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.
Schnitzel Shop is a recently opened takeaway joint in Banksmeadow/Botany, located quite close to Croquembouche Patisserie. They offer a simple diner menu of rolls and burgers, with salad ingredients prepared by a young woman and the meats freshly cooked on the grill by a man who appears to be the owner.
pork belly roll
I had the pork belly roll ($8.50). Service was quick, and the roll was jam packed with juicy fresh salad components. The pork belly was not what I expected (I don’t know why I would expect a Caucasian man and a south-Asian lady to make me a Vietnamese banh mi) but was good in its own way.
chicken schnitzel roll
I also had a chicken schnitzel roll, however I was only able to have it after ten hours in the fridge, and then a minute in the microwave. It wasn’t as good as the pork belly roll, but I can’t say if it was due to the travel time.
While I can recommend Schnitzel Shop I wouldn’t go so far as to recommend actively going out of your way to go there. It’s more of a local spot.
Wow! This review has really been a long time coming.
When we moved to Botany in January 2020 one of the first things we did, before we even started unpacking, was load up Zomato and look for places to eat. Croquembouche Patisserie caught our eye, and since then we’ve eaten there at least ten to fifteen times over the course of a year.
Croquembouche bills itself as one of top French bakeries in Sydney, and as the only French (non-Vietnamese) bakery I’ve ever been to I’d have to agree. We’ve eaten so many things at Croquembouche that I will only review our favourites.
The Reuben Sandwich is huge and flavourful. It’s actually the first thing I ever got from Croquembouche and has become a regular favourite. I would recommend to get it toasted.
The Ham and cheese croissant with béchamel sauce is excellent. The croissant is fluffy, and the béchamel makes the whole thing very creamy. They do an alternate ham and cheese croissant with gruyere which is a bit more expensive but I don’t like as much – no béchamel.
The Citron tart is my partner’s favourite thing from Croquembouche. In her words, “it’s probably the best lemon curt tart [she’s] ever had. Its balance of tanginess and sweetness is pretty perfect, and I wonder if it has some other complex citruses in there as well. Lemon parts are one of [her] favourite desserts, and [she] thinks that Croquembouche has one of [her] favourite tarts [she’s] ever tasted. You can’t quote me word for word, because I refuse to have non edited words and thoughts on a public platform. You’d better not be continuing to write what I’m saying.”
There is a healthy assortment of crepes on offer, which are all delicious and packed with ingredients like cheese, meat, and mushrooms.
This salted caramel tart was quite good, and not too sweet. This is coming from someone who generally doesn’t like salted caramel.
Croquembouche also offers an assortment of hot meat pies and sausage rolls. They’re pretty standard, and not really at the level of perfection as their other stuff.
Through the course of the year we had an assortment of fruity dessert pastries, which were mostly good and not too sweet.
This was an expensive but elevated hot cross bun.
The level of glaze on this apricot tart is enough to reflect stars in distant galaxies.
$10 for a bacon and egg roll and a coffee is actually quite a good deal. Unfortunately I think not everyone in the café can make coffee, and the wait for coffee during the morning rush can end up being a bit long.
My girlfriend loves chocolate mousse.
Some kind of savory bread of which I have no recollection. Looks cheesy.
This was a really nice sandwich, maybe Cuban, maybe something else, packed with ingredients including a generous amount of pickle. I’d get it again.
Look at this slice of unnamed tart.
Tart of berry. Small but concentrated.
This is one that surprised me. You would never expect such a dish sitting in the counter to have such perfectly poached eggs. Indeed this an entire brunch dressed as a sandwich. Really good, but flies under the radar.
I had a couple of these truffle and salami sandwiches throughout the year. Very tasty, but very oily.
The Salmon and Dill and Chicken and Dill sandwiches are also quite yum. A very pleasant dill taste mixed into a mayonnaise-like sauce with either salmon or chicken rillettes. I’ve never had one uneaten for long enough to take a photo.
THOUGHTS OTHER THAN EFFUSIVE PRAISE
If there’s one somewhat negative component of Croquembouche Patisserie it may just be the exquisite amount of care and time they put in to make the coffee and toast the sandwiches. I’m often in a rush in the morning before work, so I know to get my sandwiches untoasted and without coffee. Their food is also quite rich and buttery, which may be a problem in terms of long-term cardiovascular risk.
Having gone so many times in 2020 and not at all since moving to Western Sydney in February 2021, I wonder if these guys think I’ve died.
Not to be confused with the much more disappointing Khoi Eatery in Marrickville, Khoi’s in Surry Hills is a completely different, much better, family-run Vietnamese restaurant.
My partner is a big fan of corn. I have never known her to see corn on the menu and not want it. While I would have preferred some of Khoi’s visually appealing chicken wings, compromises sometimes need to be made. Nevertheless, the crispy buttered sweet corn, marinated with chipotle mayo ($10) was a hit. We liked how not all surfaces of all kernals were battered. We liked the buttery richness of the dish to start, however soon found that the portion was perhaps a bit big for the two of us to share – it was really more suited to four people. After a while corn just gets a bit lukewarm and boring. I wasn’t able to identify any chipotle or spicy flavour to this dish, but despite this it was quite good. I would NOT recommend this for a couple (unless your partner is a corn fanatic) however can recommend this for larger groups.
