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.

Remboelan

Remboelan Review:

This week’s post is from our trip to Indonesia earlier this year. It is an Indonesian restaurant in Jakarta called Remboelan. We went to the one in Plaza Senayan. The venue is a bit tricky to reach and there are no elevators going up to its level. So, it is quite a battle if you have your grandparents or disabled person dining with you. Also, given that it is located in one of the best malls in Jakarta, you could expect hefty price tags (by Indonesian standards).

The menu is like the who’s who list of famous food around the country. They have a lot of different kinds of food. You might want to take your time browsing through them. On this occasion, we went with a gazillion of people ordering gazillion of food. So, I might not be talking about each of them individually as this post would look more like an essay.

Hors d’oeuvre
In Indonesia, the appetizers look more like desserts than savoury dishes. Remboelan can do this assortment of snacks, or locally known as ‘jajan pasar‘, served before all guests arrive.

Soup

We ordered two soups from Central Java: asem-asem iga and tongseng sapi. They were both beef soup. I wasn’t really paying attention to them.

Asem-asem iga Putri Solo – 79k – Sour Beef Ribs Soup

Tongseng Sapi Telaga Sarangan – 60k – Curry-like beef soup

Meat

The strength of Indonesian food is in the meat and fish departments. Beef Balado from Padang and Javanese Beef Steak (known as Selat) from Solo are probably two of the most prominent dishes in Indonesia.

Balado is pretty spicy, so please make sure you are well equipped to eat it!

Balado Dendeng Hijau Padang Panjang – 65k – Dried beef with spicy balado sauce

Bistik sapi Jawa (Selat Solo) – 68k – Javanese beef steak

Ayam Krispi Saus Mangga Muda Midodari – 58k – Crispy Chicken with young mango sauce

Fish

Indonesians (read: my family) love grilled fish. We are blessed with overabundance of fish in the region. On this occasion, we chose gourami and snapper. The snapper had a spicy flavour native to the Eastern part of Indonesia, Manado.

Ikan Gurami bumbu kemiri – 95k – Grilled Gourami

Kakap utuh Woku Belanga Bunaken – 225k – Spicy Snapper

Kakap utuh Woku Belanga Bunaken – 225k

Vegetables and Noodles

These two vegetables, along with eggplant, are probably three of the most ordered by us. In addition to that, we love our noodles too!

Kangkung Bumbu Terasi – 42k – Water spinach with shrimp paste

Cah Taoge Jambal – 42k – stir-fried bean sprouts

Mie Goreng Remboelan – 43k – Remboelan Noodles

Drinks

Indonesians usually drink black coffee. Drinking with condensed milk, a la Vietnamese coffee, is probably the only other way.

Kopi Tubruk – Black coffee

Es Delima Larasati – 33k

The final verdict for Remboelan

I know the price seems to be quite excessive by Indonesian standards. However, Remboelan presented a collection of wonderful dishes that you would otherwise need to travel 1,000 kms for them.

Did you know?

Similar to other well-known restaurants, Remboelan has plenty branches all over Jakarta. They are mostly located in high-end malls.

Rating for Remboelan:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: Rp 40k – Rp 225k ~ $4 – $20

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

Plaza Senayan, Lantai 4, Jl. Asia Afrika No 8, Jakarta

+62 21 5725088

www.remboelan.com

Jun 20, 2017
Good Feeling Thai

Good Feeling Thai Restaurant Review:

Good Feeling Thai restaurant is one of the newest restaurants in the Inner West, Sydney. It is located in the Dulwich Hill shopping area. They have a few of the usual dishes you see in a typical Thai restaurant. They also have a few interesting ones. We did not get to try many dishes on this occasion.

Gang Phed Pad Yang – $18.90 – Grilled roasted duck in curry and vegetables

I love eating duck. When visiting a new restaurant, duck is the ingredient that I would try to find first. I’m not quite sure about grilled roast duck as the menu stated. To me, it looks just like a roast duck. It was quite a sweet and savoury curry.

Pad Thai Pu Nim – $18.90 – Special pad thai with egg net and soft shell crab

Pad Thai is probably the most well-known Thai dish in Sydney. It is so famous that you could even find pad thai in a non-Thai restaurant!

Good Feeling Thai tweaked the recipe a bit. Instead of serving the usual rice noodles with something, they put this elaborate display. They introduced soft shell crab to complement the dish with its crunch and savoury flavour. They also blanketed the pad thai with egg net. The Good Feeling’s Pad Thai was very nice.

Fresh Coconut Juice – $6.00

I guess they could say it is just a fresh coconut. I love coconut when you can still scrape its inner wall and enjoy the fruit!

The final verdict for Good Feeling Thai Restaurant

Good Feeling Thai Restaurant is a restaurant worth coming back to. Their price was quite decent for the area and they have nice duck and pad thai dishes.

Did you know?
Good Feeling Thai restaurant serves halal food. There are not too many halal options in Inner West. This part of Inner West is actually more known for the Vietnamese restaurants.

Rating for Good Feeling Thai Restaurant:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $14.50 – $19 per main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Shop 1 / 362 – 372 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill

+61 2 9518 3185

Jun 15, 2017
Kreta Ayer – Ashfield

Kreta Ayer – Ashfield Review:

I have to warn you in advance that the restaurant that we review this week, Kreta Ayer, only accepts cash. It is quite troublesome especially when most of their dishes are in excess of $15. Some of the prices are even marked as “market price”, like those mud crabs. The closest ATM is the Ashfield shopping centre.

Their menu is quite similar to high end Chinese restaurants in CBD with the likes of Moreton Bay bug and coral trout on offer. Being a Singaporean/Malaysian restaurant, they have a different way to cook the dishes. If you are looking for the authentic Singaporean dish, you need to choose their Singapore Chilli, Black Pepper or Salted Egg.

