The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
XS Espresso’s North Parramatta branch is an extremely accessible 2.2km away from the nearest quaternary hospital, and a convenient 20 metres away from the nearest Officeworks.
This Happy Bowl ($21) is a reasonably healthy but also quite delicious bowl. The roasted pumpkin wedge is the star attraction, though the ample serving of chicken breast, fresh salad vegetables, poached egg, and beetroot hummus swirl also hold their own. While I did spend an extra $4 on sujuk, I didn’t need to, as there really was enough chicken to go around. Happy and healthy. I can recommend.
If the happy bowl is happy and healthy, the Cheesy Croissant ($18) is the absolute opposite. This cheesed up macaroni dish makes no apologies for its thickness and gooeyness, delivered straight from the plate into your coronary artery foam cells. This is a tasty but very heavy dish, and not recommended for anyone looking to live a long and healthy life.
This Beef Sausage & Egg Roll ($7.50) disappointed me. I mistook it to be a breakfast muffin, a la the amazing McLovin at Happyfield. It ended up very standard. The top bread bun was a non-necessary addition.
Taking a step backwards into health land, this Secret Chicken Sandwich ($12), lightly toasted with a large slab of chicken breast and plenty of salad, was a mild flavoured and reasonably good-for-you snack. Not bad for the LDL and wallet conscious.
Flash forward now to Monday the 11th of October 2021. NSW has just reached its 70% double-dose COVID-19 vaccination target, and we have just finished the third and last night in our week, having somehow managed to keep everyone in our little corner of the intensive care unit alive. I had a sense of great anxiety approaching our first post-nights breakfast in many months, sitting in the car as I surveyed XS’ other patrons and wondering if the potential for exposure to the largely vaccinated but still possibly unvaccinated masses of Western Sydney was truly worth it for an egg.
After anxiously consulting a few of my colleagues around the country I ultimately decided it would be pretty safe to have a quick meal in one of their outdoor dining areas. Concerningly they only checked the vaccination status of one of our scrubbed up party of three.
The Delicious Dean ($18) was my visually attractive, reasonably healthy, but otherwise a little disappointing choice. While the smashed avocado, bread, pesto, and tiny cut cherry tomatoes were just fine, the egg leaved a lot to be desired. I was extremely disappointed, after witnessing the perfect runniess of my colleague KS’ poached egg, to find that mine was pretty much cooked through. The difficulty of navigating the prosciutto added insult to injury, though that was mostly my own fault as sujuk was offered as an alternative.
While ultimately the breakfast offerings at XS tend to be only OK, it was just nice to be able to eat at a cafe after so long away.
Kurumac is one of the first Asian cafes I ever visited, and one of the ones that got me hooked on the concept. An inner-west spin off of Kirribilli’s cool mac, Kurumac delivers some of the best and only Japanese-focused breakfast and brunch in the city, with the added benefit of not having to rub shoulders with the sleazy political types that haunt its North Shore sister. While most Asian cafes do their best to fuse both Asian and Western flavours, Kurumac proudly serves a focused Japanese meal.
Assorted sashimi seafood, sushi rice, miso soup
The Assorted sashimi seafood, sushi rice, miso soup ($19 when eaten in June 2020, now sadly $25 in December 2020) is a revelation. It was the first and still one of the best sashimi bowls I’ve ever had. The top layer of salmon sashimi is lightly grilled and slightly sauced to perfection. The salmon roe is delicious and it is clear that they took effort to source some high quality produce. The scallops are sweet and fresh, as are the cooked prawns. The miso soup was the perfect accompaniment to the remaining rice at the end of the dish. While not mini in size, I would consider this a mini-version of Simulation Senpai’s Hoseki Bako, very high quality but missing some of the luxury elements.
Grilled samlon congee, salmon skin
The grilled salmon congee with crispy salmon skin ($17) was so good that we had it twice. The congee is warm and wholesome, with a nice serving of grilled salmon and a topping of delicious salmon roe and shallots. The grilled salmon provides a umami flavour that permeates the entire congee, while the crispy salmon skin on the side adds a delightful crunch with an additional burst of salt. The preserved vegetables on the side are more sweet than salty and thus help to add balance to the dish.
