Situated close to Darling Habour and right next door to PWC, Sepia offers a series of Japanese-inspired dishes across a five or nine course lunch/dinner:
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| Outside of Restaurant | Bathroom | Hand Towels |
Tuesday, 29 March 2016
Sepia, Sydney CBD
Upon hearing that it would be closing within the next two years, I wanted to check Sepia out before it officially closed its doors and therefore asked SissyG to accompany me on our first (and most likely only) hatted experience.
Situated close to Darling Habour and right next door to PWC, Sepia offers a series of Japanese-inspired dishes across a five or nine course lunch/dinner:
Situated close to Darling Habour and right next door to PWC, Sepia offers a series of Japanese-inspired dishes across a five or nine course lunch/dinner:
Black Star Pastry, Sydney CBD
Being a major fan of Black Star Pastry cakes, it was on my 'to-do' list to take SissyG to Newtown and visit the bakery... that was until I checked out there website and discovered that they recently opened a new branch in Kinokuniya, CBD. Since we were going into the city to watch Kung Fu Panda 3 and visit Sepia, I insisted on a afternoon dessert stop here:
Just like the branch in Newtown, this cafe offers coffee and a range of mouth-watering cakes:
In addition to the usual cake menu, there is a new cake on the block that is (supposedly) only offered at this particular branch (a lie.. also saw it at the Newtown branch) - the Raspberry Lychee Chocolate Cake ($10):
Another multi-layer cake, this cake is constructed with the following layers (from top to bottom):
Also, a sneaky peek at their signature Strawberry and Watermelon Cake:
One of the Asian girls sharing the table with us actually ended up eating two of these...#respect
There is limited seating within the cafe area so you'll need to wait if there are no available tables or takeaway and consume at the nearby TGV underground food court.
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| Entrance of Cafe |
Just like the branch in Newtown, this cafe offers coffee and a range of mouth-watering cakes:
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| Individual Cakes on Display | More Cakes and Tarts (look at that popcorn cake!) |
In addition to the usual cake menu, there is a new cake on the block that is (supposedly) only offered at this particular branch (a lie.. also saw it at the Newtown branch) - the Raspberry Lychee Chocolate Cake ($10):
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| Top View |
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| Side View |
Another multi-layer cake, this cake is constructed with the following layers (from top to bottom):
- Raspberries and lychees (coated in gelatin), topped with an edible flower
- Cream
- Sponge cake
- Raspberry marshmallow
- Vanilla cream
- Chocolate biscuit/cake
Also, a sneaky peek at their signature Strawberry and Watermelon Cake:
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| Strawberry and Watermelon Cake ($7.50) |
One of the Asian girls sharing the table with us actually ended up eating two of these...#respect
There is limited seating within the cafe area so you'll need to wait if there are no available tables or takeaway and consume at the nearby TGV underground food court.
Friday, 18 March 2016
Makanai, Chatswood
Inside the newly renovated Hawker Lane in Chatswood Westfield, Makanai draws the eye with the abundance of autumn leaves that decorate the exterior of the restaurant. The menu is rather extensive (several pages long) so it took some time to look through the options before ordering at the cashier.
There are only a few booth seats inside the actual restaurant but there are heaps of communal tables located just outside. There was a free booth after I made my order so I was able to sit under the faux light decor:
Within 15min, my ramen was ready - I ordered the Makanai Ramen, which contained a slice of Cha Shu pork, chicken karaage, a whole ajitama egg and various vegetables:
Interestingly, the ramen was served with a nori (seaweed) sheet with the restaurant name printed on it:
This was a turn-off for my friend, and she subsequently didn't eat the seaweed (yay to me!).
I'm not sure whether the air-con was too strong, I was just sitting under the air vent, and/or perhaps the ramen soup wasn't hot enough, but within minutes, the soup started to congeal across the surface and was luke-warm by the time my friend finally received her ramen. I thought the ramen itself was rather average - the chicken karaage was crunchy but soggy where it dipped into the soup; Cha Shu pork wasn't of a fatty, melt-in-your-mouth texture; soup was flavoursome but contained MSG so I were thirsty (and cold) by the end of the meal.
Makanai is ok if you're looking for a quick ramen fix but considering the price and quality, I'd recommend taking a hike to Ryo's in Crows Nest for a better meal.
