Category: Seafood

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

Cut The Crab

Review:

Every time I go back to Indonesia, I always ask my relatives, friends, and other food connoisseurs about the current trend in the gastronomy world. Some of them mentioned that the 2014 food destination is Cut the Crab. So, here we are trying to figure out what the fuss is all about.

The restaurant’s concept is quite ‘common’ these days amongst seafood restaurants: Your table is your plate. Basically, they just pour everything on the table. You then have to eat with your bare hands. So, you have to throw your table manner far far away and start a savage beatdown on those dishes! However, it is quite a risky business in Indonesia, especially when you have outdoor tables.

Starting off quite ‘civilised’, we have the Garlic Bread and Fish and Chips. For only less than $1, I can’t complain about the portion size of the garlic bread. They served two decent cutlets of fish with the chips. The fish and chips were actually quite nice and it’s a pretty good option for people who don’t want to get their hands dirty.

Cut the crab’s signature dish is the Crab Combo, which is technically just mud crab and corn. You are given a choice of male and female mud crab with sizes range from Extra Small to XXL. On this occasion we ordered the medium male crab and small female crab. They say the male is 1 kg and it costs around $22.

They have an interesting two-dimensional system for its sauce. You can choose a combination of sweet and salty with three levels of hotness: Non Spicy, Medium, and XXX. A word of advice: when Indonesians said hot, then it is really (REALLY) hot!

For me, the best value for your money is either its Crawfish Combo or Shrimp Combo. For only around $10, you get crawfish (or shrimp), green mussel, beef sausages, sweet potato and corn. It is a decent-sized portion for one!

Crawfish combo (Rp 110.000,00)

If you can’t decide between shrimp or crawfish, you can get its Seafood Mix of Green mussel, shrimp and crawfish for less than $20. This one is more for share plate as they don’t include the sweet potato and corn.

Seafood Mix (Rp. 200.000,00)

Last, but not least, I present you the mound of aftermath!

The final verdict for Cut The Crab

I must say Cut the Crab is quite daring in presenting this table-as-plate concept in its restaurant. In general, Indonesia isn’t known for its good hygiene condition. However, there was nothing wrong when we were there (and 10 days after that). The price was very affordable and the taste didn’t disappoint as well!

Did you know?

Mud Crab in Sydney ranges between $65 and $85 per kg! So you could literally eat to your heart’s content and still pay only a fraction of it!

In 2013, Steak Hotel by Holycow was the food destination. They have just opened their first branch in Surabaya.

Rating for Cut the Crab:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $10-20 for main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Jalan Cikajang no 32, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan

+62 21 7206810

http://cutthecrabcoid.wordpress.com/

Sep 19, 2014
Belly Busters

Rating:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5 / 10

Price: $115 for 3.5 people

Place: 7 / 10

Review:

As someone who enjoyed food so much, just hearing this restaurant’s name is music to my ears. Belly Busters is strategically located at the heart of Surfers Paradise and you would expect with big name like this, people would be enticed to at least try it out. That was exactly what we did…

On this occasion, two of our entrée used the same ingredients, wings. They were Buffalo Wings – Chicken Wings with a spicy tomato sauce – and BBQ Wings – Chicken wings with BBQ sauce. It was quite strange to receive two deep-fried wings dishes, one with tomato and the other BBQ sauce. If they said on the description that it would be deep-fried, I wouldn’t be as disappointed because they actually tasted okay for a deep-fried chicken. However, they definitely weren’t Buffalo or BBQ Wings as advertised.

For the main, I chose Rump n’ Bug – 350 gr rump steak topped with a bug covered in creamy garlic sauce. From the presentation standpoint, it was pretty good as they actually put an effort to decorate the plate. The steak was juicy but was cooked a bit towards the medium side, instead of medium rare. In addition to that, the bug was quite a letdown as it was not as fresh as I would like it to be.

For the next main course, we ordered T Bone n’ Garlic Prawns – 400gr T-bone steak topped with garlic tiger prawns in a creamy garlic sauce. Just by looking at the pictures below, you can see that the prawns were quite insignificant. The T-bone was also quite well done (instead of medium).

I guess when you ordered steak you might want to choose one below your expected level on how they cook the steak.

The final verdict for Belly Busters

Being at the heart of Surfers Paradise, Belly Busters will not need to do anything to advertise the restaurant. However, despite its big name, the restaurant under delivered on the taste department.

