Categories
Asian Fusion Indian

Don’t Tell Aunty – Surry Hills NSW Restaurant Review

Revenge meal (noun): the action of having a meal without someone in return for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands.

Several months ago a member of our merry band of colleagues was left out of the invite list to a work gathering at Don’t Tell Aunty, one of the inner-city’s foremost “Modern Indian” restaurants. In retaliation for this unceremonious snubbing we put the restaurant on the hit list for a future visit – it’s just unfortunate that the next time we found ourselves in Surry Hills that same friend was packing his bags, ready to board a flight to visit his partner interstate. I guess he’ll never know. (Unless he reads this post)

Parking in Surry Hills on a Thursday night was quite easy, with plenty of 2-hour free street parking around. We entered the restaurant at opening to the tunes of the Tokyo Drift song, a harbinger of the modern, Western musical theme that would persist throughout the night.

Aunty’s Balls of Happiness ($12) are tangy and creamy shots of chutney encased within puffs made of semolina. They came strongly recommended by BC via an esteemed professor of intensive care medicine, though were not so well received around the table. Though the puffs themselves were light and inoffensive, the chutney shot filling was, in my opinion, too strong tasting. The balance of filling to pastry was absolutely not achieved, and within our band of four diners we each had one, except for BC who had to have three.

The Papadi Chaat ($18), billed as “the motherland’s version of nachos and salsa”, was truly only okay. It featured a too-flavourful salsa over some flour-pastry chips. The flavour was, in my opinion, again too strong – erring on the tangy side, almost more of the same as the balls of happiness but different. I wouldn’t get this again.

The cheese naan ($8) was my personal highlight of the meal. Unlike most cheese naans, Aunty’s cheese naan is made with blue cheese, with a sprinkling of oregano. This blue cheese flavour – not too strong to be overpowering, but just there enough to taste – was a flavour that I had never experienced before in naan, and very enjoyable. Don’t go without trying this.

The basket of naan ($12) was a basket of three different types of triagular naan, cut in the middle. The garlic chive naan (left) was good, though my girlfriend missed out. The onion sesame naan (right) was also good, as was the plain naan (not pictured). Each of these three naans were quite oily, especially the plain naan, and quite thin compared to the spectrum of naans that I’ve had in the past. I guess you can’t go wrong with bread and oil.

The Unauthentic Butter Chicken ($30), was really just fine. There was nothing special about this butter chicken, except for the price, which I thought was quite extreme for such a small serving. You can compare the serving size with this normal sized spoon. It’s quite ridiculous.

The Short Rib Korma ($30) was also just fine. Unlike Korean BBQ, this short rib was indistinguishable from any other red meat – it wasn’t served on the rib, nor was there any rib-like display. The size of this serving was again minute for the price, and neither of these curries were any better than what you’d get at your local Indian restaurant in Western Sydney for half the price.

Mango Lassi ($6) was good.

VERDICT
Don’t Tell Aunty is in a difficult spot to like. The only real standout of meal was the blue cheese naan, which is not something you can really get elsewhere. The curries were extremely expensive for their serving size, and had no special elements at all to justify their pricing. As a Wentworthville resident with the entirety of Western Sydney’s South Asian offerings at my doorstep I would have extreme difficulty in recommending Don’t Tell Aunty to anyone.

Don’t Tell Aunty
414 Bourke St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9331 5399

Diners JW, PX, WKS, BC

Categories
Café

Lil Miss Collins – Parramatta NSW Restaurant Review

Lil Miss Collins, with its inventive, road-less-trodden menu and all day alcohol options ticks plenty of boxes for intrepid brunchers looking for a high quality alternative to nearby Circa Espresso. We’ve been twice now – once on New Years Eve 2019 (I will leave you photos but not really any comments from this visit), and once more recently after a run of night shifts with our nights crew.

These Sweet Potato Fries ($9.80) were quite good, with a soft texture on the inside but a crispiness on the outside. They retained heat well, remaining warm for the duration of consumption. A good choice by my junior colleague DTC.

The Beef Brisket Sandwich ($17.50) was good, but only good. The toasted sourdough was crisp and adequate. The beef brisket filings were good, though taken as a whole, the sandwich, with its beef, American cheese, cabbage slaw and spicy mayo was just a bit too tasty for me. Each bite was a bit of an onslaught of saltiness, not adequately tempered by the bread. This is one situation in which the bread to filling ratio probably leant too much to the filling side of the equation – that is, this sandwich was a bit overfilled. It was by no means a bad toastie, but probably not one I’d get again.

