menu, Matsuri Banquet Menu. There was quite an extensive list of items in the menu.

Edamame – soy beans, maldon sea salt

There is nothing out of the ordinary to talk about here. It was just a regular edamame.

Hiramasa no usuzukuri – sliced kingfish, yuzu, chives

It was another quick munch-and-devour dish that was not memorable enough.

Koushi no tataki – venison carpaccio, nashi pear, yuzu koshu, potato airbags

This venison was the first dish that we took notice. It was quite a spicy dish. The potato airbags gave an added crunch to the dish.

Japanese salad – seasoned leaves, asparagus, cucumber, avocado, light-wafu

Some of our friends thought that Japanese salad was the best dish of the day. Although I am not a big salad eater, I actually quite enjoyed it. It was sad to think that salad was the best dish in a degustation.

Osashimi omakase – assorted fish from chef’s best selection of the day

It was supposed to be the dish that would bring the wow factor. Instead, we were given the usual sashimi: salmon, tuna, kingfish, scallop, and snapper. To make things worse, we didn’t think the tuna and scallop were sashimi fresh.

Toko signature maki – chef’s selection of maki rolls

Again, there were three ‘standard’ maki rolls: california, ebi, and kingfish.

Pirikara dofu to avocado – spicy fried tofu, avocado salsa, barley miso

Despite the word ‘spicy’, the tofu is nothing but spicy. The venison was actually more spicy than this one. The tofu was also quite dense.

Ebi tempura – crispy prawn tempura, dashi broth

It was a very ordinary prawn tempura. Each one of us only got ONE mediocre prawn.

Wafu zucchini – zucchini, waft sauce, sesame

Despite being only one stick of zucchini, this robatayaki was actually quite enjoyable.

Sake no aburi yaki – smoked miso king salmon, house pickled ginger

Personally, I think this dish was the best for the night. Unfortunately, we had to share this salmon amongst the four of us. It was just my luck that I was also the only one getting fish bone in my piece.

Ko-tori hoba oven-yaki – miso marinated spatchcock baby chicken

We wereIt was a deboned spatchcock. The glazing was almost similar to the salmon.

Dessert platter – chef’s selection of toko desserts

The dessert platter was the saving grace for us. There were quite a lot of elements on it – basically it was all of their desserts lumped into one. The desserts on the plate were rhubarb crumble, pannacotta, fondant, three types of ice cream and assortment of fruits.

Drinks

Considering that they are an izakaya place, their drink menu was pretty good.

Yuzu Martini

Lychee and Jasmine Mojito

The final verdict for Toko Japanese Izakaya

It is quite sad that this amazing venue was majorly let down by its subpar degustation selection. The king salmon and dessert platter were the ones that saved our night.

Did you know?

The group has three restaurants in Australia. One of them is also in Sydney, called Tokonoma, and the other is in Melbourne.

Rating for Toko Japanese Izakaya:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $100 with drinks

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

490 Crown Street, Sydney 2010

+61 2 9357 6100

http://www.toko-sydney.com

Apr 16, 2017
Medan Ciak

Medan Ciak Review:

Another brand new restaurant we went to for this week’s blog entry. I was quickly drawn into the restaurant because of my friend. He visited this new establishment fairly regularly in the past few weeks and always said that it was worth a visit. Considering he is from Medan and the restaurant is called Medan Ciak, I guess there is no hurt in trying.

The menu was quite a simple one-pager. These days, I like having to choose from a smaller list. So that we can minimise our errors in choosing the wrong dish.

Yong Tofu – Weekend special

Every weekend, Medan Ciak has a special menu. For the weekend we were there, the special menu was Yong Tofu. It was a slightly spicy meatball soup with assortments of meatballs, including whole-chilli meatball!

Medan Cah Kwe Tiau – $13 – Fried flat rice noodles with BBQ pork, Chinese sausage, prawn, fish cake, egg, shallot, bean sprout

I went with my usual choice of kwetiau. Kwetiau is one of a few baselines I used to decide on my scoring. They gave quite a generous portion for the price. The ingredients are not premixed, so you are able to exclude some of the ingredients from the list (i.e. you can ask for no pork or no seafood).

Nasi Lemak Komplit – $11 – Coconut rice served with fried chicken, beef curry, boiled egg with sambal, peanut, anchovy fish, crackers, cucumber, fried shredded coconut

Nasi lemak originally comes from Malaysia. However, some parts of Indonesia (especially Sumatra), does offer similar rice dish and call it ‘nasi lemak’ as well. Their fried chicken, albeit quite small, was quite good. However, the sambal potato was the star of the dish. They were so good.

Nasi Simangunsong – $13 – Steamed rice served with stir fry kangkung (water spinach) & fried chicken.

Nasi simangunsong is the one thing that we have never heard of. It’s quite an interesting mix of fried chicken and water spinach. I am quite curious about the prawn they put on top of the rice. Although it’s a nice surprise addition for us. People with seafood allergies might not be too thrilled.

The final verdict for Medan Ciak

I quite enjoyed the kwetiau from Medan Ciak. Their other dishes really felt like having a real Indonesian dish in a typical Indonesian restaurant.

Did you know?

Medan Ciak can be quite busy these days due to the sheer number of Indonesians eager to try.

Rating for Medan Ciak:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $11 – $14 per main

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 3 / 460 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010

+61 403 363 326

https://www.facebook.com/MedanCiak/

Oct 26, 2016
Surry Hills Eating House

Review:

This week, we were invited to Surry Hills Eating House. The restaurant is located in the corner of Elizabeth and Campbell Streets. It is owned by Sujet Saenkham of five Spice I Am restaurants in Sydney. Spice I am has a pretty good reputation in Sydney and it’s a great opportunity for me to try their other establishment. Surry Hills Eating House is a Thai restaurant that has quite a few seafood options.

