YAY: Industry Beans

Cool interior!!

After a long stroll through the very cool Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, we decided to have a coffee break. We made our way down Rose St, and it took quite a while to locate this place. Its location next to Crossfit was perhaps a suggestion of where I should have headed after our little indulgence.

Yes, this is from Snapchat!

Sticky Rice Cakes

Situated in a little warehouse, this place oozes the Melbourne vibe. We were given a coffee menu, listing all the different blends we could have tried. H and I both opted for the Fitzroy Street Blend, with H getting a latte while I got a cappuccino. The coffee, I must admit, was the best I ever had. As I become increasingly addicted to coffee, I have developed the ability to differentiate the taste of coffee.  This blend was far superior to any I have previously tried. It had this slight bitterness which was replaced by a sort of sweetness which I found to be very pleasant. This was truly a great coffee moment, and Industry Beans definitely deserves its recognition for its great coffee. We also ordered the Sticky Rice Cakes. This definitely had a very Vietnamese taste which I am very familiar with. The rice cakes were crispy and delicious, especially with the papaya, carrot and sweet and sour dressing. A small regret would be that the strong flavours detracted slightly from my coffee experience, where I found myself having to drink a whole glass of water before I went back to my cappuccino!

The staff also deserve a huge thumbs up, as they were very helpful in informing us about the different blends of coffee and what it would suit. Like Bowery to Williamsburg, I will surely return to this place, as I will, without a doubt, be returning to the streets of Fitzroy!

Food: 9/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Details:
 

YAY: Bowery to Williamsburg

Los Pollos

Wagyu Burger

Visiting Marvellous Melbourne was very exciting for me. The food is a whole different level to Sydney. Bowery to Williamsburg, as the name implies, has an American theme. The cafe is nestled in Oliver Lane (very Melbourne indeed) and is modelled like a New York subway station. A cool setting is coupled with excellent food. I had the Los Pollos sandwich, which was simply magnificent. The chicken was absolutely tender, the salsa was tasty, and the sauce tied in the whole sandwich wonderfully. H had a the Wagyu Burger, which was divine. This was a very clever reinvention of the classic cheeseburger, emanating a very familiar yet refined taste. Service was also a huge plus!! Will definitely return the next time I am in Melbourne!

Food: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Ambience: 9/10 

Details: 

YAY: Mosaic

Mosaic is located in The Westin Hotel Sydney. Hotel restaurants are generally terrible and I always try to avoid them. However, The Westin as a very special place, since my sister is holding her wedding there! So my family and her fiancee's family went on a combined dinner at the restaurant in early July.

Caesar Salad Chicken

Arriving at the restaurant, we were immediately greeted by polite waiters who took our coats and offered us drinks. We were served bread and butter, which I shouldn't really judge on! For entree, I chose to have the Caesar Salad Chicken with Croutons, Three Year Aged Parmesan and Pancetta Chips. I know, highly unimaginative, but I found the salad to be quite pleasant. The Pancetta Chips and Crouton were both in an elongated shape, which was quite unconventional and which I found to be quite pleasing. The chicken was tender and delicious, and the aged Parmesan was a nice addition. Dressing was pretty standard. I did, however, find the hidden anchovies to be quite displeasing!

Beef Tenderloin

For main course, I had the Beef Tenderloin with Tobinambour Croquette, Small Vegetables and Watercress. It also had a foamy sauce of which I could not identify but regardless, was delicious. The beef , which I ordered as medium,was cooked to perfection and the small vegetables were balanced and complimented the protein very well. I was slightly disappointed that I was given only one tobinambour croquette because it was absolutely divine :(. Overall, a cohesive and well planned dish which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

So far, my meal was rather enjoyable, but dessert told a different story. Greedy and desperate to try as many desserts as possible, I ordered the Mosaic Dessert Trilogy, consisting of a Mango Gratin, Chocolate Pudding and Blackcurrant Ice Cream. I knew from the beginning that the dish would not be cohesive but would allow me to try a variety of desserts. This expectation was met, as I did not enjoy any of the desserts. The mango gratin was terrible as it was extremely sour. The chocolate pudding and blackcurrant ice cream were mediocre at best. 

