Category: Cuisines

Categories
Café

Badmanner Thymes – Parramatta NSW Restaurant Review

Badmanner Thymes is a small-ish cafe in Parramatta, conveniently located across the road from the frozen-in-time Eat St Carpark, which in 2022 is somehow yet to discover contactless payments, or reasonable walk from the nearby (and free) Westfield Parramatta parking. Badmanner serves up a relatively limited food menu for breakfast, which sadly does not encompass its much broader lunch menu. We went, as we often do to such places, after an intensive care night shift at the end of our work week.

I chose the relatively basic Brekkie Burrito ($16), a reasonably sized wrap of sautéed chorizo, hash brown, avocado, tomato salsa, scrambled egg with a hint of chilli relish from a breakfast menu of similarly basic items. I have no complaints about the quality of this burrito, though it would have been nice if there were other, slightly more complex items on offer.

Food aside, we did enjoy the service and the coffee, and the fact that they gave the sleep-deprived eight of us a gigantic dining table in our own private room to eat and debrief around. That was something very special, and an experience we’ve never had at Parramatta’s more popular cafes like Circa or Lil Miss Collins.

Presented for my own amusement only, a couple I ran into on the way to Badmanner with matching shoes and walking in perfect synch.

Badmanner Thymes
1 Horwood Pl, Parramatta NSW 2150
0410 406 889

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Japanese

Koku Culture – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

Koku Culture is home to one of the best brunches I’ve had all year. I’ve never been shy about my love of Japanese-fusion breakfast and brunch foods, and Koku Culture’s tiny Ashfield store fits the bill completely.

The Torched Confit Ora King Salmon Fillet with 63 degree egg ($24+$2) was sublime. Ora King Salmon is always a treat, featuring a rich oiliness and delicate mouthfeel far beyond your average grocery store Tasmanian Atlantic salmon. I try to order some Ora King salmon every now and then from the popular online fish delivery services, and even when cooked inexpertly by me at home the difference is noticeable. Koku Culture’s torched confit king salmon fillet definitely lived up to expectations – tender inside with a slight char on the outside reminiscent of aburi sushi. The miso dressing was tasty but not overpowering, and the green tea soba salad surprisingly refreshing, especially with the egg (a $2 supplement but important) and miso mixed in. This has to be a must-order dish from Koku Culture.

This Crispy Rice Cheeseburger ($15) with Chips and their secret sauce was also fantastic, but in a completely different way to the salmon. Where the salmon felt clean and healthful, this was perfect in terms of sheer debauchery. The rice “buns” were perfectly cirspy and fried out the outside, with a light but slightly sticky texture on the inside – a bit “QQ” as we would call it in terms of Chinese food. The seafood was similarly crispy, enjoyable and not merely for decoration. I opted for an extra patty ($5)(probably wasn’t necessary in this case, and I’d just stick with a single patty in the future) , and both beef patties were cooked to a delicious level of juiciness, mixed in with their special sauce and fresh lettuce. Even the chips were good.

The matcha affogato, which I can’t see on their menu any more, was pretty OK. The ice cream was good, the coffee was black. Mixed together it remained a bit black for my taste.

That’s a good Matcha Brownie right there.

COMMENTS
I enjoyed Koku Culture. Definitely worth a visit, but make sure you budget in some time for the queue outside.

UPDATE
These guys are now closed forever, before the publication of this review. This is part of why I’ve pushed this review far into the future in terms of scheduling – they’re not going to get more dead. Hopefully Kenji Okuda and Donna Chau can bless us once again something good.

Koku Culture
1/355 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131
0402 697 475

Categories
Bakery Dessert

Berry Donut Van – Berry NSW Restaurant Review

(The Famous) Berry Donut Van. I don’t know exactly how famous it is, or why it’s a van. I’d never heard of it until I drove past it one day, and I don’t think it actually moves. My first donut from them was brought to me by my housemate and colleague DTC, and my second donut was eaten fresh and hot on the spot – a big difference.

The van’s cinnamon donuts, essentially their flagship product, are sold for $2.20 each, with larger quantities attracting a reasonable discount. I chose to splash out on a donut & cream ($7), billed as “Our famous original cinnamon donut cut in half with a scoop of Serendipity’s smooth vanilla ice cream in between”. As you can see from the photo, this was not what I received. I kind of expected, as per the description on the menu, to receive a ice-cream sandwich like item, but what I actually received was a donut sat on top of a scoop of ice cream. It was, in this format, not so readily edible for one as unco-ordinated as me. While the donut was seriously delicious, perfectly warm and soft and fluffy with just the right amount of cinnamon sugar, It ultimately meant that I spent $4.80 for a scoop of very standard vanilla ice cream which I could’ve had more donut instead!

