Category: Modern Australian

The term Modern Australian arises when the influence of globalisation, mainly the exotic flavour of South East Asians, is fused with contemporary food.

Loaded by BL

Loaded by BL Review:

I’ve been attending a few short courses at Sydney Uni in the last couple of years before I realised there was quite an interesting burger joint just around the corner from where I was taking the classes. The restaurant is called Loaded by BL. BL is an acronym for Bar Luca, one of the well-known bars in CBD.

The interesting thing about Loaded by BL is that instead of many pictures of burgers, you will face a large blackboard with lots of texts. These are the different combinations you can have for their burgers.

Step 1: You start off with 10 different bases that you can get. It ranges from $4 – $8.
Step 2: You will then need to figure out whether you need extra meat from the 11 different things that you can choose from. The price range is $3 – $5.
Step 3: Add your cheese (from 10 different options). Some of the bases will include the cheese. In that case, your first one will be free. Otherwise, the cheese will cost between $2 to $4.
Step 4: This step is if you need optional extras or special configuration, like gluten-free bun. They have 29 different things ranging from 50c to $4.
Step 5: Get your sauce. There are 15 different of them. The first one is free, but if you need extra, it would be $1 each.

If the options above too challenging for you, they provide eight premade ones for you to choose from.

Cheeseburger – $8 – Beef pattie, choice of cheese, choice of sauce

Combo – $4 – add fries and drink

You can make any of your burgers a meal (that is adding fries and a can of drink) for an extra $4.

The Blame – $16 – Cheeseburger, poutine, maple bacon & maple aioli

Bar Luca calls this ‘Blame Canada’ with the overabundance serving of maple aioli and maple bacon. In Loaded by BL, the burger is simply known as ‘The Blame’. You will need to blame it once you step on the scale!

Tater Tots – $5 – with maple aioli

I was quite happy with the size of my tater tots. For $5 you get a big box of it with an extra sauce.

The final verdict for Loaded by BL

It is always fun building your own burger. Loaded by BL gives you that opportunity. Just be careful you don’t stack it up too high… or the bill will follow.

Do you think I should go?
It might be a bit confronting in your first foray into Build-Your-Own burger. However, once you get the hang of it, this place is pretty cool.

Rating for Loaded by BL:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $8 – $16

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

170 – 172 Missenden Road, Newtown 2042

+61 2 9565 5276

Loaded by BL

Aug 2, 2018
Sixpenny

Sixpenny Review:

Our restaurant this week is listed as one of the top restaurants in Australia located in a very quiet street in Stanmore, Sydney. They have held two hats status for as long as I can remember. Their chef, Daniel Puskas, is the Chef of the year in this year’s good food guide.

Sixpenny only has two degustation menu: 6 courses and 8 courses. They also cater for children with a 2-course menu for $65 on some days – we actually got 3 for our little one as he really wanted our dessert. As usual, the dining starts with warm bread and butter. Halfway through the service, they gave us a different kind of bread (but not pictured here).

Starter

Lightly pickled cucumber with Rose Geranium, Green Tomato & Cheese Gougères, Sweet Potato Scallop

The starter is not part of the degustation set. They are more like a ‘freebie’ during the service. The trio was wonderfully presented and super tasty. They recommended us to eat from the amazing gougère to the super fresh cucumber and onto the more substantive sweet potato.

Main

There are 4 mains served in the 6-course degustation. This month, the fifth main was the Venison tartare.

Ballina Spanner Crab with Clam butter & Yarra Valley Salmon Roe

The main course starts with very fresh and tasty spanner crab. The crab was very rich and full of flavour.

Dutch cream potato with Oyster emulsion, mushroom powder & button mushroom

This was one of the best dishes of the day. I love the creaminess of the potato and combined with the slightly crunchy raw mushroom.

The crispy kale and zucchini flower added an amazing dimension to it.

