Categories
Vietnamese

2 Foodies – Mount Pritchard NSW Restaurant Review

I was on my way back to Sydney from visiting my partner in Wollongong, I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, and my fuel light was flashing. I was driving through South West Sydney to reach my home, and the Speedway petrol station in Mount Pritchard and its attached Vietnamese restaurant fulfilled all of my pressing requirements in one go.

2 Foodies in Mount Pritchard is a very small restaurant operation, offering up only a couple of dining tables and a bar that faces a window with excellent views of the attached petrol station. What little they save on decor and rent seems to go right into their excellent tasting food, with a limited but focused menu of pho and banh mi, along with suitable halal options appropriate for its geographic location.

I had a beef pho with everything ($16), a medium sized bowl of rare beef, beef brisket, beef balls, beef omasum, and beef tendon in a delicious rich soup. All the proteinaceous components of this bowl were great, with tender beef, a well cooked brisket, and balls that actually taste better than those from the Asian grocer freezer aisle. Coming in at just fifty cents more than the rare beef, brisket, and beef ball version, I truly believe that the full pho experience is only gained with the addition of delicious random bovine parts. The broth, a perpetual stew of beef, bone marrow, and choice spices and herbs including star anise and shallot, is extremely rich, with a deep complex flavour that shines far ahead of many of its competitors. All of this is finished with a large topping of fresh onion and shallot, aromatics that release their flavour when covered by the piping hot broth.

Though delicious, one unfortunate pitfall of this broth is its extreme oiliness, with a very visible layer of oil atop the soup that made me compelled to add all of the one small wedge of lemon to try and cut it.

COMMENTS
I found joy today in an incredibly unlikely place. Not only was the pho at 2 Foodies some of the best I’ve had in Sydney, I was also able to fill up my tank with unleaded 98 for 15 cents/litre less than the six other petrol stations I drove past on the way there. While communication, cleanliness, and decor could be improved, I’m almost glad that they focus all of their energy on the quality of their food rather than this other distracting minutia. You will definitely find me visiting again.

2 Foodies
2/348 Elizabeth Dr, Mount Pritchard NSW 2170
(02) 8786 0189

Categories
Middle Eastern

Fatima’s Lebanese Restaurant – Surry Hills NSW Restaurant Review

The first time I ate at Fatima’s was on the 20th of December 2015. Having grown up in Western Sydney and then transplanted across to the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne for university meant that I was not familiar with all or any of the popular inner city haunts that my same-age-and-stage Sydney counterparts were familiar with. I remember being intimidated by my first visit to Fatima’s – there was a belly dancer in the main restaurant – and hurriedly ordering my shawarma to go.

It was not until December 2020, nearly five years later, that I would return to Fatima’s. My second visit was around 1:30AM following an evening shift in the emergency department. The restaurant is much less intimidating at this time of night, and much more dinky. It did not look all that clean or appealing, but given it was past 1AM and I had already made the drive to Surry Hills I thought I’d better follow through.

I ordered a kafta roll and a lamb shish kebab roll ($9.50 each with hommus, taboli, salad, garlic sauce, and chilli sauce). As I waited for my food to be cooked the older of the two Bengali guys working that night engaged me in a length conversation about the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and the foreign policy of the United States. While not desired, I will remark that this was a slightly less uncomfortable conversation than the coronavirus related conversation I had at Concrete Jungle Suburbia earlier in the year. The man offered me a free falafel from a metal bowl for my troubles.

Unfortunately as he was finishing up my lamb shish kebab roll he coughed (unmaskedly, might I add) right onto my food. This made me quite uncomfortable – even though the rates of COVID-19 in the community are low I’m also not out fishing for a random other URTI. I didn’t say anything at the time but I should have.

The kafta roll was quite good. Fatima’s has really perfected the mix of tabouli, garlic, and chilli sauce. It was, as I remembered from my visit five years ago, somewhat of a slimmer roll than what I’m used to from kebab shops, but no less delicious.

3.5/5. Sorry but the cough put me ough.

Fatima’s
296 Cleveland St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9698 4895

Categories
Chinese

Dim Sim & More – Mascot NSW Restaurant Review

My partner recently spent $125 on very middling delivered Chinese food, locking me into eating it for the rest of the week.

I will put the same amount of effort into this review as they did cooking it.

Steamed Pork Shumai 猪肉烧卖 ($8.80). Not bad, a bit salty, and a bit dry. The addition of flying fish roe on top gave it a fun crunchy fish roe texture and fish flavour.

Steamed Vegetable Dumpling 韭菜鸡蛋蒸饺 ($7.80) is actually a chive and egg and vermicelli steamed vegetable dumpling. The flavours are quite light, with only a weak chive flavour. Not great but not bad.

Boiled Pork Dumpling 猪肉水饺 ($11.80) had a very meaty taste with strong pork flavour and good chive flavour also. Actually quite good, but she accidentally ordered two servings. (Why?)

Pan Fried Turnip Patty 香煎萝卜糕 ($7.80) had a bit of a too-greasy taste to it to enjoy.

Steamed Black Bean Pork Rib 豉汁蒸排骨 ($9.80) was actively bad. Overcooked, formless meat. The wrong flavour for black bean pork rib. Don’t get this if you’re expecting the yum cha classic. Actively bad.

