Categories
Asian Fusion Korean

Tokki – Surry Hills NSW Restaurant Review

Tokki is the second Korean restaurant we’ve eaten at in Surry Hills recently and older sister to Redfern’s generally disappointing Vietnamese eatery Kinhboy.

The vibe at Tokki is quite similar to that at Kinhboy. The interior design is more upclass asnd modern than your regular Asian restaurant, with pink lights providing a neon glow, wide tables, and high ceilings. We are greeted by an Asian woman at front of house, a welcome change from the predominantly Western front of house staff at our recent forays into Asian Fusion dining.

Menbosha

The Menbosha ($15) – DIY prawn yuzu sriracha mayo on brioche – is a fun deep friend entree. The dish consists of deep fried prawn, sriracha mayo, and deep fried pieces of brioche toast. The limited DIY component of the dish description consists mainly of putting the first two components onto the third – less involved than putting together an IKEA flatpack but more involved than if they had just served the toppings on top of the toast, I guess. The prawns were lovely and warm, and the sriracha mayonnaise nice and creamy. The deep fried brioche toast bits had a light taste but you could tell that they are obviously very oily. It’s a rare food that makes me feel actively guilty about my cardiovascular risk with each bite. Delicious though.

Roasted cauliflower

I did my mum, dad, and one of my gastroenterology colleagues proud by having the roasted cauliflower ($14) with miso butter glaze and furikake. The cauliflower was perfectly roasted – cooked but still juicy on the inside. The miso butter and furikake added a nice dimension of sweet umami to this share plate. Don’t let this dish’s categorisation under “SMALLS” fool you – this is something that can definitely be shared between three or four people.

Tokki BBQ Tray

The Tokki BBQ Tray ($36) is an assorted mix tray of beef short rib, pork belly, baby pork galbi, and grilled gochujang chicken. It is unfortunately much more expensive than $29 noted in some early reviews of the restaurant and even the $32 listed on Tokki’s own website, however we did not argue this point at the time. The pork ribs were nice, tender and flavourful. The pork belly, similar to what you get in bossam, was light and melted easily in the mouth. The griled gochujang chicken was surprisingly tender and delicious, so much so that my partner enjoyed it much more than she expected. The beef short rib was disappointing and nothing to write home about. Overall a good dish with lots of variety, but a shame about the continual price hikes.

Korean fried chicken – chilli gochu

The chilli gochujang korean fried chicken ($26) was a small mountain in size, quite good for the price, especially keeping in mind the location and general vibe of the place. The chicken was good when fresh, however a bit too tasty for my liking. I enjoyed the sides of radish and red cabbage and thought that they provided a good foil to the oversauced chicken, however was disappointed when they weren’t packed into the takeaway box.

Like Kinhboy, Tokki provides an extensive beverage list. My partner enjoyed this sake sake cocktail ($18), and so did I.

VERDICT

It is extremely loud inside Tokki and the venue is not really fit for a first date or any other activity that requires some actual conversation. Aside from this, the food is good and the service from their adequately multicultural cast is as well. I can recommend Tokki but not for your next business lunch.

4/5

Tokki
Shop 1/44a Foveaux St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9280 3637

Categories
Café

Cafe 959 – Kogarah NSW Cafe Review

Café 959 has sprung up from the ashes of the recently defunct Concrete Jungle, on prime real estate on the corner of Gray St and Queens Avenue near St George Hospital.

Cafe 959 plays it safe, featuring roughly the same menu items as its predecessor, including old favourites the warm chicken poke and ricotta pancake. The cafe was jam packed at 2PM on a Saturday, obviously benefiting from its prime location and Concrete Jungle‘s old regulars.

I had a very reasonably priced bacon and egg roll and coffee ($10 – takeaway only price). Service was brisk, and they have introduced innovative new seats next to their takeaway service window for waiting in. While the bacon and egg roll isn’t going to make any top ten lists, it’s definitely adequate with filling adequately moistened by barbeque sauce. A very reasonably quick lunch or breakfast for the weekend shift-worker.

Portuguese tart

The Portuguese tart looked like it would be good but it was not. The pastry looked like it would be flaky but it was rather doughy and sticky. The filling was too sweet for my tastes. A tie with Culture Bean‘s equally disappointing but actually much different offering.

The Chicken Sandwich was actually quite good. There is a lot of mayonnaise and cheese inside, which makes it feel a bit heavier than the sandwiches offered next door at Culture Bean. The bread was the standout component, a light Turkish bread which was actually very good when toasted. A winner.

I hope that as Cafe 959 finds its own they will introduce more of their own items onto the menu.

Cafe 959
13 Gray St Kogarah NSW 2217
0408 668 284

Cafe 959 Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
Categories
Chinese

Long’s Flavour 农夫小厨 – Newtown NSW Chinese Restaurant Review

The first thing you notice when you enter Long’s Flavour is not Long’s flavour but rather Long’s smell. The smell that permeates the restaurant is one of authenticity, a stale, old-cigarette-like smell that transports the diner instantly back to a dingy room in China. This is something I would’ve found quite disturbing as a child, but the somewhat unpleasant smell just flicked on all the right nostalgia receptors in my brain.

