Category: Café

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Café

Cafe Mckenzie – Randwick NSW Restaurant Review

Cafe Mckenzie is one of the new cafes that has opened up across the road from Prince of Wales Hospital. I first ate at Cafe Mckenzie while picking my partner up after a night shift, and then again after an interview (results pending).

Beef Brisket Hash

My partner really likes the Beef Brisket Hash ($19). She eats at Cafe Mckenzie with her colleagues sometimes and she tells me she’s had the dish five or so times in total. She’s a big fan of potato, which this dish has plenty of, so I think her feelings may be a bit skewed. I enjoyed the fresh radish, which is not something I normally go for. The beef brisket was yummy, and the poached eggs and beetroot relish provided a good balance for the more oily, heavier components. I can recommend this dish.

Lemon Ricotta Hotcake

Mandarin is one of the fruits that I never think to eat, but often enjoy when I try. The menu sells the Lemon Ricotta Hotcake ($18) with raspberry and lemon butter short. It’s topped with fresh raspberries and mandarin, which help to freshen up the pancake. The hotcake itself was soft and fluffy, and the flavours all blended together successfully. Maybe only a little bit too sweet.

Chicken Baguette

The Chicken Baguette ($12) with lemon poached chicken, mayo, avocado, shallots was quite good. Upon general inspection I was worried that the bread would be too hard, but the first bite allayed my fears completely. The bread was fresh , warm and crisp. The chicken filling was mild but good, and the surprise rocket was a nice addition. This baguette reminded me of the first time I had had rocket, which was back in 2011 during an open day at UNSW. I had purchased a chicken rocket sandwich from Biblio outside the Matthews Food Court for the exorbitant (for a high schooler) price of $7, which I enjoyed so much that I started buying rocket all the time for the rest of the year.

The Triple Cheese and Mushroom Toastie

I can’t believe how happy I am to spend $14 on a toastie. The Triple Cheese and Mushroom Toastie ($14) with mixed mushroom, gruyere, parmigiano reggiano, ricotta, dijon and thyme is one of the highlights of Cafe Mckenzie. The flavours are complex and delicious, and the quality is very consistent. The pickles on the side were a delightful surprise, and I wonder if it would help for these guys to actually start advertising all of the components of their food. Great for a quick breakfast. Can recommend.

The Lamb Meatball Soup ($17) with freekeh, tomato, lemon, toast is strong, but perhaps the weakest of a very strong bunch. I thought the soup was a bit sour, and we could’ve used a bit more bread keeping in mind just how much soup there was. The meatballs were delicious and I think this would be a good dish on a cold day. The soup and bread actually comes with Pepe Saya butter, which again I feel is worth mentioning on the menu, as it is a premium component.

THOUGHTS (2020)

I am a Cafe Mckenzie Stan. If POW gives me a job for next year I suspect I’ll find myself here very very often. I think they would be perhaps even more successful if they added all of the secret elements of their food onto the menu. There’s no reason not to advertise that they serve Pepe Saya butter, or keep the rocket a surprise. 10/10.

UPDATE (2022)

I never did get that job, and ended up spending the next two years working in Western Sydney. My partner however was lucky and skilled enough to be chosen for a Eastern Suburbs training program, and I found myself back here with her and her colleagues after their run of nights. I think it is important to mention that they were happy to serve their lunch (11AM and onwards) menu to us at 9:30AM.

Along with a redo of the triple cheese and mushroom toastie (still fantastic, by the way), we also had the fattoush salad ($16) with optional grilled chicken breast ($9, hence $25 all up). This fattoush was perhaps the best I’ve ever had, and that’s spoken having lived as a working adult with access to food delivery apps in Western Sydney and now Sydney’s South West for four years now. I loved the freshness of all of the components, especially the variety of herbs (some combination of mint, parsley, and/or coriander) within. The chicken breast was an expensive addition, but reasonably well done with a tender, juicy, and tasty result. The total cost ($25) was reasonable despite the large cost of the chicken due to the quite good pricing of the non-proteinaceous base salad. Quite good!

