I’ve been to Momofuku Seibo at least twice (and loved it) but haven’t been to try it since the new chef, Paul Carmichael, Barbados-born, arrived. This was a thrilling, fun, tasty and memorable meal. I’ve never had fine dining combined with Caribbean flavours, especially not in Sydney, and combined with the always fun experience of sitting at the counter, I found this a wonderful birthday meal.
As a non-consequential anecdote, I happened to surf the New York Times on my iPhone at one point during the evening, and they had a story about Australia and wage earners (like in restaurants) and there was a photo… exactly like the one above. Taken from the same angle of the chefs at work. Shazam. Weird.
In any case, you want to hear about the food, don’t you. There was a bit of crustacean and shells, but no fish, interestingly. Finely slivered abalone with lardo on a tiny fried biscuit was an interesting start.
We were introduced in advance to our main course. My husband said, ‘I’m not sure I needed to see that.’
These plates are divine. We couldn’t actually understand the chef who served these up, but it’s an escabeche out of military snails, with a tiny shell of plantain. So, see, there are Caribbean flavours and ingredients, but look how delicate the dishes are.
Short rib, cooked forever, just the thinnest slice with onion and herbs. I noticed a pronounced lime and citrus flavour in many of the dishes. 
I have to say that I loved how simple this dish was. Zucchini, pumpkin and a Caribbean hot sauce. Looks like you could make it at home… but you probably can’t. 
This was a standout for me. Curried crab with ‘rice’ (I think a number of kinds of different grains). Many different textures here… and a yummy curry sauce. 
We are approaching the culmination. Koji butter and uh, some sort of berry, and this awesome ‘busted roti’. I’ve had rotis before (and always like them) but this was crisper and swimming in way more butter than I’ve ever experienced. But of these sides were perfect for…
Incredible, perfect marron, a generous amount of meat, again swimming in butter, and god, this was a memorable dish (one of the other Zomato reviewers talked about a lack of standout dishes, but I can still taste this one a week later). 
I kind of love this too. It was really only a mouthful (magnified by iPhone). Apparently, a classic Caribbean breakfast dish of avocado, salt cod (the crispy bits) and cassava. I wonder what the original looks like. This had simple flavours but came together in a really interesting way. 
The pork, served with some sides, was perfectly done. That was the end of the savouries…
Yoghurt in a banana leaf oil. Nice. 
This burnt coconut ice cream (with cashews and pastry wings) had a spectacular flavour. I’ve had many flavours of coconut before, but this struck me as unusual.
Two bitefuls of dessert, a tamarind jelly, and a tiny rum cake with marzipan and raisin (the cylindrical things). Nice mouthfuls. 
This was the only thing we didn’t like. A ‘black b’. A tiny hard molasses ball. Didn’t know what to make of this one. They offer a few different options for matching drinks, which I think is a nice touch. A non-alcoholic version. A bigger match (I think it was 8 glasses? Guess who had that?). And a smaller match (4 glasses, had by husband). They were OK. Some interesting selections. An orange wine. A sake. A cider. Nothing mind-blowing. 
And then, I honestly can’t remember telling them it was my birthday. So, I was really surprised and pleased when this beautiful dish came out with a baked Italian meringue…
And complete yumminess spilling out… A very charming sommelier who took care of us, and good service all around. This is a special occasion place; it’s expensive, and while we weren’t overstuffed, it is a lot of courses, which adds up. Not something you need to do (or should do) regularly… but boy did I love this meal. I wonder if anywhere else in the world is doing something similar. It makes me feel lucky to have tried it.
For a Saturday lunch, he had pretty much a perfect lunch set. A fresh and tasty salad, a bown of miso soup, and then instead of rice (which would come with the other dishes), sushi comes from agedashi tofu, one of my favourites.
Bitterly cold wind and we couldn’t get a table inside at Raw Bar so stopped in here at Harry’s Bondi. Modern and hip feel, decor and an interesting menu. One of our party tried the beetroot latte, and couldn’t say she’d go back for a second helping. I decided I’d tried a poke bowl, the first time in Australia after trying one in NYC a few weeks ago. The waitress charmingly mispronounced it as ‘poke’ (its poh-kay, but I didn’t want to seem like a wanker to correct her).
As in NYC, I found a poke bowl a pretty perfect concept. Dressed raw fish, with just enough other things (crispy curly lettuce, some Japanese seaweed salad, a few soba noodles) to make it substantial. $25.
My pal is vegetarian so Thai food is often a good option in one way, because there is usually the option of having a dish with tofu and vegetables rather than meat. On the other hand, I’ve always found interchangeable dishes a bit suspicious when you can choose between beef, pork, chicken and tofu. I like, for example, a Vietnamese Chicken Curry or a Massaman Beef because I imagine that the originators specifically matched those spices and style of cooking to that protein, rather than it being any protein.
Still, one definite plus of Uber Thai is that they served up Vegetarian Money Bags, which David tells me is not so usual. Matched with the Thai Spring Rolls, this was good. They were perfectly crisp.
My Pad Thai was fine, a bit too big a portion for me, but I suppose that’s not something I should complain about. We washed our meals down with a Thai Iced Milk Tea for me and jasmine tea for David. $46 all up, $50 with a tip, for the two of us. I thought the food was standard, meaning good, but not special. It’s a quick and reasonable lunch if you’re in the area, though it looks like their dinner menu is a bit more interesting.
Hey. What a nice surprise. A new stylish, sunny corner cafe in Redfern. We were served up an early lunch by a handsome, extremely large bearded waiter, and the food was very good indeed.
I always fall back on a Croque Monsieur and am surprised how often it’s a miss. It really needs a generous portion of béchamel, with the whole thing covered in cheese of course. This was very good.
My friend liked her corn fritters very much and remarked on both the hit of cumin and the tasty sauce. I had a bite. It was, indeed, tasty. And the coffee was good too. What could go wrong when all these pieces are in place?
It seems that the curse of this location has finally been broken. There was Josh and Ai’s little cafe ages ago, a bruschetta place, and another Italian place. No one could ever seem to make it work. But along comes Al Taglio and there’s a nice buzz to it, and I always see it busy. It was time to try it out (Though this was about six weeks ago! My trip to NY interrupted this blog post).
The verdict (shared by my pals D & G): marvelous. Casual feel, casual prices and a perfectly delicious house red wine. The pizza was perfectly delicious and the gnocchi. Oh my god. It’s not a pretty dish, but I could have eaten about three plates of it. Extra points for the waiter’s awesome Italian accent.
Taking over the interesting space (a converted terrace house, I suppose) most recently occupied by Pork’d and before that by the famous Red Lantern is new kid on the block Masala Theory.
I love this idea. There are some places serving new Indian food. I hear Indu is amazing. I’m totally bummed that the wonderful Sub-Continental closed its doors, after its lease ran out. But I think it’s a great idea to both take some old classics and spin them up in a different way, or to introduce dishes that are less familiar.
Meanwhile, I love the space. It’s colourful and fun. It feels upmarket without being stuffy. We went on a Tuesday night, and it was good to see some steady traffic. It’s a tough market for restaurants in Surry Hills (note Zambo recently closing and Besser next door doing a rebrand).
The appetizer was three different bites – a slider with lamb mince, a crispy prawn with corn, and a tasty piece of chicken.
The desserts were a highlight. I loved this chai pannacotta (glowing rather nicely under the pink fluorescent lights of the bicycle wheels). I’ve got to try making something like myself at home!
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