Bodega that didn't happen - Wood & Stone

For me and my friend's birthday, one of our friends decided to take us both out to dinner instead of getting us a gift because we're too hard to shop for. We chose Bodega Tapas bar and agreed to meet there at 6:30pm since they didn't take bookings. We arrive earlier than expected as we had hoped to get a seat or atleast wait at the bar. Unfortunately, even 6:15 is too late to get a table at Bodega! They reckon we would have to wait til 8:30pm before we get seated. We ordered a cocktail whilst we waited for our other friend to show up.

Surly Temple

And let me say, even just a single cocktail indicated how good the food is that we're missing out on! This cocktail was amazing! Luckily I took down the list of ingredients they used to make it and will be attempting to recreate it myself. Now I might need to try a few just so I get the taste right....

My friend eventually arrives after 7pm. Since we were all starving, we decided to go look for somewhere else to eat instead. We were driving around for a good 20mins trying to find a particular Italian restaurant we visited 3 years ago. We had no address and no name. Eventually, hunger got the better of us and we headed down to Surry Hills instead. My friend was keen on trying Wood & Stone, who happened to have free tables! Woohoo!! Food!

Antipasto/Mezze Platter

We ordered the antipasto / mezza platter just to get our appetites going, not that mine really needed any help. I was about to eat the table I was so hungry. The platter came with a variety of dips, grilled vegetables, olives, cheese, salad and pita bread. Something best enjoyed with a glass of wine and nice conversation. Me? I was just shovelling the food into my gob hehe

Caprese Salad

I thought this was going to be more like a tradition Caprese Salad. Big slices of tomato and milky white mozerella. Instead, 75% of the dish was rocket, scattered with a few slices of tomato and bocconcini. It was nice, but not what I was after. Need more cheeeeeeeese! CHEEEEEESE!!

Bianco Seafood Pizza

Unfortunately, it looks like Stone and Wood uses a premade type of pizza base. Definitely not the thin italian base I was hoping for. However, with that said, the combination of toppings on the pizza was delicious! Fresh plump seafood, garlic, cheese, fresh cracked pepper with a squeeze of lemon was perfect. We opted for the Bianco base, as in white base as we didn't want any heavy tomato sauce masking the taste of the seafood.

Chicken and Avocado Pizza

Again, a great combination of flavours. Big chunks of chicken with creamy avocado, veggies and fresh herbs. Would've been better on a fresh made base.

We were all pining for dessert, but we were surprisingly stuffed after eating all that food. I didn't look that much considering it was 2 pizzas and 2 plates of mainly salad/veggies of some sort. The desserts looked good as well. Maybe next time!

Wood & Stone - Surry Hills
559 Crown St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone (02) 9319 0757

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Makoto Sushi Platter

It's been a few years since I've been to Makoto, not because the food wasn't great. Its because its TOO good. There's forever a line outside! And when I'm hungry, I'm HUNGRY. RIGHT. NOW. This means most of the time I'll end up going to a different restaurant. However, this time I had a serious craving for sushi, and not wanting to wait for a table, we decided to order a take away platter instead.

It was soooooooooooooooooo hard trying to decide on a platter! Everything looked so good! If I could, I would've ordered them all! hehehe In the end, it was a toss up between the Sakura Deluxe Platter and the New Sushi Japan Platter, both for $48. The New Sushi Japan Platter won in the end as neither of us felt like eating Inari sushi.

New Sushi Japan Platter - $48

Californian like roll

Nigiri

More nigiri

Ikura and some other type of roll

Just incase you didn't see, here's another view

and another!

Even the Tamago matches the photos!

I was actually so happy that they brand the egg just like they do in the brochure! I hate it when what you order doesn't look like the photo. But in this instance, the platter did not disappoint. Overall, the sushi was really fresh. I just wish they didn't have the little cucumber and little egg rolls. But for $48 you can't really complain. Definitely a winner and I know I'll be ordering this again the next time I get a hankering for sushi and can't be bothered lining up!

