dining out

this is a post on the second restaurant we visited as part of the truffle season at the star, the other being balla. we went straight to pizzaperta after balla to try their truffle pizza which was created specially for this truffle season.

it was a cold night and pizzaperta is an outdoor restaurant, so naturally all spots beside the heaters were taken up. we ended up sitting at the corner without a heater but were happy to brave the cold to try out the truffle pizza. at pizzaperta, you order at the bar and are given a buzzer to pick up your food at the bar once it’s ready. c and i asked for the truffle and fontina cheese pizza, waited with bated breath while the staff checked the availability of the pizza. we cheered when the order was punched into the system and paid $35 for the pizza (most expensive pizza ever!).

after waiting for a few minutes, the buzzer went off and i picked up the pizza. it came with a very generous cheese topping and tasted very buttery. the truffle went very well with the cheese, but as with balla was quite mild tasting. we only wished there was more truffle on the pizza. the crust was one of the best we have ever had on a pizza.

from our limited experience with truffle in sydney, it is definitely milder than what you will get in europe. stay tuned for more european posts coming soon!

hey! it’s truffle season at the star, and participating restaurants have created truffle based dishes to celebrate the season (runs from 7 june to 6 august). c and i went to the star a few weeks ago to try out a few truffle dishes, and balla is 1 of the 2 restaurants we visited.

when we went in, we were greeted by an amazing sight of the kitchen. everything looked really clean and spotless. the restaurant was quite packed, as expected on a friday night.

we were given our menus but the only menu we looked at was the truffle menu. these are the specially created dishes for the truffle season; you can either get the 4 course degustation for 120pp or order the dishes individually. calculating the prices you would get a $5 saving by ordering the degustation compared to the 4 dishes separately!

we placed an order for 2 dishes off the truffle menu. i was really surprised when the waiter looked at me and said “is that all? you can order more later if needed” which seemed to imply that we didn’t order enough. we were asked if we wanted still or sparking water and we opted for the still.

the water and bread hit the table soon after. the bread was very delicous, with the the rosemary version being the best. all types had crispy crust. the dip provided was olive oil which was delicious with the bread. interestingly, when the truffle dishes arrived, the waitress came and took away the olive oil dip even though we still had bread on our plates.

we ordered the seared scallops which was paired with cauliflower puree, crispy jerusalem artichoke and black truffle ($26). i understood where the waiter was coming from in terms of serving size; it was tiny! the scallops were good but not the best i’ve had. the artichokes were crispy and good but i wasn’t a fan of the cauliflower puree. truffle taste was mild. at $26, 3 scallops just isn’t enough and i definitely felt like i haven’t eaten much!

the second dish we got was the tagliatelle ($36). we were missing the great pasta we had in rome (we will post more about this soon!) so wanted to get the truffle pasta. the tagliatelle came with black truffle and reggiano. pasta was perfectly cooked, sauce was really buttery and rich. however, truffle flavours were mild and the serving size could’ve been bigger for the price we paid.

when we got the bill at the end, i was shocked to see that we were charged $9 for water. this is the most expensive water we have paid for, and to top it off, there was a 1% surcharge for paying by card. was it a good experience, and does the food taste good? yes! but be prepared to spend.

hi all! a bit of a break from the europe posts, there will be more, i promise! today’s post is on woolloomooloo bay hotel (round 2, for round 1 click here); we went there nearly a year ago and loved it, and a few weeks ago we decided to go again with our parents. the menu is different this time around…

interestingly we decided to sit outside again, despite the cold; this is due to the noise inside where the crowd is watching various sports displayed on the tv screens. to order, you have to go to the counter and they will give you a buzzer to collect your food. as we ordered all the food except dessert at the same time, we were given our entrees and mains at the same time, which meant that some of the dishes were not as hot as we would have liked, unfortunately.

we got the japanese panko crumbed prawns, with a side of seaweed salad, toasted sesame, black aioli and nori ($21). the prawns were the highlight of the day for me, the dish looked really sophisticated and the prawns were really crunchy and juicy.

we also ordered a bowl of wedges which was served with our cream and sweet chilli sauce ($9.90). the wedges were beautifully crispy and fluffy. c’s only complaint is the lack of sauce, we would love to have much more to dip the wedges in! highly recommended.

we ordered 3x mains between the 4 of us. we had the wild mushroom risotto which was served with spinach, truffle oil and crispy enoki ($22). the risotto was okay, it wasn’t creamy and the enoki was not crispy enough, possibly due to placing it into the risotto. also we note the lack of truffle taste in the risotto.

the second main we had was the 12 hour slow cooked beef cheeks with broccolini, onion rings, mash and red wine jus ($28). we were really lucky to get the last serve of beef cheeks! the beef cheeks were super tender and melt in your mouth; c thinks that the jus could’ve been stronger. the onion ring was really good and mashed potato creamy.