The Pork and Preserved Egg Congee 皮蛋瘦肉粥 ($12.80) was actually quite good. It was very accurate to the Platonic ideal of a 皮蛋瘦肉粥, and for $12.80 they actually gave us two large takeaway boxes worth.

VERDICT
Most of the food from Dim Sum & More was quite disappointing.
I wouldn’t recommend it to even a casual acquaintance.

Dim Sum & More
Shop 2, 8 Bourke Street, Mascot NSW

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Japanese

Devon – Surry Hills NSW Restaurant Review

My partner and I are big fans of Dopa – Devon’s offshoot donburi restaurant in Darling Square. We’ve been going regularly over the past few months, however it had been a long time since we had dined at the mothership in Surry Hills.

We went suckered in by pictures of uni laden foods on instagram, and I made my partner promise me that she would let us leave and eat somewhere else if they had run out (as is often the case at Dopa, I’m sick of being baited and switched).

We dined on a Sunday morning in an empty restaurant, much different to how it was like when we had last dined in 2019. As predicted, they were out of uni, however a craving for a pork katsu sandwich prevented us from leaving.

My partner had a matcha latte while I, as an inferior Asian, had an iced matcha soy latte. While I can’t speak for my partner’s drink, I can say that my iced matcha soy latte was not as good as the one that I had at 101kissa. There was just something so powdery and nice about the iced matcha soy lattte from 101kissa, whereas this one was a weird blend of sweet and bitter that didn’t tickle my tastebuds in quite the right way.

Devon’s pork katsu sando ($16) is cut into two portions and served in a cardboard box. The sauce is spread evenly through the sandwich, which is a selling point, however this is where the compliments end. I felt that the pork itself was not as juicy or tender as in the pork katsu sandwich I had at Cafe Kentaro. I also felt that the sandwich was overbreaded, with the bread to filling ratio too great, adding an unneeded and unwanted blandness to the taste. The size and construction of the sandwich halves were also inferior to the three pieces at Kentaro, and made the sandwich difficult to eat.

While Devon’s pork katsu sando probably stands fine on its own to a person who has never had a good pork katsu sando, it fails in comparison to that at Kentaro, a few kilometres away.

I didn’t enjoy the salted egg yolk cheesy curly fries ($13). Perhaps it’s because we’ve had just so much salted egg yolk foods in the past few weeks that I’m sick of it, but I think the more likely reason is that these chips were oily but dry. Their thinness did not help, as the higher surface area to volume ratio increased the radiative heat loss from the food, making them too cool and yucky too quickly.

My partner ordered the omurice with salmon sashimi in ponzu sauce. We were quite surprised to find that the omurice was served separately to the salmon. The salmon was cold but the omurice was warm. While the omurice itself was quite delicious with its mushroomy gravy, I don’t think it really worked as a combination. I wonder if it’s the responsibility of the wait staff to sway you away from bad choices. Either way, that was not what happened here. What happened here was a thoroughly noncohesive dish.

I’m sad to say that I didn’t really enjoy our trip to Devon. While I love their rice bowls at their Haymarket offshoot Dopa, our trip back to the mothership was disappointing.

Devon Cafe
76 Devonshire St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9211 8777

Categories
Asian Fusion

Wild Catch on Danks – Waterloo NSW Restaurant Review

Tucked away in the entrance to Coles Waterloo is Wild Catch on Danks, perhaps Waterloo’s best and most difficult to find fish-based restaurant. I say fish-based restaurant because not only does Wild Catch do fish and chips, but they also offer a wide menu of Asian inspired curries, salads, burgers, and laksas.

We had the Miso salmon, stir fried ginger and Asian greens and jasmine rice ($22) from Wild Catch’s dinner specials board. Provided were two pieces of perfectly cooked grilled salmon – medium rare on the inside – as well as some bok choy, choy sum, and peas. We really loved the quality of the fish both in its freshness and preparation style. It was delicious even without the miso sauce, which my partner didn’t realise was part of the meal until she was well into it. The miso sauce, when poured over the salmon, was light tasting and just enough to deliver a bit of sweet and salty umami. Overall a very good dish.

Wild Catch’s Dry red curry of barramundi ($23) with beans, corn, eggplant, chilli & rice was very nice. There was a generous serving of fish, cut into chunks that I think must have been braised before cooking in the curry. The curry was less dry than anticipated, and I would in fact describe this as a thick wet curry instead. The flavours were strong, and the serving of rice (not pictured) was definitely crucial to the meal. In fact we had some rice left over from the miso salmon, and that left over rice was also very helpful in tempering the strong (but delicious) flavours. I love coriander.

The BBQ octopus with Asian slaw salad & black vinegar dressing ($13) was probably an unneeded addition to what was already a very filling and reasonably priced meal. The slaw was actually surprisingly very good and refreshing. The BBQ octopus were a bit overcooked for my liking but apart from that no complaints. I think that this dish was the weakest of the three we ordered, though still a very suitable meal for a potentially healthy low-carb lunch.

VERDICT
While I haven’t had any of Wild Catch on Danks’ traditional deep fried fish and chips, their Asian fusion menu of curries and miso salmon is certified good.

Can recommend.

Wild Catch On Danks
12/1 Crystal St, Waterloo NSW 2017
(02) 9698 2131