Categories
American

Chicko’s – Wollongong NSW Restaurant Review

Chicko’s is a Wollongong icon. It is an institution, forged through its prime position near the beach and the local stadium, and its reputation for consistent fast food and good economy. While knowledge of the restaurant appears to be ubiquitous within Illawarra, I approach Chicko’s from the perspective of an outsider, free from the shackles of local culture and custom.

The Portuguese Wing Pieces (10 for $7.90) were a little on the dry side, with a predominantly salty flavour and not much or really any perceptible spice to explain the Portuguese moniker.

The medium chips ($6.65) were pretty fresh and crunchy. I liked the option to add salt and vinegar for free, and while I only optioned for two lots of this addition I know now I should’ve added as much as the computer ordering system would let me.

The small gravy($3.65) was alright. Pretty good with chips. A bit darker and denser than what you get from the Colonel. There is currently some spilled in a corner at the back of my fridge.

The large scallopini burger ($11.45 with a can of drink) really was large. Pictured here alongside it is my hand. I wear size 8 gloves. It’s really a huge bread roll with two crumbed chicken schnitzels inside side by side, topped with a mushroom sauce. I must admit that I got bored of the bread after chomping through this monstrosity, and discarded the bottom (unsauced) half bun.

Wow, a single piece of fish for $2.85. Pretty good!

Chicko’s Fried Chicken ($13.60 for 5 pieces) kind of amounts to a whole fried bird. The pieces were incredibly varied in terms of size, but all shared the common characteristic of being incredibly juicy and moist, even the half-breast piece. My partner, a fried chicken fanatic, is a fan.

The roast pork meal ($14.99) with crumbed roast potato, peas and gravy, was a tasty and varied pub-style meal. I enjoyed the roast pork, which was moist but with its own layer of crispy skin, though my partner, a lover of potato, didn’t have such strong feelings about this particular potato.

CONS
I cannot leave a review for the Greek salad that I paid for as we didn’t receive it.

OVERALL
I think the real headline of this story should be that we spent very little money between the two of us for enough food to feed four people. Service was reasonably quick, and while there is no internal seating there is plenty of beach to go around. I can definitely see the appeal for Wollongong locals, but taking into account the vast amounts of deep frying going on and my general desire to live past forty I will probably have to never go back.

Chicko’s Wollongong
13 Crown St, Wollongong NSW 2500
(02) 4225 3888

Categories
Café

Hector’s Deli – Richmond VIC Restaurant Review

Hector’s Deli, possibly named after a character from a 2009 poem by Marshall Mathers III, (there does not appear to be a Hector on their staff, this seems to be the only plausible explanation), has grown quickly since its opening to somewhat national renown. Such was the online buzz surrounding this small sandwich joint that I was drawn to it from across the border, spending one of my few lunches waiting in the rain and scoffing down a super expensive toastie.

A few things that I had higher up on my list were unavailable, and I ended up with this $15 HCT, a sourdough toastie of mortadella, scamorza, provolone, and tomato chutney. Like walking into a random construction site with a hardhat and clipboard, it takes some nerve to charge $15 for a toasted sandwich without really any frills and not even blink. This was a fine sandwich to my mouth, but not fine as you would use it to describe a fine wine, or fine dining. Merely fine. I strongly suspect that some of their other offerings might be a bit more special, like for example their beef & pickle sandwich, but such is life. After this HCT I don’t think I’ll ever put myself in a position to know.

The Hectic Sauce, a $2 addition, was in my view more special and more reasonably priced than the sandwich itself. It is a creamy yellow sauce with a good mixture of spiciness and sweetness, that did enhance the edges of bread crust from the sandwich (though I must admit that the sandwich’s fillings were well edged to begin with).

The open kitchen is quite nice. Here you can see them with a few heads of lettuce, which wasn’t such a hot commodity when I visited back in April, but is today.

The handwashing station is also a point of interest, bringing a kind of VALVE game feeling to the joint.

Overall though? If you’re going to charge $15 for a ham cheese tomato toastie it had better be truly out of this world.

Hector’s Deli
1/94 Buckingham St, Richmond VIC 3121

Categories
Vietnamese

Mylan – Wollongong NSW Restaurant Review

I love a good pho, and within Wollongong’s surprising density of Vietnamese restaurants Mylan is said to be one of the best.

I took myself out for lunch for a Beef Special Pho ($17). The restaurant was sparsely populated and diners were well distanced from one another, likely owing to the only very recent reopening of NSW’s restaurants. Service was very fast, with the bowl delivered in well under five minutes.