Makoto
119 Liverpool Street (Cnr, Pitt & Liverpool St.)
Sydney, NSW
(Ph) 02 9283-6767
http://www.masuya.com.au/en/restaurants/makoto.html


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Thai No. 1 Ashfield - Revisited

We were so impressed by the Thai No.1 food during our last visit, that we had to schedule another pig out. Being summer this time round, they opened the entire front wall to let in the fresh summer night air. There is also a court yard if you want to sit alfresco or just need the extra tables for a large party.

We were both starving and decided to be greedy and order 3 dishes. I knew this would spell trouble because whenever I have curry, I also have heaps of rice. HEAPS. I'm the type that would be content with a big bowl of rice and ladels of curry sauce all over it. I don't need any meat or veggies on it, just the curry sauce.

Massaman Beef

This time round, we had to order another serve of the Massaman Beef. Flakey melting hunks of beef swimming in a creamy curry and soft potatoes. Add in a handful of crunchy peanuts and I'm in heaven.

Chicken Cashew Nut

My must have at any Thai restaurant....Chicken Cashew Nut. I can't believe how many years went by with me refusing to order this dish. For some reason, I imagine the dish to be like the Cantonese version. Chicken and veggie stir fry with soy and oyster sauce, then a handful of nuts thrown ontop. "I can cook that at home!" Thank goodness I eventually tried it and have fallen in love with the dish ever since then. I no longer use a Pad Thai to judge a Thai Restaurant. This is my benchmark dish and Thai No.1 does a fantastic version.



We wanted to try a new dish and ordered a Penang Chicken. For some reason I thought the dish would have less curry sauce than this. This was going to be a problem. Two types of curry competing for stomach space! Luckily this curry is much thicker and spicer than the Massaman Beef, meaning I couldn't eat as much sauce + rice as I normally could! More space for everything else instead of filling up on rice! hehe

Thai No 1
12 Charlotte Street
Ashfield
(Ph) 02 9797 7900


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Mother Chu's Vegetarian Restaurant

We organised a catch up with some friends. Usually we would've pick Korean as it seems to be the group favourite. However, on this occasion, one of my friends was a vegetarian for the day. I had a quick look online and chose Mother Chu's Vegetarian restaurant. Its one of the few truly vegetarian places in the city, and its been a restaurant I've always wanted to try. Its hard to convince carnivores to go to an all vegetarian restaurant just for the sake of it. But in this case, we had an excuse! woohoo!

I'm pretty sure they've renovated the place. I'm pretty sure the place used to be cold and bright with big fluorescent lights. Now its warm, friendly and inviting with the help of some red walls and soft lighting.




Since most of us haven't been to a vegetarian restaurant before, we really had no idea what to order. Luckily they had some photos in the menu and on the wall, so it was a matter of pointing to a few random things and hope for the best.

Hot and sour soup

First up, hot and sour soup. Me and my friend both LOVE hot and sour soup. And neither of us could believe this was 100% vegetarian! NO WAY! It taste so much better then any other meat version we've had before! The soup had a perfect balance of hot, sour and salty. Most of the time its either not spicy enough or not sour enough, forcing me to douse the soup with heaps of pepper, chilli and vinegar. This however, was PERFECT. Cubes of soft silky tofu, crunchy black fungus and bamboo shoots and a few slices of fresh celery. We're definitely coming back just for the soup!

Tofu with fresh mushrooms

This is very similar to what you find at a normal Chinese restaurant. Lightly fried tofu topped with stir fried button, shitake and enoki mushrooms, all on a bed of veggies.

Sweet and sour cripsy gluten rolls on veggies

The crispy gluten roll was unbelievable. Layers of gluten and seaweed were rolled and deep fried til crispy. This was put onto a bed of stir fried veggies all topped with a sweet and sour sauce. I loved the gluten roll, but wasn't too keen on the veggies + sweet and sour sauce combo. The combo just doesn't work for my taste buds, which was great for my friends who lapped up everything else!