I don’t know if this is made in-house or from an external vendor, but this passionfruit and raspberry cake ($6) was really quite nice. A bit on the sweeter side, but great moistness and combination of fruity flavours.

VERDICT
Very good. Can strongly recommend.

Cafe Mckenzie
Shop G04 &, G05/162-164 Barker St, Randwick NSW 2031
(02) 9310 0624

Categories
Café Modern Australian

A1 Canteen – Chippendale NSW Restaurant Review

Pegg asked me to find somewhere for brunch today. It’s our only day off together in 11 days so the stakes were high. After much deliberation we found ourselves looking for a park in Chippendale so that we could eat at A1 Canteen.

While we had previously had easy success parking for X23 Asian Fusion Cafe around the corner, today was not our day, and we ended up spending around 25 minutes circling the Central Park complex looking for a park. We finally found a 1-hour spot 10 minutes’ walk away, leaving us 40 minutes to get seated, order, eat, and leave. A true high-anxiety challenge, but one that we succeeded in.

A1 Canteen, I’m told, is run by the man behind Automata. Apparently is difficult to run two restaurants at once and thus this needs to be mentioned in every online review of A1, especially when they’re across the road from one another.

The Muffuletta ($20) is a vertical sandwich slice consisting of pressed meats, cheese, greens, artichoke, and olive salad. It is served with cutlery, and thus a dare to the patron to eat it with their hands. I enjoyed the Muffuletta as I would any other sandwich which would typically cost $7. It was meaty and cheesy, but otherwise not that special. The vertical cut of the sandwich meant that the filling to bread ratio was excellent, but the pedestrian taste did not justify its high asking price.

slow roasted lamb shoulder

The slow roasted lamb shoulder ($27) was significantly more interesting. It is served with small grilled flatbread, brocollini, cauliflower, chickpeas, and yellow chili pickles, each adding an additional dimension. The yellow chili pickles were particularly juicy and delicious, and added a nice tang to it. The price again is a bit steep for what it is. Looking at an older copy of the menu it looks like the lamb shoulder was previously $24 with a choice of two salads.

A special mention needs to go to the service at A1 Canteen. The kitchen was speedy and our waitress very observant to our hydration requirements. The room was spacious and decor nice. I personally felt a bit underdressed and outclassed in my T-shirt and trackpants.

Overall A1 canteen was passable but overpriced. I would not recommend the Muffuletta and would not have it again myself. One of the ladies next to us had some curried scrambled eggs which looked amazing, so I think we will probably end up going back at some point to try them. Three and a half overpriced weighted sandwiches out of Five.

A1 Canteen
Ground 2/10 Kensington St, Chippendale NSW 2008

NOTE: A1 Canteen is now permanently closed – Click here to read what I thought when I went back for a last hurrah.

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Malaysian

X23 Asian Fusion Cafe – Chippendale NSW Restaurant Review

A few weeks ago I went to 101kissa, an Asian fusion brunch place in Chippendale. This week I went to X23 Asian Fusion Cafe, an Asian fusion brunch place In Chippendale.

My girlfriend drove me to brunch after one of my night shifts. We had thought about going for a couple of weeks, and finally the opportunity arose for me to sacrifice some sleep for some food. I wore sunglasses the entire time to limit my blue light exposure and posting these photos up is the first time I’m seeing these foods in their normal colour.

The shroom room shrooms ($16.80) were quite shroomy. The eggs were well poached, and most of the shrooms were enjoyable, particularly the enoki. One particular mushroom had a strong Vegemite-like taste which I was not a fan of. Maybe my palate is not developed enough. But maybe I just know what I like and this particular long shroom wasn’t it.

The X23 red eggs ($22.50) are very similar to but not as good as the chili crab scrambled eggs at 101kissa. In comparison with the similar concept eggs at 101kissa they did not have as much crab. They’re overall not bad, but when you have a better option just a few minutes away they’re hard to recommend.

I have no idea what the sriracha bacon ($4) was meant to go with. It was probably my mistake to buy it.

L: Matcha Latte, R: Cappuccino

Drinks were fine. I liked the dual wall glasses.