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| Outside of Restaurant |
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| Viewing Window to Kitchen |
There are only a few booth seats inside the actual restaurant but there are heaps of communal tables located just outside. There was a free booth after I made my order so I was able to sit under the faux light decor:
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| Ceiling of Restaurant | Udon Donut!??? |
Within 15min, my ramen was ready - I ordered the Makanai Ramen, which contained a slice of Cha Shu pork, chicken karaage, a whole ajitama egg and various vegetables:
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| Makanai Ramen ($16.90) |
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| Seaweed with Restaurant Name |
I'm not sure whether the air-con was too strong, I was just sitting under the air vent, and/or perhaps the ramen soup wasn't hot enough, but within minutes, the soup started to congeal across the surface and was luke-warm by the time my friend finally received her ramen. I thought the ramen itself was rather average - the chicken karaage was crunchy but soggy where it dipped into the soup; Cha Shu pork wasn't of a fatty, melt-in-your-mouth texture; soup was flavoursome but contained MSG so I were thirsty (and cold) by the end of the meal.
Makanai is ok if you're looking for a quick ramen fix but considering the price and quality, I'd recommend taking a hike to Ryo's in Crows Nest for a better meal.
Thursday, 10 March 2016
Incredible Chicken, Eastwood
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| Entrance of Restaurant |
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| Menu Board Outside Restaurant |
As per other Korean restaurants, sides are served with your meal:
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| Sides (from left, clockwise): Sweet Potato, Peanuts in Sweet Soy Sauce, Sliced Dried Bean curd, Bean Sprouts, Kimchi |
However, the kimchi had a distinct 'off' smell/taste, so it was promptly set to the side. This is probably the first (and only) time I have ever been served with kimchi that had gone bad (perhaps due to the relatively warm weather that we have been having in Sydney lately) - but surely the staff, or other customers, would have noticed?!
The other sides were fine but my only comment is that the peanuts (a take on the sweet and savoury Korean soy beans?) should ideally be cooked for longer in the sweet soy sauce so that the peanuts were entirely soft.
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| Black Sesame Chicken (H: $17) |
Despite the name, there was minimal black sesame (a pinch max.) stuck to the deep-fried boneless chicken.. at least sprinkle some on top! The external batter was rather peppery (reminiscent of actual KFC wicked wings) but the chicken was surprisingly still moist and tender. I think I prefer my chicken to be smothered in some sauce to give it some point of difference from actual KFC.
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| Bibimbap ($13) |
The bibimbap stone pot was super hot when it was served at the table so the rice had already started crisping up, even as we were mixing the rice. In the end, the resulting rice was part-soft-part-crunchy without the typical crispy rice at the bottom.
Verdict - just stick to the chicken. All of the other (Korean) customers were eating it.
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Marukame Udon, Chatswood
Catman from work visited Hawaii last year and raved about an udon
restaurant over there so I was surprised when the exact same restaurant
had decided to open up a (franchise?) branch in our humble city months
later. Located between the two major shopping centres along Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, lies Marukame Udon - a popular Japanese udon restaurant that faces intense competition from the nearby eateries:
The pretense here is similar to the Mappen Japanese Noodle Bar in the CBD - udon/rice with self-serve tempura toppings - but the point of difference is that Marukame makes their own udon onsite in their open kitchen:
I found it a little weird that they cooked their udon and then drained it in massive plastic trays (staff literally lifted the tray out of water, which ultimately went onto the ground during transfer...).
When you enter the restaurant, you place your order for an udon or rice dish from the menu, collect a tray and slowly shift down the aisle in a cafeteria-like fashion to pick from a selection of deep-fried tempura items, poached/soft-boiled eggs, sushi, iced green tea, etc.:
Once you reach the end, staff at the cashier will tally up the items on your tray and you pay for what you've selected. Just past the cashier, there is a section where you can get water, cutlery and additional toppings (shallots, tempura scraps leftover from their cooking, and sesame seeds) and various sauces.
In an attempt to stick to dinner meals under $10, I ended up with the below:
The kamaage-style udon is served in a small wooden container along with a salty soy-based dipping sauce. To me, the udon is actually reminiscent of the Japanese kamaage udon that I get from the frozen section of my local Asian grocery (I seriously can't tell the difference) but slightly thinner and therefore nothing spectacular. The poached (onsen?) egg was good - golden gooey yolk but surprisingly has little egg white. The pork cutlet was moist and juicy but constructed using a combination of diced and processed pork so the variances in meat colour (ranged from pale to dark) was a little disconcerting.
