We were lucky enough to try Zambo for Valentine’s Day dinner. It was a fun night out, seeing the wide variety of couples that Surry Hills encompasses. I’ve been wanting to try Zambo for a while. What a change from the purposeful cave that Marque created; Zambo is much more open and light. It’s right next door to Besser… so two Italian restaurants as neighbours could be a good thing or a bad thing (in fact, one couple came into the restaurant thinking they were at Besser).
Zambo is aiming at the fine dining market… and offers both a four and seven-course degustation (they added an extra course for this special dinner) as well as the a la carte menu. The food is witty, with a nod to more casual and humble eating, but is definitely on the fancy end of the spectrum.
I loved their Signature Austral-iano snacks. Oysters and verjus granita and a lamington, or what kind of looked like a laminton but was actually home made ham, balsamic vinegar and fennel seeds and instead of a batter or bread, it was pork!
The ‘Pie that wanted to be a Pizza’ was a perfectly crisp pie shell oozing with the flavours of a margarita pizza. And some nice homemade bread there too…
The zucchini flower with this pretty solidified goat’s milk cover, spelt crunch and almond polenta was a great combo of texture and flavour. One of my favourite dishes of the night.
I did wish we’d gone for the eight-course menu so we could have had the ‘Love explosion’, agnoletti filled with liquid basil cream. Doesn’t that sound good? Instead our sole pasta was lunghetti pasta with hand-picked Spanner crab, chives and crispy bread. Tasty indeed. Reminded me of the pasta that I’d had over at Acme in Kings Cross.
Spanish mackerel was the fish of the day, served with a capers emulsion and roasted corn. I loved the thin slice of corn on the cob, how it was roasted. Very elegant. I’m going to try that. I like mackerel. It’s rich. My better half thought it had a bit of a strong flavour, appropriately fishy. Maybe not his favourite.
The organic veal rump with wattle seed, spring onions, and red cabbage was perfectly done. The roasted onion was so packed with flavour.
For dessert, poached cherries, white chocolate, mascarpone and cocoa nibs. Again, a very nice interplay of textures.
We did the matching wines and had a great little tour of Italy, through the various matches (all excellent). All in all, I thought it was a very nice meal. I wonder how it will do in Surry Hills’s tough market. People do have money here… but seem to be favouring more casual dining at the moment. I’m not sure if regular evenings feel as formal as this one did; I suspect it might, the ghost of Marque hovering around with an exacting eye (and palate). I’d say you should be able to get a feel of the place from the photos and this review: if you think you might like it, I’d say give it a try!
In the movie ‘Miss Sloane’, they show the title character not cooking for herself and viewing food only as fuel by eating at the same casual Chinese restaurant. ‘How do you always eat here?’ asks another character, implying that it would get boring. But none of this really rang true for me. Aside from the fact that it was a dumb way to establish character (and not really mentioned again), it looked like one of those Chinese restaurants that has a huge menu, not unlike that of Old Town Hong Kong Cuisine, and if you like Cantonese food, you could return to again and again.
In any case, the movie wasn’t that great, but it made us hungry (because it was too long) so it was appropriate we ended up here, at the funky end of Dixon Street, which seems to have 90% hotpot restaurants at the moment.
Yes, as the other reviews here have mentioned, it’s pricy, but it’s cheaper than a trip to Hong Kong. Once a large table of noisy university students had left, it was tranquil enough upstairs. Our $40 bottle of Riesling was very nice, and honestly, the food was delicious. Soy chicken and roast duck, a combo plate. Perfectly done shiny mushrooms and vegetables. And while I should have opted for plain rice, I decided we DESERVED fried rice that night. All up, $100 for the both of us (including the bottle of wine). A tasty meal, with free prawn crackers and watermelon to end.
It was a fun little adventure to head up from Surry Hills to Crows Nest on a Tuesday evening for dinner at S’Age Bistronomy. Billed as Japanese with French influences, it’s located on a corner on Pacific Highway, formerly Waqu, and the waitress told us perhaps long ago a bank.
I think they’re doing a very interesting thing here, offering diners a special meal experience if they desire with a degustation, but also offering more casual fare (and interesting cocktails). It’s a mid-range restaurant, quite inexpensive I think for what you get (and cheaper glasses of wine than most places I’ve eated at lately in Surry Hills).
The squid ink lavosh and smoked cod cream seemed deceptively simple, yet the texture of the lavosh and the intense, beautiful flavour of the cream made this a standout. Also, presentation was very nice.
My better half commented on how the bonito sashimi (with smoked soy and raspberry and a delicious black garlic cream) tasted of the sea; I thought the sashimi tasted very high quality. A great dish. Photo at the top of the post.
