Category: Seafood

Some restaurants only specialise in this without the attribute of a country.

Feast – a world of flavours | Sheraton on The Park

Feast – a world of flavours Review:

This week we will talk about one of the most well-known all you can eat restaurants in Sydney, Feast – a world of flavours. You might know it simply as ‘that all you can eat place in Sheraton, Hyde Park’.

Being in a five-star hotel, the price is obviously quite different than your normal restaurant. Their price depends on whether you eat at lunch time or dinner and also whether you are having it on weekdays vs weekend. Weekdays lunch is the cheapest, at $79 and weekend dinner is $99.

They have four big food stations, I simply refer to them as seafood, cold cuts, chef and sophisticated meals and desserts.

Seafood

When you step into the restaurant, you are greeted by the seafood station where you can see this overwhelming selection of seafood. I’m a tad disappointed that there are no Alaskan king crab legs there. However, they still have an assortment of seafood to make me happy. The seafood here is more on the ‘fresh’ side as it is cooked minimally so that you can taste their original flavour.

Cold cuts and the usuals
This is probably the station that I visited the least. They have all the staple all you can eat food, like cold cuts, salad, and bread.

Chef Station
I call this the chef station because there is an actual chef in this place. The chef would help you cut the roast or make you congee and noodles. They also have pizza here if you want to eat it for whatever reason.

Sophisticated meals and Desserts
I choose the word ‘sophisticated’ because unlike in the seafood station, this one is more for dishes that have been seasoned really well. The other side of this station is the desserts.

The one thing that I love so much from this station was its fish with (I presume) bernaise sauce.

… and the desserts. I think I don’t need to talk about it that much, except that they also serve ice creams!

More pictures of the food

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The final verdict for Feast – a world of flavours

The choices of food at Feast is unreal. There were only very few misses, but generally everything was pretty good.

Do you think I should go?
If it’s a special occasion and/or you have a spare $100, then go ahead… However, most places that do All You Can Eat usually charges up to half of it.

Rating for Feast – a world of flavours:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 8.0 / 10

Price: $79 – $99

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

Level 1, Sheraton on the Park
161 Elizabeth Street, Sydney 2000

+61 2 9286 6000

http://www.feastsydney.com.au/

Oct 26, 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
The Holy Crab

The Holy Crab Review:

Seafood in Indonesia is in abundance and is usually quite reasonably-priced. That’s why for this week’s review we went to a nice seafood place in Jakarta called The Holy Crab. The Holy Crab borrowed its seafood concept from Louisiana seafood boil.

However, we actually did not pay close attention to the price in the menu and missed the ‘little’ detail of price per 100 gr for the first 8 items (not just the top 4) in the menu. As a consequence, those 2 mud crabs were costing us more than half of the total bill!

Their menu can be divided into two: fried or boiled. Obviously their main attraction was the boiled one. You can select from the two sauces: Original Cajun or Garlic Pepper. There are four different hotness levels: Mild, Medium, Spicy, and Holy Moly!

Cajun Fries – 28k

Cajun fries is the staples that you need to order. You would get corn in some of the dishes below, but it’s not chips!

Onion Rings – 35k

Onion rings is one of my favourite dishes and I will always try to order them whenever I see one.

Mud Crab – 48k / 100gr

I love a good mud crab. However at $48 / kg, their price is almost on par with Sydney’s Mud Crab.

Shrimps – 40k / 100gr

We ordered the shrimps, that’s how the Americans said it, in garlic pepper sauce. It also came with corn cobs.

Crawfish – 48k / 100gr

I like crawfish, or what we call yabbies here in Australia, a lot more than lobster.

Hooks Telescope – 30k

The Hooks Telescope is the name they gave for a hot dog. It is part of the kids menu. The hot dog was quite plain and you had to put in the sauce separately. This is a big no-no for kids (my son especially). It wasn’t as exciting as the rest of the dishes.

The final verdict for The Holy Crab

Outside the little pricing ‘surprise’, we actually quite enjoyed our dinner at The Holy Crab.

Did you know?

The Holy Crab group has a few different restaurants in its group, Ersons Group. One of the more notable restaurants is the Holy Smokes.

Rating for The Holy Crab:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: ~ $200 for 3 adults + 1 kid

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Jl Gunawarman no. 55, Jakarta Selatan 12110

+62 21 2923 6155

http://theholycrab.co.id/

Mar 21, 2017
Sake Japanese Restaurant

Sake Japanese Restaurant Review:

We had a birthday celebration this week and I wanted to have an Omakase dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Omakase is a Japanese term that is loosely translated into ‘leave it up to the chef’. So, instead of choosing from the menu, we let the chef choose our meal for the night. We went to Sake Japanese Restaurant at The Rocks on this occasion.

Sake Japanese Restaurant used to have Omakase on its menu. However, they are no longer offering it. Luckily, on this occasion, we were granted a slightly modified version of Omakase – in which the chef have already decided in advance what we will be having on the night. The price was $125 per person.

