menu and price guide with “presentation meals”

organic spelt pizza. $10

Massamun Curry $12

The massamun curry was alright if a little too sweet. Nice spice/heat level. Beef was tender but it lacked punchiness that real malayasian curries had. Very strong cardamom flavour, so it was quite fragrant. Portion size was good in a deep bowl.

However, the rice it sat on was overcooked and mushy – so a curry on soggy rice. Finished it but it was kind of average

Beef Satay on wrap $12

This was promising when we ate the topping – had some crunch, was suitably tasty til we got to the beef cubes that was in this satay. Dry and hard (like tiny beef pucks), really overcooked beef. And the pita bread (roti) thing sat at the bottom so we weren’t sure how to eat this. Do you eat it like a taco? Messy if you tried… Tried to eat it, but the beef was so bad.   it did go in the bin eventually. Portion size was good.

So that’s what part of Agape’s foodtruck was like. Really disappointed. The promise of organic produce; it’s a waste of organic food if you don’t cook it right. The beef satay, that was just a waste of good cow. Wagyu?  Didn’t want to return to try dessert with so many other stalls at the night noodle markets. A real shame. I’m going to hazard a guess that turning over big numbers for the NNM is why quality dropped. But then my mates told me that the food wasn’t so good when they tried it. I probably would have had a better meal just eating the oysters. $24 bucks worth of oysters.  Or you can go to the fishmarket and just eat super fresh oysters there.

The ghetto charms of Jesterseeds with its destroyed beauty and graffitised walls. Street side sides, unassuming easy manner and friendly staff.

You’re drinking in a maybe dive. Milk crates.

Fancy light globes in jars

Main drinking area inside. Frames on the wall, stencil art. stripped paint. Nice warm, derelict.

Outdoor backyard with lights.

Polenta chips $8.

This had a more generous serve than Bloodwood but sadly it wasn’t as good. The chips were very crunchy (a plus) but the dipping sauce should have been gorgonzola (or something flavourful – maybe a relish)  like bloodwoods as it was somewhat flavourless otherwise.

wine + grapefruit magarita. $18. Not bad but when you can get a jug of drink for about $25, not the best value proposition. $18 gets you an ultimate maitai at grandmas (SOOO GOOD).

That table its sits on its all kinds of “oh dear” though. I took a photo of the bracket below as it was wobbly and they really need to industralise bracket it. You can’t lean on it and look across at your companion as the whole thing will give way.

Sangria by the jug. Hell yessss. Jesus apparently visited?

Various drinks. Can’t recall. Had the new in town (derp – newtown) drink. goooddd stuff.

JesterSeeds is appropriately divey and quite a neat little small bar. Its centrally located in Kingstreet and the vibe inside is cool. I’ve been multiple times and really enjoyed this small bar experience. Unpretentious and easy. And everytime, without fail, the bar guys would greet you when you depart and make you feel like your company was appreciated. As JS is just small enough, the mixologists are happy to chat about various things making it all quite smooth and fun. Good stuff this. I don’t seem to recall it having music or any sort of aural ambience. corridor it is if you want live music + jazzy tunes.

That review’s coming soon.

Located along unwins bridge road (but located at 1 council st/Marrickville) st peters is the Aslan Coffee. The logo is suitably a lion ala Aslan from the cupboard series of books.

Coffees. and trading hours. The bright orange/red is a signature look.

cabinet areas.

pressed metal finished with ornamentation on the counter.

$16 breakfast – roasted tomatoes, salmon, scrambled eggs

Most things on the plate weren’t bad. As they are.. Its definitely “I could do this at home” – the salmon’s premade, some scrambled eggs and spinach. The one thing that I wasn’t too impressed by was the tomatoes – it was labelled roasted tomatoes on the menu; so you’d expect it to be roasted/soft but it was basically raw tomato on my plate. My reaction was “aacck” trying to eat a flavourless hard piece of tomato.

Poached Eggs and Toast. $7.50
A.E ordered this… well, he wanted something else and got this. One was called poached eggs, one was called aslan poached eggs.

2x pieces of bread. and 2 poached eggs. I don’t think he was too happy.

The coffees were decent at aslan coffee but the breakfast was really disappointing.

Lets talk breakfast, go have a look at the CafeISM breakfast – that is a great brunch/brekkie meal. This kind of missed the mark.

Laduree in the marbled confines of Pitt Street Westfields.

price guide + flavours. $0.80 premium to eat in.

Fancy boxes that you’ll be paying for. $2 for the ones that hold 8. Okay, they weren’t quite honest about that. Its $3.40 for the box. I did specifically ask about “having to pay for the box”. mumble mumble .. response.. “its about $2.” $29/8. You can make out the seating around beyond.

