Categories
Japanese

Simulation Senpai – Tramsheds Forest Lodge NSW Restaurant Review

The story as told is that Chase Kojima (of Sokyo fame) goes to the fish markets every weekend of the pandemic to handpick the freshest and best seafood for his new pop up takeaway sushi restaurant.

Simulation Senpai is open for business only two days a week (Friday and Saturday) and for only 3 hours on each of these days (12:30PM-2PM and 5PM-6:30PM). It is online pre-order only and takeaway only (food-court style seating available), but within these strict limits is world class sushi and sashimi at a reasonable price.

Chase Kojima was there to greet his customers when we came to pick up our order on a Friday night. We ate in surprisingly luxurious food court style seating, and I’m told there is a nice park outside for lunchtime picnicking.

Hoseki Bako

The Hoseki Bako ($55) is, as advertised, a box of treasures. It features an assortment of fresh sashimi on Masshigura rice. Every single morsel is unique and delicious. The salmon roe and sea urchin were both perfectly creamy and sweet. The scallops were sweet and delicate, and all of the fresh sashimi was as well. The tartar of tuna and salmon added an additional dimension of texture to the meal and worked well with the rice. The seafood to rice ratio was just perfect.

The Zenbu Don ($65) is a true tuna fantasy box of tuna (akami), medium fatty (chu-toro) tuna, and fatty tuna (toro) on rice. The fatty tuna just melts in your mouth like a dream, and is the best fatty tuna I’ve had outside of Japan. The red portion of tuna (akami) was also the best I’ve had in Australia. I often find akami a bit too metallic tasting, but this was not the case at Simulation Senpai. I think the Zenbu Don is really the star of the show and I encourage anyone missing toro to give it a try. Again the fish to rice ratio is perfect.

The Yuzu Mango Tapioca Pudding ($6) is a surprising winner, with a mild, not-too-sweet flavour to cap off the sashimi. The cartoon label doesn’t do the complex flavours justice.

I simply cannot recommend Simulation Senpai enough. Chef Kojima has truly set the new standard for fast fine dining. I was initially nervous about spending $130 on food court food, but one taste of the toro was enough to put any doubts out of my mind. It is the best sushi I’ve had outside of Japan, and you need to go while you still can.

Simulation Senpai.
Tramsheds Pop-Up Kitchen, 1 Dalgal Way, FOREST LODGE NSW 2037

Categories
Modern Australian

Acre Eatery – Camperdown NSW Restaurant Review

I’m told that Acre Eatery in Camperdown is one of the many cafes available to staff at the Centre of Excellence™. One of our friends and colleagues from said centre suggested we have lunch here, not knowing that lunch is a $70 per person set menu.

Acre is apparently a farm-to-bowl establishment. Some or all of the plant matter served comes straight from the tiny on-site organic farm, which I expect must be an extremely expensive piece of government subsidised real estate in the inner West.

So first of all, I love small foods in big plates. The Sweet potato fritti, spiced fruit marmallatta fits that criteria well, and also meets the additional hidden criteria of having two words I don’t know. These were basically crispy sweet potato balls that were probably fried but possibly baked. I’m scared to write definitively because I don’t want these inner city types to sue me.

I really enjoyed the Cannelini bean & almond hummus, roasted grapes, homemade lavosh, even though one of our colleagues said she could do it better.

The Local burrata with lemon oil was also great. One of my other friends was very keen on this and I think noticeably sad when they took it away unfinished. There was no explanation of whether it was the cow or the cheese that was local and I think this detracted from the experience.

The mains I didn’t get to take a photo of, but allow me to paint a poor picture in few words.

The Porchetta, celeriac puree, roasted quince was quite good. It was a large portion with a generous serving of pork, and good flavours.

The Pan-fried King trout, braised cabbage, pippies, capers was extremely disappointing. The trout itself was not faultable, however the accompanying braised cabbage and vegetables were reminiscent (in both form and taste) of the frozen cubed vegetable mix that you’d get from the supermarket.

The five of us did not stray from these two mains. There were some other choices available without animal but I guess we love animal.

I would probably not go back to Acre as it stands, but I would recommend it to a friend. There’s only so much of the exact same menu that you can eat and enjoy. Maybe they will change their menu in the post-COVID age.

ACRE Camperdown
31A Mallett St, Camperdown NSW 2050
(02) 9194 3100

Categories
Chinese

The Good Kitchen – Hurstville NSW Restaurant Review

I wanted to go to Canton Noodle House after work last night. I was so keen that I asked my girlfriend to drive me from work straight to the restaurant to optimise parking time. Unfortunately when we arrived at 8:45 the restaurant which had advertised itself to close at 9:45PM was already closed. So we went across the road to The Good Kitchen instead.

I was initially drawn to the Good Kitchen by a photo of 皮蛋瘦肉粥 on its Zomato page. This implied to me that it would be a quick and easy place to get a quick and easy feed. It was only until we were situated and tea had been served that I realised that The Good Kitchen is very much a legitimate restaurant, complete with its own live seafood tanks (more on that later), and not as accommodating for a quick and easy meal. My girlfriend will attest that I deliberated leaving after looking at the menu, but ultimately stasis was the basis of my decision.

Hokkien Fried Rice

I enjoyed the Hokkien Fried Rice. It was a large portion, with plenty of topping. The flavours were adequate but not what I was expecting from Canton Noodle House.

