BBQ King Restaurant moved from its old location to a newer one in 2016 but with reputation intact. It’s been around since 1983, and it seems to be part of Sydney’s food history. Every few years, a newspaper article will talk about how Sydney top chefs will gather at or head off to BBQ King after their work shifts or on their nights off. Here, you know what you’ll be getting: Cantonese BBQ meats, with duck as a specialty, and a few other standards.
My problem is that, born in Vancouver, BBQ meats were part of my cultural background. I’m used to it. It’s nothing special. Mom and Dad would buy char siu, BBQ pork maybe every other week, and sometimes Chinese sausage as well. Duck would be served at occasional Chinese banquets. Occasionally, we’d get steamed chicken as a treat; I didn’t appreciate as a kid quite how good that ginger and spring onion sauce is. The other thing is that Vancouver has always had the best Cantonese food outside of Hong Kong. So, I’ve always found Cantonese food in Sydney a little disappointing, mainly because it’s about double of price of Vancouver.
But I shouldn’t rain on others’ parades. Here at BBQ King for a pre-karaoke birthday celebration, we had two Peking Duck pancakes each, and some very tasty noodles with duck to follow. They made an exception for us and allowed us to break out the champagne that was brought, and a few people ordered their own individual dishes to suit dietary requirements. Not a typical Cantonese meal, for sure, but tasty enough, at one of Sydney’s institutions.
I think it’s a perfect place to dine before a show at the Sydney Theatre Company, and my pal Lai Heng said she felt like eating fish and chips before we went to see Nakkiah Lui’s Black is the New White (a great new Australian comedy infused but not weighed down my interesting comments on culture, race and Aboriginality).
love.fish is apparently the second restaurant from the owners who are promoting sustainable seafood done well. Starting off with a tasty gin and tonic with a slice of canteloupe (not affected by the listeria outbreak at the time), we each had some fish, sharing a big chips ($9, a generous portion), and a side of brussel sprouts ($12, absolutely delicious).
While I chose the tiger flathead fillets ($23) and Lai Heng chose the eastern school whiting (also $23), both in a beer batter, we actually couldn’t tell that much difference between the fish… but it didn’t matter.
I think it was all about the batter: crisp and light, the fish also tasted delicate and light.
And the fennel and mozzarella gratin was amazing. So moreish. Add to this a simple salad and we had a lovely, easy meal before heading over to see Jens Lekman play at the Oxford Art Factory. Apologies for the quality of the photos. Sometimes the light just isn’t right for my iPhone. 
I like a good concept and Jimmy Blanco is both playful and brash, announcing itself as a hybrid of Latin America and Australia, and a lot of fun. But branding wasn’t enough to save Jimmy on Friday night.
We came for the Pisco Sours. And they were very good, served in a champagne flute. Love me a Pisco Sour. But otherwise, it was a bit of a series of disasters, even though the charming manager did his best to try to save the day. They had messed up our reservation, so we sat right at the front, at a non-table. The manager gave us a complimentary first round of drinks for that, which was kind (and valuable, as the Pisco Sours are $17). The two young waitresses were very inexperienced. Sweet but it looked like it might have been their first days on the job. It was really hard to get their attention for the first half of the meal, when the restaurant was busy, and then they hovered over us during the second half, uncomfortably.
The beef enchiladas were very tasty. The ceviche was served on a bed of rocket. I thought the lime was too harsh, but the Chilean at the table liked it (and she would be a much better judge of ceviche than I). The guacamole was pretty delicious with chunky avocados. But when we asked for more corn chips to finish it, we were told we’d have to order a completely new dish. No extra corn chips!
We wanted to split a main; there were only two on offer. Beef nachos and some ribs. We ordered the ribs… and it took the manager quite a while to come and tell us: there are no ribs. The menu is pretty casual and other than the snacky type things offers burgers and burritos. Two of us had a buttermilk chicken burger which was… fine. A bit plain.
Also had some jalapeño poppers, which I thought were dee-licious. Hard to go wrong with deep-fried things with cheese. At the end, trying to pay, their printer was broken, and they couldn’t bring us the bill either. To be fair, the food was OK and the pisco sours were great, and the manager really did try to salvage the night. But I think in this tough Surry Hills market that it will be, very much like the section of Foveaux Street that they’re located on, an uphill climb.
But I went for pork on rice noodles, which looked like it was going to be not much (from the containers in the counter) but when assembled came out as a beautiful combination of vegies and spring rolls and meat and noodles and a healthy dollop of chili sauce, almost but not too hot for me. I really thought it was delicious and fresh and wonderful.
But not annoying enough to not want to come back here and try more homestyle, fresh, tasty Vietnamese food. It’s only open for lunches, and for you design mavens, Dinosaur Design’s discount store, Extinct, is just up the block and they’ve got some great stock at the moment…
If you check out the slightly tricky graphics of the signage for Shift Eatery you’ll note that the feel is contemporary, with a technological edge. This is not how, in the past, you’d try to sell people on vegetarian (or vegan) food. But it’s evident they’re trying to *shift* people’s ideas and consciousness away from old-fashioned restaurants with names like Green Goddess Harvest Bounty Cafe or We Don’t Kill Animals Lentil Shack to something else. Or perhaps they’re just fitting in with the Surry Hills hipster vibe.
My pal loved his Big Bowl, which has brown rice with quinoa, sweet potato, smokey beans, greens, slaw, cherry tomatoes, sauerkraut, turmeric hummus, lime and tahini dressing.
I was too full (and in a bit of a rush) but the desserts counter looked scrumptious. We’ll be back for dessert.
The only strange thing was that the kitchen is huge (and somewhat empty) and all of us patrons were crammed in together at small tables close together. While it would be a bit better in good weather when people could use the outdoors seating, Shift Eatery seems more popular than it has space for patrons!
The entire Gateway complex was heaving. Heaving. On a Monday night. That tells me how great the need was for reasonably priced food in Circular Quay, probably Sydney’s most dense tourist area. And we needed something to eat before the National concert at the Opera House (outdoors, a glorious night: it was a great concert). Chat Thai was packed, and so was the Italian place. In fact, Tokyo Laundry looked to be one of the only places that could seat us!
We also tried a few dishes from the Robata Grill: broccolini ($13.50) and pork belly ($14.50), both rather nice. I think the highlight for me was the Agedashi Tofu, as it was an unusual rendition: a thick savoury sauce, quite yummy, and some nice textures with the mushrooms and spring onions. We started the meal with refreshing apple martinis. The service was nice but seemed a bit confused.