Categories
American

Extra Crispy – Merrylands NSW Restaurant Review

There is this rumour going around Western Sydney that the Extra Crispy group of fried chicken restaurants was originally a set of Broaster Chicken franchises that broke off and renamed themselves in order to avoid the licensing fees surrounding the Broaster name whilst continuing to use the broasting equipment. Whilst I cannot independently confirm nor deny this, it does seem like the chicken that they have is extremely similar to that which is provided by the Broaster chain, with the one exception that the level of salt at the Extra Crispy chains in Western Sydney varies considerably store to store – often a bit oversalted.

Whilst I normally avoid taking part in the night time Extra Crispy orders, one particular night I had a Crispy Classic Chicken Burger ($12) featuring a crispy chicken patty, halal beef bacon, lettuce, American cheese, pickles and spicy sauce. It was actually quite good. The size and value for money was on point, the flavour was good and for once in my life it was not extremely salty.

I also shared in a number of 10 Buffalo Hot Wings ($12.50) which I felt could have been just a little bit more buffalo than what we received. The photos on the electronic menu does make the buffalo sauce appear more substantial than what we received and if they were hoping to cater for customers who wanted only a mildly buffalo experience when ordering buffalo wings, they could have at least added more buffalo sauce on the side. Were I to order this again, I would at least try and add a comment asking to smother the wings in sauce.

Extra Crispy Merrylands
1/228 Merrylands Rd, Merrylands NSW 2160

Categories
Chinese Snacks

好丽友咸蛋黄流心派 Orion Salted Egg Yolk Lava Pie – Grocery Snack Review

These were actually good. The outer layer of cake was moist and chocolatey, though not too sweet – almost like a flat, less dense and less rich brownie.

The item is not advertised as dark chocolate, but I think is dark in the sense that most East Asian snacks just aren’t that sweet, which is a good thing.

The creamy ‘salted egg’ filling was hard to appreciate as a flavour, so if I were really keen on this dimension of the snack I’d stay away, but as a generic chocolate brownie-type snack it’s a win for me.

好丽友咸蛋黄流心派 Orion Salted Egg Yolk Lava Pie
6920907833379

Categories
American

John Belvedere – Parramatta NSW Restaurant Review

It’s been three years since I’ve ordered from John Belvedere, but I’ve only now found these photos on my hard drive and realised that I’ve never written anything about them online.

Unlike the majority of my long-forgotten meals, I can remember my specific feelings about John Belvedere’s burgers quite clearly. They are very good. The cheese burger ($10) – a simple affair of a smash patty, American cheese, onion, pickles and bread was absolutely perfect. The beef patty was tasty and juicy, the cheese American, and the pickles tangy. The bread was soft and compressible, not at all overpowering or bland, making this burger the perfect snack to consume either by itself or with another one (they were running a 2 for 1 special back in 2021).

The beef rib burger ($13) was honestly less good, and it’s probably no great shame that its price has ballooned to $19 over the last three years and it’s fallen off the daily menu. I remember it tasting just a bit drier than the excellent cheese burger, possibly too sticky from the sauce but not moist in the meat.

John Belvedere
318 Church St, Parramatta NSW 2150

Categories
Asian Fusion

It’s Corn – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

Writing about the fourth restaurant in Burwood Chinatown in a row made this feel a bit too much like a job rather than a hobby again, so here are just some thoughts about the flagship It’s Corn ($9.50) product:

  • I can’t believe they made a restaurant purely out of a meme
  • The whipped cream was a mistake, but it wasn’t a mistake to get it on the side so that we could try it
  • I’ve never paid this much for a cob of corn, and I hope I never will again
  • I don’t even know what category of cuisine to put this under – with “premium” cheese, chilli, butter, mayo, whipped cream, parsley as the toppings it’s hard to say it’s definitely even Asian inspired, but other options on the menu do have gochujang and black sessame, so I guess it’ll just be vaguely “Asian fusion”, the first time the label has been applied to anything this unfancy.
  • I’m a microplane stan since 2024
  • It’s overall pretty missable given the glut of other options available.

It’s Corn
Shop 9A / 127/133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Thai

A-Roy Mark Thai Street Food – Croydon Park NSW Restaurant Review

My partner and I have had a lot of Thai food recently and A Mark Thai was probably one of the restaurants that started the trend. We visited late at night, near closing, after 8pm to an almost empty restaurant.

The tom yum fried rice with duck ($20.90). was incredible. It was fried rice in a way that I had never experienced before, with most Chinese fried rice dishes acting more as a staple carbohydrate dish than a dish in and of itself, which this one was. It had such a great and strong wok hei flavour to it that complemented well with the tanginess of the tom yum as well as the slight spice. I have absolutely no complaints or regrets about this dish, it was just delicious.

The crispy pork belly pad thai ($20.90) was okay, quite on the stickier spectrum of things, with an okay but sweeter flavour. I did not enjoy the pork belly meat as much, it being a bit dry and with a non crispy skin, even though it was meant to be crispy. Certainly some pieces of pork belly were just skin and fat with no muscle, which detracted from the experience.

The shrimp chips (4 for $9.90), aka prawn cakes, were also quite good, not too prawny for my partner which is an important factor for her enjoyment. They were nicely freshly fried and crispy on the outside but moist on the inside. I found the difference in pricing between the prawn chips and the fried rice was interesting as I didn’t feel that it was half as good as the very excellent fried rice, but I guess it makes sense given the cost of seafood inputs.

The banana roti was free on a promotion, however usually attracts a price ($9.90). It was very good, nice and warm, delicious and flaky towards the edges with a soggier inside filled with banana. It was sweet but not too sweet, most of the sweetness coming from the condensed milk rather than the pastry itself. The lady working there said it was a traditional street food snack in Bangkok.

It’s important to disclose that this was provided free as an inducement for a Google Maps review, though they did not look at the review at all or ask for a particular rating to be given. Whilst I am normally against inducements for reviews on a professional standpoint, I do feel like this is different as the offer is available to everyone and was only presented as an option for a free dessert at the end of the meal, in exchange for any mention or any rating at all on Google Maps. It’s also an offer available to everyone, regardless of if you’re one of those untrustworthy paid influencers on TikTok/Instagram or not. At the very least I think it is better and more honest than those restaurants that offer you a discount or free item for specifically a 5 star review, so I don’t feel like I’m going against my personal code of ethics by writing about it.

Let me know if I’m committed a cardinal sin here and I’ll tip them $9.90 the next time I go.

A-Roy Mark Thai Street Food
123 Georges River Rd, Croydon Park NSW 2133
(02) 9716 4111