Pla Tod Phae – $14.00 – Curried white bait fritter served with house made sweet chilli sauce and crushed cashew nut

I love white bait in Yum cha place. It is pretty interesting to see a white bait in a non-Chinese restaurant. Surry Hills Eating House’s white bait was amazing. It was probably our most favourite dish of the night.

Pad See Ew Chicken – $18.00 – Stir fried flat rice noodle with sweet soy sauce, egg and Chinese broccoli

We ordered this specifically for the little one. The portion was pretty decent and it was one of the best pad see ew chicken that we have ever tasted.

Phuak Neung Tod – $14.00 – Steamed dried shitake mushroom, dried shrimp and taro wrapped in bean curd skin and deep fried then served with spicy sweet coriander sauce

We were not going to order this entree. However, after looking at the first two dishes that came in, we decided to order this one. It was not a bad choice!

Gaen Kiew Wan Nua – $24.00 – Green curry slow cooked beef served with roti

The green curry was pretty good, but pretty spicy. They made the correct decision of serving it with roti. Curry tasted so much better when enjoyed with roti!

Lin Ped Pha Lo – $26.00 – Duck tongue simmered with five spice, served with braised pickle, green mustard and nam som (vinegar chilli)

We ordered this out of curiosity. There are not that many places serving duck tongue. They nailed it in terms of its taste. However, I think they should serve it as a side dish instead of a full main dish.

Cashew Nut Chicken – $18.00 – Stir fried cashew nuts, shallot, onion and chilli jam

For those of you who enjoyed individual serving instead of shared dishes. They have a variety of stir fry dishes. Cashew nut is probably one of the staple dishes in any Thai restaurants in Sydney.

Gaeng Het Pho – $28.00 – Phuket-style curry of bar cod fillet, Thai black mushroom and betel leaf!

This last dish was recommended by the waitress. It was one of the most ordered dishes at the restaurant. I guess it is true when they say the customers cannot be wrong! This curry is less spicy than the green curry we ordered earlier. I also liked the texture of the mushrooms.

Surry Hills Eating House

Did you know?

Eating house is located on level 2 of Triple Ace Bar. It is also within a walking distance to Spice I Am’s other restaurant: House Thai.

Details:

Level 2, 198 – 200 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills 2010

02 9211 8107

Dec 4, 2015
El Bulli Surry Hills

Review:

11 courses dinner, $60 price tag, for two people… I will let that sink in for a minute… To put it into perspective, each tapas at the restaurant ranges between $8.50 and $26.50.

That was the Groupon winter special at El Bulli Surry Hills. Instead of the full recommended retail price of $153, we get all of these tapas below for just $60!

Chickpea & Chorizo – a tasty broth of chickpeas, coriander and chorizo served hot

The usual plate of tapas with chickpeas and chorizos on tomato broth.

Pan con Queso y Jamon – toasted ciabatta served with a wedge of manchego cheese and slice of jamon on the side

Aceitunas Mezcladas – a selection of black, green & stuffed olives spiced up El Bulli style, wait for the kick!

These two were served together with the bread on the side. Jamon and cheese were the perfect pair for the bread. Also, loads of different olives in a bowl… love it!

Croquetas de Jamon – croquettes filled with white sauce & ham rolled in breadcrumbs, lightly fried & topped with alioli

Salt & Peppered Chipiones – lightly seasoned salt and pepper crispy squid served with lemon and alioli

Another jamon dish, but this time it was made into little croquettes. It was paired with salt and pepper squid and alioli (pay attention to the word ‘alioli’, it’s not a typo).

Patatas El Bulli – deep fried chat potatoes served with an emulsion of fritas & bravas dressing – house favourite

Patatas bravas is one of the most common dish in a Spanish tapas restaurant. It was also one of the first tapas dishes I’ve ever tried, made by a Spanish friend a long time ago! El Bulli spiced it up a bit and called it Patatas El Bulli.

BBQ Alitas – bbq hot and spicy chicken wings marinated in chimichurri & peri peri sauce

I usually liked chicken wings. However, I was not a big fan of this. Probably overshadowed by the other ten dishes on the night.

Medallon del Rey – eye fillet medallion on a bed of caramelised onions topped with a creamy blue cheese butter

Pinchitos de Gambas – grilled prawns skewered and infused with a Mediterranean saffron and cinnamon sauce!

It was interesting to see that they decided to bunch up two of (what I thought to be) the highlights for the night in one dish. Both the eye fillet and prawns were nicely done.

Mejillones en Salsa Picante – Giant pot of chilli mussels cooked in a traditional Spanish salsa, pumped up with shallots, basil, chilli & garlic

It took a while before the last two dishes arrived.The first want was rather spicy with quite thick salsa.

Almejas Tallarinas con Jamon – South Australian Pipis pan fried with jamon served in a white wine and lemon sauce with a dash of cream

The pipis was a little light on the cream.

The final verdict for El Bulli

Would we pay a full price for these tapas at El Bulli? Possibly No! However, $60 for 11 tapas is a hell of a deal!

Did you know?

To our surprise, El Bulli Surry Hills is actually a pretty big restaurant. The interior was very dimmed with virtually no sunlight in the venue.

Rating for El Bulli Surry Hills:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $60 for 2 people

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

504 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills 2010

02 9319 5199

http://elbulli.com.au/

Nov 10, 2015