Category: Indian

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Bakery Café Indian South Asian

The Fold – Dulwich Hill NSW Restaurant Review

Though I’ve lived in Wentworthville in the heart of Sydney’s South Asian community for a total of eleven years now in two separate runs, I still don’t really have a good gauge on South Asian food. It’s hard for me, as someone who didn’t grow up in the culture, to know what’s actually good and what’s actually bad, so I must apologise in advance if my thoughts about Dulwich Hill’s The Fold are coloured by my complete lack of cultural competency.

We started our meal with this quite-good Sri Lankan Iced Coffee ($7.50), which was essentially a mixture of chai spices, coffee, and vanilla ice cream (AKA a cold dirty chai). It was quite enjoyable, though a bit expensive, and I had no qualms about recommending it to a random vegetarian who walked into the restaurant just as we were leaving.

The Appa-Appa with free range chicken curry ($24) was a plate consisting of two plain hoppers and one hopper with an egg in it, along with side pots of a mild chicken curry, lunu miris (sambal paste), and seeni sambol (a less spicy onion sambal). We enjoyed the chicken curry, though found it to be extremely mild – likely a product of the restaurant being in Dulwich Hill rather than Pendle Hill. I have literally no standard to compare these hoppers with, but can remark that I enjoyed the crispy thin edges much more than the bases, which I felt were a bit too thick and bready. Again, I have no idea if that’s how it’s meant to be. This is just how I feel.

To illustrate how out of my depth I am here, after eating it as a taco I found out via the internet that you are not meant to eat hoppers as a taco.

The Butterfruit Pann with two poached eggs ($21) was really just another name for avocado toast, but with one delicious twist. This otherwise standard avo toast came with a tiny but delicious pot of pineapple chili relish, with a fascinating sweetness that went incredibly well with the bread and avocado, and elevated each and every bite. I only wish that the pot were a bit larger as we ran out two thirds throughout our meal.

Look at this SICK cutlery.

INTERIM THOUGHTS
The food at The Fold was really not bad, and even the otherwise standard avo toast had a nice little twist that elevated it to a new level. Their pastries on display also looked quite good, and though I don’t know if they’re made on site I think I will end up coming back at some point to eat them all.

RETURN
On a subsequent visit to grab some pastries I learned that they are in fact all made on site. There’s an assortment of relatively standard French as well as South-Asian inspired pastries, though for this visit I erred on the side of caution.

The Plain Croissant ($5.50) was certainly, as described, a plain croissant. I took a leaf from my friend the Sydney Croissant Hunter’s book and brought a serated knife to capture a cross-section from my visit, though in doing so left quite a mess on their table. I wasn’t blown away by this croissant – it was adequately crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, but keep in mind that I’m not a croissant expert, and I got this about half an hour before closing, so it wasn’t quite fresh out of the oven.

Next up is this Salted Caramel & Macadamia Scroll ($8.50), a hefty and dense bread-like creation that was a meal in and of itself. Entire bites of this were devoid of any caramel, but this was not so much a problem as this scroll truly reminded me of my love for bread. The salted caramel swirl tasted a little bit dark-cooked (I don’t want to say burnt, I doubt it was ever on fire), and ultimately I think my craving would have been equally served by some stock standard brioche or something.

The Portuguese Tart was a bit sweeter than I usually like, but I enjoyed the flavour as well as the pastry. Even my partner, who doesn’t usually like Portuguese tarts, enjoyed this. It is a shame that she dropped it on the floor before she was finished.

I actually really enjoyed this Black Forest Cake ($8.50). I often get black forest cake thinking that I’ll like it, but it’s never really lived up to my expectation until now. The Fold’s black forest cake was absolutely lovely, with plenty of moistness, dark chocolate, and a discrete and highly tasty cherry layer sandwiched between two layers of dark sponge. Every part of this cake, including the well proportioned mousse-like icing was well executed, and this is now the best black forest cake I’ve ever had.