Fried gluten and eggplant in black bean sauce

We didn't even know what we had ordered when we ordered this. We saw a photo, it looked good, we pointed to it. Thank goodness we did, because after the soup, this was my second favourite dish! The batons of eggplant was fried until crispy on the outside, but the inside was soft, silky and creamy. The gluten was battered and then deep fried til crispy. I broke one of them up and I swear it looked like chicken! It even had some of the fibre looking texture! Definitely a must order!

Most of the vegetarian food I've had is the fake chicken, fake duck, which is made of layers and layers of bean curd skin, compressed, deep fried then stewed. The problem with those fake meat is that, whilst its delicious, its EXTREMELY oily. To the stage you feel slightly ill after consuming all that oil. My friends were a bit worried the vegetarian food would be like that, but we were all pleasantly surprised at how delicious everything was. And there was no meat in it! I think the saying of the night was "I can't believe its not meat!" hehe We've already trying to organise another outing to have the soup again!

Mother Chu's Vegetarian Restaurant
367 Pitt St
Sydney NSW 2000
(Ph) 02 9283 2828


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Menya Ramen

Never let me order when I'm starving. I was almost tempted to order Menya Godzilla challenge I was so hungry! But the little voice in my head was telling me to stop being a greedy pig and order something else. So I settled for a Menya Value Box instead.

The Menya Value box comes with a small size of the Menya Ramen, Salad, Rice and a choice of a main meal. The main meal is either chicken schnitzel, Karage Chicken, Teriyaki chicken, Teriyaki beef, Today's teriyaki fish or Salmon sashimi (+$2).

Menya Ramen

The soup was flavoursome rich. Luckily it came in a small bowl as it was 30+ degrees and I don't think I could've finished a whole bowl of this soup.

Karage Chicken

Very crispy and moist. Just needs more mayo! hehe

Salad with a baby triangle thingy

Oh, and I was worried that the Menya value box wouldn't have enough food to satisfy my stomach, so I ordered a serve of Takoyaki as well. Its ok, I shared this with my friend.

Takoyaki

I was quite disappointed by theTakoyaki as they were clearly precooked (if no frozen) then deep fried to reheat it. Definitely won't be ordering this again.

The Menya Value box is true to its name. Its good value! For $15, I was so stuffed I couldn't finish the box (let alone Takoyaki as well!). Both me and my friend left the rice pretty much untouched and just ate all the goodies! hehe

Menya Ramen
Shop TG8, 8 Quay Street
Haymarket NSW 2000
(Ph) 02 9212 1020
http://www.menya.com.au



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Saké Restaurant & Bar - The Rocks

After SMH did a piece on Sake, my friend jumped onto the Sake website to check out their menu. And she saw this:

matcha bombe alaska
green-tea ice-cream wrapped in sponge & meringue, baked & served with white-chocolate sauce

That was all I needed to see before we booked a table for that week at Sake.

Originally we had booked a table for 5, but my friend piked at the last minute leaving us with 4. We mentioned that we're now a table of 4 instead of 5, thinking they'll just put us on a smaller table. Instead, they led us to our own little private room/booth! SCORE! The room can easily seat 6-8 people, but we had it all to ourselves. ALL TO OURSELVES! MAuhAUhaUAHAA

The room next to ours

View of the kitchen from our room

I love the lights and wallpaper! I want my room like this!

Sitting down, the first thing we do is scour the cocktail list. Girls night out must include cocktails, right?

Springtime in Tokyo - $18
Kumesan Saké fat-washed with roasted coconut, Appleton Reserve and fresh pineapple juice

We asked the waiter what "fat washed" meant. Basically the Sake is infused with coconut fat to give it a more aromatic taste. Basically, instead of fat free food, we're deliberately adding delicious fat into our cocktails! Excellent!

Astro Boy - $15
Shochu Tantakatan, plum wine, plum puree, pink-grapefruit juice & peach bitters

I wasn't too fond of this one as it reminded me slightly of soap or cough syrup. My friends loved it however.

The Pink Blossom - $15
Plum wine, strawberries, orange wedges, lime, lemon & passion fruit

This was one of my favourites. I'm a sucker for drinks that resemble a caprioska. The more tropical fruit the better in my opinion. Fresh, vibrant AND alcoholic! What more can you ask for?