our last main was the 350g dry aged rib eye ($39.50) which we ordered with bearnaise sauce ($2). we ordered medium and unfortunately the steak was done more than we would’ve liked. otherwise, the steak was of really good quality and the bearnaise was delicious. chips and salad were good as well.

we also ordered 3x desserts! all 3 were tarts with vanilla ice cream ($9.90) and we ordered 3 different types of tarts. the one we really wanted, the oreo tart was not in stock that day so we made do with the other 3 types they had.

the first of all is the passionfruit tart. the tart was ok and had a crumbly texture. in terms of taste, it has a good passionfruit taste and was slightly sweet. i rated it as the best tart out of the 3 we had that night. the dish was served with chocolate soil and dessicated coconut garnish which was good with the tart and ice cream.

the lemon tart was too sour for both c and i. it must be eaten with the ice cream and chocolate for it to work, and is okay eaten that way.

lastly, the meringue tart. it was not sweet and had a really airy texture. i’m not a huge fan of it, but some might love the texture and taste!

the place has a really good vibe about it, good food and really cheap beer ($6 pints). we really enjoyed the experience. our greatest wish? bring back the pork ribs! the pork ribs were the best ribs we have had ever had.

my mouth is salivating as i write this post for la creperie bretonne. we had this on our first day in paris after visiting the catacombs of paris (which is a highly recommended tourist attraction!).

la creperie bretonne is a cute, busy shop that is located on a street with fierce crepe competition.

we ordered 3x crepes on the day, 2 of them which are sweet and 1 savoury. the first of the crepes is the chestnut crepe. the chestnut crepe was not overpoweringly sweet. it also has a very traditional chestnut taste and we loved it.

the second sweet crepe was the crepe of the day. make it the dish of the day actually! its a salted caramel crepe which we added salted caramel ice cream on top (additional 1 euro for the ice cream). it was the best crepe we both had ever had. i am sure the locals would have their favourite crepe joints, but as non french tourists this was absolutely tops for us. the crepe was buttery, had a good mix of sweet and salty which amounted to really amazing flavours. surprisingly, it did go well with the salted caramel ice cream which didn’t make it overpowering.

the last crepe was savoury, and had roast chicken, sour cream, basil and fresh mushroom (11.50 euros). at the middle of the crepe, where all the ingredients were mixed together generously, the crepe was delicious, however, ingredients and sauce were sparing at the corners of the crepe. it wasn’t the best savoury crepe we have had.

verdict? get the sweet crepes! and go to la creperie bretonne!

hello all!

sydney is now getting really cold; however i still much prefer winter over summer. this is the second post of our euro trip, and this one is in versailles, france. c and i wanted to visit the chateau versailles and the night before we went over to versailles (we stayed in paris), i looked on the internet to get recommendations on a good place for lunch and found le montbauron on the list.

the quaint pub is located on a small street about 15 minutes walk from the chateau. as we walked into the pub at about noon, we were the only ones there and were quickly shown to a table near the window.

we were first handed a french menu, and once the staff found out that we do not speak french, we were then handed an english menu. interestingly the menu in english does cost more (and this is actually the first time this has happened to us!), but we did end up paying the french prices (perhaps a misprint of the english menu?). we ordered 2x dishes on the day, the 3 brochette and the faux fillet.

we were given bread as starter, which was a nice way to start the meal.

the 3 brochette (13 euros) wasn’t what i was expecting. the meat is skewered with capsicum and served with chips and salad. meat was really good and tender and was marinated in delicious herbs. chips was really crispy and fluffy as well!

the faux fillet (16 euros) is a piece of sirloin. it was yummy, we ordered medium done and got it… medium done! sauce was on point as well.

some quick tips; the chateau is included in the paris museum pass which meant that you could visit this, and other museums in paris for a really good price! also, go early to the chateau, as lines build very quickly especially when the tour groups get in. see a photo of the chateau entrance when we left:

c and i just came back from a few weeks holiday in europe and we have a lot of new food posts to put on wagyupie.com! we want to start this series with our very first meal at the start of this trip, a meal in south korea where we transit to go to london. we flew korean air, and with any transfers that require an overnight stay, korean air provides complimentary accommodation! ours was in a lovely hotel in incheon called holiday inn incheon songdo, which was in my opinion the best place we stayed in our entire trip – c and i preferred to spend money on food and visiting places. we had 2 meals at the restaurant in the hotel, dinner when we first arrived and brekky the next morning.

the dinner buffet was absolutely amazing. we checked the price online after having dinner and found that it goes for $60 pp, which explained the high quality food served! there was a good mix of western and eastern food, from sweet and sour pork to bibimbab to steak. see the photos below for views of the restaurant, and more importantly the spread:

