Pepper Lunch..

I've passed by this shop, Pepper Lunch, all the time along George Street and decided that I should give it a try, for the second time together with my sis. I think they have a really interesting concept. You can taste the spicy pepper flavour and butter along with your rice.

I had the beef pepper rice, $8.30 and added on extra $2.50 for a bowl of miso soup to come along with the meal. When the meal was served, it was sizzling hot and you just have to mix it around to let it cook.

Sis had the cut steak with chicken combo, $16.50 with miso soup and rice. It was a really huge meal.

The first attempt I had the kimuchi beef pepper rice. Yum! Love it. The strong kimchi flavour added  some spice into the rice. Cheap and satisfying meal.

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 537-551 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Makoto Sushi Bar..

There's a japanese sushi shop that I've found when I came over to visit Sydney for the first time two years ago. It's Makoto Sushi Bar at Liverpool Street. I went again when my sissy came over. Well the thing is that there aren't many sushi train places in Melb. So this shop definately attracts my attention.

Salmon avocado roll $3.60

Specials: Octopus nigiri $3.00

My sis's favourite, Japanese edamame green bean pillow $3.60

Takoyaki balls $3.60

My favourite, unagi nigiri $3.60

Teriyaki chicken udon $9.80

Samples decorated at the main entrance.

More and more.. I love the sushis there cause they are all really good and fresh with great presentation.

Also check out for their specials, they have different types of specials everyday.

Yellow fin tuna nigiri

We've tried one of their today's special sushi set $27.50 which was awesome! Enjoyed all of them.

Also to mention their nabeyaki udon $9.80, it was really good, thumbs up. The soup was so rich in flavour. I was impressed.

One of their dessert on the menu, sesame ice-cream with mochi, jellys and red bean paste. $5.60 A nice way to end my japanese sushi cravings. A small note is to try to avoid the peak hours as it might get really packed. I think I'm having the sushi cravings again. 

Ratings: 8.5/10

Address: 19 Liverpool Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Ichiban Boshi..

I've found a place for delicious ramen! It's Ichiban Boshi along George Street, just opposite of my favourite bookshop Kinokuniya. I'm not a huge fan of ramen, so I haven't tried alot before. But surprisingly enough it tasted really good! It can be really packed at times, but it's just opposite of the bookshop, a good way to spend sometime looking through some new released books while waiting. 

I went with my friend who came over from Melb. She ordered for garlic flavoured soup based ramen with chasyu, bamboo shoots, spring onion and seaweed. The strong fragrant of the garlic just made the soup to be awesome. Strictly for garlic lovers. $12

Jen is ramen lover, so I had to bring him there. He ordered for tantanmen with minced meat, vegetables and egg for $12. The hot and spicy flavoured pork bone soup was just superb!  The spicyness just made the ramen really appetizing. I would love to come back for this!

For me, I chose the Tokyo ramen, $9.30. The classic with egg, chasyu, bamboo shoots, seaweed and corn. The first time I had it, just loved it. The miso soup base was subtle in flavour. The ramen was totally full with texture. It was a really comforting and huge hot bowl of ramen for lunch. Don't feel surprised if you feel thirsty after the meal. However, it was really good ramen place that I'm definately coming back again.

Ratings: 8/10
Address: Level 2, Galeries Victoria Building,
500 George Street, Sydney NSW

Shoya..

It was a place that I wanted to try out for ages. Finally i went there and tried it out with a few friends on a Saturday lunch. It's Shoya Japanese restaurant located at 25 Market Lane, between Russell and Exhibition Street, Little Bourke and Bourke Street. The restaurant also has a review in the Gourmet Traveller 2009 Restaurant Guide. I've made a booking before that. So the moment that I arrived the restaurant with my friends, we were being greeted at the door.

It took me a while to make up my mind and decided to go for UME lunch set, $32.

Firstly, I had the entree salad dish. It was delicious, with eel and some pickles. It made me felt anxious to know how are the rest of the dishes.

Next up, it was steamed egg custard. There was so many ingredients in there. Again, I'm happy with it.

Some more entree dishes. The tofu was served cold and with lots of ginger on it. Not my cup of tea there. Love the spinach salad though.