Swordfish with Buttermilk, Green Chard & Salted Red Cabbage

Unfortunately, the swordfish was our least favourite of the day. It did introduce the sour element to our dining. However, it was a tad too sour to our liking. The foamy look was also a bit scary.

Rangers Valley Chuck Tail with Mushroom & Marsala and smoked onion

Chuck tail cut is a part of beef that you might not hear very often about. Texture-wise it’s like in between ribs and rump. So, you got the best out of both worlds!

Add the sauce and smoked onion into the mix… and you get yourself a fantastic dish!

They also gave us a bowl of salad for the steak.

Kid’s Menu

In addition to the following 2-course meal, they are also given the same snacks as the adult. The kid’s dessert is also one of the degustation desserts.

Steak

Cocoa Ice Cream with Chocolate Caramel and Almond Sable

Desserts

Mead Vinegar Custard with frozen Raspberries & Strawberry Consomme

If I heard it correctly, it took ten weeks to make the custard. The dessert might look very simple: part frozen raspberries and part custard with strawberry consomme. The combination of the three created one amazing dessert! It was sweet, a hint of sourness, frozen bites of raspberries, and most importantly… yum!

Feijoa Granita with White Chocolate & Dehydrated Feijoa

The second dessert was a bit more challenging to understand. The white chocolate was nice along with the granita. However, the dessert left a lingering taste of bitterness at the end.

The final verdict for Sixpenny

Sixpenny is the best restaurant we visited this year. They deserve the two-hat status for their awesome dishes… and probably not that far off from three-hat quality dishes.

Do you think I should go?
Definitely!

Rating for Sixpenny:

9.0 / 10

Taste: 9.0 / 10

Price: $125 for 6-course and $155 for 8-course

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

83 Percival Road, Stanmore 2048

+61 2 9572 6666

May 30, 2018
2-Course Set – Three Blue Ducks Rosebery Menu

2-Course Set from Three Blue Ducks Rosebery Menu Review:

We went to an office lunch at Three Blue Ducks Rosebery the other day. We got the 2-course set menu instead of the usual a la carte because of the number of people in the group. The set menu is $52 and you have a choice of three dishes for smalls and bigs respectively.

They also have the 3-course menu for $65 that would include one of three desserts. However, it’s a bit of an overkill for an office lunch.

Smalls

Sweet potato hummus, charred onions, pickled chestnuts & focaccia

All veggies… definitely not my choice of dish 🙂 I did try this in the past and it was a pretty good starter.

Raw kingfish, Vietnamese mint, paw paw, kaffir lime & green chilli

The raw kingfish is quite an interesting dish. It’s kinda like a mashed up between poke/ceviche in South East Asian style plus pawpaw.

Peri peri chicken skewers, spiced yoghurt & herb salad

If you’re not a big fan of the raw fish nor hummus, then peri peri chicken is your only option. It came with spiced yoghurt. So in a way, it’s kinda exotic as well.

If you are not a big fan of any of them, they are giving you a choice of having the potatoes side for yourself.

Bigs

Whole roasted rainbow trout, smashed peas, watercress & prawn oil

Let’s put an emphasis on the word ‘whole’ here. They are giving you a whole trout fish!

The fish itself was perfectly roasted and very yummy.

Braised beef short rib, wood roasted cabbage & kombu butter

If you are more of a meat lover, I guess this is a no-brainer. Nothing on this list can beat a nice and juicy beef short rib.

Wood roasted cauliflower, smoked eggplant yoghurt, pickled grapes & hazelnuts

One ingredients stood out for me in this dish: pickled grapes. I tried it and it was super sour.

Seasonal Side to Share

Crispy potatoes, rosemary & garlic

They gave a few of these to be shared with the whole table. It could also be used as a substitute if you are not a big fan of the three small dishes above.

The final verdict for Three Blue Ducks Rosebery

It took longer than the usual hour allowed at lunch break to enjoy the 2-course meal at Three Blue Ducks. For $52 in Rosebery, I think the smalls need to be a bit more substantial to complement the bigs.