Overall, I really enjoyed my meal at Mosaic. Entree was good, main was superb but dessert was disappointing. But I look forward to eating there again, particularly when they presumably cater for my sister's wedding!

                                 

Mosaic Trilogy

Food: 7/10

Service: 9/10 

Ambience: 6/10 

Value: 6/10  

About: 

The Westin

1 Martin Place

Sydney

(02) 8223 1110

YAY: Adriano Zumbo - Dessert Train The Star

Upon leaving Kazbah, the rain stopped and the sun kinda came out (mother nature shares the same feelings as me). We went on an long trek to Adriano Zumbo's Dessert Train in The Star. Basically, it is like a sushi train but with desserts only :D All dishes were $7 and Macaroons were $10. You can choose of the A La Carte Menu where all desserts are $12. Soft Serves were $1.80 for a cone and $4 for a bowl. That's pretty good value for the quality of the desserts there. There were so many that I can't remember what they were all called so I will provide a photo list below:

Food: 8/10

Service: 9/10

Ambience: 8/10

Value: 7/10 

About: Shop 1, Cafe Court The Star/80 Pyrmont St  Pyrmont NSW 2009(02) 9810 7318

NAY: Kazbah Balmain

Lovely Ambiance

Hey guys, it has been a while since a made a post here. Fortunately, for you drama seekers, my new season of blogging is on a low note. Okay, so today I went to Kazbah, an Arabian but generally Moroccan restaurant in Balmain. It was cold and wet, so on entering the restaurant, I was extremely pleased with the warm atmosphere. It was filled to the brink, and we had to wait for 15 minutes because our table wasn't ready. This did not irritate me at this stage.

Tabouli

Putrid Sausages

We ordered 2 Mezzes, the first being the Merguez, Ma’aneek, Sucuk, Chorizo Sausages and the Rocket, Walnut & Quinoa Tabouli. They got our order for the Tabouli wrong and gave us Rocket and Halloumi (which is understandable). This was quickly replaced. It had a wonderful flavour, among one of my favourite Taboulis. It had quite a nice tang to it and the quinoa was a nice substitute for the usual wheat. Now the sausages. Oh dear. There were 4 sausages and 3 of them were just putrid. The Merguez was just burnt and had a strong aftertaste whilst the Ma'aneek and Sucuk were just inedible. The only good sausage was the chorizo (ironically, the only one which is not Arabian). The pickles and Lebanese bread were just mediocre. Not impressive at all.

Linguine... Authenticity? 

Yummy Tagine

Following this, all I was looking forward to was the main. I ordered the Chicken, Chermoula, Lima Beans, Potatoes, Green Olives Tagine which was alright I suppose. The highlight of the dish was the cous cous which was fluffy and delish. The whole dish was just a tad dry, owing to the limited amount of sauce provided and I would have preferred my olives to be pitted. My cousin had the Harissa King Prawns, Squid Ink Linguine, Feta, Chakchouka, Baby Spinach which she said was nice. However, she couldn't get over the disgusting aftertaste left by those putrid sausages. Our waiter was very nice, however, he was not attentive at all and always forgot our requests. If there was something nice I could say about the place, then its that their toilets are FRICKIN amazing. I mean, they have like a little day bed in there!

Food: 5/10
Service: 6/10
Ambiance: 7/10
Value: 5/10
About: 379 Darling St  Balmain NSW 2041
(02) 9555 7067

YAY: Well Co. Cafe & Wine Bar

Okay, so today, we decided to go to Leichhardt to do our Christmas dinner shopping. Leichhardt has some of the freshest produce out there. Italian influences were evident as the shelves of stores were lined with Italian goods such as Panettone, a sweet loaf bread which is Italy's answer to pudding! After completing all our shopping, we decided to head to the Italian Forum (the biggest tourist trap out). However as we were walking along Norton St, my hipster senses caught me as I saw this quirky little cafe. I immediately stopped and convinced my parents to eat there. Inside, there were lines of communal tables. The walls featured massive chalkboards indicating specials, whilst there was a black and white colour scheme (pretty indie). Light bulbs hung on strings off the ceilings which I thought was pretty quirky. The cafe was nearly full so we were lucky enough to get 3 stools at a high table.

