a blog Made in Sydney, Australia
This was actually my super duper belated birthday dinner, a friend gave me a $100 visa (thanks you!) to initially eat at The Alibi Darlinghurst but uh… I think it closed down before I had the chance. And then I was told of The Devonshire! Which I’ve not actually heard of before, but which has one hat, in Surry Hills. 🙂
Do you like food? Do you like UNLIMITED AWESOME food? Then read on.
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We had two dinners to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. 😀 There’s a reason but you’re not interested in that, you’re interested in what we ate right?! Because food.
We went to Prime Steak Restaurant at the GPO Martin Pl for a fancy candlelit dinner and a not so fancy dinner at Jean’s Chilli Chicken at Eastwood Hotel. They are both awesome.
No one seems to know about this restaurant and yet, I think it has the best steaks in Sydney. Better than Rockpool Bar & Grill, better than both Kingsley, better than any other place I’ve been to. And the quality is oh so consistent because I’ve been there a few times in the span of about 10 years. The same ole tastiness. I feel better knowing it’s been awarded Best Steak Restaurant consecutively for a while though. Might also be because it’s really hidden away downstairs in the GPO. 
The steaks. They have mainly the Black Angus steaks and Wagyu. F1 Wagyu, a hybrid and the Full-Blooded Wagyu of which they say is only available in 3 restaurants in Australia, two in Sydney and one in Melbourne.
The hunbun and I shared the Grain-Fed Black Angus Scotch 300g and the Full-Blooded Wagyu Fillet 180g. The latter being double the price and a bit more… :O Yeah, they’re pretty pricey.
We also ordered a scallop entree which I thought was decent but nothing too special.
The Angus Scotch is so, so juicy and fatty and flavoursome. So flavoursome. And that, my friends, is the main difference between Prime and other restaurants. Not only does the quality of the meat need to be awesome, it needs to at least taste like something. Other restaurants are bland, bland and bland despite it being Wagyu or not *cough* Rockpool. Though having said that, I’d probably go for something like the Fillet or something else next time because at the size of 300g, something so completely fat and juicy was a bit too much for me near the end.
The Full-Blooded Wagyu? Perfect. Did I mention they were both cooked perfectly to the Medium-Rare that we ordered? Yeah.
The difference between the two steaks are obvious, the Wagyu was better in the “this feels awesome in my mouth”, “omg the quality” and “I want this to be the last bite”, but otherwise it wasn’t largely more yummier than the other such that it makes the Angus seem bland, it’s just… different. You need to try for yourself.
Both dishes came with sides and the many sauces which we got to choose a couple of.
Service was also great. I thought the waiter sounded like Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon, no really.
If you’re in any way interested in steak, then I advise you try Prime at least once! 🙂 They range from $55 to $125.
This small Korean eatery is within Eastwood Hotel/Pub. It’s weird, but I trusted the boyfriend. The main thing to order here is apparently the Chilli Chicken BBQ dishes that come with a bowl of mixed rice in seaweed, which you then use your BAAAAAAAAAARE hands to turn into riceballs. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on, but turned out well.
0. We ordered the Chilli Cheese Chicken.
1. Cut up the chicken!
2. Place cut up chicken and rice into bowl.
3. Mix and squish into a ball which result in…
.
4. Nom Nom.
5. Make a mess because you’re a newb.
One of these is meant to serve two, but we found it’s probably suited to 3 or 4 people with maybe an extra dish.
I was worried the chicken would be more similar to teriyaki chicken for some strange reason, but it tasted like charcoal/BBQ chicken which is nom-worthy. *thumbs up* Boyfriend said their steaks and other foods aren’t very nice, so I suggest you try whatever we had! 🙂
Famous global ramen place that I had previously not heard of, Ippudo Sydney, landed in Westfield’s food court last week.
I’m a loyal Ichiban Boshi customer and often go for their $13 ramen or cold noodles. I wouldn’t call their ramen authentic, but it’s certainly very tasty in its own way.
Gumshara I’ve only been twice. And it’s authentic ramen alright. I sort of like that place too, sort of because I was really impressed with it first go, but not so much second. So 50/50? It’s also at a ridiculous price of $14.
