Eastbank Cafe Bar Pizzeria..

Well the other day I was lucky enough to enjoy a dinner gathering with friends at Circular Quay, with the view of Harbour Bridge. Really nice view and the ambience there was just relaxing. We went to Eastbank Cafe Bar Pizzeria, it's a Modern Australian and Italian restaurant. 

Looking through the menu.

My friend ordered the seafood linguine, wrapped in paper and baked. Very fancy indeed.

The look inside. Wow, there was definately lots of ingredients, generous portion of seafood. Well the taste was really strong and fragrant, but  I think the linguine was slightly too soggy.

For me, I've ordered for the slow roasted duck breast, served with herb crepe stuffed with mushroom duxelle, sauteed wild mushrooms and a porcini cream. 

Yum! The duck breast was cooked perfectly, keeping the juicyness and tenderness of the duck meat. It went really well with the mushroom and the sauce. The portion was just nice for me.

We've also had the grilled black angus beef tenderloin with creamy mash potato, wilted spinach, confit field mushroom and truffle reduction. The beef was moist and tender. 

And another one, pizza on the specials menu. It was chicken, potato and herbs, if I'm not mistaken. The pizza base was thin and crispy. Awesome view, nice atmosphere, good company and good food. 

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 61-69 Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

GoodLife Modern Organic Pizza..

I was away last week. Jen and I went to Adelaide! It was my first time there and I didn't get to do much in the city cause we spent most of our time in Kangaroo Island. Anyway the first night that I arrived in Adelaide, I had dinner with a friend there and we went to try out Good Life Modern Organic Pizza. Thanks for the nice recommendation and I loved it! Very nice and cosy restaurant. We were seated at the backyard area and it felt really homey. Great attentive service from the moment we stepped into the restaurant. 

Well I have to mention that their organic pizza means that they are from a method sustainable farming that works with nature, without the use of fertilisers and pesticides. That means better in taste! According to their information on their menu, all their pizza bases are prepared by SA's own laucke organic flour, filtered water, fresh yeast and aged more than 24 hours.

Well as you can see, they've won quite a few best pizza awards for the past few years. It means that they are really good. I was so excited when I was looking through the menu.

It was really dark in there and we only had the little candle light on the table. This is the best photo I can get. Luckily my friend helped me with this too. Anyway we've ordered two pizzas to share, the swiss brown mushrooms which is on the right and free ranged roasted duck on the left. The swiss brown mushrooms was marinated in organic balsamic vinegar with an organic lemon aioli garnish. Yum! The pizza base was definately awesome, the juicyness of the fresh mushrooms blended together so well with the garnish on top. With the roasted duck pizza, there was also shitake mushrooms and spring onion ginger jam. This pizza had a punch of asian flavours in there and surprisingly it was really good. The duck was roasted until crispy. Can't stop myself from having more.

Ratings: 9/10

Address: 170 Hutt Street, Adelaide, South Australia.

Baroque..

Remember that I've shared about La Renaissance before that? This is actually a unique french restaurant opened by the same owner, the Charkos family. It's called Baroque at the Rocks. Anyway I went there with Jen and two other friends for a joint birthday celebration without knowing where we were heading to. Thanks for the little surprise.

 Some fresh homemade bread to start out the meal. It saved me from having gastric problem cause we actually waited for ages before the food was served.

Finally our entree arrived. To be honest I don't remember what was this dish called. Something like foie gras. Sorry but I didn't really know how to enjoy this.

Confit duck legs with grilled leeks and cucumber for Jen. Great presentation and some great flavours there. The portion was not enough for him. $29

I had the barramundi with eggplant caviar and piperrada. The barramundi was cooked nicely and kept the moisture of the meat, with the crsipy skin on top. The sides just added on more flavours into it. $29

Confit shoulder of Bangalow sweet pork. Great presentation and the pork was cooked just right. $29

Dessert time! I've ordered the Voltaire. It's vanilla cheesecake with mixed berries wrapped in white chocolate. How pretty is that. It did taste as good as the look. $13

Jen had the Zulu, it's 72% chocolate mousse, ganache with salted caramel and chocolate biscuit base, finished with a mini chocolate macaron on top. Rich and creamy chocolate mousse. Yum! $13

Blood orange souffle with Valrhona chocolate sorbet and macaron. It was awesome! Soft and fluffy and my friend enjoyed that. $16 

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 88 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney 2000

Insadong..

During my birthday month, Jen brought me to his favourite cosy korean bbq restaurant at Eastwood, it's called Insadong. It's more like a family restaurant, so it's rather quiet during the weekday nights. We went there twice in a month.

Some side dishes for us to start out our meal. We went for bbq for that night, so we've ordered for plum wine to go with it.

We've ordered for a deluxe bbq set, a standard meal for four of us with extra rice. There was mussels, beef skirts, squids, octopus, prawns and marinated pork and beef. $60

All ready to go!

I was actually amazed that they actually used charcoal underneath, and with an huge canopy style exhaust fan at every table. The meat tasted better with the charcoal smell. I really like the beef skirts and having it together with the given miso bean paste and lettuce. 

The other time we've also tried the fried mackerel. It was delicious. The meat was moist and tender. Best of all, it wasn't oily at all. Should try that. $21

Or maybe try the octopus ball. It was equally good. 

Ratings: 8/10

Address: 223 Rowe Street, Eastwood NSW 2122

Chat Thai..