Tap water

Anyways, we were getting pretty hungry, so we decided to order without hesitation. The Roasted Chicken Panini (with capsicum pesto, swiss cheese, salad) caught my eye on the specials board so that's exactly what I ordered. Our waitress was very friendly which was a plus! Both my parents ordered the Mediterranean Platter with Prosciutto (with feta, bread, poached eggs, avocado and olives). My dish appeared on a huge board which was very aesthetically pleasing. It tasted pretty good as well. The capsicum pesto was a highlight. It made the dish 100x better. I only tried some of my parent's dish, but according to them, it was pretty good.

In general, service was great (besides the fact that it took a million calls to get tap water), the food was great and the ambience was fantastic! However, my one criticism would probably be price. The food there is pretty expensive, however you do get heaps.

Roast Chicken Panini

Food: 8/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 9/10
About: Leichhardt Village Shop 9, 39-45 Norton St Leichhardt NSW 2040
(02) 9572 8870

YAY: Wowcow Darlinghurst

Original with Brownie and Strawberry ($6.50

Having tried the newly established froyo (frozen yoghurt) places such as Noggi and Moochi, I was quite curious about what a long standing froyo place would have been like. So after eating at Lucky Tsotsi, we took a leisurely stroll through Victoria St, Darlinghurst. It was so windy, but the pain we endured was worth it as we arrived at the venue. We ordered two small original froyos. I had brownie and strawberry while my cousin had granola and mochi. We were quite shocked at the price. It was $4.50 for a small and $1 for each topping. However, the price was quite worth it as the cups were pretty big and we were given a generous amount of toppings. Their froyo was pretty good and the toppings were pretty decent. Service was alright and ambience was quirky, however, there is a need for more seating.

Food:8/10

Service: 9/10

Ambience: 7/10

About: 2/304 Victoria Street Darlinghurst, NSW

(02) 9326 0400

YAY: Lucky Tsotsi Shebeen & Bar

Awesome Artwork!

Woo, my first blog post! LOL. Anyway, on Sunday, 9th December, I went on an outing with my cousin to Luna Park. We had heaps of fun! Anyway, the real highlight of my trip was going to this restaurant. It's a South African restaurant located in the quaint suburb of Darlinghurst. A shebeen is a makeshift bar, generally located in the poor townships in Africa. The decor of the restaurant really matched this.


Alright so we were getting really hungry and so we decided with no hesitation. So initially we ordered the Sipho's Durban Samoosas. It was basically curry puff with curried vegetable inside. It was served with Mrs Balls Chutney (which is a product of SA) and minted yoghurt. When it came out, it looked rather ordinary in appearance and looked like the ones you would find in cheap Asian buffets. HOWEVER, I was blown away by my first bite, it tasted like no samosa I had ever eaten before. The chutney and minted yoghurt accompanied the samoosas perfectly! I was so hesitant to share the last one with my cousin :]. Shortly after, our next dish arrived, the Cheesy Garlic Roll. Generally, I despise cheesy stuff, but this was actually quite nice and was a great side dish!

Sipho's Durban Samoosas ($9.90)

Cheesy Garlic Roll ($3.90)

Bakgat Bunny Chow ($15.90)

So we on a high at this point in time. The food was just so wonderful. We did not think the experience could get any better, but it did! Out came the most creative thing I have ever seen. Curry in hollowed out bread. Known as "Bunny Chow", it originates from the Indian population of Durban, South Africa and is the nations answer to fast food! The one we had was a Chicken Curry served with sambals and minted yoghurt and chutney. BEWARE: It is pretty hot. But otherwise, it was simply D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!



What an experience. The food was just delicious, the ambience was damn right quirky and the service was just incredible. The waiter always had a smile on his face and was just friendly!

Food: 10/10
Service: 10/10
Ambience: 10/10
About: 245 Oxford St Darlinghurst, NSW.
(02) 8354 1306
(My first post, would probably get more stricter as I progress with this blog)