The Pickled mustard, Cod Roe Omlette, Rice, Tonjiru Pork and Veg Soup ($19) is the weakest of all of the dishes I’ve had at Kurumac. The top half of the egg was nice, but it wasn’t immediately obvious that the cod roe would be in discrete parcels of saltiness and spiciness rather than mixed in with the egg – this led to lost opportunities as it was quite a while into the dish that I found them. The soup of strong onion and radish taste was a bit too salty and tasted a bit too agricultural for me. I wouldn’t recommend this dish.
Spicy cod roe melt
The spicy cod roe melt ($12) is an expensive but delicious piece of toast with a huge amount of heavy, rich spicy mentai mayo on top. This was one of the dishes that rekindled my interest in cod roe, and I actually tried to recreate it at home to much less success. Not Kurumac’s healthiest dish, but well worth a try.
Japanese Style White Toast, Seaweed Butter
While the spicy cod roe melt is a heavy and decadent piece of bread, the Japanese Style White Toast with Seaweed Butter ($6) is much lighter. This is a simple dish of a very thick piece of toast (in my opinion it is too thick) and a small bowl of seaweed butter. The seaweed butter provides a nice umami flavour, but in my opinion is a bit too mild to enjoy with such a large quantity of bread, even when fully spread over the toast. This would suit individuals with a more delicate palate.
L: Seasonal Milkshake, M: Latte, R: Matcha Latte
The seasonal milkshake ($9.50) changes with the season. Mine was a large kiwifruit milkshake made with gelato from Newtown’s Mapo (one of my favourite gelato stores). It is huge and expensive, served within the metal milkshake tumbler. I would recommend the Hojicha Milkshake, available for the same price, if available.
The Latte($4) is just normal coffee.
The Matcha Latte ($4.50) is quite good, served in a nice little stone cup. It is not sweetened.
UPDATE APRIL 2022
Time moves on, and the chirashi bowl has again increased in price, now to the very premium $3X range in April 2022. I chose instead to have the nori ben ($25) this time around, a fish-based collection of crumbed yellowtail, fried mackerel, grilled salmon, two types of pickles, and nori on rice along with a small cup of miso soup. I really enjoyed this meal, though it was a little bit heavier compared to most of Kurumac’s menu. The crumbed yellowtail was nice, warm, and moist, and the battered mackerel had that nice sweet and sourness that is characteristic of the fish. The tartare sauce was a bit odd – really more of a mayonnaise in my opinion, with large chunks of egg white mixed in – but not bad. The two types of pickles were standouts in my opinion, and went great with the soft nori and bed of rice. It was in the end a bit much of the same to eat for one person even despite the high level of variety in the ingredients, and I only wish that my partner were with me eating rather than sleeping at home (it would be unfair to expect her to eat a meal only available after 11AM if she’s starting work at 7:30PM) so that I could’ve had half of two meals instead of one of one.
UPDATE OCTOBER 2022
Today’s seasonal milkshake ($10) is strawberry. Still made with Mapo’s unbeatable gelato, and still good though quite filling and probably stopped me from eating as much of the curry and mazesoba as I wanted.
The mazesoba ($25) was happily though surprisingly different and better than the dry ramen that we had at cool mac back in 2020. The pork in this case was chashu, which was happily a bit fattier and tastier than what I remember. The broth had a lightly spicy and overall umami taste, aided by a load of delicious and tender bamboo shoots, as well as nori, sesame seeds, coriander, and a soft egg. The noodles were al dente. Genuinely quite good.
The ox tongue curry ($40) was really quite expensive for a lunch at a cafe, but brought with it a reasonable serving size as well as quite good flavour. Contained within this bowl of thick non-spicy Japanese curry were huge 3-dimensional chunks of ox tongue, very tender but still with good texture, koshihikari rice, and happily bright pickles. On the side was a serving of mentaiko mashed potato (I could not appreciate the mentaiko) and a green salad with cherry tomatoes, foliage, and sprouts. The ratio of rice to curry and meat was perfect, and the flavour and texture of the beef was good, although I would think twice about the value and level of necessity of the sides, and if the dish as a whole would be cheaper and yet just as good without them. The chirashi bowl by this point in late-2022 is now $35, and I think if you’re getting lunch at Kurumac and you’re only able to get one item, it would still be my recommendation.