  

i had a lot of sashimi at this buffet. eating mainly salmon, with a few pieces of kingfish, i must have had about fifteen to twenty pieces of fish. i only stopped because i really wanted to try something else, even though the fish was absolutely fresh and delicious.

the pho was a bit of a diy exercise. put whatever you want into a bowl and pass it to the chef, who then puts noodles to the mix and cooks the lot. i added salmon, prawn, steak and other toppings and it was a really delicious bowl of noodles.

the prawn dish was called gambas a allaceo, which i cannot seem to translate via google. the prawn was okay, and it was cooked in tomato sauce. mushroom with pork filling was also okay. grilled salmon on the other hand was a bit dry. deep fried chicken was fried in sweet sauce, which is not the traditional salty version which i prefer, but was good. steak was cooked fresh and wasn’t overdone.

i also took a stab at eating crab. it was a bit messy, and a lot of effort for a bit of meat (not a huge fan of crab cooked this way), but was also okay.

on to desserts! the green tea ice cream was absolutely tops. it wasn’t icy, a bit bitter from the tea and was delightful to eat. both c and i paired our ice cream with cheesecake which was a real treat; cheesy and creamy. yum.

we retired to our hotel room nice and full, only to be greeted with an amazing breakfast ($25pp)! first have a view of the buffet spread:

the hash brown was absolutely delicious and crispy. oh hash brown is definitely one of the best brekky items, if it is not made of potato and is full of carbs! dim sums were perfectly done, i recommend the yellow version which had seafood and mushroom in them.

the noodle soup was okay, however, i won’t eat these again because there are dfinitely better stuff at the buffet. i’m a big fan of toppings so you can see the toppings i have added to my noodle soup.

i attempted to go slightly healthy, so opted for a bit of salad (which may have contained potato). that was okay.

and.. more dim sums and hash browns. what you see here as well are rice balls, which c was a huge fan off. it was rice covered in seaweed, and c being a big fan of seaweed had quite a few of these.

i couldn’t stop myself from ordering an egg fried over easy at the egg counter. delicious!

all in all, breakfast was a lovely meal. if you wondered why i didn’t have bacon, that was due to me pigging out (pun intended) on bacon in the lounge prior to the flight to south korea. c confirmed that it was really crispy, but i just couldn’t face bacon that day.

ps: this post breaks the record for most photos on one post!

hi there! we went to a french restaurant called le trader in pyrmont for a friday dinner! this is one of the fancier restaurants we have been to with prices to match!

we got bread and olive oil and balsamic vinegar dips. the bread was fresh and tasted great with the dip.

for entrees c ordered the souffle trois fromage, which is a 3-cheese souffle. c loved it – rich, creamy and fluffy. i had a bit and thought it was great as well!

i got the slow cooked salmon, of which the name i cannot remember as it was on a physical menu and not on the menu they display online. on the other hand, the scallop carpaccio which was on the online menu and which i planned to order was not on the menu last night. although the salmon was meant to be slow cooked, the texture and taste was sashimi-like which was confusing (and potentially bad for those who do not like sashimi), however as a sashimi lover i loved it and thought it was really fresh and delicious!

 

now onto the mains, c and i both got the same thing because it stood out on the menu, the filet de beouf et pannais which is steak. the steak was delicious and perfectly cooked, we ordered medium and got medium (it is surprising how often this doesn’t happen!). parsnip crisps were light and crispy and really added to the texture. red wine sauce added a good flavour, but i would’ve happily eaten it with salt as the only seasoning. they also have blue cheese sauce but we weren’t game enough to try that.

for dinner we ordered the same dish as well! the assiette of apple was a great way to finish the dinner. there were theatrics as well, the crepe was literally set on fire (not captured on camera) for a few seconds fuelled by alcohol soaked into the crepe. however in my opinion, the alcohol taste on the crepe was too strong. the apple sorbet tasted good but the star was definitely the crème brulee. it had a really crispy caramel top with and tasted amazing. as a whole this was a really good dessert, and i enjoyed it very much.

the restaurant was really cosy and got really packed on the friday, so book ahead if you want to go!

hi there! a while ago we went to an austrian restaurant located in mona vale! it was raining very heavily that day, so i was glad i wasn’t driving as we took the bus from wynyard to mona vale! on the down side it took us nearly two hours door to door to get there, so we were pretty tired by the time we got home.

this was my first time having austrian food and i found the food to be pretty decent. our entrée was the grammel knodel, which consists of potato dumplings containing pork crackling, sauerkraut and salad. i found this dish to be just okay, as i am not a fan of sauerkraut and the dumpling was much thicker than traditional asian dumplings. however, the pork crackling was really tasty.