Omakase Menu from Sake Japanese Restaurant

Pacific Oysters – with Japanese salsa (ponzu, sweet garlic, tomato salsa)

Each of us got three oysters with three different dressings. Half of the table chose the sweet garlic and the other half chose ponzu as the best one for the night. Despite offering the freshest tasting oyster, the tomato salsa dressing was dead last.

White Soy Snapper – thin slices of sashimi snapper, sesame seeds

The serving of sashimi (9 pieces for 2 people) was quite generous on this occasion. It was quite the perfect continuation of three servings of oysters.

Tuna Ceviche – Lemon dressing, coriander, jalapeno, tomato, crunchy fried onion

The menu listed jalapeno as one of the ingredients. However, this version of ceviche wasn’t spicy at all. Instead, we got this sour-tasting tuna with quite a lot of crunchy onion.

Steamed Prawn shumai – spicy ponzu

The prawn shumai was arguably the strangest Japanese shumai skin I’ve ever seen. Instead of the usual ‘wrapper’, we got noodles wrapping around the prawn meat. The shumai went pretty well with the spicy ponzu. Each of us only received two shumai.

Scampi Tempura – amaze ponzu, red onion, jalapeño, coriander

If they served scampi, I usually ordered two at most in a Japanese restaurant, due to scampi’s more premium nature (in price) compared to the other meat. I was pretty excited that each of us got three scampis. On one side, I thought having a scampi as tempura was quite a wasteful avenue as I would rather eat them as sashimi. However, the scampi tempura that they presented was close to perfection. It was probably one of two highlights of the night.

Caramelised Miso Toothfish – den miso, aji amarillo, shimeji

This was the only dish on the night that truly amazed me. There was that ‘oh my, what was that I just put into my mouth?’ moment. It was probably one of the best fish I have ever tasted. The toothfish’s texture was super smooth with slightly sweet taste.

Nigiri Sushi – tuna, scallop, seared salmon belly, kingfish belly, tamago, red snapper

There were Six beautifully laid out nigiri sushi on the plate. Each one of us got a whole plate for ourselves. I am quite happy with this arrangement, although it might be a bit too much for our partners.

Dragon Egg – Dark chocolate, passionfruit, chocolate mousse

There was a touch of theatrics when they poured the liquid nitrogen onto the dragon egg. Personally, I felt that the dessert was a tad underwhelming. However, my little one had no issue devouring it.

When you cracked it open, you could see another layer of chocolate encasing the passionfruit and chocolate mousse.

Additional:

These two are not part of the Omakase, but we ordered it separately. The edamame as the opening course (would have been nicer if it was an amuse bouche.. but no -_-). The chicken teriyaki is for my little one who still could not eat degustation.

Edamame – $9 – lightly salted soy beans in the pod

Chicken Teriyaki – $29 – sweet teriyaki | bok choy | spring onions

The final verdict for Sake Japanese Restaurant

We had an enjoyable evening at Sake Japanese Restaurant. The portion was also enjoyable, meaning I wasn’t too hungry nor too full.

Did you know?
Sake Japanese Restaurant charges 10% fee on top of your bill when you are in a big group of 10 or more. If you happen to reduce the number to less than 10, they still put that charge on top of your bill.

Rating for Sake Japanese Restaurant:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $125 Omakase

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

12 Argyle Street, The Rocks NSW 2000

+61 2 9259 5656

http://www.sakerestaurant.com.au/

Oct 7, 2016
Salmon and Bear

Review:

There were a few distractions around the area that prevented me from trying Salmon and Bear. The restaurant is located in one of the newest shopping precincts in Sydney, Zetland – and I had a few places I wanted to try. I also thought that it was a chain restaurant that I have never heard of.

When I eventually went to the restaurant, I was surprised that the restaurant was 100% seafood restaurant. I thought the ‘bear’ bit refer to meat. So, yeah no other meat but fish here!

Salmon Poké – 21 – Raw cubed salmon in a soy and sesame dressing served with corn salsa and avocado on coconut rice

I ordered poké out of curiosity as this was my first time ordering it. The description resembles chirashizushi with a little twist of tropical influence. Poké is said to be the next big food trend according to Business Insider. It is originated from Hawaii.

It was quite a colourful plate! The salmon was already dressed in soy and sesame so you don’t need to add more soy (a la sushi). To top it off, the dried seaweed garnish gave us the crunchy texture.

One of a few salads that I actually enjoyed eating!

Fish and chips – 18 – crisp battered hoki served with chips, lemon, and tartare sauce

It was quite a simple-looking fish and chips. The portion was quite generous that my friend couldn’t finish it.

Tacos – 6 –come in a soft corn tortilla with cabbage, salsa verde, pickled pink onions, corander, lime and sriracha mayo

They have three different tacos that looked pretty similar with only a slight difference in the filling. On this occasion, I tried the sticky soy glazed salmon. It was nicely done.