Whenever my dear sister come over to Sydney, it must be all about food. Her very first time to Syd, it was totally something like food festival for me. Also it was a nice opportunity to explore new places with her. Anyway this time I'm going to share about our new found place, Chat Thai at Haymarket. It's a thai restaurant with a hint of modern looking interior design. The very moment I stepped into the restaurant, I can see a few large frying woks at the front counter, along with boxes of different desserts. I definately have to mention about the huge crowd of people, we waited for one hour for a table for five. I was starving and wondering if it was really worth it or not. It better be. When we finally got a table and have a look at menu, it was huge decision time. Lots of selections to choose from. 

 

Due to the varieties, we ordered for quite a few dishes to share around.

Chilli fried rice. If you're a huge fan of spicyness like my sister, you're definately going to love this. The fried rice was so fragrant, spicy and mouth-watering. Totally can't stop myself from eating it even though it's spicy for me. There's chicken, holy basil and lots of chilli in there. $13.90 

Thai classic, Pad thai with chicken. It was sweet, and salty thin fried thin noodles with bean sprouts, chicken, eggs, shrimps and ground peanuts. Love the peanuts part, adding some crunchy texture. Nice way to chill down my tummy from the spicyness. $12

Dtom yum tuna. My old time favourite when I have Thai food, something like "tom yum" that we normally have. Anyway this one is the best one I can find so far. The flavour is the closest that can match the ones that I eat in my hometown. Creamy, strong, soury, spicy, appetizing and full of different ingredients in the soup. Totally love it! $20

Honestly I don't quite remember what is this dish, I actually had to check it online. Obviously I got quite carried away trying the soup instead. Anyway it's suki with pork. It's glass noodles stir fried with fermented tofu, chinese cabbage, chinese celery and water spinach. Quite average for this dish, probably cause I didn't like the combination and the fermented tofu was a bit overpowering in the dish. $12

Grilled marinated chicken wing with house speciality sauce. It was from the special menu. Some of my friends think that it was a little too salty for this. I normally like stronger flavour of cooking, so I was fine with the dish. The sauce was sweet and salty, very nice to have it with rice. $10

Glutinous rice with durian pudding on top. It was bit too sweet for me. But the nice, sweet durian flavour is just irresistable. $7

Super delicious and interesting dessert that we had, Par Tuhng Go for about $7. It's a must try! Totally love it. It's fried dough sticks with sangkaya which is made of coconut milk custard and pandan leaves. That mouth-watering sauce is the highlight for the dessert. I just couldn't describe it in words. I had this "i'm flying in the air" kind of feeling when I ate it. And one thing to note is this dessert is only on the menu after 9.30pm. Was it worthwhile for the one hour wait? Hell yes! But I'll definately try to go during other time for my next visit to escape the crowd.  It's open from 10am to 2am. They actually have different branches at other places as well, at Randwick, Manly and Galeries Victoria in the city.

Ratings:  9/10

Address: 20 Campbell Street, Haymarket Sydney CBD

Hurricane's Grill & Bar Steakhouse..

When my sister came over to visit Sydney, there's one place that she definately wanted to try it out. That's of course Hurricane's Grill & Bar Steakhouse. It's somehow a speciality in Syd, at least we can't find it in Melb. They have two branches, one at Bondi Beach and one in Darling Harbour. I've only been to the one in Darling Harbour. One very important point, remember to book a table beforehand. The queue can be really long. Do tell me if there's better place for the ribs.

Here's the very huge full rack of pork ribs. $34 for full rack and $28 for half rack. The grilled pork ribs is just awesome. The flavour is just right for me.  You can have it together with baked potato or chips. For the ribs that we had the other day, it was a little burned at the edges. Can say it to be good or bad. It was fine for me, extra flavours on it.

For a change, we've also tried the Boerewors, $29. It's traditional African sausages, with potato mash and tomato onion relish. The sausage is pretty good, and the sauce accompanying it is like BBQ sauce. I like the mash though. It helps to balance up the meaty meal. The relish is like sweet and sour sauce. By the time we finished up our meal, we were all full and satisfied. 

Ratings: 8/10

Address: Harbourside Shopping Centre, Shops 433-436,

Level 2, Darling Harbour, Sydney

Phone: 02 9211 2210

Or 130 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach, Sydney

Phone: 02 9130 7101

Steersons Steakhouse..

Well along my birth month, I've been to some nice places around Sydney for some catch-ups with friends. A very good excuse for me to enjoy a little bit more. First up, it was a nice steak restaurant, Steersons steakhouse along Bridge Street. To be honest we were not expecting it to be so pretty inside and all of us were underdressed. Anyway we were being greeted as we arrived at the restaurant. I've made a booking before that and table was all set up.

Homemade bread to start up the meal. I love it! It was soft and fluffy, tasted awesome with the butter. I guess I was little hungry at that time. $5.50 for the bread.

Then we had an entree for four of us to share. It's a seafood plate for two. There was fried soft shell crab, garlic prawns and calamari. Thumbs up for the soft shell crab. Delicious! Oh, thanks Jack for taking the photo. The dish costs $29.50.

I had the Oakleigh Ranch Wagyu Sirloin from Queensland, 280g for $37.50. It's served with mashed potato and red wine jus. I've ordered it for medium cooked. But unfortunately it was more like well done cooked. So the steak was bit too tough and dry. My other friend ordered the same and it was cooked perfectly.

Highlight of the night, Jen ordered for 1kg T-Bone Steak, Nolans Private Selection Gympie from Qld as well. Huge isn't it? That's for $59.50. Overall we had an enjoyable night trying out the nice steaks, wagyu for me!

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 7 Bridge Street, Sydney 2000