Category: Cuisines

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Nguyen Hot Bread – Canley Vale NSW Restaurant Review

My junior/friend/colleague brought me these banh mi for lunch at work, not knowing that I am lowkey a banh mi influencer in the microsphere of Western Sydney. My thoughts, however brief, should be taken in the context of a approximately 5 hour dwell time within the enhanced post-operative care unit’s breakroom refrigerator.

Within limits of dwell-time, these were still only OK. The meat in the crackling pork roll ($7.50) was plentiful, especially for the price, but neither it nor the cold cut pork roll ($7) had adequate vegetable to carry moisture through the course of the meal. These rolls also lacked the deliciously unhealthy concotion of butter/Vietnamese mayo, instead featuring a rather more pedestrian and Western margarine-like spread instead.

I’m told there are a number of different hot bread stores in the area. Perhaps another, next time?

Nguyen Hot Bread
33 Canley Vale Rd, Canley Vale NSW 2166

Categories
Middle Eastern

Jbeil Cuisine – Enfield NSW Restaurant Review

What do you do with these? What is the completion rate on these, and what happens to the remaining pickles that are left over?

We really enjoyed the tangy batata bi kizbara ($16) – “deep fried potato tossed in coriander, garlic, mild chilli & lemon juice”. It’s hard to go wrong with deep fried potatoes in general, but the citrusy and garlicky sauce was just an excellent accompaniament. People with a pathological aversion to coriander do have a pathological aversion.

I didn’t love the sambousek meat ($16). Though the filling of mince and onion was dense and falvourful, the pastry was dense and dry and unexciting. This could’ve been better with an oilier or less dense pastry.

The samkeh harrah ($19) “oven baked barramundi topped w coriander, roasted nuts, tahini & chilli sauce had potential but was far too salty to the point of inedible for me, even eaten with Lebanese bread.

The skewers platter to share ($44) was seriously excellent. It featured 2 skewers each of  kafta, laham mishwi & shish tawook, all of which was extremely juicy, fresh and tasty – the Platonic ideal of what Lebanese meat skewers should be. This, together with the garlic and chilli sauces, was perfection, and should be an unmissable item for any first time visitors.

Overall: In our experience, an equal number of hits and misses. Use this insider info to avoid at least 2 misses from their menu and maximise the hits.

Jbeil Cuisine Enfield
Shop 1 2/12 Coronation Parade, Enfield NSW 2136
(02) 9067 3107

Categories
Vietnamese

Viet House Rolls – Westmead NSW Restaurant Review

There are a few places in Westmead to get a banh mi these days, and this recently opened place at the bottom of the UWS building is my least favourite one.

I had the crispy pork roll ($12.50 with a can of drink) on my one and only visit to Viet House Rolls, and it was not worth it. First, credit where credit is due: the bread was nice and crusty on the outside, whilst remaining soft on the inside, allowing me to avoid oral mucosal injury. Outside of this, injurious factors included a truly depressing few strands of carrot, pork crackling that came out of a plastic take-away container (if I wanted this I would’ve gone to the grocery store?), and just like. Normal mayo, without a hint of Vietnameseness.

What added insult to injury is that they won’t sell you this roll without a can of soft drink, making it the most expensive roll in the area, and not even good.

There’s a reason that palliative care, the trauma surgeons, my former consultant, and basically any other banh mi aficionado in and around the Westmead area goes to Thuy Hot Bread across from the train station, an absolute local institution that’s been around since at least when I was primary school.

(Full disclosure, I was once salty that I tried to get banh mi from here with a friend after work, within their posted opening hours online, only to find them closed. I am no longer salty about this, extrapolating what I know about the quality and price from this roll, and considering what we ate instead that night.)

Viet House Rolls
T11/160 Hawkesbury Rd, Westmead NSW 2145

Categories
Dessert Korean

Siroo Rice Cake Cafe – West Ryde NSW Restaurant Review

This songpyeon is a rice cake dessert with variable filling, slightly salty and sweet but not too sweet on the inside. I had never had these before, but they are a candidate to have again in the future.

The green tea and red bean bingsoo (medium – $25) was different to all other bingsoos I’ve had with its dusting of injeolmi. I don’t really know if I’m at a stage where I can differentiate between the nuances of different bingsoos. This post serves only as evidence that I ate it. Adequate sizing for 4 adults post Korean BBQ.

Siroo Rice Cake Cafe
981 Victoria Rd, West Ryde NSW 2114
(02) 9807 8718

Categories
Middle Eastern

Mina Bakery – Westmead NSW Restaurant Review

I had this half meat half cheese pizza ($7) towards the tail end of my overnight on-call shift when I had to sleep at work. Alhamdulillah no one tried to have a stroke in Western Sydney overnight.

Physically it was no better or worse than your average half meat half cheese pizza, but emotionally, eating it on the footpath working back to work ready to do my third of five 12 hour days in a row, it was there for me when the NSW public health system was not.

Mina Bakery Westmead
Shop 6/24 Railway Pde, Westmead NSW 2145
(02) 8872 9712