 
UNBOXING

its a fancy enough $3.40 box. Its now in a landfill somewhere.

fancy paper + sticker

Ahh..  Laduree. various flavours. salted caramel, blackcurrent, orange blossom, pistachio, chocolate, vanilla

they sell other things: financier + madelines. I don’t thinka anyone buys them

and jams.

display cabinet.

A closeup.

Yes. The Laduree macarons are good. Enough. These macarons have a soft shell with hardly much crunch (from being frozen?) but the 8 that I bought and shared/consumed were good to eat. They’re also smaller when compared to a lot of local marcarons. I didn’t mind eating them, the purple one was good. The chocolate one tasted chocolatey (but then, why wouldn’t you just eat a chocolate bar). The populist salted caramel one was suitably salty and had a good smokey flavour.  7.5/10 all up.

would I care to come back if I had to queue an hour plus each time? No. Short wait? Maybe even then.

They should just have an online shop so you can preorder for pickup; but that’d probably be too good an idea. I think the whole queuing thing is overrated. Would probably make a nice gift for someone if you gave them this “oh you queued, for me?! /swoon”

Laduree in Sydney is a kiosk in a mall. As fancy as the brand is… it is a kiosk in a mall. When I read timeout’s writeup, I expected a lavish well fitted out shop with plush fittings and cool lighting. It really doesn’t have as much of a cache as a proper shop would have; wasn’t too impressed with it. It was decent enough. Probably should have opened in the eastern suburbs/Balmain or somewhere.  I’m sure that’ll happen sometime in the future.

kind of looks like a snake if you squint a bit. It doesn’t have any of the wow factor that veggie patch has but still cool to see.

Tsuru Menu/Price guide. I’ll get to this in a bit.

Pork Bun on the counter. MM.. braised pork belly + coriander.

Sampler Plate $15
Pork belly Buns. This was softly/freshly steamed and a very soft asian bun. Compared to the Momufuku Buns, these were twice the size. Very yummy with soft tender pork belly that is coated in a savoury/sweet asian glaze. Herbs added a fresh bite. I read elsewhere there is cucumber but mine I don’t think had any. I did have to eat around the dough to get to the filling so the first couple of bites was just dough.

Chicken Satay. This is good. Nice and tender with a decent peanut sauce. There wasn’t a lot of meat on my skewer though compared to the other ones I saw on the other blog on urbanspoon. A very light bite. 4 of these at $12? I don’t know about that. It made me wonder if the sampler plate had smaller portions? But the bun was the same size.

Cripsy Wings. The one miss. It was cold. and cold fried foods is never good. Had a tumericy flavour to the wing. I do wish it was a fresh out of the fryer and that the sauce was spicier. I mentioned to FSC that KFC might be better :gasp. I don’t eat at KFC often but the wings aren’t bad.

Pandan Pancake. This is like a modified version of a peanut pancake – very interesting to eat, was peanutty, gooey and had some sort of chocolate sauce inside. very tasty. Menu says there’s cheese? I didn’t taste cheese.

Really enjoyed the sampler plate that had most of the food from the tsuru food truck as a first taste. And its pretty neat that they do offer a sampler. I do however think that at a glance that the price on everything ala carte ($12) is $2 too pricey. At $12 …its $6/bun. And I’m not sure if it’s really a $6 bun. On Richard Elliot’s blog, the bun is $4.50. A 33% price increase.

The crispy wings, 5 for $12? Hmmm. There’s not that much meat on them (bones), its only 5 – so it’d be a really small portion. Its all fried food anyhow and comparatively, at KFC a box of 10 wings is $10 (I googled).

Be interesting to see how people take to Tsuru’s food truck food prices down the line. The pancake is reason enough to hunt Tsuru down though. I’d order 3 and be happy.

edit:

I went to their website. The menu is different on the road. There might have been masterchefLIVE tax on the prices.

buns $4.50

onigiri of the day $3

satays 2 for $4. so 4 = $8

desserts $3

Reuben Hills is now always really busy and its not a surprise, nice fitout, great vibe – good repute for having great coffee. There was 4 of us this time, 3 adults, 1 2 year old.  There was a slight wait when we got there but the wait staff were friendly and Ben promptly came up to take note of our company so that when tables were freed up, we could be seated. Note. Probably some of the funkiest looking wait staff around.

4 drinks. I had the ethiopian drip coffee and when the guy brought it, I was informed that I should let it cool a little so the flavours open up and yes, it was really good.

