calamari Archives - PEGFeeds - Sydney Food Blog

La Favola – Newtown NSW Restaurant Review

We went with a group of friends and colleagues to La Favola, Newtown Italian restaurant and home to a RPA nurse who moonlights in greener pastures.

This is a piece of bread covered in some diced tomato and minimal greenery. Three of these bruschetta can be had for $15, making this a $5 plate. As far as breads go this was pretty pleasant, and as far as tomatoes go these definitely were some. It didn’t really sing out to me, though I guess not all entrees have to.

Moving into specialty entree territory, La Favola considers its calamari ($19) as a signature dish. These were pretty good, soft, and not too battered. Their pale colour implied that they did not swim in the oil for too long. There was nothing either good nor bad about the aioli.

We were offered but did not order the zucchini flowers ($25 for a plate, more than what is pictured), and yet they arrived. Our waitress assured us that we had ordered them when questioned, though none of our party owned believed we did. They were pretty tasty to be honest, filled to the brim with a soft mix of mozzarella and ricotta. But that’s not the point!

My pasta of the night was the seafood pasta (daily special – $35). It was a good pasta in a classic red sauce, loaded with mussels, prawn, and fish. The spaghetti was coated well in the umami, seafoody sauce, and though expensive I thought it was worth it. I probably didn’t need the additional bread on top of the bruschetta from earlier.

La Favola
170 King St, Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 8021 0002

Kiwi Fish Shop – Mascot NSW Review

The need for salt and oil struck me again recently, and this need was fed by an evening delivery order from Kiwi Fish Shop, a fish and chip shop variably described as being in Mascot or Rosebery, and possibly part of the Newmarket Hotel operation.

The crumbed calamari (3 pieces for $4.50) provided a good initial hit of salt and umami.

The prawn cutlet ($2.50 each) were a bit overbreaded but still good

The sea scallops (2 for $2.50) were not as fresh as deep fried scallops can be, but still passable.

The crumbed oyster ($3.25) was not as good as at Kibuna, a Japanese restaurant also located in Mascot – however obviously in a different style.

The fish and chips ($12) were just that. I was not that into the chips, While the tyranny of distance is at least partially to blame, they just didn’t taste fresh to me.

An additional fish fillet was had for $9 – already you can see this is too much food

I was sad to have been charged $1.50 each for small tubs of tartare sauce. You would think that some would be included.

The fish taco combo ($12) was delicious – mainly the fish taco. I liked the sauce and salsa. Could’ve gone without the mountain of chips and with a couple of dollars off the price to match.

The Juicy Scotch Fillet Burger optioned by my partner with egg and cheese ($13 base, $16 as shown) was pretty good actually, but expensive and also not the real reason you’re ordering from a fish and chip shop on a Thursday evening.

THOUGHTS

The food at Kiwi Fish Shop was not bad, and even probably quite good. I don’t really have a recent benchmark to compare it to, as fish and chips are really more of a once in a year or two thing given the wide variety of other delicious things that I have access to, that may not be as bad for me. I had strong regrets about halfway through the meal, but for some reason I powered through. I should have at least saved the food for the following day.

4/5 steamed clams

Kiwi Fish Shop
895 Botany Rd, Mascot NSW 2020
(02) 9667 2499