The other two are: Crispy fish (hoki NZ) and Crispy prawn and corn

Salmon Bearger – 18 – A smoked and fresh salmon patty with cos lettuce, tomato, pickles, salsa verde and aioli

This is the only menu that has salmon and bear on its title. It was quite big and came with sweet potato fries (they are very nice!). The burger itself was pretty good, but clearly overshadowed by the poké.

Grizzly plate – 28 – choose your fish, your sauce and any 2 sides/salads

This is supposed to be the main attractions at salmon and bear. However, I wasn’t quite convinced. It was clearly the third wheel behind poké and salmon bearger.

The first time we were there, my boss got a really small salmon and tuna. But in our second visit, the size of the salmon was more decent.

Individually, the grizzly plate is priced as follows:

$18 fish– Ora King Salmon, Barramundi, Tuna, Catch of the day

$2 sauce – Salsa verde, lemon herb butter, yogurt & dill, peri peri, tartare, oyster & sesame

$5 Sides – Chips, Chive mash, sweet potato fries, coconut rice

$8 Salad – All beans, asian greens, slaw, corn salsa, Moroccan salad, roasted beg, corn cob, garden salad

The final verdict for Salmon and Bear

Salmon poké was the clear winner for me at Salmon and Bear.

Did you know?

Salmon and Bear sourced all of its fishes from a certified fisheries with sustainable practices.

Rating for Salmon and Bear:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $18+ for main

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

6 Defries Avenue, Zetland 2017

+61 2 9662 8188

http://salmonandbear.com.au/

Mar 8, 2016
Golden Century Seafood Restaurant

Review:

This week we are writing about one of the more famous Chinese restaurants in the city: Golden Century Seafood Restaurant. Despite being in Chinatown, there is usually no shortage of people queuing to dine at the restaurant. Early dinner is your best bet to avoid the queue.

You can see a few tanks filled with live lobsters, mud crabs, abalones and many different fishes. The price for these live seafood is driven by the market, so on a good day, you might actually snap up a bargain!

We were there in a big group of eight and had quite a number of dishes ordered. Unfortunately, as with any other Chinese restaurants in the area, service is not their forte.

Crab Meat and Sweet Corn Soup – $7.00

I thought it would be a small bowl of soup as the big bowl costs 10 times as much. I ordered three of these and three of the next one. It became apparent that we had ordered way more than what we needed.

Fish Head Bean Curd Vegetable in Soup – $7.00

This soup was a bit more ‘challenging’ to the previous one because of the head element in the menu. I actually enjoyed this one more. However, one must be careful of the sharp teeth that the fish has.

Marinated Duck Chin – $10.00

Another exotic dish of the night came in the form of duck chin. It was the lower half of duck beaks with tongues. Despite its appearance, it was actually quite a tasty dish.

Marinated Beef Shank – $11.00

This was the less ‘offensive’ version of the entrée. The same kind of marinate but using the less exotic ingredient: beef shank.

Salt and Pepper Squid – $25.00

The first glimpse of quality at Golden Century was the salt and pepper squid. Presentation was as simple as ever, but it tasted amazing!

Deep fried duck with plum sauce – $28.00

This dish further established that Golden Century’s quality was a cut above the rest. It was definitely the tastiest dish we had that night. It was also possibly one of the best ducks I have ever had.

Beef Brisket and Tendon with Turnip Hot Pot – $23.00

For those of you who need tasty (read: fatty) stuff in your system, this is the dish for you! The sauce was thick and rich but the dish had such a balanced flavour.

‘I don’t even know what this is’ dish

I definitely did not order this dish but the waiter convinced me that I had. It’s some sort of tofu with vegetables. On the other hand, my eggplant order never arrived.

Heavenly Braised Four Vegetables – $20.50

Any dish that start with the word ‘heavenly’ will almost certainly attract people to order! As usual, I am not a keen vegetable eater and this was more of a dish to make a ‘complete’ meal.

Live Perch with Ginger and Shallot – Market Price

It was supposed to be the ‘main attraction’ of the day. Unfortunately the fish was overcooked. The redeeming factor was its delicious ginger and shallot sauce!

Complimentary Desserts

Despite their service (or lack thereof), Chinese restaurants’ best feature was usually their complimentary (it must be costed somewhere!) desserts. Golden Century restaurants actually gave us quite a few (rice bubbles, cake and watermelon).

The final verdict for Golden Century

Golden Century served great food (and possibly one of the best!). However, service is just as poor as any other Chinese restaurants in the vicinity. Unfortunately, the exorbitant price tag and service considerably damaged its rating.

Did you know?

Golden Century used to be a one-hat restaurant. I don’t think it’s a surprise why they lost their one-hat status.

Rating for Golden Century:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $20 – Market Price

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

393 – 399 Sussex Street, Sydney 2000

02 9212 3901

http://www.goldencentury.com.au/

Sep 25, 2015