Categories
Café

Culture Bean – Kogarah NSW Cafe Review

I would estimate that I’ve been to Culture Bean thirty to forty times over the past twelve months. Located on absolute prime real estate across the road from St George Hospital, Culture Bean is the leading off-campus provider of coffee and food to my starving colleagues whilst also commanding its own customer base from the wider community. Culture Bean is the favourite local cafe of one of our consultant intensivists in particular, but also known to frequented by everyone else we work with.

The reasons behind the fact that I’ve got very few photos to show for the sheer volume of food I’ve consumed from Culture Bean is multifactorial. It’s a bit embarassing to take photos of food in front of colleagues at work, especially bosses. Each meal also becomes less special the more you eat somewhere, and therefore in the mind less worthy of photography, even if you never took any photos to start with.

Bacon and egg sandwich

The bacon and egg sandwich ($11.50), not to be confused with the bacon and egg roll, is a fully featured, stuffed with ingredients sandwich featuring egg, rocket, halloumi, heaps of bacon, and your choice of sauce (default is hollandaise and barbecue). It is very filling, and the flavours are perfectly balanced. It is much better than the bacon and egg roll ($7), which I feel to be a bit too bread heavy and dry in comparison.

The mainstay of management at Culture Bean is their fantastically good value egg and haloumi slider and regular coffee combo ($8). These hot little sliders can be optioned with a vast array of sauces if you know to ask (otherwise you will be given barbecue), and make for a great post-ward round snack. The coffee at Culture Bean is from Gabriel Coffee, and is always of good quality.

Acai Bowl

Culture Bean’s literally award winning Acai Bowl ($16) is pretty OK. My first acai bowl ever and was just fine, not mindblowing. Knowing this is apparently one of the best in Sydney did not make me want to get any more acai bowls from anywhere else.

I have enjoyed the bocconcini pesto sandwich but wish it would have some meat in it. Conversely, I have also had the chicken pesto sandwich and wished it were less dry, and thought it could perhaps benefit from some bocconcini in it. Culture Bean would really be onto something if they could put both chicken and bocconcini in the same sandwich.

The Pulled Pork Burger ($10) is a good value burger full of saucy, wet pulled pork and a carroty Asian slaw. It’s quite nice and pretty cheap, but make sure you have some paper towels nearby as it does get quite wet.

I tried the Blue Heaven ($16) with blue spirulina, banana, mango, kiwi, goji & dragon fruit one day after a night shift. While I liked the dragon fruit I wasn’t a big fan of the other fruit, nor was I a fan of the weird blue colour. Just not really my thing to be honest, maybe other people like this.

I enjoyed the Culture Burger ($12.50), which is essentially a chicken thigh burger in an activated charcoal bun. They are able to do this is a normal bun if you ask, which I tend to do since I’m not really sure if activated charcoal is good for you or bad for you.

COMMENTS / VERDICT

I feel AWFUL that the staff at Culture Bean know my name and I don’t know theirs. The service is always really nice and friendly, and the food pretty good too. I always feel guilty when I walk past Culture Bean to go to Concrete Jungle/Cafe 959 and the guys at Culture Bean just look at me with this look of sadness. They are my home cafe but sometimes I want something different. Definitely the best place in easy reach of the hospital (but sadly out of Spectralink reception).

5/5

Culture Bean
2217/15 Gray St, Kogarah NSW 2217

Categories
Bakery Café Japanese

Café Cre Asion – Sydney CBD NSW Japanese Bakery Review

Manned by four people in a small industrial kitchen, Cafe Cre Asion is a hidden gem tucked around the corner behind about 16 security cameras. We went after a recent brunch for a sweet treat. They’re currently takeaway only, however it’s hard to imagine how they would manage to seat people on a normal day given their tiny footprint.

Raspberry Macaron
Chocolate Macaron

Sadly they were out of yuzu macarons, so we settled for chocolate and raspberry. I didn’t think these were very special.

Chocolate Cookie
Vanilla Cookie

Cafe Cre Asion’s cookies had a strong shortbread quality. They were very buttery and smooth, but had different textures and mouthfeels between the outer crust and the inner cookie, acting almost as two desserts in one.

Apple and cinnamon muffin

Wow. I really enjoyed this apple and cinnamon muffin. Without a hint of exaggeration this was the best muffin I’ve ever had in my entire life. Like the cookies, it felt like I was having 6 muffins in one. Each bite gave me a new experience, as I tasted the various components and textures separately. The muffin itself was very moist and light, while the muffin top had a nice and caramelised surface. Within the muffin there were pockets of cinnamon and apple which I found truly delightful. I cannot stan for this muffin enough. Please have one.

Second Visit

I returned in the middle of December 2020 to try some more baked goods after a disappointing visit to nearby Paramount Coffee Project.

All four cookies at Cafe Cre Asion

The Matcha cookie was dense with matcha flavour and not too sweet. I think it is suited more to an Eastern palate.

The Caramel and Walnut cookie is their only cookie that has “bits” in it. It is quite good, and I particularly enjoyed the walnut pieces.

Baked cheesecake

Baked cheesecake not good. Don’t get.

Swiss roll

Fruity swiss roll is pretty fruit. Light sponge roll with lots of cream. Quite nice and it almost feels like you’re not being bad with all the fruit.