$17 at Mylan buys you an extremely large bowl of pho, with a healthy mixture of rare beef, brisket, beef balls, and various kinds of tripe. The rare meat was tender, and the brisket was not too fatty. Unfortunately the beef balls did not taste as good or as complex as some other beef balls that I’ve had.

The soup came extra hot, which was great as it maintained its warmth throughout the course of the meal, despite having to transfer much of its heat to the bean sprouts and Thai basil that I added in. The broth itself is a bit lighter in taste than what I usually prefer, but this was made up for by the sate chilli sauce. I do wish that more bean sprouts would have been given for such a large bowl of noodles, but I suspect I was just too shy to ask.

Overall a pretty decent bowl.

Mylan
193 Keira St, Wollongong NSW 2500
(02) 4228 1588

Categories
Japanese

Sushi Train – Maroubra NSW Restaurant Review

I had such a bad meal at Sushi Train in Maroubra that I just needed to come home and tell you all about it straight away. This is posted some time after the meal, but the content was written contemporaneously.

First, praise needs to be given to the best parts of the meal – the attentive service and the filtered, iced, table water.

The ambience and decor was also nice.

Next, we must move onto the food.

This aburi salmon “volcano” nigiri was our first and in my view probably one of the only pieces that was not awful, owing to the fact that it was drenched in mayonnaise and able to drown out the heavily disappointing rice.

This chicken katsu and cream cheese inside out roll with spicy seasoning on top was also very bad. The chicken felt old, cold, and dry. It did not appeal to me at all.

This is a layered sushi with avocado and aburi salmon, coated in a heavy layer of sauce. My partner found this acceptable, and ordered two of these dishes in favour of others, however I thought it was still quite bad.

The salmon roe (ikura) gunkan wrapped in salmon seemed like it was off to a good start, however with the entire morsel in my mouth it became clear that it was far too salty – probably from the ikura marinade/preservation fluids.

I had high hopes for the uni gunkan (sea urchin), but it just didn’t taste good. It was bitter rather than sweet, and had a strange and unpleasant taste that seems to be the difference between the good quality stuff and the cheap stuff.

The maguro tuna nigri was more bitter than sweet, a problem that I had with a lot of the a la carte nigiri at Sushi Train Maroubra. The serving size of tuna was large and generous, however the quality wasn’t good. Having straight fish on rice really accentuated the low quality of the rice – and the huge quantity. The rice was dry, almost stale tasting, and ruined every subsequent plate.

This is the tako (octopus) nigri. The slices of octopus were extremely difficult to chew, and it did not seem like much consideration was taken in the preparation of the octopus to provide a morsel that was actually edible. After chewing on my octopus for at least 90 seconds straight I gave up. This nigiri also fell victim to the awful rice.

The engawa nigiri was fatty and good, however again let down by the rice.

Ultimately we had a very bad meal at Sushi Train Maroubra – so bad in fact that it helped us to limit our ordering. We would normally spend more as a couple at a place like Sushi Rio or Sushi Hotaru, as the food in these places is much better. A special call out needs to be made for the awful quality rice which left its stain on every morsel it touched, especially in the volume in which it was used.

Sushi Train Maroubra
Shop 2/944 Anzac Parade, Maroubra NSW 2035
(02) 8347 0788

Categories
Café Latin American

La Mamita’s – Wollongong NSW Restaurant Review

It is tough for me, as a cat lover, to walk past a cafe with two cats on its banner.

My first visit to La Mamita’s was on the thirteenth of October 2021, just two days after the state of New South Wales had started opening up businesses followed a prolonged COVID-19 related shutdown. I was the only customer in the cafe, an eerie experience as there were at least three or four staff there.

I had a pastrami sandwich ($10), an item that I had seen on their specials board many times before as I walked past to visit different Vietnamese bakeries. The pastrami sandwich was a large, oversided sandwich of toasted bread. The heat from the toasting did not quite transmit through to the fillings ,which included unmelted cheese (perhaps Swiss or similar), bulk pickles, ham, and pastrami. I say the pickles were bulk, as I’m pretty sure every square centimetre of this toasted sandwich had a corresponding square centimetre of pickle – quite a nice and tangy surprise, as some sandwich makers are known to be miserly with their pickles. It was a shame that the cheese was not very melted, as I think melted or otherwise differently arranged cheese may have enhanced the experience. Though this sandwich was not the most gourmet sandwich around, I think ultimately for $10 it did its job.

La Mamita’s Cafe
2B/280 Crown St, Wollongong NSW 2500
(02) 4210 8995