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.
Everyday when you’re walking down the street, Every pizza that you eat, Has an original point of view.
The first thing of note about Arthur’s Pizza is the rectangular boxes that they use to store and transport circular pizzas. These boxes are constructed in a way where they open as a bit of an envelope, with the exterior flap opening superiorly and an inferior flap opening inferiory, both held together by carboard tabs.
I took advantage of Arthur’s Pizza’s $12 medium pizza takeaway deal, which is available daily until 7PM.
Arthur’s (Pepperoni, Roma Tomato, Capsicum, Mushroom)
Arthur’s eponymous pizza, named after a rascally aardvark, features Pepperoni, Roma Tomato, Capsicum, Mushroom atop a tomato-sauced thin crispy base. It’s a very fresh pizza, loaded with large tomato slices, that delivers a juiciness with each bite. This fresh tomato-y juiciness is supplemented well by the slight spiciness of the pepperoni, creating a very well composed pizza overall. I liked this so much that I had the entire pizza in one day, bar one slice which I saved for my partner. Unfortunately my orange cat got to the slice before she could, and dragged it onto the floor. My partner will never know the joy that I know.
The Randwick pizza features Olives, Anchovies, Capers, Semi-Dried Tomato, Basil – a flavour apparently developed to appease Eastern Suburbs Prince of Wales types. I found it, from my traditional Western Sydney frame of reference, not to my taste. I keep trying to force myself to eat anchovies with the thought that maybe if I eat enough I will find an anchovy I like. While I didn’t hate the anchovies on this pizza, I did not like how it was just covered in olives. The combination of salty fish and salty olives did not do well at creating a balanced pizza. Unlike Arthur’s namesake pizza, each bite of the Randwick was more and more of the same. While I’m normally an olive fan I ended up just picking off the olives and eating the pizza without them.
VERDICT
Arthur’s Pizza, at the bargain basement price of $12 for a medium, provides a good feed with a thin, crispy crust. Get what you like, don’t get what you don’t like in the hope that you will like it.
This is a review of Rustic Pearl, a small hole-in-the-wall cafe that offers coffee and Turkish-inspired foods for takeaway only during the COVID-19 period.
The original “BOMBA” ($12) is basically a lavash toastie with eggs, sausage, tomato and filled with lots of cheese. The bread is thin and crispy, and the contents very hot and overflowing with tomato flavour. Definitely eat this one hot, it gets quite boring once cold.
The meat burek ($8) is cheap and wonderful, and in fact everything I thought the Bomba should be. It’s basically a giant ravioli filled to the brim with sauce, vegetables, and meat. It comes with an excellent chilli dippling sauce, which unfortunately isn’t available for solo purchase (however they tell us they’re working on a business case). This is an absolutely unmissable component of Rustic Pearl’s 2020 offerings.
The brownie was rich, and I really appreciated the nuts.
The Angel cake was rich also, but not too sweet. A winner.
This caramel cookie was light and crumbly, so much so that it crumbled upon holding. Yum.
Special attention should be paid towards Rustic Pearls’ dark hot chocolate. It is rich and dark and not too sweet, something which is often hard to find. I would rate it together with Bourke St Bakery’s hot chocolate.
Overall I can definitely recommend paying Rustic Pearl a visit. Start with the meat burek with the chilli sauce, and explore outwards.
Casoni is one of the nicest meals I’ve had in some time. The menu was described to us as “Modern Italian”, with a selection of Italian staples fused with some Japanese inspiration.
We started with the Wattle Seed Flatbread ($6). Originally our choice of topping was going to be the salmon roe, however as they were out of stock we had to improvise. After the reassurance of our host that the serving of bread would be “quite generous” and suited to having two sides/toppings, I chose the ortiz anchovies ($6) and green garlic burrata ($10). While the bread was warm, soft, fragrant and delicious, it turns out that “quite generous” was a straight out lie. I would not characterise the bread as being suited to having two toppings. One was more than enough, so much so that we weighed up whether or not we should order a second serving of flatbread to mop up voluminous sides.
The ortiz anchovies ($6) were salty. I think they always are. I’m yet to develop a taste for them. My partner straight up refused to try it (she’s a bit of a fish-o-phobe).
The garlic green burrata ($10) was quite delicious. The inside of the burrata was very wet. It was a great dish to spread on the bread.
Black garlic bread
The Black Garlic Bread ($8) is a must try. It is more of a dessert than a garlic bread, with a sweet glaze and sauce. The topping of miso butter was divine. It is a house specialty for a reason and I would recommend no one leave this restaurant without trying it (cats and other people who can’t have garlic aside).
Tuna Carpaccio
The yellowfin tuna carpaccio with wasabi cream and burnt mandarin dressing ($18) was quite good but straddled the line towards being too tasty. I thought that the wasabi cream and burnt mandarin dressing overpowered the fish to the extent where I couldn’t really taste the star ingredient. While the flavours were good I wonder if a bit of tweaking is in order to highlight the tuna a bit better. Wasabi-phobes need not worry, the wasabi itself isn’t too strong.
Sausage and pecorino pappardelle
The sausage and pecorino pappardelle ($?26) was delicious. The serving size was large enough to share between two. The pappardelle was fresh and soft and tasty – not too al dente for me. The serving of sausage was extremely and unexpectedly generous, there was enough for each bite, and the pecorino added a great sharp flavour to the dish. While I’ve read from other reviews that pasta isn’t Casoni’s strong point, my experience with this pasta would lead me to disagree. It was just fantastic.