CONCLUSION
You may be able to tell that I really like Kurumac. It’s one of my favourite cafes in Sydney, and I expect that as time passes and their menu changes you will also see new items added to this review.
Tucked in an arcade near Rockdale’s train station is a cafe I would’ve completely missed were it not for the recommendation from a former colleague (now paediatric colleague) CK during a chance encounter at Brothers’ Kebab in Banksia one night.
I visited on a morning in January 2021, a few hours after reassuring a well young man who had been hit in the eye by a low velocity empty plastic water bottle in ED Fast Track.
I had the Gangster Benedict ($21), an eggs benedict gangstered up by the addition of five spice pork belly, served on Pepe Saya’s crumpets. While I think the benedict components of the meal – the Hollandaise sauce and particularly the poached eggs were solid, if I’m being honest I didn’t really feel that the five spiced pork belly really added a great deal. As a person of Chinese descent I have made, eaten, and loved a great deal of five spiced pork belly in my day, and compared to these historical porks the one at Angry Gnome didn’t quite cut the mustard. Despite this, a quite positive mention should be made to the texture and composition of the crumpets, which felt quite complex and premium.
I don’t know if these crumpets were made by Pepe or rather just made with his butter, but they are almost worth ordering on their own.
Doggo outside the restaurant.
The Angry Gnome Espresso Bar 495 Princes Hwy, Rockdale NSW 2216, Australia 0413 131 040
Kinx is an absolute gem of a cafe tucked away in the culinary wasteland of South West Sydney. Kinx’s creative Asian-fusion brunch menu exceeded all geographic expectations, and our visit instantly propelled Kinx to the top of our list of cafes we enjoy in Sydney.
The Pho Beef Ribs were the reason we drove half an hour to go to Kinx in the first place, and boy did they not disappoint. Our waiter suggested a half serve ($20) rather than a full serve, as the kitchen was running low on ribs and we hadn’t had the foresight of booking ahead for this magnetic weekend special. The beef ribs were extremely tender and were in the perfect sweet spot where they fell right off the bone but retained enough internal structure for a good mouthfeel. The pho marinade was true to specification, with a delicious herbal umami taste. The rice noodle cakes, lightly deep fried were absolutely delicious, crisp, and soaked up the saucy marinade well. My partner thought that they had a much more delicate flavour and mouthfeel than just plain old rice cakes, and thought that they emulated thin noodles very well. The small amount of salad with bean sprouts, pickles, chilli, coriander, and Thai Basil was fresh and delicious, cutting through the strong umami flavours of the meat. Overall an excellent dish that I hope all beef-eating readers of this blog can have the opportunity to try.
The All You Can Beef Rice Bowl ($16), was nice but very much overshadowed by the pho beef ribs. The rice bowl features a smoky soy rice, 63 degree egg, and a wagyu beef hamburg katsu patty in bulgogi sauce. Whilst I enjoyed the menchi katsu (the first I’ve found outside of Japan), I thought that the smoked flavour of the rice was a bit too strong, and not to my taste. The 63 degree egg was excellent as always, and the bulgogi sauce was a good pairing for the patty, but neither of us ended up keen enough to finish the rice on account of its smokiness.
The Mama’s Siu Mai was essentially vietnamese pork meatballs in a tomato based sauce, served with bread – a Vietnamese spin on what you would often find on the menu of an Italian restaurant. The meatballs were yummy, as was the sauce and bread, though I think if I’m being honest we could’ve done with only one of this dish or the smoked beef bowl. My partner also wanted to get chips, and I’m glad I said no.
We also rolled for a wild card on the expensive but delicious Taro Coffee ($8). It is a very thick iced drink, of mostly taro with a hint of coffee mixed in, topped with some mixed cereals. It is a special and different experience, and quite good to boot. Sweet but not too sweet, kind of like the taro milk tea of your childhood but all grown up.
The regular coffee is regular.
SECOND VISIT We spaced out our second visit to around twelve months after our first, taking advantage of their seasonally updated menu as well as a chance to try their weekend special.