And then Ippudo, at an average $17 per bowl. Big double u tee eff.
So here it is, the picture on top is the Shiromaru Motoaji, their most simplistic and classic version with no added extra for $15. The soup. The soup was awesome. The noodles were too soft. And the two pieces of pork were shit. At $15, all three should have been awesome, not one. But alas, the soup, so tasty that I went back for more next day, but take away because its two bucks cheaper. I can live with $13, but not $15 with shit pork. So I’m paying purely for the soup. What has the world come to.
Also, I asked for hard noodles, which I found better but not by a lot. And they gave me one piece of rough and hard pork for takeaway too. I assume if you pay $4 extra for pork belly that the pork might actually be good. But hey, $4.
The second picture that most of my friends ordered is the Akamaru Shinaji ($18 with an egg), I had a taste and found it to be more salty so didn’t like for me.
If you’re wondering about size, they’re pretty small bowls. But it will fill you up or otherwise you should be satisfied because any more and you may get sick of that super flavoursome soup. A bit at a time.
Pork buns were nice at $4 each. I wouldn’t mind having another one, but no takeaway at this point, so guess I won’t be having that in forever.
I think they called their ramen modern, authentic but modern. I’m not sure what’s so modern about it, maybe the cabbage? That weird cabbage.
And so, despite all the negativity that seems to be sprouting all over this post, I’m addicted to the soup. And what’s more? I think I’ll say goodbye to Gumshara because I prefer Ippudo as the authentic ramen place. I still love you Ichiban Boshi, you’re different.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but Motoaji means the taste before (classic)?? Pretty neat.
IROOOOOOOOOOON CHEF. Used to frequent this restaurant some years ago until the last two times went downhill and then never again until just recently! It’s apparently good again. And that’s the thing with Chinese restaurants, it’s bloody inconsistent.
Overall, I was pretty satisfied with le dinner despite some screw ups. Here goes!
We ordered 2 small abalones and 3 scallops. Only the 2 abalones came and we were told later that the scallops were sold out. That’s okay, let’s order 3 more abalones! Which turned out to be nomnom+
Crispy skin suckling pig with bbq pork, roast duck, soya sauce chicken, jelly fish and duck beak platter – Medium sized
This comes in three sizes, S/M/L. A Small would have been sufficient but we had no idea. Either way it was nomonomnom. That really weird looking thing at the bottom is actually duck beak (I THINK?!) and as unappealing as it is, it was soft and tasty – no really, try it.
Crab. And unfortunately I can’t tell you what exactly it is, I only know what it’s called in Chinese
XO Scallops. Typical dish and the scallops were just right, not overly cooked or too raw 🙂
Also ordered another vegie dish.
It just so happened that we went during their SiChuan festival so the restaurant was very, very lively and busy. We even got to see some Mask Changing act, which I’m afraid you’ll need to youtube to know what I’m on about.
So, the dinner was quite satisfying and none of the dishes were bad, according to our high standard Asian tastes. And we were distracted long enough with the entertainment to not bother being pissed off about delayed or canceled dishes oh ho ho ho ho.
p.s Sorry man, my photos are all blurry. I’m only given about 2 seconds to take each shot with my iPhone 4S (NOT A 5!?) and yeah, this happens.
Dinner at Kingsleys Woolloomooloo (not the Kingsleys Steakhouse in the city!) was oh so very omnomnom-worthy.
The restaurant’s in the middle of the wharf near Harris’ de Wheels and my first thought when we arrived was “holy crap that’s so dark”. We sat outside and had these weird flickering candles that did crap-all for lighting. Had to use my iPhone to read the menu and also took photos blindly, surprised it turned out alright.
So… before arriving, I already knew exactly what I wanted – those Alaskan Crab Legs (chilled) and a Wagyu rib eye steak (although I was certain I read rump before…)
Left to right
The only thing that caught us by surprise was the still water for $8.50. I assumed still water was tap water ha ha ha… oh well. Good meal justified being ripped off of water. Nice work. Meal would have been $150 but we had our entertainment card! So $50 off!
