Category: Global Cuisines

All About Food Blog loves trying different cuisines from all around the world. Sometimes food has the same name but completely different look and taste.

Izakaya Goma

Izakaya Goma Review:

Our colleagues and I dined at Izakaya Goma in Maroubra quite regularly for lunch. They are probably the only Japanese restaurant in the area that does lunch for under $10. The catch is you can only have at most three options a day and it varies depending on the day you visit the restaurant. It is also a simple bowl of something with miso soup.

For a more elaborate lunch, they also have other options available from their menu. If you don’t fancy any of the lunch menu, you can always go back to their regular menu.

Oden – $1.50

This is an irresistible factor when having lunch at Izakaya Goma. For only $1.50 a stick, you get to choose from a variety of Japanese Oden. I usually like to have the konyaku jelly and fish balls.

Kaisen Bara Chirashi Zen – $14.8 – assorted raw and cooked seafood on sushi rice

I always love eating chirashi (basically it’s a bowl of sushi rice with sashimi cuts)! It’s probably not the cheapest, but it has quite a variety in the bowl.

Teriyaki Salmon Yakimono – $18.8 – grilled salmon basted with teriyaki sauce

The teriyaki salmon yakimono comes from the main menu. The portion is obviously a lot bigger than the lunch menu.

Tendon – $13.8 or $9.80 – assorted tempura on Japanese rice

It is your usual tempura pieces on a bowl of rice.

Chicken Katsu – $10.80 or $9.80 – breaded chicken cutlet with egg and onion on Japanese rice

It is another of your usual chicken katsu on a bowl of rice.

Sushi

They have quite a lot of options for Sushi and Sashimi.

The final verdict for Izakaya Goma

Izakaya Goma has a good value option for a quick lunch.

Did you know?

They used to have free fairy floss for the kids.

Rating for Izakaya Goma:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $9.8 lunch specials

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

693 Anzac Parade, Maroubra 2035

+61 2 9349 1945

http://www.izakayagoma.com/

Jul 11, 2017
Braza Leichhardt

Braza Leichhardt Review:

We visited Braza in Darling Harbour back in 2013. Braza has been one of our favourite all you can eat restaurants in Sydney ever since. Our review this week is from its main branch (if I’m not mistaken) at Leichhardt in Sydney. Braza Leichhardt has been around for longer than the Darling Harbour one. It is located near the entrance of Leichhardt in Norton Street.

The best thing about Braza Leichhardt is their ability to rotate the supply of meat. Most of the time when you go to have dinner in this kind of restaurant, you will get the cheap cuts… but not Braza. They are able to give you variety of cuts throughout the course of your dinner.

Their menu is still the same. It is plain and simple $49 and you can eat as much as you want.

Side Dishes

Braza has quite a few different side dishes for you to choose from. However, instead of presenting them all on your table, you have to order. There is an exception for the cheese balls where you can only have a limit of one cheese ball per person.

Beef

There are way too many cuts to remember. Obviously being in a Brazilian restaurant, you want to get your hands on their most famous beef cuts: Picanha (or Rump Cap).

Chicken

It is easier with chicken as you can only have chicken thigh or breast. However, in addition to those two, you can also get chicken hearts, chicken drumsticks and sometimes chicken with bacon!

There are also a whole assortments of pork like pork belly and chorizo.

Ribs

This is the bit that I love the most about Braza Leichhardt: the ribs! I love good ribs! What about unlimited supply of good ribs? Even better!

Seafood

Seafood is also probably one of Braza’s strongest offerings. Despite only having two types of seafood, fish wrapped in leaf and prawns, they are still two more than most churrasco restaurants.

Desserts

They are not really sophisticated desserts. However, it is enough to end the night with. Obviously, you could also end the night with a couple of caipirinhas!

The final verdict for Braza Leichhardt

I’m sure you know how my verdict will be considering that Braza is one of our favourites! The Leichhardt branch is no different… or probably slightly better than the Darling Harbour one!

Did you know?
Just in case Leichhardt and Darling Harbour is too far for you, Braza also has restaurants in Manly and Miranda.