But this dish: what a dish. And a humble side dish too, for only ten bucks. Thrice cooked potato with burnt butter. It was the essence of deep-fried on the outside (but not greasy) and then soft and creamy in the middle. The hint of the guilty pleasure of junk food (or really good fish and chips for example) but so perfectly done, it had to come from a fine dining restaurant. The burnt butter sprinkled on top just made it even better.
And a salty sake, an interesting concoction with lime, cointreau. salt and sake and yuzu – but I couldn’t taste any of the sweet notes at all. It really was salty and sour. Cocktails are only $16. A bargain! I also had a very nice glass of organic Italian pinot grigio. Yum.
It was just one of those nights where we couldn’t fit in another dish, nor dessert. But left happily sated after our culinary adventure in Crows Nest.
I suggested Lion and my friend said he can’t stand anything with Nicole Kidman in it. I suggested Hidden Figures and he said that he’d read a review with the lead actor that said they’d really sanitised the book it was based on. He suggested Silence but reviews have been mixed and the idea of missionaries colonising Asian people makes me kind of queasy.
And you know, the thing is: it wasn’t terrible. I’d read the controversy about whether Matt Damon was cast as a White Saviour for Asians. And he’s not, although he is the focus of the film, the individual that gets the most attention. As a friend pointed out, the Chinese might have been quite pleased that they could afford to hire Matt Damon for their film, and use him for their purposes (though I discover it’s a co-production, and the writers and producers all have Western names; only the famous director, Zhang Yimou (and a cast of thousands) are Chinese). In any case, I could find ways, perhaps of being offended in a minor way (it would have been nice to have Chinese heroes with the Whities really as secondary), but I can’t get worked up.
Why go to a Korean BBQ restaurant and not have the BBQ? Any number of reasons, really. Korean Fried Chicken. BiBimBap. Well, that was our decision on a quiet weeknight.
This is a pretty charming and casual place in a little complex with other Asian restaurants, probably at least two other Korean ones and at least one Vietnamese.
The staff are friendly and welcoming.
I’ve had Korean Fried Chicken before which is… well, orgasmic. If found this mixed. Some pieces were really tasty; others not as much. It was still pretty good. We had the standard one (no spices or flavours).
The BiBimBap was tasty, neither terrible nor special. I thought the selection of pickles was pretty good. We had cans of Korean beer to wash it all down.
Shinmachi advertises itself as Japanese Tapas. I think it was called Wagaya and changed to the present incarnation around April 2016. David and I popped by here on a Saturday night after seeing the bizarrely not terrible movie, The Great Wall. It was packed when we arrived, but cleared out a bit. It’s a fun, fast place.
We loved the iPad ordering system, with iPads attached to the walls near each table. David is vegetarian and there was more than enough to please us, though we couldn’t resist ordering both the Nasi Denkaku (eggplant) and deep-fried tempura eggplant.
I also had the fun sake tasting, four cups for $12 from different regions, as indicated on the map. I wish the sake was cold though, rather than room temperature.
We also had deep-fried lotus root (delicious), a vegie sushi roll, and for dessert, black sesame ice cream with a matcha pannacotta (and some sweet red beans underneath). Very tasty.
The food was very tasty, and came out quick, and possibly wasn’t fabulous, but that’s not what we were expecting. It’s tasty enough, not expensive, and the experience is rather fun. All up for the two of us was only $65 (and only me drinking). The bill could be larger if you indulge in the various amusing drinks they have here (pear sake!) but if you’re after cheap, this is inexpensive. I’d be happy to drop by for a quick and easy meal here anytime at all.
Crown St Grocer is a bit of an institution, selling high-quality and slightly expensive Italian food and deli products. They have a great range of cheese.
And the coffee is just fine. What better outlook on a morning in Surry Hills than to watch the world go by at Crown and Albion?
C’mon. This place is the bomb.
The Argentinean host called out to the rest of the wait staff in Japanese as we entered the restaurant, whereupon they all greeted us in that Welcome-To-A-Japanese-Restaurant way. It’s lovely and raucous.
When I’ve been here before (and now there are a few branches in Sydney), I’ve been unable to resist ordering extra food: the pork belly buns perhaps, or any of the other yummy looking smaller dishes. But one bowl of ramen is usually enough for me, lunch or dinner.
In January 2016, my better half and I dropped by for a meal. I ordered a summer special with a clear, light and tasty chicken broth, rather than the usual ridiculously rich and thick tonkatsu broth. It was perfect. My better half, who ordered the traditional ramen, was pleased with his.
