The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally. All meals are independently paid for - the author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Next to Event Cinemas on George St and very close to Wang’s Dumplings is the Sydney branch of Uncle Tetsu’s multinational bakery project.
During our first visit we had the original, matcha, and red bean cheese tarts.
Each cheese tart was delicious with a more cooked exterior layer and an interior runny gooey centre.
On our second visit the red bean flavour had been discontinued for a strawberry flavour for Christmas.
My favourite was the original flavour, however all four I’ve had have been quite nice.
I would rate these much above the Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart in Australia. They are not as good as the cheese tarts from BAKE in Japan, and they’re also quite expensive at $3.90 a pop.
Unlike the cheese tarts I cannot really recommend this weird, watery, vanilla custard.
Ippuku is a small and in my opinion underrated Japanese cafe in Rosebery. Despite some somewhat middling reviews online I decided to take the plunge and visit for some sandos before an evening shift at work.
Ippuku is a nice, bright cafe with plenty of natural light and a selection of indoor table, indoor high table, and well ventilated outdoor seating, ideal for the COVID paranoid. Staffing was by a predominately Japanese crew with a Caucasian man making yummy warm juice from Single O coffee beans.
I was in a bit of a rush so I asked to have my pork katsu sando inside and the rest of the food to be packed for takeaway so that I could eat it later at work. I think unfortunately I did not communicate this very well, as similar to Yummy Duck BBQ just around the corner I received all of my food in take-away form. This was ultimately not a big deal as I was able to try each of the items that I ordered fresh.
The Pork Katsu Sando ($13) was really good. The pork cutlets were thinner than I’m used to from places like Kentaro, Oratnek, and Sandoitchi, but this was by no means a problem. Indeed I found this pork cutlet to be extra juicy, with the welcome addition of a few fatty bits around the edges to mix the flavour and texture up a bit. Unlike my previous experiences this sandwich was served with tomato, which provided an extra level of freshness to the sando and reminded me a bit of MOS Burger’s tomato burgers. Really good.
The Ebi Sando ($16) is a recent addition to the menu, and features a generous serving of thick, juicy battered and fried prawns in a bit of an egg-salad tartare sauce. I loved the juicy prawny prawns and how the sandwich was just jam packed with them. I really enjoyed the half of this sandwich that I had fresh, but found the sauce a bit too fishy when I had the second half a few hours later. It was a few dollars more expensive than the pork sando but definitely worth a try.
Pork gyoza
The pork gyoza (6 for $10) were a bit disappointing. I appreciate that they were pork and chive rather than pork and cabbage, but I just didn’t think they were all that flavourful. It tends to take a lot for a Japanese gyoza to impress me though – I tend to like Chinese dumplings more.
UPDATE 12/12/2020
Wagyu beef burger
The Wagyu Beef Burger ($16) is pretty good, but pretty expensive and ultimately just a normal burger. It was not a Japanese hamburg patty which is what I expected. It was really just a classic hamburger with a thick juicy internally-pink patty, cheese, pickles, tomato, onion, lettuce, and sauce. Quite steep for $16 and not at all special.
The Chashu Rice ($17) is quite bad, and I would recommend you stay far away from this. Forever. The egg is nice and partially cooked and runny, but that’s the end of the compliments. I found the fried rice to be sticky and not flavourful. The chashu was dry and not fatty enough to break up the bland fried rice taste. A very bad dish for you to avoid.
Chicken katsu sandwich
I drove home from Ippuku and dropped off this chicken katsu sandwich ($13) for my girlfriend. I can’t really tell you anything about it apart from the fact that she thought it was pork and enjoyed it. I asked her to save me some, which she did, but she left it in the microwave for 10 hours instead of the fridge so I didn’t feel safe enough to have any.
VERDICT Don’t fall victim to negative Nancys on Zomato. I’d strongly recommend a visit to Ippuku for their delicious sandos.
Though there are many meats that I have tasted and loved in my lifetime, I had not, until today, ever had Brazilian barbeque. I found my way to Flame Brazilian BBQ after picking up a cake from nearby Black Star, and having read some quite good reviews on google.com decided why not.
Brazilian Flame offers five types of meat in various formats – on chips, on salad, in a roll, with some rice. The meats available are as follows: – Pork – Beef – Lamb – Chicken – Chorizo I had read great reviews about the chips from some chip fanatic on Google (he called them dangerous) and decided stupidly that it would be safer to get two lots with chips than to get some with salad (mostly as I did not know how to order the salad).
I had the BBQ meat snack packs of chicken and lamb on chips and beef and pork on chips. I can rate the order of meat enjoyment in the order of :
Chicken
Pork
Beef
Lamb
All meats but the lamb were quite moist and juicy. The chicken was the best. The pork was fully cooked through, but the fat and skin content were still there. The beef was in between medium and well done. The lamb was a bit dry. I had to give chorizo a pass but would risk it over the known quantity of lamb or beef next time.