The weekend special was the Braised Beef Cheeks ($23) in bio kho sauce with potato puree, baked onion, charred enoki, and scallion oil. This was a surprisingly large dish for the price, which we ultimately found we could not finish. The beef cheek was incredibly tender, and melted in the mouth without much need for chewing. The potato mash was rich and smooth, made in a French style. The sauce and the onions imparted a milder taste to this dish, which started off welcoming but towards the end became all a bit samey. I think that ultimately with such a large volume of food in a dish it can help to incorporate a few more flavours, and while we started eating these cheeks with enjoyment we just couldn’t finish it in the end.
Though the braised beef cheeks were a fumble in sameness, the Pork-E Pot ($21.50) was an absolute masterclass in variety. Arriving in three separate bowls in a wooden tray, each component of this meal had a refreshing and delicious uniqueness to it.
The claypot braised pork belly was sweet, rich and herby, with a melted egg tossed in for good measure.
The pickles, herb, and beansprout salad was extremely fresh and an excellent foil for the richer claypot pork and rice dishes, and the ginger and shallot atop the bowl of sticky rice was just a divine use of one of the best condiments from Chinese cooking., with these little buttery but crunchy bits of likely fried lard that just made the whole thing come together.
I just can’t say enough good things about this dish, and I hope that anyone reading this can find their way to Kinx to try it before it leaves their menu.
The girlfriend, now fiancée, enjoyed a very good soy matcha latte, with a small warning from our waitress that it was not very sweet and that we may not like it without sugar. We found the sweetness level perfect however with soy milk.
INTERIM THOUGHTS AFTER TWO VISITS Wow. What a wonderful place. You owe it to yourself to pay them a visit once the southwest is liberated.
THIRD VISIT (Dinner)
We had the opportunity to have dinner at Kinx just as they started to field their dinner menu in August 2022, and thoroughly enjoyed everything they had.
The charsiu pork jowl skewer (3 for $18) with apple slaw was quite good. The fatty meat was soft and melted easily in the mouth, and though jowl is fattier than the leaner cuts of pork used in traditional char siu the fattiness was not at all overpowering. The marinade was again sweeter than your stock standard Chinese char siu but with an excellent charcoally smokiness which was evidence of excellent grilling. The apple slaw was crisp, fresh-tasting, and a good complement to the fatty pork.
The pulled pork & wagyu brisket pad kee mao ($26) with 63 degree egg, gailan, basil, and bean sprouts was excellent. There was a great sense of wok-hei, plentiful vegetables and tender and flavourful meat, though I must admit the fact that there were two different animals in this was lost on me during eating. The use of cheung fan (肠粉), rice noodle rolls (like the things you would fill with prawns or pork for steaming at yum cha) rather than your standard rice noodles was excellent, as these are much softer and more delicate, easily chewed and great for soaking up the chilli and basil flavours. I don’t understand why chángfěn isn’t used more for Thai noodle dishes. It’s not traditional, but it’s absolutely amazing. Kinx’s pad kee mao is my all time favourite pad kee mao, and by extension my all time favourite Thai style stir fried noodle.
My partner was a big fan of the ox tongue taco ($10 each) with salsa verde, pickled onion, herbs, and khao khua. She really enjoyed the “flavours” of it, though she couldn’t quite elaborate on why. Possibly it was the mixture of herbs and avocado that did it for her. The meat had a bit of texture to it as ox tongue is meant to, and it was overall a pleasing dish, though not extremely different like the last ox tongue taco we had at Cafe Paci. I liked the thoughtfulness of providing each taco with two tortillas, though I realised too late that the intention was probably so that each taco would turn into two tacos after consumption and loss of the original taco’s fillings onto the second one.