Details:

Centro Surfers Paradise, Cavill Mall, Surfers Paradise, QLD

07 5538 2355

Mar 3, 2014
House of Crabs

Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $340 for six people

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

Opened at the beginning of November last year, House of Crabs (written as House of .C.R.A.B.S. in their website) has become the ‘Talk of the Town’ in Urbanspoon. The restaurant’s specialty (can’t really call it ‘signature dish’ as there might be different combinations) was ‘The Boil’.

Before we talk about ‘The Boil’, let’s have a look at what they have to offer. The first one to arrive on our table was from ‘The Greens’ section Kale, bean, & broccoli salad w/ spiced sunflower seeds ($16). Kale is the keyword to healthy food these days, but sounded a lot like hype for me. We also had a plate of fried chicken ($18). I must admit that I wanted to order this dish because of the picture I saw in Urbanspoon.

Personally, I think the best dish of the night was the lobster fries w/ lobster gravy, bacon & corn ($12). It was listed under ‘The Snacks’, but in reality it was quite big. I am pretty sure that there was no lobster in the fries, but the lobster gravy that generously covered the lobster fries was heavenly. You must not skip this one! We also ordered deep fried soft-shell crab ($15) from their Special Menu board. I love how the crab gave the complemented crunchy taste to our dinner.

Now, onto the main course, that was called ‘The Boil’. The price that you see on the menu is based on 500 grams of the seafood of your choice. They have six different seafood dishes that can be combined with four different sauces. We had all the sauces, but only three different kinds of seafood. I didn’t try the QLD prawns ($27) with Oriental sauce, but the prawns looked pretty big!

My first taste of the boil was the Alaskan king crab ($45) with Mexican sauce… and boy it was hot! We ordered two portions of Alaskan snow crab ($36) with Cajun and Lemon Pepper sauce respectively. It was quite hard to differentiate the king and snow crab because they were in a bag and the snow crab was actually quite big. From the four sauces, I quite like the non-spicy lemon pepper and the Cajun ones.

There was also a special edition of ’The Boil’ that featured QLD yabbies ($34) with special creole butter sauce. Some of us didn’t quite like the appearance of the peeled yabbies as they were quite dark and looked ‘un-fresh’. After browsing Google for how peeled boiled yabbies might look, it was certainly a lot darker than that!

Lastly, the waitress explained earlier that they pride themselves of an ugly aftermath that showed that you really enjoyed the dish. I won’t post the aftermath because it was quite gruesome, but if you want to see, you can view the aftermath here.

The final verdict for House of Crabs

At House of Crabs, in addition to its specialty, the boil, you must also order its lobster fries.

Details:

Level 1, 305 Cleveland Street, Redfern

[email protected]

http://houseofcrabs.com.au/

Feb 17, 2014
Cafe Mix

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $75 buffet dinner

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

Prior to this review, I’ve been to Cafe Mix at Shangri-La Hotel a couple of times before for both its buffet and a la carte dinner. However, we decided to write on their buffet dinner. Available only on weekends, they have a buffet dinner called Spectacular Seafood Buffet at Cafe Mix Shangri-La, a big and catchy name for sure. So, how was it?

The buffet was divided into four sections with the first one strategically located just after the entrance. It was a crepe station with a fondue fountain filled with loads of goodies: strawberries, churros, marshmallow, and lollies. It would definitely grab instant attention for kids and adults alike.

The second one was its centrepiece: seafood buffet bar. There were a lot of chilled seafood dishes, like Balmain bugs, crabs, oysters and prawns. There was also whole poached salmon. Squid, octopus, scallops, and white baits were made into different kinds of salad. There was also a selection of salads for vegetarians. There were two Japanese dishes (sushi plates and miso soup) fitted awkwardly next to the seafood buffet. I didn’t like the sushi and didn’t even try the soup.

The third section comprises of a mixture of hot dishes, mostly of Asian influence, like roasted pork belly, BBQ pork, and noodles. There were also some European dishes, including Arancini mushrooms, carbonara pasta and mussels in white wine. At the other end of the table, there were several Indian dishes, like Mango Chicken and basmati rice with pappadums (love the pappadums!). However, I skipped most of them (including some vegetable dishes I didn’t bother to check) to reserve my tummy space for its dessert.

Lastly, we have the dessert section. As I am a big fan of macarons, my eyes were fixated on them. They still couldn’t beat Baroque’s in terms of taste, but were more than okay for ‘free’ ones! I am also a big fan of crème brûlée, but I could only taste my wife’s crème brûlée as they weren’t available when I tried to get it! Other notable desserts include: apple crumble, some chocolate desserts, meringue and jelly.There was also a selection of cheese if you fancy them.