Eating at peak period for Sunday lunch meant that the meat was always freshly roasted and constantly turned over. Wait time was a mere five minutes.
The quality of the chips were overstated. Admittedly they were eaten following a ten minute commute, but really good chips can usually withstand such a short amount of time. These did not.
The smoked sauce on top was just fine, there could have been more of it.
We only managed to finish around half the chips and meat between, so for $16 there’s a lot of food packed into these boxes.
Final thoughts
Not bad not good, should’ve had salad. Very cheap though.
My partner spent $90 on breakfast from Born to Bake Greek Patisserie Cafe on UberEats this morning. This is what she ordered.
Kreatopita
This wrapped-in-foil delight is the Kreatopita ($10). It consisted of meat mince in puff pastry, however there were parts of the insides that was straight dough. For this, it loses a point. A further point is lost for the price.
Salmon Roll
This Salmon Roll ($14) with smoked salmon, capers, baby spinach, red onion and cream cheese actually came with surprise avocado. Sadly the avocado was very hard and not ripe at all. The flavours were not extraordinary. It is also quite expensive. Not again.
Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich
This Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich ($14) with lettuce, tomato and a spicy mayonnaise sauce is as described on the shipping manifest. Unfortunately ours was quite unbalanced, as it seems they ran out of ingredients to extend the salad beyond half of the roll. We therefore had one side that was yum, and one side that was just dry chicken with no salads. I saw that soon after we received our meal that they had marked this particular sandwich as out of stock on the UberEats app.
The Moussaka ($14.50) was cold. How am I meant to eat this? (UPDATE: even warmed up in the oven it was not very good)
Bougatsa
The Bougatsa ($7.50) was a yummy dessert of filo pastry around a warm custard filling. Quite good.
Amarena Black Cherry Tart
This Amarena Black Cherry Tart ($4) was a nice treat for $4. The black cherry was yummy but I wish there were more.
Salted Caramel Tart
The Salted Caramel Tart ($9.50) was pretty standard. Not bad, but $9.50?
The Orange Cake ($9) was unpredictably huge. Very dense. The densest. I didn’t really like it that much.
Strawberry cheesecake, Amarena Black Cherry, Fruit tart
My partner made a sweet and kind move on my birthday to order me a repeat of our previous adventure.
The fruit tart ($7.50) was actually really nice. I loved the variety of the fruit as well as the custard filling and pastry underneath.
The strawberry cheesecake ($7) I wouldn’t order again.
The Amarena black berry tart ($4) you have heard about before.
VERDICT
Though they may have been born to bake, the operators of Born to Bake made some strange choices , like surprising us with unripe avocado and a cold moussaka. While they may be born to bake, I was not – I didn’t expect to have to bake my own food after it arrived.
“But you’ve already been to Kurtosh!”, you say. “You didn’t even like it!”
While both statements are true, my partner dragged me along to a Kurtosh franchise in Surry Hills after dinner at Khoi’s, and I didn’t want to waste a mediocre time by not writing about it.
I have discovered, since my last visit to Kurtosh in Randwick in August 2020, that kürtőskalác is a type of baked dessert of Hungarian origin. Unlike the delicious cherry strudel from Randwick Hungarian Restaurant Corner 75, however, I have never really had a kürtőskalác that I have thought to be special.
Before we get to the food, a special mention needs to be made for the consistently poor service at Kurtosh – something that seems to span their multiple distant sites. Before ordering I joked to my partner that our attendant would need to ask for our orders three times, as a callback to our poor experience in their Randwick store. To my surprise and horror, this did indeed happen – it was just very difficult for the Kurtosh employee (who was not the same as last time) to remember the three things that we wanted. She did indeed ask us three separate times.
The palmier was fine.
The chocolate peanut butter cookie was actively good. The cookie was gooey and chewy, with a dark chocolate flavour. I didn’t enjoy the peanut butter filling quite as much, but I did not hate it either.
The vanilla and nut kurtosh was not to my taste. Always a disappointment, but it’s very hard to convince my partner. For what it’s worth, she did enjoy this, and she specifically remarked that she enjoyed this more than the cinnamon one that she had previously tried.
Nurtosh/5 – I’m allowed to not like things, OK?
EDIT, JULY 2022 I recently had a snack at the Kurtosh store in Marrickville. Rather than starting a third post for the same chain, I will just append my vague thoughts onto the end of this one.
The Nutella Babka I felt had good texturing and layering on the outside, with good crispiness that was sadly let down by the Hershey-style vomit-like chocolate taste. Though I enjoyed the crispiness of the outside, I was further disappointed when I discovered the wetness of the liquer inside. Oh no. I keep finding things I don’t like at Kurtosh, but my partner keeps taking me.