I really enjoyed the Salmon with Miso Black Rice & Citrus ($25.90), though neither my girlfriend, nor my junior colleague MC did. The salmon was pan seared to medium perfection, neither overdone nor underdone. The miso and jalapeno rice soup had a nice umami flavour. The radish, golden beets, and pomelo citrus salad was just fine. I had never had a beetroot that was not red before, but I didn’t really think they tasted as special as they looked. I don’t know that the salad and salmon were really synergistic in taste or texture, but at the same time having a bit of freshness did not hurt. Overall good.

The Phoenician Kafta Bowl ($22.80) is a reasonably low carb option for those on a shred, if you ignore the very ignorable pita. The main component of this meal is essentially a gardenlike salad, spiced up with some pomegranate, flat bread crisps (a la fattuosh) and yoghurt. The two grilled lamb kaftas are the dish’s star ingredients, bearing a juicy, warm meatiness that don’t quite match with the coldness of the rest of the dish. While the kafta are very good, the fact that you can actually order them individually for a mere $3.75 each would lead me to suggest giving this bowl a miss and adding a couple of kafta to a different main .

The following items were consumed sixteen months prior to the writing of this post. Recollection is hazy at best.

I remember nothing about these Ricotta and Sweetcorn Fritters ($18.50), though my partner says that she remembered liking them. She’s generally much more of a fritter fan than I am, and she even enjoys many of the fritters that I straight out dislike.

I think I remember enjoying this Crispy Skin Barramundi with Braised Fennel ($23), or at least the barramundi component. I was and still am confused by the inclusion of a giant piece of white wine braised fennel, which I had never had before and wasn’t a fan of.

This is obviously some kind of elaborate French Toast, no longer served, and not identifiable through any secondary sources at this time.

AUGUST 2022

Back from our look into the past, we shall discuss this Squid Thai Pasta ($24.90). It straddled the line between “not bad” and “not good”, a pad thai-like creation with an unusual focus on tomato sauce and unclear identity as to if it wanted to be a stir fried Thai noodle dish or a pasta. It was not the worst thing I’ve ever eaten, but at the same time not something that I’d like to ever eat again. Most unusual was the addition of Turkish bread on top of what was clearly already a carb-loaded noodle based meal. The squid was at least succulent.

VERDICT
Lil Miss Collins, overall good. You should go, and let me know if I’m wrong.

Lil Miss Collins
13 Wentworth St, Parramatta NSW 2150
(02) 9635 3273

Categories
Café Latin American

Storgē and Co. – North Parramatta NSW Cafe Review

My girlfriend and I often fall victim to sponsored posts on social media, and it was just such a sponsored post that led us to Storgē and Co., one of North Parramatta’s foremost demountable-based Latin American restaurants.

Storge and Co features a mix of indoor and outdoor courtyard seating, though it appears that the indoor seating is not used on days with clear weather. We parked in the Petbarn next door, making a note to buy some cat food so that we wouldn’t feel bad about taking their customer only parking.

The Crispy Dog ($10) is pretty good. It is a hot dog of grilled chorizo, pico de gallo, parmesan, and a rich creamy sauce, topped with a generous serving of potato crisps for an extra crunch. The flavours of this hot dog were quite good. The chorizo sausage itself had quite a complex flavour which rose beyond mere saltiness, which I did not expect from a $10 hot dog. The pico de gallo provided freshness, whilst the potato crisps were salty and crispy. The white creamy sauce was a bit heavy, though in conjunction with all the other flavours and the deliciously toasted bread was not as unbalanced as in the pepito.

This creamy monstrosity is the Pepito ($15). It is essentially a toasted sourdough baguette, filled with 24-hour marinated beef tenderloin, parmesan, mozzarella, and topped with “heavenly sauce”. The beef was very tender, juicy, and tasted good, but that was essentially the best part. There was an absolute cheese overload, and while I can’t tell you the exact components of the heavenly sauce, I assume it is named so as the rich fatty creaminess books you an express ticket to heaven. The sauce and two cheeses mixed together make this a very heavy roll indeed. Not at all wholesome, and not really that good to taste either.

