The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
I drove past Fuadijan on the way home maybe 500 times before I went to eat there with my friend ES.
The chicken seekh kebabplate ($13.50) with naan was juicy and flavourful, and a good amount of the price.
The lamb tikka plate ($16.50) I enjoyed less, finding the meat a bit tougher than I would have liked, a problem not at all helped by the flimsy single use cutlery providing no means to cut it.
But I had a fun time, and the woman working there was really nice. She even let us try some extra rice when we couldn’t decide between rice and naan.
I don’t know that I’d go back to be honest, I’m surprised that such a meat forward place did so little for me food wise. But I’m glad we went.
Comment below if you strongly feel that Pakistani food should have its own category on this site.
Pazar Food Collective identifies as an Inner-West restaurant, which as someone who lives two minutes down the road I think it’s a bit laughable. As I told our dining companions on the night, the only people who consider where we live to be the Inner-West seem to be real estate agents. Regardless of which highly-priced clique of Sydney we were or weren’t in, we had a pretty good meal. Prices noted below are inclusive of a 10% weekend surcharge, which, given they’re only open Thursday-Saturday, I think bears mentioning.
We started with this wood baked sesame nigella bread with salted wild oregano butter ($17.05 – $13.20 without the butter). Both the bread and the butter tasted good and fragrant, with a density that might just be in keeping with its own style. Though I enjoyed the bread, I do wish that there could have been a cheaper or even no-cost option (like a flatbread or something, especially because we ended up getting multiple servings, given that such a large number of their entrees are so sauce focused.
People liked the muhamarra ($18.70), but I didn’t. It is a dip that that the menu describes as consisting of roasted almonds and walnuts blended with blistered red peppers, pomegranate molasses, and chilli. It’s hard to pinpoint why I didn’t like it – I think it was a bit loose and watery textured, though clearly no one else around the table had any problems with it. Bread was essential, and again a bit of pita would’ve gone a long way.
I am a lover of meet, and yes the sujuk with hummus and blistered tomatoes ($25.30) was enjoyable. The sujuk was helpfully presented as a mince rather than as slices of sausage, which made a lot of sense for a dish that ultimately surmounted to a multi-textured dip. I tend to eat quite a bit of sujuk during my Western Sydney culinary adventures, often without enjoying it, but I must say that this time I was thoroughly impressed by both the flavour and texture of the mince. Similar to the last dip, the reds were again blistered to this time produce cherry tomatoes that brought with them discrete pops of juice and flavour. The hummus didn’t really register for me. It was merely a creamy carrier for the other tasty ingredients rather than the focus of the dish.
Wow, another sauce, and need for another bread. The braised Japanese eggplant ($23.10) with roasted red pepper tomato sauce, garlic labneh, and chilli crisp did nothing for me. Apart from the slices of eggplant itself (which did not feel extremely Japanese to me) this tomato and capsicum dish felt more or less the same as a combination of the other two dips. Quite missable in my opinion.
We chose to have both the mains to share between us. This is the wood smoked roast lamb ($51.70 – 2 person serving size), atop a bed of bulgur pilav and garnished with pickled chillis, sumac herb and red onion salad. Though I wasn’t wowed by the meat, I did enjoy the bright pickled chillis, herbs, and lemon, which helped to keep mouthfuls of lamb moist and flavourful. This was my first time having bulgur pilav, which from what I can gather by my mouth and by Google is a wholegrain dish very similar to but distinct from wholewheat couscous and quinoa. It had rice energy.
Tied favourite with the sujuk mince was this terribly photographed harissa roasted chicken ($40.7). This half chicken, roasted on charcoal, was super tender and flavourful, marinated in a tahini lemon sauce, and served with chilli garlic and green chilli toum. Each bite of the chicken was really superb, and though it didn’t need the salad to help keep it fresh and moist, its presence was appreciated because it gave me something to eat whilst I respectfully let my co-diners have their fair share of the chicken. Strong recommend on this one.
Comments This restaurant really has a lot of saucey and dippy entrees for a place that only offers $13.20 servings of bread. It would really make a lot more sense to just have bottomless pita, but it would probably cut into their bottom line and $13 bread sales. The sujuk and the chicken were particular standouts. We also had some pretty good sangria, which I promise I only had a couple of sips of.