Beautifully decorated sashimi. Definately a piece of art. But when i ate it, it was not as good as it looked. I think it was due to the white fish which was chewy. I'm a fan of sashimi, but this wasn't the best one.

Prawn and vegetables tempura. It was fried to perfection. It didn't feel oily at all and it tasted good with the sauce.

Grilled eel. One of my favourites in japanese cruisine. It was cooked nicely, but the taste was rather average.

By the time we had main course which is teriyaki beef with fried rice, I was all full. However, the beef tasted really good, the sauce was awesome and the beef was cooked just right. Don't think the fried rice was any good at all though. Maybe just the different ingredients being used.

Finally dessert to finish the huge lunch we had. Green tea ice cream. It was really good! I wonder if it's homemade. It was a good way to end the lovely meal. There was good and bad, but overall I was happy with the whole lunch for about 2 hours there. Great service too. Definately will recommend for the lunch menu there!

J Cafe..

well i've just moved over to sydney so i guess i'll be starting a whole new chapter here with more exploration around sydney for good food, so better stay tuned! i will continue on with more of melbourne for the time being. the other day i went to j cafe, it's at 167 exhibition street, melbourne, vic 3000.

i've ordered for the sushi burger bento box. very interesting concept. i tried the kani croquette sushi burger. the croquette is made from potato, so it tasted something like hash brown. crispy outside and soft fluffy inside. surprisingly, it was delicious.

well the sushi burger box meal comes together with another side. i've ordered for the gyoza. there are other selections like tatsuta age, tonkatsu or kani croquette. the gyoza was grilled just right. i personally think it was a huge meal for myself, i ended up didn't enjoy so much with the gyoza.

my friend ordered for the kitsune udon. the udon was cooked perfectly, keeping the right texture. the soup base had mild flavour, great for a light meal. overall the food was above average, but price was rather expensive. the sushi burger box was $17 and the udon is $9.80. they had a minimum charge for per person.

Nobu Japanese Restaurant..

happy easter everyone! had lots of easter bunnies? for me, i was happy like a little kid cause i was finally there in nobu. it's located at lower level, 8 whiteman street, southbank, inside the crown entertainment plaza. it's a famous japanese restaurant in town. the service was awesome and with the food, absolutely perfect and well balanced. i was totally blown away by it, not because it's 'nobu'. oh okay, probably it is cause it's a branded restaurant. well they serve japanese peruvian fusion food, so the menu is really interesting and innovative.

we were seated at the bar and lounge area for some drinks before getting our seats downstairs. lucky enough to get a table without a booking for a public holiday. or you can have some tapas at that area with some drinks to chill out. it was really cool how all the waiters and waitresses greeted us when we went downstairs. looking through the menu, we've ordered one entree, two mains with rice and also one dessert.

for entree, we've ordered the salmon tataki with karashi su miso. i just simply rolled the salmon with the spring onion inside and with some of the sauce. the flavour just blossomed in my mouth. not too sure what is in the sauce, but it was definately yummy with a bit of spicyness, probably some wasabi.

this is the tempura baby tiger prawns with creamy spicy sauce. we actually wanted to ordered the tempura dinner but thanks to the waiter that introduced us to try this one instead. it was a good choice, the flour coatings was not too much and you can taste the freshness of the prawns.

the highlight of the dinner. undeniably the signature dish that they have, the black cod with miso. the miso sauce has this sweetness and at the same time balanced up with bit of saltiness. the black cod was cooked perfectly, and the fish was just soft and fresh. it just melts in your mouth with all the flavours blended so well together. it went really well with the rice as this dish has a strong after taste. you can have the ginger pickles after that to cleanse the after taste in your mouth.

for dessert, we tried the tofu cheesecake with green tea crumble, berry compote and tuile. the tofu cheesecake is so soft and fluffy that you can't realise there's tofu in it. it's a really interesting one and the best part is the it's not too sweet. love it! all in all, we paid for $120 for the dinner. great experience!

