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.
Today we review a cafe local to our new digs in mild-Inner-South-West Sydney, a place where my partner’s consultant once took her to celebrate the end of internship and the beginning of many more years of service.
We had the Chicken Katsu Sando ($18), an unexpectedly large mass of food consisting of thick cut crumbed and deep fried chicken breast, sauce and slaw between similarly thick cut pieces of toast, on a bed of fries. Though the food was not what I expected, I have absolutely no complaints about the quantity provided. This was a mass of carbohydrate, fats, and proteins for only $18, though I do take exception to the vast quantity of bread provided. In my imagination (based on past experience, mind you – see my reviews of Devon, Ippuku, Sandoitchi, Kentaro) the chicken in this sandwich would have come between soft fluffy untoasted white bread, which while I will admit is generally thick, is much more palatable in a malleable, untoasted form. The sandwich otherwise had good saucing with a bit of sweet okonomoyaki style sauce and Kewpie mayonnaise, as well as a surprisingly huge amount of chicken. The chips were fresh and fine.
The Halloumi Benedict ($18), but note the asbence of halloumi in the photo and exchange for ham, was quite a competent benedict with quite a good hollandaise sauce. Readers of this blog will note that we eat probably fewer benedicts than the average brunch-goer, usually opting for a more unusual or diverse item if available on the menu. Though I was not too fond of the eggplant, I did enjoy every other part of this benedict, even if the egg was a little more cooked than I would’ve liked. I particularly enjoyed the English muffin, which had both a nice crispiness on the exterior layer and a good absorbency for the hollandaise sauce on the interior surface. Would be sick to see this muffin used for a sausage and egg muffin like Haberfield’s finest.
$6.50 is no small amount to pay for a chocolate malt milkshake but it was what my partner wanted and I was in no position to resist. It was fine. Quite airy.
THOUGHTS Nothing really bad happened to me during my visit to Leaf Cafe & Co but I have exhausted all of the things I wanted to try there, and would definitely circle the block to the other local restaurants and cafes before coming back.
Kurumac is one of the first Asian cafes I ever visited, and one of the ones that got me hooked on the concept. An inner-west spin off of Kirribilli’s cool mac, Kurumac delivers some of the best and only Japanese-focused breakfast and brunch in the city, with the added benefit of not having to rub shoulders with the sleazy political types that haunt its North Shore sister. While most Asian cafes do their best to fuse both Asian and Western flavours, Kurumac proudly serves a focused Japanese meal.
Assorted sashimi seafood, sushi rice, miso soup
The Assorted sashimi seafood, sushi rice, miso soup ($19 when eaten in June 2020, now sadly $25 in December 2020) is a revelation. It was the first and still one of the best sashimi bowls I’ve ever had. The top layer of salmon sashimi is lightly grilled and slightly sauced to perfection. The salmon roe is delicious and it is clear that they took effort to source some high quality produce. The scallops are sweet and fresh, as are the cooked prawns. The miso soup was the perfect accompaniment to the remaining rice at the end of the dish. While not mini in size, I would consider this a mini-version of Simulation Senpai’s Hoseki Bako, very high quality but missing some of the luxury elements.
Grilled samlon congee, salmon skin
The grilled salmon congee with crispy salmon skin ($17) was so good that we had it twice. The congee is warm and wholesome, with a nice serving of grilled salmon and a topping of delicious salmon roe and shallots. The grilled salmon provides a umami flavour that permeates the entire congee, while the crispy salmon skin on the side adds a delightful crunch with an additional burst of salt. The preserved vegetables on the side are more sweet than salty and thus help to add balance to the dish.
The Pickled mustard, Cod Roe Omlette, Rice, Tonjiru Pork and Veg Soup ($19) is the weakest of all of the dishes I’ve had at Kurumac. The top half of the egg was nice, but it wasn’t immediately obvious that the cod roe would be in discrete parcels of saltiness and spiciness rather than mixed in with the egg – this led to lost opportunities as it was quite a while into the dish that I found them. The soup of strong onion and radish taste was a bit too salty and tasted a bit too agricultural for me. I wouldn’t recommend this dish.
Spicy cod roe melt
The spicy cod roe melt ($12) is an expensive but delicious piece of toast with a huge amount of heavy, rich spicy mentai mayo on top. This was one of the dishes that rekindled my interest in cod roe, and I actually tried to recreate it at home to much less success. Not Kurumac’s healthiest dish, but well worth a try.