Finally, the Smoked and Fried Quail with Lime Pepper Dipping Sauce ($25). Not every part of every meal is always amazing, and their nightly special, the smoked and fried quail, was certainly not. Chicken and duck are by far my favourite fowls, and while I like to eat quail eggs, quail as a bird meat is not something that I really go for. That was not the problem with it. What I didn’t like about this was the completely unexpected and weird batter, which was not at all hinted at in the photo (see below). I guess that it makes sense that smoked and fried bird would have a bit of batter on it, but this pale thin batter with a smokiness that tickled the same neurons as staleness just really didn’t do it for me. I really wish that the batter hadn’t been a part of it, as the lime and pepper dipping sauce was actually really tasty, and would’ve gone well with just a regular bird. Not even peeling off the batter could make me feel better about this, and so we ended up having like one and a half pieces each and leaving the majority of the plate untouched. We didn’t even take it home. I could not see a future in which I wanted to eat it.
Compare expectations vs reality. My partner tried to tell them about our disappointment at the quail but she dropped her spaghetti in the worst possible way, and failed to use a compliment sandwich. I fear that my partner might have been a bit rude and I really hope they let us back. We loved every other component of our meal, and Kinx remains one of my top cafes and restaurants in all of Sydney. This quail does not make me want to go back any less, and I will continue to go back and recommend them to anyone who reads this blog.
FOURTH VISIT A quick update for our fourth visit (August 2023)
The Pork Claypot (kho quet – $22) was pretty good and tasty, with a good mix of lean and fatty pork, and steamed rice to soak up the flavourful sauces.
The bun bo hue ($21.50) with extra ribs ($6.50) I really did not love.
There are few things I love more in a café than a competent all-day menu with Asian-fusion dishes. Quick Brown Fox Eatery in Pyrmont, owned and run by siblings with a menu designed by consulting chef/wizard Tomislav Martinovic, fits the bill perfectly.
Quick Brown Fox is set up in what feels a lot like a gingerbread house, with both internal and outdoor seating. The café was decorated with lots and lots of Christmas themed decorations (in early January), and had a board which read “364 days to Christmas” in storage at the back between the main café and the restrooms. I’ve typically put off trying out restaurants within the CBD on weekdays, however there is surprisingly plentiful two hour ticketed street parking located within a short walk, and if you’re having problems there’s also the nearby fish market parking at a reasonable price.
The Koshihikari Rice Congee ($24.50) with confit ocean trout ($9) was expensive and delicious. It was warm and wholesome, as all congees should be. The general flavour of the congee was mild, not overseasoned, however with a hint of unexpected ma and la added by the fermented chilli relish. We loved the familiar Asian tastes of coriander and enoki mushroom, though thought that the chilli fried egg was just a touch too fried and wonder if this already very good dish would have been even better with a slow egg instead (a la 3 Rōnin). The maple glazed bacon was so thick cut that it was basically pork belly at this point, though no complaints from us at all. I think it was probably too much to expect that a $9 piece of confit ocean trout would live up to the standard set by Tetsuya’s, though a hungry man can dream. It was fine though – the serving size was a bit small, but the taste, especially the additional umami and variety it added to the dish, was good. Overall a really great dish.
The Buttermilk Pancakes ($23.50) were my partner’s choice, and in my opinion the inferior choice. It consisted of a very generous serving of 4 buttermilk pancakes (although for $23.50 what is generous and what’s just to be expected?) topped with toffee, blackberries, salted pecan crumble and served with some passionfruit ice cream. The pancakes were adequately sour, and the toppings did not make the dish too sweet. I enjoyed the pecan crumble and the ice cream, which were in a league of their own compared to the rest of the ingredients. My partner thought that the toffee sauce tasted a bit stale, and while I could see what she meant I’m not certain that that wasn’t just the intended taste. Faced with a number of delicious looking and sounding savoury items I wouldn’t order this again.
My partner did indulge in a pretty standard Mimosa ($13) whilst I as the very responsible designated driver had a very good soy latte. Quick Brown Fox does offer bottomless mimosas for $30 per person for 90 minutes, or bottomless cocktails (bloody mary, aperol spritz, espresso martini) for $40 per person however we decided against this as my partner never really uses up her full allocation of alcoholic beverages.
VERDICT
Part time chef, part time wizard Tomislav Martinovic has essentially done it again with a beautiful menu of Asian-fusion delights, even better than at Three Williams. There are many more things I’d like to try at Quick Brown Fox and I can’t wait to go back.
Five tomislavs.
Quick Brown Fox Eatery 22 Union St, Pyrmont NSW 2009 (02) 9660 6345