The Fold. Sri Lankan Inspired
402 New Canterbury Rd, Dulwich Hill NSW 2203
(02) 8068 2226

Categories
Indian

Nawaz Flavour of India – Glebe NSW Restaurant Review

Allow me to walk you through the items on Nawaz Flavour of India’s $41.50pp banquet menu, eaten in their private dining room with 20 colleagues. Though I am by no means an expert in Indian cuisine, it is currently my eleventh non-consecutive year living along the train line between Harris Park and Seven Hills.

The starters started us off strong.

The chicken tikka may have been the best I’ve ever had in my life. They were thick pieces that managed to remain tender and juicy both inside and out, with the perfect quantity and quality of flavouring.

The seek kebab were meaty and juicy, good but not quite as standout as the extraordinary tikka.

This jam was wild. Fruity and unexpected.

This Fish Pakora was extremely good. Again, very juicy and moist on the inside. Like the chicken tikka this fish was also able to avoid being too oversalted, something I can’t say for a number of my local restaurants. Also the best I’ve had.

I didn’t care too much for the Samosas, to be honest. They were very standard, potato stuff. But the other starters were great.

The Chicken Butter Masala was good, maintaining the tenderness of the chicken tikka that preceded it. Very mild, and widely loved. The colleague sitting next to me (JZHW) couldn’t stop talking about it.

This Dhal Makhni was my first oral introduction to dhal (having known about it as a food for some time). As a meat-eater I was less impressed. I’m a big fan of having something to chew on.

The Beef Vindaloo was good, though not particularly memorable.

Same goes for the Kashmiri Lamb.

Saffron Rice was ample.

Naan (not shown) was good in quality but unfortunately lacking in quantity, and given the volume of curry I think that we could’ve done with approximately twice as much around the table. We did order a piece of garlic naan (pictured) to share, though I don’t know if this was charged for on top of what we paid for the banquet.

DISCUSSION

I honestly don’t know if it’s just the fact that most of the Indian food I have is delivered after 9PM when all the non-Indian restaurants are closed, but fish pakora and chicken tikka at Nawaz were both the best I’ve ever had. Definitely worth a visit.

Nawaz Flavour of India
142a Glebe Point Rd, Sydney NSW 2037
(02) 9692 0662

Categories
Asian Fusion Indian

Don’t Tell Aunty – Surry Hills NSW Restaurant Review

Revenge meal (noun): the action of having a meal without someone in return for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands.

Several months ago a member of our merry band of colleagues was left out of the invite list to a work gathering at Don’t Tell Aunty, one of the inner-city’s foremost “Modern Indian” restaurants. In retaliation for this unceremonious snubbing we put the restaurant on the hit list for a future visit – it’s just unfortunate that the next time we found ourselves in Surry Hills that same friend was packing his bags, ready to board a flight to visit his partner interstate. I guess he’ll never know. (Unless he reads this post)

Parking in Surry Hills on a Thursday night was quite easy, with plenty of 2-hour free street parking around. We entered the restaurant at opening to the tunes of the Tokyo Drift song, a harbinger of the modern, Western musical theme that would persist throughout the night.

Aunty’s Balls of Happiness ($12) are tangy and creamy shots of chutney encased within puffs made of semolina. They came strongly recommended by BC via an esteemed professor of intensive care medicine, though were not so well received around the table. Though the puffs themselves were light and inoffensive, the chutney shot filling was, in my opinion, too strong tasting. The balance of filling to pastry was absolutely not achieved, and within our band of four diners we each had one, except for BC who had to have three.

The Papadi Chaat ($18), billed as “the motherland’s version of nachos and salsa”, was truly only okay. It featured a too-flavourful salsa over some flour-pastry chips. The flavour was, in my opinion, again too strong – erring on the tangy side, almost more of the same as the balls of happiness but different. I wouldn’t get this again.

The cheese naan ($8) was my personal highlight of the meal. Unlike most cheese naans, Aunty’s cheese naan is made with blue cheese, with a sprinkling of oregano. This blue cheese flavour – not too strong to be overpowering, but just there enough to taste – was a flavour that I had never experienced before in naan, and very enjoyable. Don’t go without trying this.