Japanese Style White Toast, Seaweed Butter
While the spicy cod roe melt is a heavy and decadent piece of bread, the Japanese Style White Toast with Seaweed Butter ($6) is much lighter. This is a simple dish of a very thick piece of toast (in my opinion it is too thick) and a small bowl of seaweed butter. The seaweed butter provides a nice umami flavour, but in my opinion is a bit too mild to enjoy with such a large quantity of bread, even when fully spread over the toast. This would suit individuals with a more delicate palate.
L: Seasonal Milkshake, M: Latte, R: Matcha Latte
The seasonal milkshake ($9.50) changes with the season. Mine was a large kiwifruit milkshake made with gelato from Newtown’s Mapo (one of my favourite gelato stores). It is huge and expensive, served within the metal milkshake tumbler. I would recommend the Hojicha Milkshake, available for the same price, if available.
The Latte($4) is just normal coffee.
The Matcha Latte ($4.50) is quite good, served in a nice little stone cup. It is not sweetened.
UPDATE APRIL 2022
Time moves on, and the chirashi bowl has again increased in price, now to the very premium $3X range in April 2022. I chose instead to have the nori ben ($25) this time around, a fish-based collection of crumbed yellowtail, fried mackerel, grilled salmon, two types of pickles, and nori on rice along with a small cup of miso soup. I really enjoyed this meal, though it was a little bit heavier compared to most of Kurumac’s menu. The crumbed yellowtail was nice, warm, and moist, and the battered mackerel had that nice sweet and sourness that is characteristic of the fish. The tartare sauce was a bit odd – really more of a mayonnaise in my opinion, with large chunks of egg white mixed in – but not bad. The two types of pickles were standouts in my opinion, and went great with the soft nori and bed of rice. It was in the end a bit much of the same to eat for one person even despite the high level of variety in the ingredients, and I only wish that my partner were with me eating rather than sleeping at home (it would be unfair to expect her to eat a meal only available after 11AM if she’s starting work at 7:30PM) so that I could’ve had half of two meals instead of one of one.
UPDATE OCTOBER 2022
Today’s seasonal milkshake ($10) is strawberry. Still made with Mapo’s unbeatable gelato, and still good though quite filling and probably stopped me from eating as much of the curry and mazesoba as I wanted.
The mazesoba ($25) was happily though surprisingly different and better than the dry ramen that we had at cool mac back in 2020. The pork in this case was chashu, which was happily a bit fattier and tastier than what I remember. The broth had a lightly spicy and overall umami taste, aided by a load of delicious and tender bamboo shoots, as well as nori, sesame seeds, coriander, and a soft egg. The noodles were al dente. Genuinely quite good.
The ox tongue curry ($40) was really quite expensive for a lunch at a cafe, but brought with it a reasonable serving size as well as quite good flavour. Contained within this bowl of thick non-spicy Japanese curry were huge 3-dimensional chunks of ox tongue, very tender but still with good texture, koshihikari rice, and happily bright pickles. On the side was a serving of mentaiko mashed potato (I could not appreciate the mentaiko) and a green salad with cherry tomatoes, foliage, and sprouts. The ratio of rice to curry and meat was perfect, and the flavour and texture of the beef was good, although I would think twice about the value and level of necessity of the sides, and if the dish as a whole would be cheaper and yet just as good without them. The chirashi bowl by this point in late-2022 is now $35, and I think if you’re getting lunch at Kurumac and you’re only able to get one item, it would still be my recommendation.
CONCLUSION
You may be able to tell that I really like Kurumac. It’s one of my favourite cafes in Sydney, and I expect that as time passes and their menu changes you will also see new items added to this review.
To their credit, Paramount Coffee Project is situated near some pretty adequate and convenient 2-hour ticketed street parking.
I’m not usually one to complain about poor service but Paramount Coffee Project takes the concept of not trying to a new level.
After a brief wait for a table (they don’t take reservations) my partner and I were led to a very small table, given a menu, and essentially left to our own devices. During the next fifteen minutes we exchanged anxious glances with the middle aged couple at the table next to us, wondering when or if our waiter would reappear to take our orders. There was a moment of slight absurdity and an empathetic look from the gentleman on the adjacent table when our waiter took their order, didn’t look at us, and returned leisurely to the mothership to process it before returning to us.