Japanese Cafe..

one good thing about working in the city is that you can have lots of varieties of food for a quick lunch. one of my favourite place is very near to queen street along little bourke street. and the thing is that i have no idea what is the shop name. it's a very small shop, so normally we just sit outside of the shop, getting some fresh air and enjoy some nice and quickie lunch. i normally have their bento box for $9.80 together with a bowl of miso soup. but the other day, i had a try with their seafood udon which is also at the same price, look at the amount of seafood in that bowl. and the udon was was cooked just right. it was oh-so-good. absolutely love it. i'll try and hunt for the shop name sometime!

*found the shop name, it's called sushi deli. and their chicken curry on rice is equally good too!

Kenzan@GPO

i did mention that my weekend was all about food. went to kenzan@GPO for a quick lunch. the shop is at GPO which is at the corner of bourke street and elizabeth street along an alley. they have really good ramen, alot of my friends give me the same comments. should try it out! the shop is always packed of people during lunch time on weekdays. it's the same during weekends too. i like their wide varieties of sushis, and best of all you get to wrap it your own. their hand rolls range from $3.20 to $4.50, slightly more expensive than other places but definately fresh and delicious. and with their ramen, it's around $13 if i'm not mistaken.

look at the counter place, there were lots of people waiting to order. they have wide selections from sushis, ramen, chef's special to bento boxes. the dining area is actually outdoor,so it might get a bit noisy during the peak hours.

they have hand rolls or onigiris. i love the soft shell crab hand roll

and lobster with potato salad hand roll!

a simple and healthy lunch or snack with a hot miso soup and onigiri.

Kuni's and Max Brenner..

hohoho.. christmas is in the air. and i was browsing at different restaurants for my company's christmas lunch. while browsing, i got to learn more restaurants available around in the city area. and also more places that i want to go and try out. i'll have to take it slowly. :P have to constantly remind myself about it. i'm greedy, i admit that.

anyways last night i went to a japanese restaurant for a birthday dinner for my friend. the restaurant is called kuni's, it's along little bourke street, in between of exhibition and spring street. haven't been to that area before and also wasn't expecting a rather nice restaurant around there. i was quite surprised when we got into the restaurant. the ambience there was nice and quiet. we took a while to look through the menu, there are quite a few chef's recommandations. we set down with an entree sashimi to share, sukiyaki, grilled salmon with sake sauce, and also a 120g wagyu steak. i've read reviews saying that their sushi and sashimi are pretty awesome. i have to say that the price was bit expensive. however the food turned out to be really good. when we had the sashimi, it was just mouth watering. the freshness of the sashimi and with a tint taste of lemon. one word. awesome! there's salmon, cod fish and another one which i'm not too sure what fish was it. it was 18 dollars for the entree.

when the main came out, which took quite a while, there was some wow factor. the presentation was nice and it definately looked yummy. the wagyu steak, undeniably delicious, the meat was juicy and tender, altho it costs around 5 dollars for one slice of it. it was 40 dollars for the dish which come together with a bowl of rice and vegetables. a small tip is to have the steak when it's still sizzling hot on the hot plate, as the meat will turn out to be tough after it's overcooked. the salmon was pretty good as well, it's cooked just right and with light flavours so that it won't cover the freshness of the fish. also had some huge cod roe on top of the fish. i had the sukiyaki which had a large serving. would prefer that it was served with the raw egg, instead the egg was cooked together. there were lots of ingredients, like green peas, tofu, white cabbage, inoki, mushroom, and with lots of beef. can't compare the beef with the wagyu steak. but the soup was really strong in flavours, really good! love it. it was $28 for the sukiyaki and same for the salmon. i was pretty full after my big portion of sukiyaki.

overall we had a nice dinner, despite the price and the old plates and cutlery. wanted to try out the dessert but ended up going to max brenner for dessert. another round of food! max brenner at melbourne central. prefect place for some chocolate addiction. went there quite a few times but never get sick of it. this time i tried their chocolate souffle, something like chocolate fondant, or maybe they are pretty much the same? anyway it was really rich and yummy. with the melting chocolate in the middle of the soft spongy cake. i was feeling glucose overdose after that. i've tried baking chocolate fondant before and it's pretty much the same. i enjoyed myself that night and hope that same goes to my lovely friends.