Long’s Flavour Signature Chicken (Steamed)

I had Long’s Flavour Signature Chicken (steamed, $18.80), as it was the most highly recommended dish of the restaurant’s few die-hard 5-star Google reviews. As the gentleman (who was the only person staffing the restaurant at the time) went back into the kitchen to make my order I heard the familiar sound of button beeps followed by a humming. I do not wish to defame by postulating and leaping to conclusions as to the source of the aforementioned sounds, but it is true that microwave cooking can be used in a number of traditional cuisines to add efficiency and speed without hurting the quality of the meal.

Long’s actual chicken itself was warm, juicy, soft, and tender. It had a strong Hainanese chicken vibe, which was further strengthened by the delicious ginger and shallot and chilli sauces that were provided. The steamed bok choy provided a nice, fresh and healthy component to the meal that my mother would have approved of. My host asked me a couple of times if I would like to have rice with my meal and I’m sure that if I did the meal would’ve been even more Hainan than it already was.

4/5 – does the smell add or detract? Who knows.

Long’s Flavour 农夫小厨
85 King St, Newtown NSW 2042

Categories
Asian Fusion Japanese

Monkey’s Corner – Chippendale NSW Restaurant Review

I’ve been wanting to try Monkey’s Corner for a long time, but it’s been difficult to get our work schedules to sync up with its limited Thurs-Sun 5PM-9PM opening hours. This afternoon I finally got the call – to come try out Monkey’s Corner to see if it’s good before bringing the wider group.

Monkey’s Corner, located next to its sister restaurant KOI, is a Japanese-influenced eatery run by the Poernomo brothers. Its menu consists of doburi, noodles, and other japanese inspired dishes, and patrons are free to order desserts and coffee from KOI next door.

I had the Uni egg noodle with dashi cream, sea urchin, salmon roe ($27). The first thing to mention is that the portion was absolutely tiny. The photos on instagram and even the photo that I’ve taken don’t do justice to the miniscule size of the portion. Perhaps the best measure of the size is the spoon in the background of the image. This dish was about three spoons long and one and a half spoons wide.

What I think was most disappointing was that this dish was clearly pasta, rather than noodles. Noodles in an Asian context does not describe super-al-dente noodles in a heavy cabonara-like sauce. That’s what this was, and it caught me off guard. Pasta was not what I was expecting, and pasta was not what I wanted. The portions of uni seem large in this photo, but were actually very small in person. I had high hopes for this dish, but it was not meant to be.

I really wanted to enjoy Monkey’s Corner, but it was not meant to be. I would not bring a friend or colleague.

Monkey’s Corner
40 Kensington St, Chippendale NSW 2008
(02) 9212 2085

Categories
Chinese

Chu’s Dumpling House – Kensington NSW Restaurant Review

“The Best Dumplings in Kensington” is a big claim to make for this small, pan-fried-only dumpling restaurant. While I can’t directly refute this claim given I’ve never had dumplings at any other Kensington restaurant, I can tell you with certainty that their dumplings are not the best in the Randwick-Kensington-Kingsford Anzac Parade area (that crown is currently worn by the Northeast Restaurant in Kingsford).

I had a selection of dumplings and Chu’s fried chicken wings.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT – Egg, Chive, and Prawn; Chicken and Mushroom; Crayfish and Pork; Pork, Chive, and Prawn

Each type of dumpling is offered in 6 or 12 piece portions, and only come pan-fried. They were on average not bad – very juicy and with fresh ingredients, but a bit underflavoured for me (which is unusual).

The Egg, Chive, and Prawn dumplings (6 for $9) and the Pork, Chive, and Prawn dumplings (6 for $9) both had large and generous pieces of prawn inside which provided a good mouthfeel and taste. Both could’ve used a bit more flavouring, however there was ample soy sauce and vinegar for adjustment to personal taste.

The Chicken and Mushroom dumplings (6 for $8) were also mildly flavoured – I had this meal two days ago and it is not memorable at all.

The Crayfish and Pork dumplings (6 for $13) were a bit more expensive given the addition of seafood. These tasted vastly different to the other three, with a strong spicy flavour.

The chicken wings (6 for $9) were moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. They were deep fried in a thin but very eggy batter and dusted with a seasoning similar to that used in Taiwanese Fried Chicken. These wings were different to any other wings I’ve had before, and definitely a highlight. The guy who came in after me also asked for wings, and after a brief conversation in Mandarin between the guy at front of house and the lady in the kitchen it was revealed that they only had 5 wings in stock. He was told that they had sold out of chicken wings and opted for some diced fried chicken instead, although I wonder if he would’ve been happy to have just five wings (he was alone, after all) at a discount. We’ll never know.

VERDICT
Does Chu’s Dumpling House really have the best dumplings in Kensington? I don’t know – I guess they’re the best I’ve ever had in Kensington, a low bar as they’re also the only I’ve had in Kensington. I think that despite what I suspect is a bit of hyperbole Chu’s Dumpling House is still worth a visit. Their dumplings are fresh and juicy, and their chicken wings are different and special. I only wish they did their dumplings boiled.

4/5

Chu’s Dumpling House
9-15 Ascot St, Kensington NSW 2033
0450 518 099