Street Market Asian Tapas, Crows Nest

A recent newcomer into the Crows Nest Area, Street Market Asian Tapas offers a variety of 'tapas' (or share plates) with an Asian spin. Given their good reviews, as well as a personal recommendation, I decided to check out this place and take up on their offer of their $10 (capped) hot and cold tapas (available on Monday and Tuesday nights).

Outside of Restaurant

Inside of Restaurant

Bar

Oh the choices - there are actually quite of lot of hot and cold tapas so, being a true Asian, I picked two recommended dishes with a price tag above $10 in order to get my money's worth.

Kürtősh, Crows Nest

Following our escapade to Mosman, Ivanhoe, Lenni and I decided to return back to Crows Nest for dessert given the lack of options for dessert along Military Road, Mosman at night (choices were down to Salt Cheese & Meats or Rosso Cavallino, which offered small cakes or gelato respectively). Given the extremely cold nature of the night, we decided to visit Kürtősh, which sells a wide selection of cakes and pastries, and adequate seating away from the external elements.

Kürtősh Cafe

When you first enter Kürtősh, you'll notice the large marble bench tops and the copious amounts of dough waiting to be rolled into the Hungarian pastries known as kürtőskalács, a.k.a. kurtosh (also the name of the cafe) - the pastry is rolled into a long strip, wrapped around a wide spit and glazed before being roasted/baked:

Staff rolling out Kurtosh Pastry

Sample Kurtosh on Display

Public Dining Room, Mosman

In an effort to make the most of the 2015/16 Entertainment Book, I was invited to join a last-minute small group dinner at the Public Dining Room by Balmoral Beach (note: not to be confused with the similar-sounding suburb of Balmain, as Ivanhoe originally advised... lols...). Luckily, we were able to make a booking several hours prior to dinner.

The outing started off with a coordinated pick-up after work by Ben and Ivanhoe, and after picking up Lenni en route, we gradually made our way through the long and windy roads of Neutral Bay and Mosman. By the time we arrived at Balmoral Beach, it was pitch dark (and cold) outside.

Restaurant From Outside Main Entrance

As our booking was at 6pm (opening time?), the restaurant was empty and staff were doing some last minute touches to the tables in preparation for an event. We were led to our table in an enclosed section of the balcony, overlooking the beach. Unfortunately, as it was night time, there wasn't much of a view outside:

Manpuku, Chatswood

I've been meaning to visit Manpuku ever since it came across my radar after a recommendation for their Karaage Chicken by @Al on Zomato. It took weeks of logistics planning to determine how to get there since the restaurant is ~15min walk from Chatswood station. I once tried walking towards it from the station at night but Victoria Street appeared dark beyond Chatswood Chase and I chickened out... but then I found out that the 267/343 buses operated through Crows Nest and basically stopped just past Manpuku. Score!

Manpuku can be distinguished by its white cartoon-like window stickers:

Entrance of Restaurant

Inside of Restaurant

Left of Field, Rhodes

Left of Field first came to my attention when I encountered an online article about the cafe and awesome pictures of their food. Hence I decided to make a trip to Rhodes to check it out.

Entrance of Cafe

Left of Field is within 10min walk from Rhodes station and is situated right next to where the Homebush Bay Bridge is being constructed (expected to open by the end of May 2016). Hence if you currently sit outside, you will face (and eat) the dust/dirt/debris from all the construction work right outside the cafe. On top of all this, there was major haze affecting the local region today from back-burning across Sydney - not the best environment for asthmatics and allergy sufferers out there.

@ Restaurant, Crows Nest

The @ Restaurant is rather non-descript from the outside - you could easily pass by without noticing it:

Outside of Restaurant

Table Water

However, once inside, you enter a traditional Japanese restaurant with wooden decor and floorboards. When I first arrived for lunch, the waitress wasn't even sure if they could fit one diner, even though the restaurant wasn't even half full at the time... Anyway, having confirmed that it was possible, I was then asked to sit in a spare seat.

By sitting at the bar table, you get to see the sashimi chef at work in front of the vast display of fresh seafood: