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Asian Fusion Café Malaysian

X23 Asian Fusion Cafe – Chippendale NSW Restaurant Review

A few weeks ago I went to 101kissa, an Asian fusion brunch place in Chippendale. This week I went to X23 Asian Fusion Cafe, an Asian fusion brunch place In Chippendale.

My girlfriend drove me to brunch after one of my night shifts. We had thought about going for a couple of weeks, and finally the opportunity arose for me to sacrifice some sleep for some food. I wore sunglasses the entire time to limit my blue light exposure and posting these photos up is the first time I’m seeing these foods in their normal colour.

The shroom room shrooms ($16.80) were quite shroomy. The eggs were well poached, and most of the shrooms were enjoyable, particularly the enoki. One particular mushroom had a strong Vegemite-like taste which I was not a fan of. Maybe my palate is not developed enough. But maybe I just know what I like and this particular long shroom wasn’t it.

The X23 red eggs ($22.50) are very similar to but not as good as the chili crab scrambled eggs at 101kissa. In comparison with the similar concept eggs at 101kissa they did not have as much crab. They’re overall not bad, but when you have a better option just a few minutes away they’re hard to recommend.

I have no idea what the sriracha bacon ($4) was meant to go with. It was probably my mistake to buy it.

L: Matcha Latte, R: Cappuccino

Drinks were fine. I liked the dual wall glasses.

Overall impression: I want to like X23 Asian Fusion Cafe but I just don’t. Nothing was really special for me, and its unfortunate proximity to a better competitor makes it a miss. Six out of ten stars. Will probably go back.

X23 Asian Fusion Cafe
102/18 Park Ln, Chippendale NSW 2008
(02) 9056 5138

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Japanese

Meet Mica – Surry Hills NSW Restaurant Review

I think I have a type. Meet Mica is another Asian-fusion cafe in Surry Hills.

The Breakie. Rice. Bowl ($18) was extra good. Don’t let the name fool you though, it’s more of a congee than a normal bowl of rice. The wetness was very welcome, and in fact I think it could have done with a bit more soup. The Chashu melted easily in the mouth. The onsen egg was perfect, and the mushrooms added an extra dimension to the dish. Overall a legitimate 10/10 dish which I would recommend to everyone.

The Teriyaki Dog Roll ($12) was not bad. A lot of okonomyaki-style toppings and an egg omlette over an Arabiki hot dog sausage. The bread to filling ratio was reasonably good, however still weighted a bit heavily on the bread side. The excess bread was used to mop up the matcha from the dessert dish.

The Matcha. Lava. Toast ($20) is perhaps iconic to this cafe, and indeed iconic to the brunch section of Zomato where it holds the lofty position of thumbnail of a number of recommendation lists. The wet matcha lava is certainly aesthetically dramatic (you can probably find a video online), however in our opinion falls short on the taste component. The bread and matcha itself was somewhat bitter, not at all sweet. I can only describe the texture of the matcha sauce as dry, despite it being reasonably wet. The dish was saved by the condensed milk, gelato and especially fruit, which added a crisp wetness to an otherwise arid dessert.

Meet Mica Hot Chocolate

The sunrise ($8) was yum but not much fluid with a lot of ice for the price. The Hojicha soy latte and hot chocolate were also good.

I would come back to Meet Mica and eat the Breakie Rice Bowl again. The other two I would skip.

Thanks for listening to my TED talk.

Meet Mica
Shop 5/492-500 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 8018 7370

Categories
Vietnamese

Golden Lotus Vegan – Newtown NSW Restaurant Review

I ate here last night with a recently vegetarian friend. She had initially wanted to go to Vina Vegan but as they’re closed on a Tuesday, and following a thorough review of other online food blogs we chose Golden Lotus instead. Vietnamese vegan food. What could go wrong?

No review of an inner West restaurant is complete without a complaint about the parking situation. I spent around 25 minutes on a weekday evening trying to find a park for my small car, through narrow alleys and one way streets, to end up in a 2-hour park 10 minutes away from the restaurant. My friend had a similar problem. In retrospect we might have had better luck trying to aim for a 7PM start, as that is when most of the clearways on the main strip stop being clearways.

Golden Lotus doesn’t do bookings, and we were allowed in after a short wait outside. It was jam packed, and we found ourselves sitting shoulder to shoulder with other diners. It really didn’t look like they had made any effort to support social distancing within the restaurant. Maybe they had missed the memo?

We had the Vegan Duck Pancakes ($8.80), the Stir Fried Mushroom With Combination Veggies ($18.80), and the Golden Lotus Combination Hot Pot ($17.80).

Around 30 minutes after ordering one of the staff came to tell us that the combination hot pot and stir fried mushrooms were quite similar, and that we should choose another dish instead. We had another dish that we had had in mind and asked to change to that, but she returned a minute later and told us that the meal was already cooked and it wasn’t possible. Thanks.

The food itself was a disappointment. The vegan duck pancakes had crispy protein and the right flavours, and I guess I grew to like it considering what came next. It turns out that the waitress was absolutely right about the combination hot pot and the stir fried mushrooms with combination veggies. They tasted extremely similar and I think could have been mixed together with no one the wiser. The dishes weren’t to my taste, and my vegetarian food colleague did not like them either.

There’s not much more for me to add. I didn’t enjoy Golden Lotus, and neither did my vegetarian friend. I wouldn’t recommend Golden Lotus Vegan for your next business lunch.

Categories
Italian

Big John’s Italian Seafood Restaurant – San Souci NSW Restaurant Review

Is it bravery in 2020 to put up photos of delivered pizza and call it a restaurant review?

I got Big John’s delivered to work on a Wednesday night. I normally hate getting pizza at work because of the complexities it introduces with sharing slices, but our recent night-time practice has been to eat in a group to protect each other from ravenous onlookers.

Atlantic Special Pizza

The Atlantic Special pizza ($15.80, small) was quite special. There was plenty of seafood and the pizza was overall light and tasty. The addition of a lemon wedge was a nice touch and really elevated the pizza.

All Meats Pizza

The small All Meats Pizza ($15.80) really did have all the meats. The barbecue sauce wasn’t overpowering and there was not a dull moment. I enjoyed it and so did my senior colleague.

Overall I felt the pizza from Big John’s was very good. The fact that it is open late is a real bonus for me. The size of the pizzas didn’t really live up to the restaurant’s name but overall it was reasonable value given the high density of the toppings.

Will order again.

UPDATE, NOVEMBER 2020.

We ended up ordering again from Big John’s not once but twice through the course of the year. Both subsequent times were disappointing. The pizzas on second go-around were utterly flat, soggy, and unappealing. It brought me great shame to have recommended it to my colleagues.

Mick Morlan’s Pizza

Don’t know who Mick Morlan is, but I don’t trust his sense of taste after trying his Mick Morlan’s pizza (Medium – $20.80).

King Size Seafood Pizza

The King Size Seafood Pizza (Large – $32.60) was equal unappealing.

Big John’s Italian Seafood Restaurant
502 Rocky Point Rd, Sans Souci NSW 2219
(02) 9529 8094

Big John's Italian Seafood Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
Categories
Middle Eastern

Camy’s Chargrill Chicken – Mascot, NSW Restaurant Review

This is a takeaway review of Camy’s Chargrill Chicken in Mascot. It could also be a takeaway review of Camy’s Charcoal Chicken in Mascot. At this point I’m not sure what they’re called.

The Lebanese Wrap with chicken, tabouli, garlic sauce and lettuce and tomato was really good. Freshly cooked chicken, fresh salads and a generous amount of garlic. Quality was not dissimilar to any Western Sydney charcoal chicken restaurant. A slight shame that tomato was $1 extra but for $12 all up it makes for a reasonably healthy and yummy lunch.

The Hail Caesar Burger was also not bad. I misread the menu and thought that it would be beef but it came with chicken instead. I guess it makes a lot more sense for it to have come with chicken. I’ve never seen a Caesar salad with beef before. The egg in the burger was quite good. Not fully cooked, with a runny yolk. The lettuce, egg, cheese, chicken schnitzel and Caesar dressing came together well, like a salty meaty greasy salad. Yum.

The Charcoal Chicken, however, is where Camy gets into trouble. I have no pictures to show you, but basically we found Camy’s charcoal chicken to be very middle of the road. It was not as moist or as flavourful as the charcoal chicken I’ve come to expect after living in Western Sydney, but certainly not the worst I’ve had either. The fact that Camy offers toum (garlic sauce) as an addon but doesn’t bundle the chicken with any at all is very disappointing.

The 3 Empanadas and Salsa Verde ($14.90) I thought was a bit disappointing and overpriced. It’s really not a lot of food for $15. The salsa verde was yummy.

Overall I can recommend the wrap and burger, but can’t recommend the stock standard charcoal chicken. If charcoal chicken is what you’re after, you’d be better off going to El Jannah.

Camy’s Chargrill Chicken
Shop 16/11 Etherden Walk, Mascot NSW 2020
02) 8319 4021