Overall impression: I want to like X23 Asian Fusion Cafe but I just don’t. Nothing was really special for me, and its unfortunate proximity to a better competitor makes it a miss. Six out of ten stars. Will probably go back.

X23 Asian Fusion Cafe
102/18 Park Ln, Chippendale NSW 2008
(02) 9056 5138

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Japanese

Meet Mica – Surry Hills NSW Restaurant Review

I think I have a type. Meet Mica is another Asian-fusion cafe in Surry Hills.

The Breakie. Rice. Bowl ($18) was extra good. Don’t let the name fool you though, it’s more of a congee than a normal bowl of rice. The wetness was very welcome, and in fact I think it could have done with a bit more soup. The Chashu melted easily in the mouth. The onsen egg was perfect, and the mushrooms added an extra dimension to the dish. Overall a legitimate 10/10 dish which I would recommend to everyone.

The Teriyaki Dog Roll ($12) was not bad. A lot of okonomyaki-style toppings and an egg omlette over an Arabiki hot dog sausage. The bread to filling ratio was reasonably good, however still weighted a bit heavily on the bread side. The excess bread was used to mop up the matcha from the dessert dish.

The Matcha. Lava. Toast ($20) is perhaps iconic to this cafe, and indeed iconic to the brunch section of Zomato where it holds the lofty position of thumbnail of a number of recommendation lists. The wet matcha lava is certainly aesthetically dramatic (you can probably find a video online), however in our opinion falls short on the taste component. The bread and matcha itself was somewhat bitter, not at all sweet. I can only describe the texture of the matcha sauce as dry, despite it being reasonably wet. The dish was saved by the condensed milk, gelato and especially fruit, which added a crisp wetness to an otherwise arid dessert.

Meet Mica Hot Chocolate

The sunrise ($8) was yum but not much fluid with a lot of ice for the price. The Hojicha soy latte and hot chocolate were also good.

I would come back to Meet Mica and eat the Breakie Rice Bowl again. The other two I would skip.

Thanks for listening to my TED talk.

Meet Mica
Shop 5/492-500 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 8018 7370

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Japanese

101kissa – Chippendale, NSW Restaurant Review

This is a story about a lobster roll and a spicy crab omelette in an inner-West restaurant with chairs for smaller people than myself but an adequately sized booth bench to compensate.

Peg will tell you that I often have trouble deciding where to go for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner. The choice for breakfast this time around was between 101kissa and some other Asian inspired brunch place in Chippendale which I obviously can’t tell you about because I didn’t go. What ultimately won me over was 101kissa’s promise of a lobster roll, which wasn’t on the menu but which was advertised on their Facebook page. After having been baited for so long by Bare Witness whose lobster roll disappeared from their menu just as I wanted to eat it, I knew I had to try.

The Lobster Roll ($12) ended up being a bit of a disappointment. The bread was soft but there was just too much of it. The egg was warm and fluffy and delicious, but the actual lobster component was cold and it was hard to distinguish any presence of lobser by taste or texture. It felt to me like it was just cold sauce with some solid bits, and I had to take their word for it that it was lobster.

The spicy crab omelette was a real treat. Not content with serving just a delicious, fresh soft shell crab, they have also added a generous amount of blue swimmer crab meat to the mix. The egg was again fantastic, the brocollini fresh, and the nori and croissant worked together to provide a stable background. I was glad that the dish was not oversauced, which was a problem I have come across a few times when having seafood at brunch. Overall it was just perfect.

A special mention needs to go to this matcha soy latte. While I didn’t expect it to come iced, I’m glad it did. They actually frothed it and iced it at the same time, which is not something you see frequently. The flavours of the matcha mixed up with soy were very complex and need to be tried to be understood. I got it without sugar but I’m sure a little touch wouldn’t ruin it if you need it. The dual paper straws were a nice touch as paper straws don’t always last long enough to finish the drink.

The service and overall vibe of the place was also very good. The one guy in charge called all his customers ‘bro’ and creater a very friendly, chilled-out environment.

Would I recommend 101kissa to a friend or colleague? Definitely. I’m recommending it to myself. I want to go back as soon as possible.

101kissa
94a Abercrombie St, Chippendale NSW 2008
0412 246 338