Salted Caramel Shake. A+M had this and they loved it, thought it was really delicious. FSC wants me to drop it on here that I’m not allowed to hate  on it; she loves it! And as I don’t like caramel, I kind of knew I won’t like it. Thought it tasted and smelt funny. (like the way caramel taste and smells I guess)

Piccolo. Great. Delicious.

Babychino. Devoured. Kids…

clever low cost menu. I admired the gusto. Photocopied on A4.  Funky Image(varies) on the other side.

gorgeous lights. The fitout was done by Herbert Mason (and Chris The from blackStar had acknowledged that he went to see them to do BLACKSTAR 2.0). Its funky warehouse cool.

blockwork walls. unfinished brick. plastered shapes/reveals. roastery upstairs.

Fancy coffee machines.

The garagey other end of rueben hills. Shawls! Exposed rafters, timber beams, unfinished concrete.

Eats.

Give a dog a bone ice cream sandwich. Served on a plate that has a lost cost/industrial throw back look. Very good. I really dug the cakey top and the whole thing (cake+icecream+marshmellow fluff) didn’t taste like sugar. Which is good. Yummo.

Friendly staff – the whole getting seated experience shouldn’t be an ordeal (see THEDIP) and this was handled well. Music possibly a tad too loud (like a discotheque in there when we went), great space and solid coffee. It is a tad pricer being Surry Hills but we all really liked it. This is a great venue and demonstrates the power of a great fitout coupled with good food. like it a lot.

Note: They were trying to clear tables as they would being so busy. And the table of 4 took about 15-20 minutes from when the staff gave them their receipt to leave (take a hint!)

So they celebrated their 13th birthday with a rocking Future themed party and this seemed like a good opportunity to do a writeup.

PACCCKED. and it was free drinks for everyone for 3 hours.

Blues, Pinks and Purples. Its normally a warm yellow wash.

The Establishment is one big space divided into 2 areas, with a huge central island bar so you’ll normally not be hard pressed to grab a drink in a timely fashion. The gin garden area has plenty of cosy seating, has greenery and lots of bamboo and a nice space with Corinthian columns and exposed unfinished walls, a glass canopy so you’re not indoors but still sheltered. There’s a small gin/drink bar at the side. They make a good Hendricks + Tonic.

THE FUTURE

Daft punk futurism. Dancers in suits and face mask tap dancing. These guys were great.

Mad Max Futurism.

Neo Hulas

Can’t tell if its David Guetta. I thought it was.

Didn’t manage to take any photos of the drinks and food tonight: Had too much fun.

Menu canapés:

Crumbed prawn cutlet with dipping sauce
Salmon/tomato canapé with prawn roe. These were amazing.
Cheese foam tartlet

Champers

Establishment Gin Garden mixologists. Blue coloured cocktail of some ilk – blue lagoon? Tasted lycheeish. I dug it.

We all had a great night and as you can tell from that geordi leoford (star trek) guy boogieing on the dance floor; he had a smasher of an evening from the look of things. The party rocked and the dancers were amazing. Quite an incredible event this was, Establishment’s birthday party.

Justin hemmes and crew threw this incredible free event. Yes its free. Wowzers

Polite in Public was present and here’s a link to the photobooth shenanigans.

To make the most of the limited space inside, there are counter seats where you can sit at and look out, and also a long counter adjoining the stairs. Photographs + Art Noveau Prints

tiny kitchen area where everything is made. You have to order at the order, the waitresses don’t take your food order.

Pancakes with banana/Ricotta/Honey.

I’ve eaten pancakes a bit, with a preference for waffles – but this was great. The pancake was thick, fluffy and the combo of ingredients that made the topping.. simple fresh, good eating. Devoured it. Good serving size too, that last bit of pancake just went down. Just.

Spanish Omelette

This was a huge portion and quite a good omelette. Light and fluffy egg and good ingredients on the inside. (chorizo, cheese, tomatoes).

Coffees

We had a doubleshot latte and a large strong cap. Mine was the LXC, it was solid.

Café Ism is a nice detour from the more popular King Street eateries and well worth a trip to. Its nice on a sunday inside or out as it doesn’t really have much obstruction around it. And no busy cars and mad foot traffic. Come grab a coffee and walk your dog at that park. Its good.

Located at Gate 3 Barangeroo. People jogging everywhere. Really sunny day

Parked near this tall tower.

Menu at a glance. Intro Eats (entrees), Mains and a dessert.

Main + dessert Combo. $18. Not exactly a cheap lunch but well worth it.