Pazar Food Collective 325 Canterbury Rd, Canterbury NSW 2193, Australia +61 411 727 874
Social Hideout is one of my least favourite cafes in Parramatta, and judging from the number of posts on this blog I feel like I have a broad-enough experience to hold an opinion on this. My first encounter with Social Hideout was in 2018, when my partner took me at the end of a run of ward cover night shifts (my last ever), at the start of my annual leave. Though this was well before the creation of this blog, and before I really started thinking about keeping track of what was good and what was bad, I remember my impression being that the cafe had seemingly spent a lot of effort in decorating, and perhaps could’ve better spent that energy into its food. I have the photos from that September 10, 2018 visit, though given it’s been so long and I honestly have no idea how it tasted I don’t think there’s really any point in my sharing them now. We had a red velvet latte, a taro latte, poached eggs on beetroot toast, and a french toast.
This first visit all the way back in my first year out in the real world of employment and dining out must have left a serious impact on my psyche however, as I spent the next four years trying to avoid going back, until I couldn’t. Dragged by my tail from the exhausted safety of my workplace Entrada Centre in Parramatta by a group of colleagues, I was to remember why I didn’t like this place.
The decor at Social Hideout remains as floral as ever, and though I had hoped that perhaps time and iteration might have resulted in some improvements in their food menu I was disappointed. The Lamb and Cheese Pot of Gold ($22.90) was an extremely salty mixture of tomato, slow cooked pulled lamb, beans, miso mushrooms, and labneh served with sourdough bread and butter. In my opinion this is definitely a dish that looks and reads better than it tasted – I just can’t understate how salty it was, the only saving grace being the bread, while it lasted.
I was glad to hear that opinions were not merely held by me, but also a number of my colleagues, who did not love their chicken-waffle dishes.
Ultimately I think that some cafe-goers want a place where they can take cute photos of their food with attractive floral backdrops, and some just want a place to have a nice meal. Some places manage to do both – the similarly named Social Society in Zetland (and actually quite close to Social Hideout’s Waterloo branch) comes to mind, but in my opinion Social Hideout just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Supernormal was our most highly-anticipated meal of our 2022 Melbourne trip, and boy did its expression of predominantly Chinese-marketed-as-Japanese fusion cuisine not disappoint.
We started our meal with this excellent raw bar starter of nori cracker, seared tuna, and bonito ($14 for 2 pieces). The cracker was similar to the tempura seaweed snacks that you can get at the Asian grocery store, but with greater substance and rigidity suited to holding its toppings. The seared tuna was fresh and tasty with a good texture (contrasting to other seared tunas we had on our trip, for example at Lover), and while the topping of ginger was perhaps over-represented, overall both the flavours and textures of this starter were excellent. This was perhaps the most Japanese dish of our pseudo-Japanese fusion meal.
The soy-roasted pumpkin seeds, a complimentary snack, were sweet, savoury and had a great crunch. Good to pass the time between dishes, not that there was much delay at all.
The Hunan-style beef tartare with fragrant chilli oil ($20) was again excellent, with a title reflective of its inspirations. It was fresh and spicy, with a flavour profile highly reminiscent of liángpí (凉皮), but with a rawness that most Chinese people would traditionally not touch. This tartare was one of the better of the many we had in Melbourne, with quite innovative flavouring and good quality meat.
The sesame flatbread with whipped cod roe ($12) was another outstanding showing. It’s almost crazy to think that you could find the Platonic ideal of shāobǐng (烧饼) at this Asian Fusion restaurant that pretends that it’s not Chinese, but that’s exactly what this is. The flatbread was fragrant, soft, and warm, aided by a very generous sprinkling of toasted white sesame seeds. The bread, though excellent itself, was brought to a whole other level entirely by the whipped cod roe dip, which was impossibly creamy and umami. The green oil on top of the dip, for those who are wondering, was explained as the oil of scallion, though to me tasted like nothing. Even if the greenness is just for aesthetics, I don’t think you can walk past this dish. It is a great bread.
As an aside, the diners on the table adjacent to us asked the waiter if roe was a type of sauce, and the man also remarked to his dining partner “I know this will probably scare most people” as their bread arrived. I am glad they are trying.
We interrupt this food review for a photo of Super Soda ($11), a refreshing non-alcoholic beverage.
Though I have much praise for many of Supernormal’s offerings, I must say that the New England lobster roll ($18) was not extraordinary. While the buttery, lightly-toasted brioche bun was excellent, the taste of the lobster itself (presumably the star ingredient) was very mild and smothered by a large predominance of mayonnaise. The bun was quite small for $18, and sharing this roll between two people was ill advised.