Boneless Hainanese Chicken – $15.8

Hainanese chicken is one of the parameters of a good Singaporean restaurant for me. It goes without saying that when ordering this you really need to order chicken rice as well.

Crispy Noodles with seafood – $13.8

Our family loves eating crispy noodles. Kreta Ayer’s crispy noodles has quite a lot of seafood in the dish. I guess you can see it yourself below.

Being warm and soupy, this dish is a nice dish to have in winter.

Cereal Prawn – $24.8 – Deep fried prawn with sweet cereal

I call this double crunchy prawn. When you coat deep fried prawn with fried cereal, you get this super crunchy prawn. It is so crunchy that you can eat pretty much everything.

The final verdict for Kreta Ayer – Ashfield

Kreta Ayer in Ashfield is a decent Singaporean/Malaysian with premium price. The cash payment method is also a pain to deal with. If they can accept other payment methods, I might be inclined to try their Singapore Chilli Mud Crab.

Did you know?

They have quite a decent package for lunch on weekdays. For the same price, you get a selection of dishes, but you also receive complimentary selection of iced teas.

As you can see from the picture below the lunch special crispy noodles with seafood is actually the same size as its dinner counterpart.

Rating for Kreta Ayer – Ashfield:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: $20 per person

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

339 Liverpool Road, Ashfield 2131

+61 2 9797 8688

http://www.kretaayer.com.au/

Jun 7, 2017
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
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
Masuya Japanese Seafood Restaurant

Masuya Japanese Seafood Restaurant Review:

I had a friend coming over from New Zealand and he was looking for a great dining experience in Sydney. My option went to Masuya Japanese Seafood Restaurant, which was considered by many as (one of, if not) the best Japanese in Sydney.

They have an option of Kaiseki, aka degustation, dinner. But on this occasion, I opted to pick and choose dishes we would like to try… just because there were just way too many I’d like to try!

Tofu and Avocado Salad – $10.80 – silken tofu, avocado & seasoned seaweed with shiso basil dressing

My usual comment for salad is ‘just another green’. For this one, the green comes from seaweed, and avocado as well… a less green-y salad!

Masuya’s Salmon Salad – $13.80 – lightly spiced marinated salmon with creamy blue cheese, onion and salad with rice vinaigrette dressing

I love this salad… with capital L O V E! It has that burst of blue cheese while we’re eating that makes it pretty exciting.

Beef Tataki – $14.80 – seared wagyu beef, sliced sashimi style, crisp mizuna with ponzu soy citrus and a touch of balsamic

The depth of flavour for this beef tataki is very nice.

Karaage Soft Shell Crab – M $19.80 – crispy soft shell crab with sweet chilli and wasabi mayonnaise sauce

This dish was gone quite fast, courtesy of its mouth-watering presentation. The wasabi mayonnaise was very smooth. There was also a portion of crushed potato (it wasn’t exactly mashed as the texture was grainy) that was quickly becoming our favourite!

Tonkatsu Pork Loin (Kurobuta) – $20.80 – deep-fried crispy kurobuta pork loin served with home blended tonkatsu sauce

They told me that the tonkatsu was pretty good as well.

Sea Eel (Anago) – $22.80 – bbq sea eel grilled with our flavoured original sauce on a bed of steamed rice

This white sea eel wasn’t exactly presented for sharing. Masuya’s sauce was sweeter than most Japanese grill sauce.

Hokkaido Scallops – $24.80 – deep-fried scallops, imported from Hokkaido, Japan, served with homemade tartar sauce & tonkatsu sauce

To be honest, I am still not sure what’s so special about scallops from Hokkaido. It tasted like scallops from Sydney, which I think is already one of the freshest and best in the world.

Sushi Deluxe platter – $68.00 – Gorgeous and most valued sushi selection – total of 32 pieces assorted sushi

There were quite a lot of sushi in the plate. It was presented beautifully and tasted amazing!

If you really want that uni (sea urchin) sushi, you’d better be quick!

Ocean Jewel Boat – $88.00 – a dozen pacific oyster served with three different types of sauce, scampi, hokki, scallop and fresh salmon sashimi

Ocean Jewel Boat is the most mouth-wateringly elegant sashimi boat I have ever seen. The content is like A-list celebrities of the seafood world, minus lobster. It was served super fresh. We, obviously, devoured them in a heartbeat!

Nasu Miso – $9.80 – deep-fried eggplant with Masuya’s original miso paste

We actually ordered this quite later in the service after we found out one of our guests couldn’t eat too much raw fish. What’s not to love about nasu miso? The eggplant was so soft!

Misoyaki Chicken – $20.80 – oven grilled miso marinated thigh fillet of chicken served with green vegetables

Another one that we ordered quite late. The serving was quite small but it really packed a punch.

Wagyu Sukiyaki Hot Pot – $48.00 – finely sliced marble score no. 6 sirloin beef with seasonal vegetables, cooked at your table, served in a traditional Japanese style with beaten egg dipping sauce – minimum order for two

I did not order this for our main group. A decision that I quickly regretted (and was frowned upon by some people in the group). You really must order this when you are dining at Masuya… especially in winter!

The final verdict for Masuya Japanese Seafood Restaurant

Masuya Japanese Seafood Restaurant lived up to its name. We had wonderful dining experience there

Did you know?

The restaurant group has a few different levels of restaurant, including an izakaya that we have reviewed in the past.

Rating for Masuya Japanese Seafood Restaurant:

9.0 / 10

Taste: 9.0 / 10

Price: $75 per person

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

12 – 14 O’Connell Street, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9235 2717

http://www.masuyainternational.com.au/en/masuya/

May 15, 2017