BBQ BRIKSET W KIMCHI SLAW (in a bun) with asian slaw $12. Incredible eating. Can’t quite put finger on why this works but everything in the bun was gold. Brisket was tender, juicy and flavoursome; was more braised that BBQ? Very moist meat. The kimchi was fresh, and the asian slaw had coriander (see also veggiepatch van). But that all wouldn’t have matter if the bread wasn’t good. That was a great eating sanger and it was super filling. There was a lot of ingredients and it was the right portion.

Annindofu with seasonal fruits $6
Not quite sure what an annindofu is but this was a pannacotta (almond jelly? – well yeah, googled. It is almond jelly. Palette+1) with what I am guessing to be jackfruit + shaved toasted coconut + natadeCOCO. Perfectly light, soft and really lightly scented with a nice crunch from the coconut. This didn’t taste like a sugar overload so it was really delicious. Enjoyed it tremendous and this didn’t have the chemically smell that some packet almond jellies can have. Good stuff.

EAT ART TRUCK hasn’t failed me yet. Everytime I eat here, I get a meal that’s interesting, different and quite satisfying. At a glance, this meal BBQ , Kimchi (Korean) Annindofu (Japanese), natadecoco/jackfruit (asian), Asian Slaw (asian). Yummy yummy fusion.

I can’t wait to get to EAT’s TruckStop shop that just opened in Bondi.

Can Sydney City let the food trucks park in HydePark already? What’s with all the obscure locales?!

Located at 273 Liverpool Road (right in the middle of the ashfield shop district – we did walk along the streets looking for boba tea joint to round up our asian fiesta), The NSA joint is a red coloured federation building with glass street frontage. I think they recently renovated as I read some other blogs before I headed over and the street frontage on NSA is different and modern now. Quite fancy.

This is what is was like when we entered. It wasn’t too busy around 11.30am. You can see the mod asian furnishings and the raw brick wall. Its a nice looking shop.

Outside looking in. Warm woods, reds, raw brick and asian styled wall hangings. Theres some sort of chinoserie clad walls leading into the toilet area.

New Shanghai’s special summer cold dishes. We didn’t get any

From the inside, like most asian resto, from the cheap to the fancier (like Chef’s Gallery+Din Tai Fung) the kitchen process is transparent and celebrated. They’re making the food fresh.

COURSES IN SEQUENCE.

1.01 drunken chicken. Cold. I ate most of this. The other 2 didn’t seem to like it as much. Its like Hainanese chicken but cold (the congealed chicken skin is a bit hard to take, I don’t think K liked it much). The difference btw this and a hainan chicken is the absence of ginger flavouring and the addition of shaoxing wine.

Noodle Pork and Veg. This was a tad bland and indistinct. Needed soy.

Famous Shanghai Xiao Long Bao. I’ll give DTF the edge. The dough was a bit thicker than DTF and the dish while tasty wasn’t quite as good to eat as DTF. Its still pretty damn solid and the price point is great. You are able to pick the dumplings up and when you bite into it, the soup oozes out. Bit of strategem needed to eat these. A classic shanghai dish. This is something we should have order 2X of instead of the dough balls below.

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings. 8. Chinese Noodle Restaurant in Chinatown with its al-cheapo fitout and killer dumplings has the edge on flavour. The dough on this again was a bit thick and the top part of it wasn’t as crispy and possibly felt possibly undercooked/doughy

Pan Fried Pork Buns. Looked promising. Every table had ordered it so we did but we kind of ate the filling (Some meat in it) and didn’t eat the dough as it was a bit much. There was a lot of dough/bun.

At this point in the lunch, we had started a paleolithic diet conversation and carb became a villain. Jeremy was extolling the virtues of a protein diet and carbs, sugar and fructose all became evil; while tapioca balls were carcinogenic and killer of many an asian girl. I later order a boba tea from easy way with tapioca balls and a warning label re: chocking.

The damage: $8.80 x 5. For 3 people, that works out to be about $13 each. And we were all full. It’s super cheap this venue. I’d definitely return, order 2x of the xiao long baos (which the older asian family next to us did) and do without the no. 205 (I’m assuming that’s the one with the black sesame seeds).

So this is what it looked like when we left. Its chock a block now and the previously empty seats are now full of patrons waiting to get a seat. I have a sneaking suspicion that we tourists picked the wrong dishes.  There wasn’t any sticker shock here and the food was good enough to warrant a return. The menu is also wholly comprehensive and quite extensive. (128 dishes!). Service was prompt, tea was topped up pronto. Couldn’t fault it.

One thing that was missing was the provision a sauce plate. You were only given a bowl to eat out of and while that’s great for noodles, a little saucer (which you can pour soy/vinegar into) wouldn’t have been amiss-ed.