The duck bao ($32) with twice-cooked duck leg ,vinegar & plum sauce was very good. The duck leg had a salty and hard exterior with crispy skin, which cracked open to reveal moist flesh within which paired well with the fresh cucumber and tangy sauces. The “bao” of this dish was bao in the same sense as most Western iterations of the word – folded white steamed dough – a form I don’t believe actually exists in China. We found that, given the abundance of duck, a superior topping to bread ratio could be achieved by splitting the “baos” in half. Very good.
Another dish, another focus of Chinese inspiration. The slow-cooked lamb shoulder with eggplant, Yuxiang sauce, crispy garlicwith a cabbage salad (small serve, $42) exhibited a strong Sichuan influence, rather than anything Japanese. Though our waiter helpfully suggested this half-size given how much other food we ordered, we found that even this small portion was quite large. The dish was replete in both má and là, with an additional element of tomato or vinegar flavour which was reminiscent of mápó tofu (麻婆豆腐). The lamb had a crispy semi-melted fatty layer atop which made for a good texture, especially combined with the crispy garlic coating. The eggplant was soft and flavourful, being an excellent soak for all of the sauce and juices, while the cabbage salad, seasoned with cumin, was just a bit too weird for me to want to eat it in any large amount. I don’t think cumin cabbage should be a thing.
For dessert we had the peanut butter parfait ($18), featuring a dark chocolate mousse that surprised me with its lack of coldness (I had misidentified it as an ice cream). It was good. It was all good.
For second dessert we got this massive box of Pocky ($2) from the vending machine downstairs. It’s actually cheaper than your local Asian supermarket?
THOUGHTS We had a great meal at Supernormal, easily the best of our 2022 Melbourne trip. The dishes were hit after hit after hit, melding familiar Chinese flavours with new ingredients and ways of cooking. My one very significant complaint would be how this restaurant markets itself as Japanese-fusion, with its use of katakana in its branding and promotional material. I feel that, based on the selection of dishes that we tried as well as the wider menu on offer, Supernormal should be considered pan-Asian-fusion at broadest, and honestly probably Chinese-fusion for the most part. I think at the end of the day it’s just unfortunate that it’s harder to convince someone to spend $100 per person on “modernised/Westernised/fused” Chinese cuisine than on Japanese.
COOH’s Bourke Road restaurant has long been on my list of places to eat at this year. We’ve driven past it countless times on our way to the other restaurants, but it’s taken us over nine months of living in the area to finally pay a visit.
COOH is situated in a high-ceilinged warehouse on Bourke Road. There is no parking available, and minimal street parking in the area, so we did a sneaky and parked at Grounds of Alexandria around the corner. It is a beautiful, large room setup, with a large bar and kitchen area on show. We had lunch on a Wednesday, the same time as what appeared to be a local mum and bubs group.
The potato chips with aioli ($8) were salty and ultimately unsatisfying. It is difficult to pinpoint what was wrong with them, and it was probably more a constellation of things that did not quite meet the mark. We found that we were quite aioli dependent with these chips, and ran out of the aioli early. Luckily we were able to get additional aioli at no charge.
I ordered the seared tuna with a spice crust, spiralised salad, jalapeno salsa, and avocado puree ($26). This was a dish I was quite excited about – there are some beautiful photos online of essentially sashimi tuna with a seared crust, and that’s what I thought I would be getting. I was wrong. The tuna that I ate today was almost fully cooked through, nowhere near as rare or raw as expected. While I enjoyed the flavours in the spiced crust I felt like the overcooking lead to a strange and unpleasant texture – no better than what I could make by myself at home. I enjoyed the spiralised salad, as well as the avocado puree, and thought the plating was quite nice. I could not identify any jalapeno salsa, and indeed didn’t realise it was meant to be part of it until I took another look at the menu whilst writing this review. I would not recommend this dish.
The Morrocan lamb and quinoa ($28) I enjoyed even less than the seared tuna. Most disappointing was the inexplicable lukewarm temperature of the lamb, almost as if it had been cooked and left to rest for far too long. The quinoa was also cold, which I just don’t feel goes well with a meat such as lamb, which is meant to be served hot. I enjoyed every other element of the dish – the plating, the mint yoghurt, the sweet potato, currants, and pomegranate seeds, but unfortunately the two title ingredients were a let down.
My trip to COOH was ultimately a let down. I didn’t really enjoy anything we had, despite the restaurant having generally good reviews online. My partner had good things to say about the space, and even considered it for some kind of formal occasion in the future, however the food was such a let down that it would be a veto.