The basket of naan ($12) was a basket of three different types of triagular naan, cut in the middle. The garlic chive naan (left) was good, though my girlfriend missed out. The onion sesame naan (right) was also good, as was the plain naan (not pictured). Each of these three naans were quite oily, especially the plain naan, and quite thin compared to the spectrum of naans that I’ve had in the past. I guess you can’t go wrong with bread and oil.

The Unauthentic Butter Chicken ($30), was really just fine. There was nothing special about this butter chicken, except for the price, which I thought was quite extreme for such a small serving. You can compare the serving size with this normal sized spoon. It’s quite ridiculous.

The Short Rib Korma ($30) was also just fine. Unlike Korean BBQ, this short rib was indistinguishable from any other red meat – it wasn’t served on the rib, nor was there any rib-like display. The size of this serving was again minute for the price, and neither of these curries were any better than what you’d get at your local Indian restaurant in Western Sydney for half the price.

Mango Lassi ($6) was good.

VERDICT
Don’t Tell Aunty is in a difficult spot to like. The only real standout of meal was the blue cheese naan, which is not something you can really get elsewhere. The curries were extremely expensive for their serving size, and had no special elements at all to justify their pricing. As a Wentworthville resident with the entirety of Western Sydney’s South Asian offerings at my doorstep I would have extreme difficulty in recommending Don’t Tell Aunty to anyone.

Don’t Tell Aunty
414 Bourke St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9331 5399

Diners JW, PX, WKS, BC

Categories
Indian

Mazaidar Foods – North Parramatta NSW Restaurant Review

Finishing work at 9PM in Westmead means that the best food options available are generally Subcontinental in nature. Mazaidar Foods in North Parramatta is a late-closing Pakistani restaurant, offering a variety of Pakistani and Indian dishes paired with really great and welcoming service.

Mazaidar’s naan was very good. I suspect that part of this was us having it fresh instead of having to wait for naan to be delivered, but really it was just so warm and nice right out of the tandoor. We enjoyed the garlic and cheese naan (Left – $4.75), which had cheese between two layers of bread, a little bit more than the butter naan (Right – $3.50), though both are safe choices.

Sadly the papadums ($3.50) were not free. They didn’t have any spices adherent to the dough – rather these were ground into the flour. My partner didn’t like this as much as most other papadums, but I actually liked them more.

The half tandoori chicken ($10.50) was of normal quality. No better or worse than any other, though the price was quite good.

The seekh kebab (4 pieces for $12) were nice, soft, moist, with a little bit of gamey flavour but not enough to overpower us.

The beef nehari ($17.50) featured huge chunks of beef, slow cooked in a only-slightly spicy thick sauce. The beef was quite tender, and it was quite good to eat with the naan. I’m told that this is quite an authentic nehari as far as neharis go, but I wouldn’t be able to confirm or deny this myself.

My partner loved the Aloo Mutter ($15.50), a thick, spicy curry of potatoes and peas. I don’t normally go for a vegetarian curry, but these two legumes worked synergistically to create a good dish with differing mushy textures. Pretty good.

VERDICT
I’m by no means an expert in Pakistani food, but I think that Mazaidar Foods provides both good food and good service for the late night Parramatta market.

Mazaidar Foods
515 Church St, North Parramatta NSW 2151
(02) 9630 0319

Categories
Indian

Indian Biryani Restaurant – Rockdale NSW Restaurant Review

This is going to be a quick one. We got delivery from Indian Biryani Restaurant during our last run of nights. I had the Chicken 65 Biryani ($19, pictured) and the Achari Chicken ($14, not pictured). Both were very tasty, and probably a bit too tasty to be eaten alone without any non-flavoured staple food. The Chicken 65 Biryani was very edible and safe. My colleagues had some chicken tikka salad and the butter chicken and allegedly all was good.

My overall impression is this: Not many places deliver to work. It really wasn’t bad and we’ll probably get it again before the year is through.

Indian B iryani Restaurant
544 Princes Hwy, Rockdale NSW 2216