UPDATE

I went back with my partner for some straight up donuts ($2.20). They were hot, fresh, and extra good.

The nutella donut ($4), with molten nutella injected at regular intervals throughout the ring, was also quite nice, and surprisingly not too sweet. Is it definitely worth almost double the price of the classic donut though? Unsure, but worth the try.

Comments: Just get the donuts. Skip the ice cream. Signage needs to be updated.

(The Famous) Berry Donut Van
73 Queen St, Berry NSW 2535
(02) 4464 1968

Categories
Malaysian Vietnamese

Ngoodle – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

We had a really nice meal at Ngoodle, nice in the sense that the food and service were both very good, but not in the sense that it was overwhelmingly expensive with unnecessary flourishes. It was exactly the perfect kind of niceness for South East Asian cuisine.

We went on the recommendation of the crispy chicken laksa ($19.50), which some guy on the internet said was more expensive than but better than that of Hunter St’s (now relocated to Ashfield, actually) Malay Chinese Takeaway. The laksa was delicious, with such a complex and aromatic arrangement of herbs and spices, and perfect vermicelli. The laksa stood strongly alone without any additional protein, whilst the crispy chicken maryland was juicy and crispy and tender. The combination of the two was of unclear benefit to me, as putting it in the laksa kind of ruined the crispiness of it. I think perhaps a combination or seafood laksa might’ve been the way to go instead, but nonetheless this was a good bowl.

The Pork Chop Dry Noodles ($18) were excellent. The pork chop was a little bit sweet, super tasty with a crispy and melt-in-your-mouth quality. It reminded me of the marmite pork from Albee’s, but just better in most ways. The dry noodles were quite stiff, but pretty good with the sweet dressing and the vegetables – ultimately though the pork chop was the star of this show. It is probably the best fried Asian pork chop I’ve had.

These spring rolls (4 for $7) were super packed with meat and taro, not bad, and good with dipping sauce.

COMMENTS
My partner was really impressed with the main lady working at the front, we thought she might be the owner. She speaks multiple, multiple languages (Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, English – and those were just the ones we heard over the course of our 45 minute meal), was super attentive to us filling our carafe up with filtered water with a fresh leaf of mint, and seemed to have a really good relationship and even friendship with her regular customers.

Respect, and can definitely recommend.

Ngoodle
234 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131
0490 733 750

Categories
American

2 Smoking Barrels – Wollongong NSW Restaurant Review

2 Smoking Barrels had been on my radar for about 12 months until I finally had the opportunity to go. Their quite limited lunch opening hours, number two hours (12PM-2PM) per day five days per week, meant that it took a couple of goes before I was able to time my post-nights nap and wake up early enough for the drive back from Nowra to Sydney, passing through Wollongong in the middle. I ate in the last fortnight of their location on Flinders St, though hopefully as they expand into their new premises next month (far past once this post is actually published), they might also expand their hours.

2 Smoking Barrels offers generally standard American BBQ fare, with a mixture of rolls (burgers), meats, and sides on offer. Like sister restaurant Babyface Kitchen, some classics here are enhanced by an Eastern influence, for example their pit smoked beef brisket roll ($19), served with a drizzle of miso ranch sauce along with the standard “Carolina” barbecue sauce, a combination that actually does work. Sauce aside, the brisket in the burger was deliciously juicy and tender, with a good ratio of fillings to bun, but what in my mind was a bit of an extreme price.

The hot links ($10 for 100g), again served with a mixture of sauces, were equally juicy and flavourful, so much so that I found myself dripping juice onto my shirt at multiple times throughout this meal (in my defense, I had just worked 13 hours, napped for two, and then driven for one). Despite the quality, again the value proposition seemed suspect.

COMMENTS My friend, colleague, and housemate asked me if I thought that 2 Smoking Barrels was “worth a detour” on the way up from Nowra back to the inner-West of Sydney. Worth a detour kind of implies something specific when it comes to restaurant reviews, in a two-star kind of way. That said, I do think it’s worth taking 15 minutes out of a 2 hour trip to go to this restaurant if you really want to go. What you’ll need to consider for yourself is if it’s worth the money spend.

2 Smoking Barrels
2/83 Crown St, Wollongong NSW 2500
(02) 4295 0135