The final verdict for Cafe Mix at Shangri-La

There was definitely abundance of choices when you dined at Cafe Mix. However, these dishes were simply too ordinary for the listed price. I did hog on the Balmain bugs as they were pretty uncommon and quite similar to lobster.

Details:

Level 1, Shangri-La Hotel

176 Cumberland Street, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW 2000

02 9250 6000

http://www.shangri-la.com/sydney/shangrila/dining/restaurants/cafe-mix/

Jan 20, 2014
Tetsuya’s Fresh Oysters Vinaigrette Recipe
This oysters vinaigrette recipe was first written by Tetsuya Wakuda, the owner of the infamous restaurant Tetsuya’s. If you are new to the website, please visit our review of Tetsuya’s restaurant.

The first part of this recipe is the actual recipe written by Tetsuya. I will then let you know each of the items we used to make our rendition of the Vinaigrette.

Happy Cooking!

The recipe is called Tasmanian Pacific Oysters with Rice Wine Vinaigrette

Here are the ingredients:
1. Ogonori
2. 12 large Pacific Oysters, shucked
Vinaigrette
1. 1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
2. 4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3. 1 teaspoon castor (superfine) sugar
4. 1 teaspoon soy sauce
5. 6 tablespoons grapeseed oil
6. 2 tablespoons olive oil
7. 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
Garnish
1. chives, finely chopped
2. 3 tablespoons ocean trout roe
How to make the Oysters Vinaigrette?
1. To make the vinaigrette, whisk together all the ingredients in a bowl or jar.
2. Place a little ogonori on the base of the serving plate. Put the oysters on top and spoon over the vinaigrette.
3. Sprinkle the oysters with the chives and ocean trout roe.
So, the important question here is: How do we get all of those ingredients?
1. You can pretty much grab any soy sauce you can find in your cupboard.
2. We use crushed ginger that is normally sold in supermarkets
3. Castor (or superfine) sugar should be a staple ingredient for cake makers.
4. For the rice wine vinegar, we like to use Hinode Mirin. Mirin has a sweeter taste than normal rice wine vinegar.
5. Extra Virgin Olive Oil – I don’t think you need an explanation for this.
6. Lemon Juice (you can easily squeeze it from a fresh lemon if you want).
7. Grapeseed oil might not be the thing you would normally have in your cupboard, but it should easily be available in any big supermarkets.
8. You should be able to buy freshly shucked oysters from your local fish market. They might also sell ocean trout/salmon roe.
For an added kick to your Oysters Vinaigrette Recipe:
1. Just like any other fresh seafood, please buy the fresh oysters closer to the time you want to consume it – and for the love of God, do NOT buy them a day earlier!
2. I personally haven’t tried this (because I think the vinaigrette is already awesome!), but Tetsuya advised that you infuse 10 cm of konbu in a bottle of 750 ml rice wine vinegar.
3. The vinaigrette can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.
4. Tetsuya recommend a good-quality champagne to accompany the dish.
Dec 23, 2013
Fish Shack Manly

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $15-$32 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week we go to a relatively new shop in Manly, called Fish Shack. We came across the shop as we strolled around Manly beach. I was particularly interested in their worn-out beach shack setting.

It was lunch time when we came and the restaurant was fairly buzzing, there were some people outside waiting for their takeaway orders (another give away that it should be a good restaurant!).

We only ordered two share items on the menu. The first one was Fisherman’s basket for two. At $32 a dish, I think it was a good deal, considering you get all of these stuffs (2 each of prawn cutlets, crumbed calamari, fillets of market fresh fish, fresh oysters, large chips, lemon, tartare). The oysters looked a bit out of place, but the rest was fantastic, especially the chips. We couldn’t get enough of the chips. They were perfectly cooked! There was that very crunchy bits on the outside with very soft potato inside.

Our other dish was Bucket of crisp fried soft shell crab, lime aioli. It was quite pricey ($18) when compared with Fish Shack’s fish and chips ($15). There was a hint of spicey, peppery taste on the soft shell crab and quite sour aioli.

The final verdict for Fish Shack Manly

One review I read about Fish Shack recommended us to stick with the fish and chips (and I fully agreed with her!). Their fish and chips were very nice and fresh.

Did you know?

Fish Shack’s take away menu is far cheaper than their restaurant menu. We actually were interested to try because we saw a seafood basket of $20.

Details:

33 South Steyne, Manly 2095

+61 2 9976 3886

Fish Shack Manly on Facebook

Aug 7, 2013