Enthused by our recent positive empanada experience at Mas Tinto, we ordered Storgē and Co.’s cheese and guava jam empanadas (3 for $9.50). Unlike Mas Tinto’s Storge and Co’s were a major disappointment. Where Mas Tinto’s guava and cheese empanadas were lightly but deftly flavoured, Storge’s take is much more heavy handed. I was surprised to find both a too-sweet and too-salty filling, The flavours were unfortunately far too strong, and the dipping sauce did nothing to help with this. It would’ve been better for them to sell them individually, but I imagine that if they did they would only sell one to each customer, and no more following that.

The Thre3* Milk Cake ($6.50), consisting of sponge cake soaked in and topped with three or four different types of milk reminded me of something served for dessert at a year 6 camp. Not awful, but not very good either. A strange hit of nostalgia, and a no go from me.

INTERIM IMPRESSION
I think ultimately, out of the things that we tried at Storgē and Co., there are more losers than winners. While their Crispy Dog was good, it’s only a member of their seasonal menu, and not part of the regular cast. I wouldn’t mind coming back to try their Reuben Sandwich, though a return to Storgē and Co. is reasonably low on my list of things to do.

A RETURN

True to my word, I returned to Storgē and Co whilst servincing my car at West End Mazda across the road to try out their Reuben Sando ($12). The sauerkraut to meat to cheese ratio was certianly achieved, but I felt that whilst the bread was well toasted the insides remained extremely tepid. If I had to rate this sandwich against the two other Reuben’s previously in my life, I’d put this between the excellent one at Croquembouche Patisserie that I had no less than 10 times in 2020, and the extremely low-tier average one I had at Nepean Hospital in 2019.

Whilst I won’t bore you with exterior shots of the Beef Empanada (3 for $9.50), I can tell you they looked exactly the same as the guave empaanda from the outside. They were, however, much better. The more solid contents meant that the beef empanada wasn’t as piping hot, and therefore more easy to eat. The savoury filling of potato and beef was quite hearty, and the flavours were actually well comlimented by the provided dipping sauce. They were really not bad.

VERDICT
After trying quite a few things on their menu, I think really only the Crispy Dog was anything very special.

Storgē and Co.
69a Church St, North Parramatta NSW 2151
0413 054 553

Categories
Italian

Sopranos Gourmet Pizza Pasta & Kebab – Rosehill NSW Restaurant Review

Night time meals at work are essentially limited to two options – Jimmy’s Kebab, and Soprano’s Pizza. Seeing as Jimmy’s Kebab is quite bad, Soprano’s Pizza is one of the better choices for a Halal-friendly meal. Their pizzas are generally not bad, even good, but essentially the same as other kebab shop pizza fare. We’ve had pizza from them a few times now, and each time we have been graced by consistent quality, and the odd free bottle of soft drink or garlic bread.

A cactus in the desert.

Soprano’s Gourmet Pizza Pasta & Kebab
2/22-24 Oak St, Rosehill NSW 2142
(02) 9633 1717

Categories
Chinese

The Dolar Shop – Haymarket NSW Restaurant Review

The Dolar Shop is, to date, the most luxurious and expensive hot pot restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. We paid around $70 per person for a full hot pot meal with 7 attendees. The restaurant was operated in the personal hot pot format, and so each person needed to fork out for individual soup bases.

The quality of the wagyu was truly extreme, and each briefly-boiled mouthful was a great experience. The sauce station provided ample choices, and there were lower-yield complimentary options including fresh fruit and matcha and vanilla soft serve.

UPDATE DECEMBER 2022

I went back to The Dolar Shop with my friends HWJ XWO and CJP, and we managed to spend even more ($85 pp) this time. Key differences from this visit were that we, by choice, had a lot more vegetable and tofu. Wagyu was the only beef available with no cheaper options on the menu – I’m not sure if this was the case the first time around. I had the Exquisite Silver Soup on the recommendation of HWJ and XWO, which was a peppery soup containing some pork tripe and chicken broth, quite good, but quite expensive – I’m not sure that a plain soup would’ve been that much worse.

They also mixed some initial sauces for us tableside, with the option to also create our own at the sauce bar, which I don’t remember happening the first time, and the dessert changed to quite a good strawberry and yoghurt flavoured soft serve.

VERDICT
The Dolar Shop, being extremely expensive, is really only a high end option for a special occasion. There are much plenty of cheaper hot pot places across Sydney that are almost as good.

The Dolar Shop Sydney
Shop 5-7 1909 Dining Precinct, Level 3
Market City, 13 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000
0487 886 677

Featured Colleagues: WKS, JZHW, BC, AL, JO