Oh oh oh, service was great too! The nice waitress for our table asked if we wanted mustard ;_; (this is important yo) and regularly helped pour le water and was very nice in general.
This was my b’day meal with le bf and I’m so happy we went here for it. Will definitely go back for some more alaskan crab legs… mmm dem legs…
Verdict: Really crap.
I’m going to make a lot of references to Din Tai Fung (DTF), because Lynn Shanghai said they had better dumplings and everyone else seems to compare the two.
Let’s just get straight into the food shall we, and then I’ll explain at the end of my post.
Going left to right.
The images also indicate what arrived first so as you can see, we were pretty happy about the food, although the portions were a lot larger than what we had expected. A little bit too large in fact – and too bad because they don’t offer different sizes like many other restaurants. Size becomes a problem later in our meal.
All dishes above are their signature dishes. But apparently 50% of the menu are signature dishes too. There’s just something seriously wrong about that.
Did I have high expectations? Yes, it was 83% on urbanspoon and 8.4 on eatability. People and I believe, the owner said it rivaled DTF, of course I had expectations. How did they do? I don’t even… how are they even comparing? They’re a thousand years too early to go against DTF, whether it’s food or service or menu or decor or location.
What was wrong with the large portions? Because by halfway of each dish, it felt like a chore and eventually started tasting like crap. Why oh why did they not have a smaller size hot and sour soup?
Revisit value? None. The meal turned out to be very, very expensive for what it was. I can safely say it is one of the top 5 worst Asian meals I’ve had in Sydney.
So why does urbanspoon and eatability have such a high rating? I have no bloody clue. Because some people just have terrible Asian tastes?
I don’t go buying lots of group-on vouchers, but when I do, I choose very very carefully since I have been disappointed before. Kai Sydney didn’t have many reviews when I got the voucher from Scoopon for $35 but the menu looked really good! Or… alright, it was the salmon carpaccio, goddamn I love salmon carpaccio.
I bought the voucher around June and only went yesterday, so by then there were quite a few reviews from other Scoopon go-ers. They weren’t positive, not because of the food but the supposedly very poor, slow service. The voucher says you can only have one dish at a time, fair enough, but because of this, many reviewers said the dishes came too slow and weren’t full by the end. I warned le starving bf that he might not be full… so be prepared for crap dinner.
Welp, what can I say? It was awesome!! They were friendly, had quick service and best of all, the food was served very quickly! Although having said that, the restaurant was near empty when we went at 7pm but quickly filled up by the end. And the food? Omnomnom.
Going left to right we ordered
So there you go, bloody great value for money… for us at least. We must have had just shy of $200 worth of food.
Without the coupon though, no, we wouldn’t be eating this much, not with the prices! Would we go back? Not regularly, but sure, it would be considered if we’re near Neutral Bay. Even if it’s just for the carpaccios. The assorted sushi and sashimi are a little bit too expensive for the quantity that we get, so that might be off the list next time.
Overall, very satisfied. Le bf also gave the thumbs up.
Photo’s a little bit blurry isn’t it? Ma bad.
Went to Kingsleys Australian Steakhouse on King St yesterday for a friend’s birthday. It was a littttle bit disappointing for me. Two of us ordered the rib-eye and le bf ordered a T-bone in medium-rare. The steak tasted like a pretty good quality steak for… a pub. It was a tad dry, not juicy enough and tasted fairly plain. So for a $40-50 a steak, I probably wouldn’t bother going back. For the same amount of money, I could get a pretty juicy nomnom steak at Hurricanes or Prime. But then I did use my Entertainment Card (25% off max $50) so I guess it wasn’t exactly $40-50, so that’s not too bad!
The sides weren’t anything special, we ordered a garlic mushroom and onion rings. The mushroom tasted like plain cooked mushroom.
Service was shite. Took forever to get the attention of the waiter for the damn bill.
My next steak journey is going to be at Chophouse on Bligh St for my own birthday! Or maybe the other Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse… or maaaybe Prime to be safe… :O options!
le geekSkin 