Rating for Braza Leichhardt:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $49 all-you-can-eat

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

13 Norton Street, Leichhardt 2040, NSW

+61 2 9572 7921

https://www.braza.com.au/

Jul 7, 2017
Saigon Summer Street Food

Saigon Summer Street Food Review:

Our review this week is from a little shop in Summer Hill called Saigon Summer Street Food. You might be able to quickly figure the restaurant out as a Vietnamese restaurant. The restaurant is located in the shopping area of Summer Hill.

They have the usual suspects of Vietnamese street food: Vietnamese roll, pho soup and vermicelli or rice dishes.

Beef in Betel Leaf Vermicelli (Bun Bo La Lot) – $13.50

I like the vibrant colors of this vermicelli dish with beef in betel leaf. It is so refreshing!

Beef Pho (Pho Bo) – $12

Beef pho is the traditional Vietnamese soup. The beef is usually served rare and served on top of the bowl of soup.

The beef pho in Saigon Summer was quite clear and the beef was pre-cooked with the soup.

Lychee Lemonade – $3

I love lychee and I love lemonade. This drink is a no-brainer, right?

The final verdict for Saigon Summer Street Food

Saigon Summer Street Food is a pretty decent restaurant for your daily dining needs.

Did you know?

Saigon Summer also has this nice bite-sized dishes. They all have the same price – 1 for $3, 3 for $8, 5 for $12.

Rating for Saigon Summer Street Food:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $6 – $14 per dish

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

12 Lackey Street, Summer Hill 2130

+61 2 8387 5621

http://saigonsummer.com.au/

Jul 5, 2017
Yakitori Jin

Yakitori Jin Review:

A few weeks ago, we heard about a restaurant in Haberfield, Sydney, that served Japanese Yakitori. Yakitori Jin is the name. We were quite amazed in so many levels. When people talk about Haberfield, it is synonymous with Italian restaurants and ricotta cheesecake. So, opening a Japanese restaurant that predominantly serves yakitori, aka Japanese chicken skewers, was quite a bold move.

We managed to visit Yakitori Jin last week. The restaurant looked pretty unassuming from the outside. There were only a handful of tables inside. We were quite lucky we got a table without a booking. Their yakitori came with two choices: salt and tare (basically you want either salty or sweet). In addition to the Yakitori, they also serve a few rice and noodles dishes.

Smoky Edamame – $8

It has become our custom to start Japanese dinner with edamame. Instead of just a boiled and salted edamame, they also add an extra element to it!

Omakase – $24 – 6pc Chef’s selection

Because there were way too many to choose from, we decided to leave it up to the chef (omakase). Their omakase is a selection of six yakitori. I love a good element of surprise in my dining experience.

Our first three yakitori are Okura (Okra), Perino tomato with camembert cheese, and Kokoro (Chicken Heart). You might not be able to judge from the picture (it looked like a regular sticks), but these three were amazing!

The next three were the ‘normal’ chicken skewers: Mune Chicken breast, Momo Chicken thigh, and Negima Chicken thigh and breast with leek. Again, you can’t really justify how it tasted from the picture. They were very good!

When you work on the Maths, it ends up being $4 a stick… not a bad deal!

Wagyu line meat – $6

Yakitori Jin also has a couple of specials in the menu. We were interested in one of the specials that night: wagyu line meat – Gyu suji Kushiyaki. It was so good that even our little one wanted one!

Artery – $4

At the bottom of the menu, they mentioned ‘some rare parts of yakitori are limited in stock’. One of the rare parts was chicken artery. Obviously the rare parts might not be for everyone. But for us, it was such a treat!

Yakitori don – $9.90 – a bowl of rice topped with yakitori tare

When you go to a restaurant, usually they don’t really take good care of your kids or they thought that chicken nuggets or fish and chips would do for these young ones. Yakitori Jin managed to present quite a nice rice bowl. I was just curious what happened to the kids who don’t eat chicken skewers.

Yaki Onigiri – $11 – A grilled rice ball with Jin soup (rich chicken soup with meat balls)

From the face value, $11 might be a steep proposition for a rice ball and a bowl of soup. But I think this is the dish that you don’t want to miss out… seriously! The soup was super rich and yummy… and did I mention grilled rice?

The final verdict for Yakitori Jin

Throughout the process of writing this review, I can’t stop thinking about when I will visit the place again. It’s just that good!