The whole experience felt more like a novelty/fad where you can create your own meal based on your appetite and/or budget. Some of their menu items are rather cheap (e.g. the curry rice bowl) but personally, I'm happy to stick with my frozen udon.
On a cold Autumn night, I decided to visit Marukame Udon again to give their menu another go:
At first, I wanted to order their aburi salmon bowl ($6.90), which I thought would be a decent-sized, warm bowl of freshly seared salmon, but it turned out to be this tinnnnyyyy bowl of pre-seared salmon with rice (soooo not worth the price), placed at the end of the serving aisle. Hence I went with my next (hot)option - their bukkake udon:
In order to provide consistent servings, the chef measured the udon by weight by teasing/playing with the udon from a large basket and into a small bowl. Then the measured udon is transferred it into a net basket that is dunked into hot water/soup, before being placed into the serving bowl. I'm not quite sure whether dunking the serving bowl into a vat of (hot?) water beforehand will do much though...
This time round, the udon wasn't fresh batch and turned out slightly overcooked. The biggest disappointment was the vegetable stack - it was composed of 90+% of sliced onions (along a few pieces of spring onion/shallot and carrot) and therefore tasted like a never-ending stack of deep-fried, greasy onion rings. I only ate half of it.
*sadface*
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| Entrance of Restaurant |
The pretense here is similar to the Mappen Japanese Noodle Bar in the CBD - udon/rice with self-serve tempura toppings - but the point of difference is that Marukame makes their own udon onsite in their open kitchen:
 |  |
| Chefs Cooking the Udon Noodles | Chefs at Work Cooking the Additional Toppings |
I found it a little weird that they cooked their udon and then drained it in massive plastic trays (staff literally lifted the tray out of water, which ultimately went onto the ground during transfer...).
When you enter the restaurant, you place your order for an udon or rice dish from the menu, collect a tray and slowly shift down the aisle in a cafeteria-like fashion to pick from a selection of deep-fried tempura items, poached/soft-boiled eggs, sushi, iced green tea, etc.:
 |  |
| Selection of Toppings | Udon Topping and Tempura Sauce |
Once you reach the end, staff at the cashier will tally up the items on your tray and you pay for what you've selected. Just past the cashier, there is a section where you can get water, cutlery and additional toppings (shallots, tempura scraps leftover from their cooking, and sesame seeds) and various sauces.
In an attempt to stick to dinner meals under $10, I ended up with the below:
 |
| Kamaage Style Udon (M: $4.30) with Dipping Sauce, Poached Egg ($1.50) and Pork Cutlet ($3.80) |
The kamaage-style udon is served in a small wooden container along with a salty soy-based dipping sauce. To me, the udon is actually reminiscent of the Japanese kamaage udon that I get from the frozen section of my local Asian grocery (I seriously can't tell the difference) but slightly thinner and therefore nothing spectacular. The poached (onsen?) egg was good - golden gooey yolk but surprisingly has little egg white. The pork cutlet was moist and juicy but constructed using a combination of diced and processed pork so the variances in meat colour (ranged from pale to dark) was a little disconcerting.
The whole experience felt more like a novelty/fad where you can create your own meal based on your appetite and/or budget. Some of their menu items are rather cheap (e.g. the curry rice bowl) but personally, I'm happy to stick with my frozen udon.
Visit #2:
On a cold Autumn night, I decided to visit Marukame Udon again to give their menu another go:
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| Chef Playing with Udon |
At first, I wanted to order their aburi salmon bowl ($6.90), which I thought would be a decent-sized, warm bowl of freshly seared salmon, but it turned out to be this tinnnnyyyy bowl of pre-seared salmon with rice (soooo not worth the price), placed at the end of the serving aisle. Hence I went with my next (hot)option - their bukkake udon:
 |
| Vegetable Stack ($2); Bukkake Udon with Slow-Cooked Egg ($6.80) |
In order to provide consistent servings, the chef measured the udon by weight by teasing/playing with the udon from a large basket and into a small bowl. Then the measured udon is transferred it into a net basket that is dunked into hot water/soup, before being placed into the serving bowl. I'm not quite sure whether dunking the serving bowl into a vat of (hot?) water beforehand will do much though...
This time round, the udon wasn't fresh batch and turned out slightly overcooked. The biggest disappointment was the vegetable stack - it was composed of 90+% of sliced onions (along a few pieces of spring onion/shallot and carrot) and therefore tasted like a never-ending stack of deep-fried, greasy onion rings. I only ate half of it.
*sadface*
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