Category: Cuisines

Categories
Chinese

Chef’s Gallery – Parramatta NSW Restaurant Review

My first ever encounter with Chef’s Gallery was outside their Sydney CBD store back in 2012 or so. My friend ACYL and I were looking for a place to eat, and even though I don’t remember if we ultimately went inside I distinctly remembered reading this high-gloss white menu in the midday sun, and having the afterimage of it seared directly into my optic nerve for many minutes after.

Flash forward almost a decade to 2021 and I’m sitting in Chef’s Gallery’s Parramatta branch, and not for the first time in mere weeks. Their food is good, reliable, though perhaps on the expensive side with more of a focus on presentation than strong value. Throughout the course of the lockdowns in Sydney in 2021 I order takeaway several times from Chef’s Gallery, though to be honest I prefer Taste Gallery across the road for their more homely fare.

My partner loves some good deep fried tofu, and these Spinach Tofu with Soy Sauce ($17.90) fit the bill. These tofu were large and plump and soft inside, with a dusting of what I can only assume is eggy batter on the outside. The soy sauce was not overpowering, though the effect or benefit of the spinach was a little lost on me. Though in itself a solid dish, I feel $18 was perhaps a little too much to ask for it.

The Wonton in Chicken Soup ($11.90) was appropriately priced, warming, and delicious. The wontons were meaty with no signs of skin breakdown, and the soup clear, light, and wholesome.

The Dice Pepper Wagyu Beef ($29.90) was alright. Definitely a more expensive dish, that perhaps did not really live up to expectations set by its price and “Wagyu” flag. I feel like this is another one of those dishes where being Wagyu is more of a glamorous name and less of a meaningful attribute taste or texture wise. The black pepper sauce was good.

I have mixed feelings about the Dan Dan Noodles with Pork Chop ($18.90). I enjoyed the pork chop, but after enjoying the pork chop I found that the noodles by themselves were a bit plain and difficult to finish. Perhaps better optioned with an extra chop.

COMMENTS
Chef’s Gallery is not bad, and a known quantity. The food is definitely Chinese, but I do feel that they focus more strongly on the presentation and the price to value ratio therefore takes a hit.

Chef’s Gallery Parramatta
Shop 2184/159-175 Church St, Parramatta NSW 2150
(02) 7805 2303

Categories
Italian

La Favola – Newtown NSW Restaurant Review

We went with a group of friends and colleagues to La Favola, Newtown Italian restaurant and home to a RPA nurse who moonlights in greener pastures.

This is a piece of bread covered in some diced tomato and minimal greenery. Three of these bruschetta can be had for $15, making this a $5 plate. As far as breads go this was pretty pleasant, and as far as tomatoes go these definitely were some. It didn’t really sing out to me, though I guess not all entrees have to.

Moving into specialty entree territory, La Favola considers its calamari ($19) as a signature dish. These were pretty good, soft, and not too battered. Their pale colour implied that they did not swim in the oil for too long. There was nothing either good nor bad about the aioli.

We were offered but did not order the zucchini flowers ($25 for a plate, more than what is pictured), and yet they arrived. Our waitress assured us that we had ordered them when questioned, though none of our party owned believed we did. They were pretty tasty to be honest, filled to the brim with a soft mix of mozzarella and ricotta. But that’s not the point!

My pasta of the night was the seafood pasta (daily special – $35). It was a good pasta in a classic red sauce, loaded with mussels, prawn, and fish. The spaghetti was coated well in the umami, seafoody sauce, and though expensive I thought it was worth it. I probably didn’t need the additional bread on top of the bruschetta from earlier.

La Favola
170 King St, Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 8021 0002

Categories
Café Italian Middle Eastern

Bar Biscotti – North Strathfield NSW Restaurant Review

The main take-home message from this review is really that the food was good, but we spent 40 minutes waiting.

This mango smoothie ($9) was $9 expensive, but pretty good, and came soon after ordering, which was more than we could say about the rest of our meal.

The Mediterranean Potato & Eggs ($21) featuring spiced (mostly vinegary) potato, egg, and zaatar was pretty good. The potatoes were a bit more sour than my partner would’ve liked, and though she wasn’t particularly keen on them I felt the eggs were quite good, as was the surprise zaatar which I think was just mentioned in the menu as “coriander… and a side of pita bread”.

The Italian Meatballs ($22) were pretty good. The Turkish bread was probably the best part – light and airy, a bit oily, a bit crispy, and nice and warm. The beef meatball was a bit weird, a brown exterior with an unexpectedly pink interior displaying a gobstopper like quality that the waiter PROMISED was normal and intentional (but why?) We did eat it and did not get sick. The Napoletana sauce was fine, and the rocket was plenty, but I do feel like a bit of extra bread to soak up all that extra sauce wouldn’t have gone astray. I don’t know why there’s a separate option on the menu for a meatball sub which seems essentially the same dish with different bread and cheese but vaguely the same deal. It was a difficult choice, but I think with this delicious Turkish bread we probably made the right one.