Third visit

This chicken, mushroom, and wasabi mayo toastie ($13) is actually amazing. The chicken breast is so tender, complemented with the exact scientifically perfect amount of creaminess from the mild wasabi mayo. I shudder to think of just how much trial and error would’ve been neede din the lab to perfect the ratios, but it all just works so well. The lettuce, each leaf individually perfect, adds a nice fresh crisp to the sandwich, while preventing the juices of the sandwich soaking into the base layer of bread. The enoki, also great. This is sandwich science in action. I’ve never had a more perfect toastie in my life.

VERDICT
Despite not having any of the matcha or Japanese stuff that Cafe Cre Asion is known for, I’ve really enjoyed my two visits to date. I’d like to come back and would encourage you to do the same.

Try the muffin. It will change your mindset on muffins.

Café Cre Asion
(02) 8021 1629
101/21 Alberta St, Sydney NSW 2000

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Malaysian

Cafe Rumah – Surry Hills NSW Malaysian Restaurant Review

Rumour has it that Cafe Rumah is one of the top Malaysian-fusion cafes in all of Sydney. To be fair, there aren’t really that many. My partner and I ventured into the inner west one sunny Friday morning for a bit of Asian cuisine.

Mama Yang’s Pork Belly Rice Bowl ($18) was delicious. The pork belly was cooked well, with a great melt in your mouth feel to the fat and skin components. The fatty pork to lean pork ratio was just right, and neither components overpowered the other. The fresh herbs and pickles added an additional level of flavour to the soy-braised pork belly and rice, and gave it a new spin compared to the usual pork belly fare that we normally get from Chinese restaurants around the city. I can definitely recommend this dish.

While Mama Yang prevailed in her dish’s light deliciousness, the Tom Yum Chicken Congee ($16) faltered. I found the tom yum congee to be far too tasty. The tom yum and flavours were too strong, and took away from this congee’s ability to be a wholesome and warming meal. In their defense, the congee had all of the requisite ingredients, including what seemed like $5 of ginger alone, but it is perhaps this generosity that led to its defeat. Too tasty, not wholesome.

The Milo Dino ($6.50) was a surprise hit. Six dollars is a lot to pay for a glass of milo, but the taste was nice and I didn’t choke on the powdery stuff on top.

Overall I think Cafe Rumah tends towards stronger flavours, and is perhaps a miss if you are someone who has a softer palate. Personally I would still like to come back and try their roti john, so I guess it’s a recommend with caveats.

Cafe Rumah
(02) 9280 2289
71-73 Campbell St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010

Categories
Japanese

Yakitori Yebisu – Regent Place Sydney CBD NSW Izakaya Review

Expensive, but why?

We ended our search of a late night feed one Wednesday night at Yakitori Yebisu in Regent Place, quite a legit looking and feeling Japanese izakaya.

Upon approaching the restaurant we were greeted by a staff member who told us quite sternly that we would have to spend at least $30 per head for a seat. That was fine, we thought – but we didn’t know just how easy it would be to spend that amount.

The vibe inside was lively, with several groups of young people, as well as a few couples, drinking large towers of beer and chatting. Ordering was via an iPad tablet system, which was good as it helped us to minimise interpersonal contact.

We ordered a couple of beef yakitori ($7.80 each) and chicken yakitori ($4.80 each)– both were tender and delicious but at a mind numbing price.

We also ordered a variety of sushi, again mind numbingly expensive. We thought that the salmon roe gunkan ($9 for 2) was of poor quality, as it was too salty, but the sea urchin gunkan ($15 for 2) tasted good though much too expensive than it had any right to be. The aburi salmon ($7 for 2) and aburi scallop ($8 for 2) were good, however the flavour somewhat drowned out by the mayonnaise, and the constant thought at the back of our minds was that we could get the same thing for less than half the price across the road at Sushi Hotaru.

Ultimately the food pictured and a garden variety bottle of Kirin beer hurt us to the tune of $72.20. While the vibe was good and the food was reasonable, the exorbitant prices at Yebisu are indefensible.

As young professionals we are somewhat price insensitive but Yebisu takes it too far.

Avoid. (2/5)

Yakitori Yebisu
Regent Place, 7-10/501 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9264 3272

Yakitori Yebisu Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
Categories
Greek Middle Eastern

Capri’s Kebab Pizza – Arncliffe Takeaway Review

We’ve had Capri’s Kebab and Pizza n-number of times over our numerous night shifts. Capri’s has the distinction of being open until very late most nights, late enough for us to reliably order at the end of a long night shift ward round.

The establishment itself is actually quite confusing, as it shares a location and phone number with Megabite Pizza, however there appears to be two separate menus, with Megabite providing Middle Eastern kebabs and pizza and Capri’s the Greek version.

Mixed Yiros (roll $13) – Delicious yiros meat in a wrap with hot chip, salad and tzatziki. Just what you need to keep your will to live during a night shift.

Capri Special Pide ($18) – Fresh and hot and cheesy, an unfaultable pide for the time of night.

One problem that I will point out about Capri is that they charge an additional $2 for tabouli, which, on top of a $14 charge for the base kebab is a bit steep. Tabouli is in my humble opinion an essential component of your kebab, and a $16 kebab is just too much. The other thing I’d mention is that I prefer the beef and chicken mixed kebab over the lamb kebab at Capri’s (neither are pictured). This is because while the lamb in the lamb kebab is indeed real lamb, it is extremely fatty, whereas the beef and chicken are your regular doner fare.

In my opinion Capri’s delivers a known quantity of good quality food, and is my personal pick for the night shift grind. This is not an opinion held by all of my colleagues, however, some of whom prefer Capri’s arch nemesis Adam.


Capri’s Pizza Kebab
266 Princes Highway, Arncliffe NSW 2205
(02) 8509 5889