Comfortable seats
INTERIM OPINION (DECEMBER 2020)
As I’m sure you can tell by now we really enjoyed our meal at Casoni. We can’t wait to go back.
5 stars.
SUBSEQUENT VISIT (APRIL 2022)
It turns out we could wait to go back, in fact we waited around a year and a half, taking advantage of Casoni’s late opening hours after a night at the museum.
The black garlic sourdough ($12) has now replaced the previous black garlic bread. The differences? This sourdough bread is now a bit more dense, as one could quite reasonably expect. Where the previous black garlic bread was quite sweet with its creamy topping, this dish was much more of a savoury affair, with the miso butter imparting quite a salty taste.
The wagyu tartare ($19) with sundried tomato and coriander seed matched with sunchoke crispy was a pretty solid, inoffensive and even tasty tartare. Its flavouring was a bit of a departure from your usual tartare, its sourness a bit sweeter owing to the use of tomato rather than your classic capers. I found the meat a bit overrepresented in comparison to the creme fraiche and crisp however, and we quickly ran out of yummy crisp to put the tartare on.
The signature croquette ($25) was a great addition to the menu. It featured an unbelievably creamy potato inner, coated in a delicious katsu-style crumb and fried to a somewhat unbelievable level of crispy perfection. The marscapone topping and abundance of salty umami salmon roe made for the perfect foil for the mild potato within. This dish reminded me of the roe course at Quay, but for a far more accessible price (plus, you don’t have to eat all the other disappointments there either).
The spanner crab tagliatelle ($31) with nduja, fermented mustard greens and burnt kombu was a solid pasta, though not revolutionary. The serving of crab was generous for the price, and the overall quality of the sauce and pasta met the high expectations set by our previous experience at Casoni.
OPINION Sometimes when you revisit a beloved restaurant you are disappointed by the ideals formed during your first visit. This was not the case with Casoni. They remain reliably excellent.
Zensation Tea House is a nice little two person operation in Waterloo. It is a mix between a teahouse, dim sum restaurant, and tea shop. The interior is decorated in a very cosy manner with all sorts of different tea related decorations and displays. There are a number of different seating options available, and a few different booths in different styles.
The attention to service from the middle aged Chinese man and woman and the toy poodle Goldie made our experience a real treat. We could tell that the lady was manning both the restaurant and the store by herself to start, but she fielded all her customers deftly and with a very kind manner.
We were given a bowl of sunflower seeds to eat while we waited. This was some kind of next level targeted nostalgia bomb as my grandmother and mother would eat these nonstop. (Still alive, teeth not so good now).
The food served was on par on quality with a regular yum cha restaurant. What was special was that they allow you to mix and match your dim sum for the same price. We were able to order 18 pieces of assorted dim sum for only $42, which is quite special. It’s really nice that as we dine as a couple we were able to get 2 each of a bunch of different things, compared to if we had gone to a normal yum cha place and had to get 3-4 of each thing we ordered. This meant that we were able to have much more variety! It would even be very feasible to go alone and get one of each type of dim sum for a cheap price.
A deeper dive into selected dim sum. Most were very good. The har gao was good. The siu mai, both chicken and pork/prawn varieties were good, the chive and prawn was good. The lo mai gai was good. The custard bun was good. The only complaint I have would be about the scallop and prawn dumplings which felt a bit flour-y, and the vegetarian dumplings which were mostly just not to my taste. All in all though very authentic.
Goldie, the shop dog, was not for eating. I got to pet him.
Water was filtered and chilled. We didn’t go for a tea session as we were in a bit of a rush and didn’t have time to stay. Tea was around $9-12 per head for unlimited refills, so we thought we would save this somewhat pricey pleasure for a different time.
I can really recommend Zensation Tea House in Waterloo, both as a nice date, a prolonged tea drinking session, and also for a solo diner keen to have an assortment of dumplings rather than just 4 of 3 types.
For most of this past year I’ve been waiting in the long lines outside Hong Ha for my banh mi fix. It’s only now that I’ve come to realise that there is an absolutely reasonable alternative with no waiting lines and closer to home.
While not necessarily true in my recent Eastern Suburbs experience, one of the key rules about growing up in Western Sydney was that the most legitimate pork rolls came from places with “HOT BREAD” in their name. It was felt that any proprietors with such little imagination were sure to have put all of their effort into perfecting their art. Botany Hot Bread, a takeaway only place with little frontage but significant bakery room in the back keeps the the HOT BREAD tradition alive. The greeting I received was warm and familiar, like an old friend even though I had never been to Botany Hot Bread before.
The selection is short and sweet – a range of housemade baked goods with all of the expected items like snail, croissants and danishes, a small pie warmer of housemade pies, and of course a separate refridgerated cart for the banh mi ingredients. I partook only in a pork roll and a chicken roll.
Pork Roll
The pork roll (around $5) was very good and cheap. It had all the requisite meat and salad components in a soft bread roll. Absolutely no complaints here, and more or less the same quality as the more famous Hong Ha down the street.
Chicken Roll
The chicken roll (also around $5) I have a bit more bones to pick with. I found the chicken a bit too salty with too much soy sauce flavour. This would’ve been fine had the chicken been evenly distributed throughout the roll, but as you can see in the cross section shot all of the chicken was towards of the outside of the roll. This meant that alternating bites were either fresh and delicious salad or very salty chicken, and it was hard to mix the two into one mouthful. I’m not an expert hot bread man but I think this ingredient distribution problem could probably be improved through some sandwich engineering.
VERDICT
Yummy and worth a try – come here if you’re east of Mascot and you don’t want to wait.