Crispy spring rolls of pork, black mushrooms, and glass noodles ($10)
The Crispy spring rolls of pork, black mushrooms, and glass noodles ($10) were quite good. They had a complex flavour and texture that is rare in the spring roll world.
Khoi’s beef noodle soup, combination of rare Black Angus beef, brisket, beef balls & thin slice of ox tail ($18)
Khoi’s beef noodle soup, combination of rare Black Angus beef, brisket, beef balls & thin slice of ox tail ($18) was really good. The slices of rare Angus beef were tender. The brisket and beef balls were also good, however I have to give a point to Khoi in Marrickville for their beef balls over those at Khoi’s in Surry Hills – the one at this restaurant did not particularly stand out. We couldn’t identify any ox tail in our pho, however this was not really a bad thing as I often find ox tail too fatty and oily, like I did when we had ramen at Spanish Sakaba.
Super crispy skin Bannockburn Chicken cooked in Khoi’s master stock, ginger, shallot
The skin of the Super crispy skin Bannockburn Chicken cooked in Khoi’s master stock, ginger, shallot ($20) was, true to its name, super crispy. What this dish’s long name failed to mention, however, was that the meat inside was also very tender and juicy. The flavour was tasty but not too tasty, and I really enjoyed every last morsel of this chicken. My partner commented that it was not cooked as well as the Korean chicken from Soul Dining (also in Surry Hills), but I think she is wrong. I think they are both very good, and can recommend this dish.
Sauces
Overall I really enjoyed my meal at Khoi’s in Surry Hills. There are plenty of other dishes on the menu I’d like to try, so I would both recommend eating here and plan for a second trip.
5/5 bok boks who are allowed to roam during the day but locked up at night “for their own protection”.
We happened across Square Handmade Bread after eating at Luckfood Fish Dumplings in Waterloo. It is a small bakery with modern facilities offering high-priced luxury breads as well as some desserts on a pre-order basis. Most breads were $15.80 per loaf, coming to $16.04 after credit card fees. They also serve coffee made from Grounds of Alexandria beans.
We ordered a loaf of garlic bomb bread – garlic bread loaf with cream cheese filling.
The square garlic bomb bread was quite good. It was not like a normal garlic bread, more sweet than salty. There was a lot of cream cheese filling, which I thought was actually to its detriment. I more enjoyed the crusty, less flavoured anterior, than the greasy creamy interior.
While good, I didn’t feel like this small half-loaf sized bread was worth $16.04. I concur with Robert H’s review in Google Reviews in this regard. For this reason, I am giving a 3/5, which could easily be a 4 if half the price.
Luckfood Fish Dumplings 六福魚水饺 is a small Chinese restaurant in Waterloo, centering around dumplings but also featuring other components of Chinese cuisine. Our lunch today was fully dumpling focused, and consisted of 10 each of five types of dumplings.
L: Cuttlefish dumplings, M: Fish dumplings, beef dumplings, R: pork and chive and prawn dumplings, pork and cabbage and scallop dumplingsDipping sauce
We ordered 50 dumplings between the two of us for lunch, and managed to finish 45. The dumplings were small in size but not in taste. They were all boiled and all extremely juicy inside – each was bursting with soup which was an absolute treat. They were all handmade with a good filling to wrapping ratio. The dipping sauce provided was a mixture of soy, vinegar, and freshly chopped garlic, although garlic was optional for those who may not like it. I will describe the dumplings I had in order of goodness.
Pork A Dumplings (Pork + Prawn + Chive)
The Pork A Dumplings (Pork + Prawn + Chive) were by far my favourite. They tasted very similar to how my parents would make it. The dumplings had a good juice within them. A strong recommendation from me.
Pork B Dumplings (Pork + Scallop + Cabbage)
The Pork B Dumplings (Pork + Scallop + Cabbage) were good too. A stronger but less complex flavour compared to the Pork A Dumplings.
Lucky 6 Cuttlefish Dumplings
The Lucky 6 Cuttlefish Dumplings are part of the restaurant’s premium range, and recommended to me by the chef. The fillings were crunchy cuttlefish, and recommended for their internal juiciness. These were quite good, although a bit too salty for me.
Beef + Onion Dumplings
The Beef and Onion Dumplings were my partner’s choice – she was keen on some dumplings that were not seafood related. I didn’t like them, but I generally never like beef or lamb dumplings. I feel like beef dumpling are always too beefy.
Signature Fish Dumplings
The Signature Fish Dumplings were not very good. I’m not sure what type of fish they use, but I thought it tasted a lot like the frozen basa fillets you get at the supermarket, down to the weird water taste. Not a keen bean for this one. This was the only plate that we didn’t finish – we only had 5 of these between the two of us.
In conclusion: while the restaurant is called Luckfood Fish Dumplings, their best dumplings are in my opinion their pork, prawn, and chive dumplings. All of their dumplings are boiled and bursting with juice and flavour. While there were some that didn’t appeal to me quite so much, Luckfood Fish Dumplings 六福魚水饺 provides homestyle food and good value for money. (Please note that any order of 20 dumplings can be a mixture of flavours – we paid $51.90 for 50 dumplings and a can of Calpis Water)
A nod from me. 4/5.
六福鱼水饺 Luckfood Fish Dumplings Shop 11/5 Potter St, Waterloo NSW 2017 0405 313 333