Spicy Eggplant with Minced Pork in Claypot

We felt that the Spicy Eggplant with Minced Pork in Claypot was somewhat middling. The eggplant we felt was not cooked enough and required too much biting and chewing. My girlfriend, who is the local expert in spicy eggplant and minced pork also felt like it was not spicy enough.

Eight Treasure Tofu in Claypot

I am an absolute sucker for combination braised bean curd hot pot and was sad and alarmed not see it on the menu. The closest I could find was “braised tofu in hotpot”, however upon asking the staff we were dismayed to find that this particular dish was tofu only. Taking a gamble on the Eight Treasure Tofu in Claypot was a great decision. I didn’t know if it would be what I wanted to be, as eight treasure soup is just eight different beans, but it was. And it was good.

It is important to mention that our meal was rudely interrupted by a lobster cage match which broke out in the left lobster tank. I think that when you are a Chinese restaurant your threshold for putting more aquatic animals into a tank is that as long as there’s water on 3/4 of the animal’s surfaces then it’s plenty of room and more can be put in there. While I’m not the world’s strongest advocate for the welfare of delicious crustaceans I do think that overcrowding may have been involved in the 7-way free-for-all that transpired during our meal. We were also witness to a vertical fish in a socially distanced tank far away from the lobsters.

Overall The Good Kitchen wasn’t what I was looking for, but it ended up being what I needed. A protip for new players is that eight treasures is literally combination. I would rate The Good Kitchen four angry lobsters out of five.

The Good Kitchen
171 Forest Rd, Hurstville NSW 2220
(02) 9579 1688

Categories
Indian

Indian Biryani Restaurant – Rockdale NSW Restaurant Review

This is going to be a quick one. We got delivery from Indian Biryani Restaurant during our last run of nights. I had the Chicken 65 Biryani ($19, pictured) and the Achari Chicken ($14, not pictured). Both were very tasty, and probably a bit too tasty to be eaten alone without any non-flavoured staple food. The Chicken 65 Biryani was very edible and safe. My colleagues had some chicken tikka salad and the butter chicken and allegedly all was good.

My overall impression is this: Not many places deliver to work. It really wasn’t bad and we’ll probably get it again before the year is through.

UPDATE
In 2024, we actually went to the store.

Everything was still quite good, and the prices are still really good too. I somehow managed to convince my partner to have mutton biryani ($18.99) which we normally avoid due to a fear of gaminess. Luckily, it was actually quite delicious, and not gamey at all.

The butter chicken ($18.99) was a very normal butter chicken at a very normal price. No complaints, though it’s a bit of an insult to one’s intelligence to end your prices with a .99 suffix. Just call it $19 mate.

The garlic and cheese naan ($5 ea, $10 pictured) was a not a standout, a bit less good than the best ones that we’ve had around the city.

No complaints about this juicy and tasty half tandoori chicken ($14.99), served on a reflective aluminium foil surface for extra ambiance.

Indian Biryani Restaurant
544 Princes Hwy, Rockdale NSW 2216

Categories
Café Modern Australian

A1 Canteen – Chippendale NSW Restaurant Review

Pegg asked me to find somewhere for brunch today. It’s our only day off together in 11 days so the stakes were high. After much deliberation we found ourselves looking for a park in Chippendale so that we could eat at A1 Canteen.

While we had previously had easy success parking for X23 Asian Fusion Cafe around the corner, today was not our day, and we ended up spending around 25 minutes circling the Central Park complex looking for a park. We finally found a 1-hour spot 10 minutes’ walk away, leaving us 40 minutes to get seated, order, eat, and leave. A true high-anxiety challenge, but one that we succeeded in.

A1 Canteen, I’m told, is run by the man behind Automata. Apparently is difficult to run two restaurants at once and thus this needs to be mentioned in every online review of A1, especially when they’re across the road from one another.

The Muffuletta ($20) is a vertical sandwich slice consisting of pressed meats, cheese, greens, artichoke, and olive salad. It is served with cutlery, and thus a dare to the patron to eat it with their hands. I enjoyed the Muffuletta as I would any other sandwich which would typically cost $7. It was meaty and cheesy, but otherwise not that special. The vertical cut of the sandwich meant that the filling to bread ratio was excellent, but the pedestrian taste did not justify its high asking price.

slow roasted lamb shoulder

The slow roasted lamb shoulder ($27) was significantly more interesting. It is served with small grilled flatbread, brocollini, cauliflower, chickpeas, and yellow chili pickles, each adding an additional dimension. The yellow chili pickles were particularly juicy and delicious, and added a nice tang to it. The price again is a bit steep for what it is. Looking at an older copy of the menu it looks like the lamb shoulder was previously $24 with a choice of two salads.

A special mention needs to go to the service at A1 Canteen. The kitchen was speedy and our waitress very observant to our hydration requirements. The room was spacious and decor nice. I personally felt a bit underdressed and outclassed in my T-shirt and trackpants.

Overall A1 canteen was passable but overpriced. I would not recommend the Muffuletta and would not have it again myself. One of the ladies next to us had some curried scrambled eggs which looked amazing, so I think we will probably end up going back at some point to try them. Three and a half overpriced weighted sandwiches out of Five.

A1 Canteen
Ground 2/10 Kensington St, Chippendale NSW 2008

NOTE: A1 Canteen is now permanently closed – Click here to read what I thought when I went back for a last hurrah.