Wow. Noma. The Noma. The Rene Redzepi. Rene. Where to start….
Tag: sydney restaurant
Spice Temple Sydney – 08 Feb 2016
It’s Chinese New Year. I hate Chinese food. I’m glad to be home. I needed to find a nice restaurant to book….
Spice Temple. Sure, why not. I can’t even take anything that’s even remotely spicy, but where else would I book on such an occasion?
I couldn’t help but be concerned that I wouldn’t like/couldn’t handle the food there, but it was the most fitting restaurant choice for the occasion. Plus I’d always wondered what was behind those lovely digital silk curtains every time I’d walked out of Rockpool Bar and Grill. Behind the heavy door were some stairs down and down and down… into a lovely space with the standard Rockpool Group reception, bar area, then the main dining room. It was super dark, but there was lighting at each table so you could see the food.
We opted for the Chinese New Year Banquet, categorised by each of the fortunes of the new year. The only one I didn’t manage to take good shots of were the Wealth dishes – cabbage and radish, and Sichuan style pickled cucumbers and shitake. Both pickles were slightly spicy (the cabbage and radish had an extra mound of some super hot stuff that I avoided) and so addictive! Who cares about a slight burning when things taste this good right from the start!
Prosperity – Raw tuna ‘yu sheng’ with spicy orange oil
Continue reading Spice Temple Sydney – 08 Feb 2016
Salaryman – 5 February 2016
This new restaurant popped up on my feed and had a very tasty look prawn toast okonomiyaki as well as claims of really good ramen. So, I managed a short notice booking since I had nothing planned on my first night back in Sydney. I’m glad I went!
Automata – 27 September 2015
Kensington Street is getting an upgrade, and I want to go there for one reason: Kensington Street Social. However, since it wasn’t open yet, and I had some spare time, I was very lucky to find out that Automata, another new restaurant on the block, was open for Sunday lunches (the only spare day I had in a short trip to Sydney), so off I went.
The layout, to me at least, felt remarkably similar to Nel, especially when it comes to the open kitchen. The other similarity, I noticed, was the set menu style meals. It’s not quite a grand deguastation, but coming in at 5 courses, it is still an experience. It’s also relatively cheap, and by that I mean sub $100. It’s like a new breed of restaurant has popped up – accessible fine dining as if to appeal to the masses. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but considering how small profit margins are for restaurants, I am a little concerned about their longevity. It’s hard to see how all these restaurants will all remain standing after 5-10 years, if that. But only time will tell.
Continue reading Automata – 27 September 2015
Nel – 29 May 2015
So a little place called Nel restaurant popped up on my feed, and I thought it was worthwhile visiting. Sure, there were other places, such as LuMi, Ume, or fancy places in Potts Point. However, for some reason, just the thought of a “Nel” was intriguing.
It seemed like a fairly easy place to book for lunch, and the fare was described as modern British, which was good, since I have a strong tendency to go for Japanese restaurants. I was also a little wary of their price point – $35 per person for lunch. I’ve never seen any fine dining so cheap, apart from prix fixe menus.
Hartsyard – 28 May 2015
Hartsyard wasn’t a place that had popped up on my radar, however my brother wanted to go. I had no idea of its popularity, fame, or even the type of cuisine it served – in fact on my initial viewing of the menu, I wasn’t sure I’d like it at all.
However, I booked it anyway, and when I checked the menu again on the day, it looked quite interesting – which was a good thing – we needed very large appetites and stomachs for this meal!
Sokyo – 27 May 2015
Oh Sokyo, whoever thought that you would be so amazing! Having previously had a mediocre experience at Sake, I wasn’t sure what to expect here, especially since I’ve had sushi from Japan which is pretty impossible to match. That being said, Sydney is probably one of the best places to have Japanese, given the large Japanese population here.
I totally didn’t realise I could ask for the omakase when I made the booking, and it turns out a week’s notice is required so that the chefs can age the fish, and the booking process is via email rather than over the phone. If I can’t get into Raita Noda, I may as well put this on my revisit list!
Continue reading Sokyo – 27 May 2015
Fix St James – 19 May 2015
Fix St James is a one hatted restaurant in Sydney, and a place that I had known about for several years now. I had wanted to go to check it out their awesome wine list but kept putting it off. Finally, this year I managed to visit, and I wasn’t disappointed!