for main i had the bierhaus schlitten, which was roast pork, smoked pork, bratwurst and dumpling. the roast pork was really good with the most delicious and crispy crackling. the smoked pork is essentially bacon which was decent, however, i was not a fan of the dumpling at all; you can see it in the far right of the dish and tasted like compressed bread.

c had the sommerlicher schweinebauch, which was roast pork belly, sweet potato puree and vegetables. the roast pork belly was pretty good. the meal was a reasonable size and was difficult to finish at the end. i tried both the roast pork belly and the roast pork in my main and preferred the roast pork as it was less rich.

we were really full and couldn’t manage to finish our mains, however, we went for dessert! we got the weisser schoko kasekuchen, which was white chocolate and berry cheesecake with raspberry sorbet. the raspberry sorbet was really tart, but paired with the cheesecake and it was a beautiful match. we finished our dessert!

i also tried the koestritzer dunkel, a dark austrian lager and found it to be full flavoured and pretty good – love european beers (actually love beers in general).

 

a few weeks ago we went to a wongs noodle bar which is located within ashfield club which is apparently newly opened. it was during one of the chinese new year days and as expected the place was very busy and packed! we managed to find a table in the corner and grabbed paper menus to begin selecting our dishes. at wongs noodle bar, you have to select the dishes you want and order and pay at the counter.

food came out one at a time which was good for us, it meant little wait for the first dish and dishes are spaced out throughout the night. we ordered too much for the four of us so ended up taking away the last two dishes!

the first dish was the marinated seaweed with spiced vinegar dressing which was served cold. i was not a fan of the dish, as i found the seaweed a bit tough and the dressing to be a bit bland. i do like marinated seaweed with sesame oil which you can find at fish and chip shops, and this was not up to that mark.

the spring rolls came next. it contained some cabbage and vermicelli which tasted good. the spring roll was fried really crispy but unfortunately was a bit cold in the middle.

the third dish was the xiao long bao, which is a must order when you go to any shanghainese restaurant! i found the xiao long bao to be really good, and on par with other shanghainese restaurants in ashfield.

next up is the dish of the day for me: pan fried pork buns. it was crispy, the filling was delicious and the soup… utterly delicious!

this was followed by our fifth dish, which was shredded peking duck rolled in pancake. the pancake was decently fried, however more duck filling would’ve been great!

our sixth dish (still going!) was beef brisket soup noodle. it used singapore noodle, had a nice tasting broth and tender beef. definitely one of the best dishes of the night!

seventh: pork and chinese cabbage dumpling. i was not a huge fan of this dish due to thicker than usual pastry, but taste-wise it was a standard dumpling.

at this point we got too full and took away our final two dishes, one of which was spicy beef with garlic noodle. the noodle was not spicy and didn’t have a strong garlic taste, in fact was similar tasting to the beef brisket. i would definitely have preferred it to be much spicier!

lastly, number nine was rice cake with pork and xo sauce. i do not like rice cake so didn’t have any of the dish, however c liked rice cake is good bu foundt xo sauce taste is lacking.

the nine dishes costed us about 100 and was way too much for the four of us! it was great value and some of the dishes were really good value for money. we would definitely be back!

sushi and grill at york street is one of our favourite restaurants! it has always delivered delicious food and great experience every time we visited – we have been there many times!

we went there on a friday evening this time and the restaurant was a little busy, however the atmosphere was good. we ordered a cold beer and coke for drinks.

our first dish was edamame. i didn’t have any edamame as i am not a fan, however, c reckons that it is pretty standard. the miso soup was pretty good, hot and salty.

the next dish was a trio of grilled salmon roll, inari and sashimi. the grilled salmon was one of the best dishes of the night – fatty salmon grilled with tonkatsu sauce and mayonnaise! inari was standard, c loved the addition of seaweed. the two pieces of salmon sashimi was really good, but i definitely wished there was more…

next up was the salmon carpaccio! c doesn’t eat raw fish at all so this was all for me, and i was so happy. the salmon was really fresh and done really well, this was also one of my favourites for the night.

you can’t really go wrong with chicken karaage and the one at sushi and grill was crispy and hot.

with all the entrees out of the way, our mains came out. i ordered the teriyaki salmon, it was really good with delicious fluffy rice.

c ordered the teriyaki garlic pork. the pork smelt utterly delicious and you would know it’s garlic pork because they didn’t skimp on the garlic. i would definitely recommend this!

finally, it was dessert. i had one of the best desserts of my life, the mochi was soft on the outside and deliciously creamy on the inside with two different fillings: vanilla and strawberry. i thought it was a  great way to finish the meal. c however, commented that it was average for her so i may have lower standards for dessert.

just want to reiterate that sushi and grill at york street is awesome! do go check it out =)