Johnny Lobster and I Love Pho, Crows Nest

Johnny Lobster

I love the slogan: Lobster for the People

 I think many will agree Sydney displays an impressive selection of seafood by world standards. The true shame is that many of us locals don't enjoy seafood more often (or maybe we exploit it too much for exports, but this isn't an environmental activist blog).

That is why I love the slogan of this place. Bring good, affordable lobster to the people. Everyone should enjoy the ocean delicacies Sydney's got to offer!

5:40 PM on a Monday night

Lobster Roll - dill, potato, pico de gallo $20

 So needless to say, I order the Lobster roll. I need to confess I've never had a lobster roll before, but I have had numerous dishes, across varying levels of sophistication, that market themselves with the term 'lobster'. Most of these (to my disappointment) contain meager portions or finely chopped crustacean you have to convince yourself its actually lobster.

With the exception of going to a Chinese restaurant and ordering a whole lobster, this roll has the most generous serving of lobster I've had in a while.

Mouthfuls of lobster with every bite, this roll hits the spot on a summer's day! Personally, it would have gone a little easier on the mayo, but the fresh salsa on top did well to balance out the creaminess. It's extremely filling with the potato + brioche combo.

Hand Cut chips- triple cooked $3.50 (S)

Thrice cooked chips! I love twice cooked chips so I had to give these a go! The verdict? hmm I think twice is the sweet spot. You really can have too much of a good thing.

Fried Chicken - Hot sauce, east coast slaw $10.80

 This was a no brainer for Uncle G - fried chicken and hot sauce? Hi there dinner! This plate was real value for $10.80. The delicious crunchy coating and incredibly succulent chicken is just bursting with flavour. Next time, I definitely want to try the Fried Chicken Roll.

Ice cream sandwich - Brioche, sailor Jerry's spiced rum butterscotch $6.50

Two wasn't enough!!! I wasn't completely sold by the description at first glance but after the first bite, I just couldn't stop. The brioche buns were warm and toasty - almost cake-like. Warm cake, w vanilla ice cream and rich butterscotch sauce. Say no more - I'll have two to myself next time please!

I Love Pho

So the whole Johnny Lobster adventure came about because I'm sick and I didn't want to cook (yes, I know, probably not one of my top cold remedies). But on my way to a hearty bowl of pho, I saw Johnny Lobster instead. Having promised ourselves pho though, Uncle G and I decide we will still have pho the next day, just to satisfy our cravings.

Rare beef pho $13.50

Special beef pho $14.90

Nobody likes a negative nancy, so I'll keep this short and sweet. If you have never had pho before, you would probably not "love pho" after coming to this place. The soup needed a little more love and spices and there wasn't fish sauce, chillis etc available to adjust the taste to our liking. We were given a dish of chilli sauce and 'hoisin' sauce but this hoisin wasn't very sweet and quite salty.

I guess this may be a westernised Vietnamese restaurant? The upside is their spring rolls were quite nice :). I forgot to snap a photo of them but they were delicious! Positives: after the Entertainment book discount, this was a considerably cheap dinner for this area.

Note: I love Pho is available on Entertainment Card