Categories
Café Middle Eastern

JUNE – Winston Hills NSW Restaurant Review

A colleague typed in ‘cafe within 10 minutes of work’ into ChatGPT at the end of our run of nights, and through this managed to take us somewhere we’d never been before.

For such a large and busy cafe local to us, it was a surprise that none of us had heard of it before. It was so busy that at 9AM when we arrived on a weekday morning, the warm inside seating was completely full, and we had to sit in the cold outside. There were no patio heaters, as some places have, which was good for the environment but terrible for us.

The large soy flat white ($6.30) did its job, which was to prevent me from experiencing vehicular related trauma on the way home. It tasted extremely homely, which made sense once I saw the bonsoy on the counter as we went to pay. Colleagues commented on the mugs with mismatched handles, which they thought were cute.

The food menu was distinctly Circa-like in nature. I had the spicy shakshuka ($27), though the chilli labneh eggs were also front and centre of my mind. The eggs had appropriately runny yolks, though the white was also a bit runny, which was less ideal. The bowl had a good tomato flavour, though a disappointment in terms of spiciness, which was so difficult to identify that I wouldn’t think it would be worth mentioning it in the name of the dish. The sourdough with zaatar was crusty, kind of hard, and with minimal zataaring. Reading the menu I had envisioned a kind of zaatar manoosh-sourdough hybrid, but this leant very closely to the bread side of things. At least I did not burn myself when I touched the cast iron pan, which is a real risk at Circa, and the chorizo was good, not too salty, as some have been in the past.

THOUGHTS
It’s hard to rate any shakshuka in Western Sydney well when you’ve had Circa’s excellent rendition of it no less than 5 times in the past two years. This combination of baked eggs and a large soy flat white would cost $1.20 more at my favourite Parramatta cafe, but I wouldn’t be flatly opposed to coming back here if the gang calls for it.

JUNE
Shop 3/4/7 Lomond Cres, Winston Hills NSW 2153
(02) 8000 3730

Categories
Chinese 西安/陕西 (Xi'An/Shǎnxī/Shaanxi)

Liang Pi 一碗儿凉皮 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

We went to the Liang Pi shop in Burwood Chinatown and actually just got a roujiamo – my contribution to a night where we had a LARGE number of different things.

The roujiamo 腊汁肉夹馍 ($9), or “marinated meat in baked bun”, as the tax invoice would have you believe, was really very good. It had been quite a while since I’ve had one, and this really did hit the spot. The bread was so light and airy yet at the same time crispy, and the filling so fatty and moist and delicious.

The ‘mo was filled in a way such that the mouth was much wider than the base – no doubt to make it appear more full and attractive – but also to encourage larger and more satisfying bites to be taken up front.

There was a complete lack of greenery in this bun (one might sometimes expect to find a bit of herbage in a roujiamo, as the photo on the food stall’s online presence has it), but I really did not care.

This was delicious.

Liang Pi 一碗儿凉皮
Shop 13A, Burwood Chinatown, 127/133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Italian

Vannella Cheese – Marrickville NSW Restaurant Review

Some of our friends asked us if we wanted to go to the Carriageworks Markets, which we kind of assumed was a Christmas thing, but it turns out it was the thing that just happens every single weekend.

In a massive hall lined with probably a hundred vendors we only got one thing to eat, which was this sourdough panzerotto ($7.50), from the Vannella cheese stall, by a Marrickville based cheese factory that apparently does the burrata for a large number of Sydney’s restaurants.

It was basically like a large dumpling or an empanada – a sourdough wrapper with some mozzarella inside, some tomato passata and extra virgin olive oil and dried oregano, all deep fried. It came out hot, even though it wasn’t freshly made, covered in just a little sprinkling of salt and was just so delicious, just like a pizza pocket, with such an unexpectedly stringy cheese pull which was not captured on camera.

The marketing materials harped on about the single origin nature of the Gunnedah flour, but that doesn’t really mean anything to me. All I know is that it tasted good.

Vannella Cheese
27/37 Cadogan St, Marrickville NSW 2204

(At Carriageworks Farmers Markets)
245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Categories
Market Stall Middle Eastern

Sev’s Turkish Gozleme – Sutherland NSW Restaurant Review

I’ve been relocated to a small health facility west of the Western Sydney location I was previously at, and there is on a semi-regular basis a gozleme stand. I had this mixed gozleme ($16) with chicken, beef, mushroom, spinach and feta – essentially everything they had to offer.

It was really not bad, kind of on the top end of what you’d expect to pay for a gozleme, and could have done with a bit more cheese and spinach, but overall competent and highly edible in comparison to the usual stuff that’s available at a health facility of this stature.

Though I had this in Western Sydney and the company lists itself on its social media in Greystanes, from an online search it appears that their most frequent location appears to be the Shire Farmers Market in Sutherland, and thus this is where I have chosen to drop the pin.

Sev’s Turkish Gozleme
Occasionally in Blacktown, Occasionally at the Shire Farmer’s Market
131 Flora St, Sutherland NSW 2232

Categories
Japanese

Kashiwa Yakiniku – Crows Nest NSW Restaurant Review

My wife recently tried her hand at sitting her second quiz for the first time, a feat that she suspects she’ll have to do more than once. I happily took the opportunity to take us to dinner afterwards at nearby Yakiniku restaurant, not knowing at this point that such restaurants may or may not be more local to me from 2026 onwards (wow! I never thought I’d get to see this side of the bridge!)

Our assortment of expensive self-cooked meats include chicken thigh fillets in shioyaki marinade ($14.90), pork jowl in tontoro spicy miso ($19.90 – pictured above), special wagyu beef rib ($27.90) and ox tongue ($24.90).

I think it’s kind of hard to differentiate between a really good yakiniku restaurant and one that’s merely moderately OK. All meats were edible, even when imperfectly cooked by the two of us. The marinades were tasty but not overpowering. I wonder if it would’ve been more economical to order a set.

I personally feel like $10.90 for some veggie wrap , ie, lettuce and bean paste, was poor value for something you often get for free.

The signature tebasaki chicken wings ($13.80), in comparison to the raw meats for barbequing, was actually very special. They had a really interesting slightly sour, sweet, and salty taste, very crunchy with a light batter, and moist on the inside. They were some of the best and most different wings I’ve had in some time, and will now be something I actively search for on other menus.

We were not satisfied after our $112.30 meal, and got a shawarma elsewhere.

Kashiwa Yakiniku
17 Falcon St, Crows Nest NSW 2065