Do you think I should go?
Considering that the company paid for our lunch, we were pretty happy to have lunch at Three Blue Ducks Rosebery. You can also find Andy Allen, Masterchef winner in 2012, there.

Rating for Three Blue Ducks Rosebery:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $52 for 2-course

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

1/85 Dunning Avenue, Rosebery 2018

+61 2 9389 0010

http://www.threeblueducks.com/rosebery/

Feb 21, 2018
Mentmore and Morley

Mentmore and Morley Review:

I walked past this restaurant pretty often but have not been to it until recently. The price point at Mentmore and Morley isn’t exactly within my ‘office lunch’ budget. We had a chance to taste it when one of our colleagues had a farewell party.

They serve quite a modern-esque Australian cafe dishes with dishes like haloumi and polenta, burgers, and poke. They also serve quite a few local beers.

M&M Burger & Sweet Potato Fries – $18 – 160g prime beef pattie, bacon, provolone, dill pickle, tomato chutney, cos leaves

My friend told me that the burger was pretty good. He would rate it a ‘7’. You can also choose chicken burger instead of beef pattie.

Polenta & Haloumi – $18 – fried polenta, haloumi, asparagus, avocado, Raw Sisterhood sauerkraut salad, fried egg, yuzu dressing

This dish is very pretty! I’m not usually a veggie eater, but I would gladly eat this dish!

Caesar Salad – $14/18 – anchovy aioli, cos lettuce leaves, streaky bacon, grana parmesan, free range egg, sourdough croutons

If you are more into the traditional dish, then the Caesar salad is for you.

Chilled Soba with Salmon – $16/20 – Tasmanian flaked salmon, chilled soba noodles, cucumber, spring onion, sesame seeds, chia seeds, wakame salad edamame, dashi broth, ginger & shallot dressing

Mentmore and Morley had a nice twist to the Japanese cold soba. The dish does look predominantly green and fresh.

Salmon Poke Bowl – $18 – with brown rice, edamame, wakame, enoki, avocado, ginger & soy mirin dressing

Poke bowl is part of the ‘dish of the day’ on the menu board.

The Great Roast – $15/18 – Beets, parsnip, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, shallots, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, pine nuts peas, salsa verde & goats cheese

I’m sure if all salad can look this good, kids will be happy to eat them!

Cape Byron Sirloin Steak – $28 – crushed kipfler potatoes, greek salad, salsa verde & jus

This is the dish that I actually ordered. The steak was grilled to my liking. There was probably a tad too much salt on it even after dipping in Salsa Verde. The crushed kipfler potatoes went really well with the jus.

The final verdict for Mentmore and Morley

Mentmore and Morley served pretty dishes. All of our dishes had that aura of ‘Oh… I don’t mind eating that although I don’t like what’s in it’. However, it is still beyond my normal office lunch budget.

Do you think I should go?
If I don’t live in the area, I probably would go here for weekend brunch.

Rating for Mentmore and Morley:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $18 – $28 main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

55 Mentmore Rd, Rosebery 2018

+61 2 9697 3617

Jan 18, 2018
The Palace Tea Room

The Palace Tea Room Review:

We went to The Palace Tea Room for the Mother’s Day brunch. Given that we could get in without even booking the place was a plus in my book. Unfortunately, there was a little ‘drama’ where our food was delivered extremely late due to clerical errors. However, they were quite apologetic about it and removed the drink bill off our total amount. Not bad!

Let’s talk about the food itself. Being in the historical Queen Victoria Building at the heart of Sydney, you would expect a sizable price point for the restaurant. Browsing through the menu, the price was actually quite acceptable.

Salmon & grilled vegetable salad with avocado, beetroot & feta, horseradish cream – $26

I ordered this for my main dish. However it ended up being taken over by my wife because her dish was unavailable (I think they ran out of pappardelle). She enjoyed everything about the dish.

