Categories
Chinese Drinks

Hey Fresh – Kingsford NSW Restaurant Review

There are a number of great places for bubble tea in Kingsford. What a shame that none of them are open at 10PM on a Thursday.

Hey Fresh is co-located with Yang Guo Fu Ma La Tang on Kingsford’s main strip. It’s one of the last tea places to stay open every night, and with the ongoing two for 1 special we thought we’d give it ago.

What a mistake.

Neither the lychee or strawberry fruit teas tasted very good to us. I guess it’s difficult to describe but I think they just tasted way too artificial. I was surprised to find the lychee fruit tea pink in colour, as lychee flesh is generally white and only the shell has some redness to it.

Overall rating: I would not recommend to a friend or colleague.

Hey Fresh Milk Tea
520-522 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032

Categories
Café Japanese

Cafe Kentaro – Surry Hills, NSW Restaurant Review

Kentaro is a Japanese-themed cafe in Surry Hills. Its menu and name are suspiciously reminiscent of Orantek in Redfern. It remains unclear if these similarities are a product of convergent or divergent evolution.

We were seated on either end of a very long table outside, presumably due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. These restrictions did not apply to the diners sitting next to each other inside the cafe. I cannot comment on the decor as we did not go inside.

Matcha Mille-feuille

Matcha Mille-feuille – Good. Matcha slightly bitter. Girlfriend enjoyed the brown sauce but misidentified it as vegemite.

The Pork Katsu Sandwich

The Pork Katsu Sandwich was very good. Light fluffy bread with fresh, juicy katsu. My only critique would be that it was oversauced on the rightmost piece and undersauced on the leftmost piece. There’s probably no way to prevent this. The sandwich was very reminiscent of the one that I had from Oratnek a few months ago.

Hojicha milkshake

The Hojicha milkshake was actually amazing and I want four more. Very nice. Not too sweet. Braved it even though I didn’t have lactase on me.

Overall rating: I would recommend to a friend or colleague.

Cafe Kentaro
+61 2 9699 2665
616 Bourke St, Surry Hills NSW 2010

Categories
Café Chinese

Park Cafe – Campsie NSW Restaurant Review

My PMR friend stopped by Campsie for an impromptu visit, and I found us a place to eat with record decisiveness and in record time. He very kindly allowed me to choose two Taiwanese dishes from their combination Western and Taiwanese menu, which is all available all-day long.

This Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice (卤肉饭 – lu rou fan) ($16.80) was really good, with a mixture of soy braised pork belly and pork mince, plenty of braising fluid as gravy, white rice, and a runny-yolk but solid-albumen sunny side up egg. The fatty pork belly was really soft and delicious, with the minced portions being more lean and providing textural contrast. The supplied braising liquid was enough to flavour the entire mound of rice, which was a generous serve and definitely enough if if you’re a rice lover. I enjoyed this, and may actually have to come back with my partner so that she can enjoy this too.

The Taiwanese Beef Brisket Rice ($18.80) was the lesser of the two dishes. It too featured an egg, which was not pictured on the menu photo, but lacked bok choy, which was. The meat was relatively tender, but the flavours and textures of the more lean beef and its composite sauce were less rich and indulgent than that of the pork belly rice. My friend agreed with me, but still enjoyed it. I will attach below a photo of the menu for photographic comparison of its components.

Park Cafe
Shop 5, 20-22 Anglo Rd, Campsie NSW 2194