Bang On! - $16
Shochu, apple & rhubarb syrup, watermelon & vanilla sugar

This was the one I ordered and probably the most popular one. Because honestly, who doesn't like watermelon!? hehe

beef tataki - $15
seared tenderloin with garlic chips, chives, radish & tataki sauce

As you can see, the fatty marbling on the beef really made this dish. The beef literally melts in your mouth making you want more! MORE!

Oh yeah.......fatty beef.....

panko rice balls - $9
soy bean & bamboo, shiitake mushroom balls with wasabi aioli

This would've been perfect if we increased the quantity by about 5 times, then serve it with a jug of ice cold beer. The cripsy panko crumbs contrasted wonderfully with the soft rice and mushrooms. Dunk wasabi aioli and consume.

spider maki - $17
fried soft-shell crab, cucumber & mayo with spicy tobiko, chives & ponzu

You can never go wrong with a spider roll of any sort. This was a particularly good version. Crispy fried soft-shell crabs with cold crunchy cucumber and creamy creamy mayo. This was an absolute hit, especially for those who have never tried it before.

popcorn shrimp - $26
bite-sized prawn tempura pieces tossed with creamy spicy sauce

Just the sound of the name had us salivating. We didn't even need to debate if we should order this dish. I wish we had. That way we would've ordered two serves! hehehe I would put this on the must order list if you visit Sake.

assorted tempura - $28
prawns, fish & seasonal vegetables with tentsyu dipping sauce

Tempura, an excellent way to judge the skills of the chef. And obviously these chefs were very skilled. The tempura was light and crispy, and not at all oily. You can see the paper under the tempura isn't going see through from all the excess oil!

spicy garlic vegetables - $17
sautéed seasonal vegetables with spicy garlic sauce

We were all very surprised at how spicy this dish actually was. Generally with Japanese food, when they say "spicy", its rarely spicier than strong pepper. In this case, it was almost bordering on Korean food spicy. Luckily we had ordered rice to soak up all the sauce and also help cool the spicy heat.

butter-soy salmon - $29
grilled, crispy skinned New Zealand salmon with butter soy & lemon

This was the most disappointing dish of the night. The salmon was cooked nicely, and we loved how they crisped the skin seperately, but that was about the extent of this dish. We couldn't taste any of the butter soy or lemon in any part of the dish. You can see some sort of dress on the salad, but even that is void of any taste. We even tried just the remaining sauce at the bottom of the dish and still couldn't taste anything.

Now comes the best bit. DESSERT! The whole reason for us visiting!

We did a quick scan of the menu, and 3 of us immediately went with.....

Matcha bombe alaska!!!

As delicious as it sounded on the menu, I was slightly disappointed with this dessert. The sponge cake was extremely dry and rough. Even letting the melting ice cream soak into the sponge didn't help it. The ice cream was delicious though, but next time I think I'll order something else.

Green-apple mille-feuille - $13
green-apple mousse with layers of crispy thin pastry & vanilla-bean sauce

This dessert was much more refreshing than our matcha bombe alaska. I would prefer if they had cook the apples just a little less to retain more of the tangy green apple taste.

So pretty!

We decided to end the meal with a Sake bomb!

"Served loudly and proudly at your table. Draught Kirin Lager with a shot of Saké. A Saké dining experience is not complete until you and your friends are bombed! Best consumed after dinner."

Oh yeaaaaaaaaah!! Sake bomb me baby!!

Yuzu bomb

To drink, drop the shot (glass and all) straight into the glass of beer. Quickly down the whole thing in one go! Just becareful when you get to the end that the glass doesn't slide out of the glass spilling precious alcohol all over you!

I'm not sure what it was, but this hit me quick! And let me tell you, I'm no light weight when it comes to drinks either!

Saké Restaurant & Bar
12 Argyle Street
The Rocks Sydney NSW 2000
(Ph) 02 9259 5656
http://www.sakerestaurant.com.au/