Wagyu Beef Burger (tomato, lettuce, pickles, gruyere, bacon, onion, fried egg) with fries – $25.5

We had wagyu beef burger as a replacement. While I was still having the burger, the little one actually wanted to eat the fries. To his defence, the fries were pretty good. There was nothing special about the burger.

Buttermilk and blueberry pancakes, caramelised banana, honey butter and maple syrup – $17

The pancakes were very fluffy. It was probably a tad too big for a six-year-old kid.

Devonshire Tea – two scones, tea or coffee – $18

The devonshire tea is why we are eating here in the first place. We ordered two types of tea: Rose Floral and Cherry Blossom Tea. They were very nice. I didn’t eat too much of the scones (because I had to finish the pancakes).

The final verdict for The Palace Tea Room

A big plus for the palace tea room was availability during Mother’s Day and also how they handled crisis.

Did you know?
There are quite a lot of tea on offer at the Palace Tea Room. You could also purchase them to enjoy at home.

Rating for The Palace Tea Room:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $25 – $35 per person

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop L1 20 – 22, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney

+61 2 9283 2222

http://www.thepalacetearoom.com.au/

May 31, 2017
Three Blue Ducks Rosebery

Three Blue Ducks Rosebery Review:

When I first visited Three Blue Ducks in Rosebery for brunch, I saw someone in the counter that I felt was quite familiar. After a quick browse, apparently Andy from Masterchef Australia has joined Three Blue Ducks as a partner for the Rosebery venue. Being a Three Blue Ducks restaurant and ex-Kitchen by Mike venue, I placed quite a massive expectation for it. Regrettably, that first visit was forgettable.

In my second visit, I was there with my colleagues for an office lunch. Three Blue Ducks Rosebery has a different set of menu for lunch.

We ordered almost all of their starters. The two dippings were pretty good. The sourdough was the best value for money. However $20 for roasted veggie bowl seemed to be a bit too expensive. Considering that they also served vegetarian main dish for only $18.

Iggy’s sourdough with butter – $5

Sweet potato hummus, charred onions, black sesame & focaccia – $13

Babaganoush, toasted almonds, sumac, chives and focaccia – $13

Roasted veggie bowl with grains & fermented veggies & dukkah – $20

Amongst our group, we also ordered almost all of their main dishes. I wouldn’t be talking about most of them, but I’ll just show you their pictures. Personally, I ordered their special of the day. It was a rather big squid with pearl couscous, vegetables and a very yummy sauce.

According to my colleagues, the piri piri chicken was the best one. They actually got half a chicken! Charred occy, kingfish and sirloin steak were pretty good. Poke bowl was probably the one to forget. I also agreed with the justification for the poke bowl.

Poke bowl – raw fish, cucumber, avocado, radish, kimchi, brown rice, seaweed & softboiled egg – $27

Piri piri chicken, spiced yoghurt, chickpeas, parsley, tomatoes and preserved lemon – $32

Charred occy, corn, grapefruit, pickled chilli, mixed leaves & fermented radish – $28

Wood roasted kingfish on the bone, sweet potato puree, charred broccoli and corn, soy mirin – $34

400gr charcoal grilled pasture fed sirloin steak, burnt herb salsa, pickled onion & mustard – $34

The final verdict for Three Blue Ducks Rosebery

Three Blue Ducks is probably one of the better restaurants in Rosebery. However, given how good our dining experience in the Bronte one was, this one was subpar.

Did you know?

Looking at their website, there are actually three blue ducks restaurants in Australia (the other one being in Byron Bay).

Rating for Three Blue Ducks Rosebery:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $18 – $34 main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

1 / 85 Dunning Avenue, Rosebery 2018

+61 2 9389 0010

http://www.threeblueducks.com/rosebery/home-rosebery

Mar 7, 2017