OTHER THOUGHTS We didn’t really complain about our meal taking an extremely long time to come, but the couple next to us who ordered after us and got their food fractionally before us did, and I think they were offered something free out of it. The food was reasonably good, but I’m just glad we had nowhere else to be that morning, because 40 minutes is too much.

Bar Biscotti
24 George St, North Strathfield NSW 2137
0424 195 732

Categories
French

Queen St Eatery – Berry NSW Restaurant Review

A recent timetabling kerfuffle gave us the opportunity to have a double date dinner at one of Berry’s nicest restaurants with my housemate and colleague DTC and our respective fiancees. The choice was between Queen St Eatery and neighbouring South on Albany, both recipients of quite positive reviews online, but only Queen St Eatery not confining the four of us to each eat exactly the same thing. Our $95 per person instead brought us a rather nice assortment of French fare.

The house made olive oil brioche with cultured butter was solid. Buttery. Soft. A hint of sweetness. Love a good bread. You just can’t go wrong with brioche.

The steak tartare with oyster mayonnaise & pomme gaufrettes was also quite good. Good flavouring and good good texture to the meat. The potato crisps were of course useless as a vessel for the meat, but I understand that’s not mandatory.

This chicken, pork & pistachio pate en croute was a nightly special entrée and the more interesting of the remaining entrée choices. A good mix of flavours and textures, though I’m not 100% sold on the texture of the shortcrust.

This snapper meuniére (baby snapper fillet with brown butter & caper sauce) was seriously amazing. So tender and full of flavour. Loved the brightness of the capers (and their abundance) and the richness of the brown butter sauce. One of the best pieces of fish I’ve had in the last two years. Really very good and shouldn’t be missed.

The steak frites (tenderloin steak with cafe de Paris butter and frites allumettes) was good, tender and flavourful, but surprisingly the lesser of the two standard menu item mains. Ideally if you have at least one friend you will get to have both.

But what about the duck frites with duck a l’orange sauce & watercress? Another seasonal special of the mains menu, we chose not to order this because our general duck a l’orange experience has been poor to date. Luckily DTC did order this, because we got to each have a bite and it was very good. Probably better than the steak, but it’s up to you if you want to fully forgo red meat in your sides, or if you’re someone who needs it to feel like a complete and satisfied human being and diner.

The banana tarte tatin with local vanilla gelato, was nice and warm and crispy yet buttery in the pastry with the melted on effect of vanilla gelato like a much-improved ice cream on waffles. Great. Not too sweet.

The blood orange crème caramel was of a similar style to the duck frites, but more forward with sweetness, with a dense and rich block of creme caramel. It was a bit sweeter, and probably the lesser of the two quite good desserts.

COMMENTS
It’s rare that you have a meal where every dish is banger after banger. This was one of those times. It was lovely, and I’m glad we went. One of the best Shoalhaven has to offer.

Queen St Eatery
1/65 Queen St, Berry NSW 2535

Categories
American

Sneaky Burger – Nowra NSW Restaurant Review

During my time in Nowra my two junior colleagues each recommended me a South Coast burger chain to try. Though I never made it to The Hungry Monkey, I did manage to go to Sneaky Burger as my last dinner in town.

I had and ruined the Pineapple Express ($14) with an additional beef patty ($3). I had been craving a bit of a pineapple burger after seeing a chicken schnitzel pineapple burger on the menu at Chooksy’s, and I must admit that the weird combination of peanut butter and pineapple on a burger drew me in. While most of the other burger options on the “Baller range” at Sneaky Burger feature two patties, the pineapple express comes as default with only one, so of course I had to ruin it with an extra.

This $17 abomination turned out to be an extremely oily and greasy mess, not to mention ergonomically difficult. It is my own fault and my own regret that I did this, as I suspect the base burger would’ve been just as good, perhaps better. Despite the greasiness and the clear presence of pineapple, the flavours of this burger didn’t quite stand out for me. I think that in particular the patty wasn’t as seasoned as I would have expected, and the use of peanut butter rather than a standard sauce again meant that the flavours were blunted. Though I could definitely appreciate the presence of chunky peanut butter, I don’t know that overall it’s a great flavour to use in a burger.

I ended up feeling extremely guilty about halfway through this burger, and started to open it up and pick at it a bit (also because two pieces of bread, no sauce, and the added textural dryness from peanut butter just kind of made it extra dry). This co-incided with my consultant’s arrival in the restaurant, and so I said hello to him and we did a bit of a clinical handover with half an open burger in my hands. He loves the place.

As an aside I really enjoyed this Google Review from Cassandra. I actually disagree with most of the content the woman serving me was likely an adult, could clearly read, and there was no problem with customer service at all. I got all the bacon that was promised to me, and any additional servings of bacon are $3 and not $3.50, so six of those could probably buy like half to three quarters of a nice pizza from nearby Pietro’s in South Nowra. I just thought the last sentence was funny.

Sneaky Burger Nowra
130 Kinghorne St, Nowra NSW 2541
0432 513 910