Rating for Yakitori Jin:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $82 for 2 people

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

101 Ramsay Street, Haberfield 2045

+61 420 565 101

http://torijin.com.au

Jun 30, 2017
Gukbab Korean Restaurant

Gukbab Korean Restaurant Review:

We came across Gukbab Korean Restaurant when we were walking down Melbourne CBD looking for a nice cup of coffee. Later that night, we decided to dine there because it was close to where we stayed. As with any other Korean restaurant, we receive free side dishes. They were just a simple kimchi and marinated onion in Gukbab. They also gave us a plate of salad with sesame sauce. However, I’m not sure whether that’s part of the side dishes or the main dish that we ordered.

There are the usual Korean dishes in the menu. Judging from the number of dishes displayed, the Korean Fried Chicken and soup were the main dishes in the restaurant. However, we did not get to try the soup this time around.

Sweet Chilli Chicken – $18

Korean Fried Chicken is usually our unanimous choice when dining in a Korean Restaurant. That’s exactly what we ordered at Gukbab. We ordered the sweet chili chicken on this occasion. They only gave pieces of chicken wings with quite a generous serving of sweet chili sauce. In addition to the chicken, we also asked for extra cheese with the chicken (for a small amount of money – I could not remember).

Their fried chickens were really nice. However, it’s unfortunate that they chose to serve only wings.

Beef Bulgogi – $16 – stir fried marinated beef and vegetables

Another classic Korean dish is our choice for the other dish on that night. Bulgogi is the name people usually mention when talking about Korean food. They gave quite a sizable portion for the bulgogi.

The final verdict for Gukbab Korean Restaurant

Gukbab is quite a nice Korean restaurant in Melbourne CBD. .

Did you know?

There are quite a lot of Korean restaurants in Little Lonsdale. Some of them are Korean BBQ restaurants.

Rating for Gukbab Korean Restaurant:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $15 – $19 main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Shop 1, 535 Little Lonsdale Street, CBD, Melbourne 3000

+61 3 9939 0380

Jun 28, 2017
Eat Fuh

Eat Fuh Review:

“That’s not how you spell ‘Eat Fuh‘”. That’s what my little one said the first time we visited this restaurant… Everyone burst into laughter!

We were interested in dining at Eat Fuh in Marrickville because of the gigantic stockpot that can be seen from the outside.

Their menu is quite simple with a few different noodle soups, salad noodles, and rice dishes.

Fuh Noodle Soup – $16 – bone broth cooked with star anise, cardamom, cloves cinnamon, ginger, onions, served with thick rice noodles and garnished with coriander, basil, shallot and sprouts

Obviously, when you are at Eat Fuh, you must order Pho (that’s how most Australians write it ^_^). We ordered the large one with rare beef and flank. The regular version is $2 less and you can also have the chicken option.

If you want to add more types of meat like tendons and/or tripe and/or meat balls, you will need to add an extra $1

Beef stew noodle soup – $17 – lean beef and beef shin stewed with seasonal vegetables, ginger, lemongrass, star anise, cinnamon and served with chewy rice noodles, garnished with coriander, basil, shallot and sprouts

Beef stew is the one that piqued my interest. The taste was pretty strong. However, in this cold weather, the soup really warmed me up!

Vanilla creme brulee with vanilla ice cream and strawberry – $10

They had quite a nice little theatrics when serving the creme brulee. They actually charred the brulee with blow torch in front of you!

You can have an option of Caramel or coconut pandan for brulee or sticky date pudding.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVGnqPmjcMj/?taken-by=aaf_blog

The final verdict for Eat Fuh

Big portion and hot soup are the perfect combination for this cold winter days. Eat Fuh delivered a nice dining experience.

Did you know?

I’m not sure whether it’s substantiated or not, but one comment on Zomato mentioned about the use of MSG in their soup at Eat Fuh. MSG has no adverse impacts on me, but if you do have the allergies, I guess you need to stay away from it (or ask not to have msg, if possible?)

Rating for Eat Fuh:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $14 – $17 per portion

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

274 Illawarra Road, Marrickville 2204, Sydney

+61 2 8385 3459

Eat Fuh on Facebook

Jun 23, 2017