A further point of friction occurred as we ordered our meal. I asked our waiter if we could add an additional side to one of our dishes, and he told us he’d check. He never got back to us, leaving us in suspense until our food arrived. The aforementioned size of the tables became problematic not for us, but for our comrades in the PCP experience next door. Their very normal sized order of two mains were unable to fit on their very-small table. The waiter helpfully suggested that they lay their water jug and glasses on the floor as they ate.
L: Maple Iced Coffee, R: Vanilla Malt Shake
I was initially not convinced by the Maple Iced Coffee with almond milk ($6.50) but it grew on me. It started off a bit too sour as almond coffees often do, but then the sweetness of the maple came in midway and add an interesting and nice dimension.
The Vanilla Malt Shake ($8.50) was expensive but quite tasty. The flavour was not too sweet, and the shake was really well aerated, as you can see in the photo. I would recommend this.
Ginseng Congee ($25)
Pictured here is the Ginseng congee ($25) with kale, fried enoki, soy egg, pickled ginger, furikake , with chilli ground pork, and brisket. The congee itself at its basest vegetarian state is $15, and an additional $4 was added for chilli ground pork and a further $6 for brisket. The brisket is originally on the menu as an add-on to Paramount Coffee Project’s bibimbap, but given we weren’t going to order both the congee and the bibimbap we thought it would be worthwhile to see if we could get the beef as an addon to this dish instead. When asked our waiter told us he wasn’t sure if this was possible but would check – something that he literally never closed the loop on. It wasn’t until the food physically arrived at our table that we knew what we would be getting.
I actually quite enjoyed the ginseng congee all loaded up. It had a nice heartwarming feel to it, and the flavours were not too strong (avoiding having too much of the pickled ginger). I quite enjoyed the strange addition of deep fried enoki, which is not something I’ve had before. The soy egg was yummy with the congee but I wish there had been more than half an egg for this $25 bowl. The chilli ground pork was a good accompaniment for the meal, while the wagyu brisket which did not really feel like wagyu disappointed. While a bit pricey I can definitely recommend this dish, perhaps with just the chilli pork mince. My partner didn’t really like this dish as she felt like she had to eat the pickled ginger.
Soft baked eggs
My partner’s (much weaker) choice was the baked eggs in habanero salsa, topped with blanched kale and garlic toast with LP’s pork sausage and housemade labneh ($23). It was a very sour dish thanks to both the salsa and the labneh that we ultimately didn’t finish. The only redeeming feature of this dish was LP’s reliably good smallgood. I wouldn’t recommend this one.
CONCLUSION I didn’t really have a great time at Paramount Coffee Project, and I wouldn’t recommend you spending your hard earned money and free time there either. While the congee is good, Sydney is full of good congees to try. Add PCP’s to the end of your list if you must.
A man sits in a dark room, lit only by the warm f.lux glow of his curved computer screen. A bead of sweat runs down his face. He’s opening up a new restaurant and the business side of things wants a name to get to the promo and design guys as soon as possible. He loads up cafenamegenerator.com. He selects the two word setting – it’ll roll off the tongue more than a longer name – and hits enter.
“SOCIAL” is the first word.
The computer thinks for a second.
“SOCIETY” is the second word.
He looks at the time. 11:59PM. Just one minute until his deadline.
Good enough.
//ONE YEAR LATER//
The first thing you notice walking into Social Society is just how pink it is. This small cafe in a recently developed area of Zetland is set out like a movie cotton candy store, all baby pink, with internal seating in a U shape around a central coffee preparation area (there’s also outdoor seating for the COVID wary.) It’s noon on a Friday but the cafe is bustling with patrons. It looks like mostly young professionals on their day off. One pair, we imagine, is a medical registrar on her day off having lunch with her mum.
Social Society – Seafood Indulgence
The Seafood Indulgence ($28) is first and foremost, fantastic. A generous serving of salmon is grilled to be perfectly crispy on the skin, and perfectly tender and medium rare in the centre. The grilled prawns, one of which is head one, are sweet and tasty. The roe is creamy, not too salty, and adds a nice third dimension of seafood flavour. The Parish mash potato is rich and creamy, and delicious mixed with or dipped in the mouth-wateringly umami saffron seafood reduction, which itself has a strong prawn head taste. The gremolata and cherry tomatoes add a degree of zest and sourness, providing a foil for the rich seafood sauce. It’s been a week since I’ve eaten this and I’m still thinking about it. I really can’t get over this sauce. It’s so good.
Bone Marrow
We thought we would enjoy the beef shank Bone Marrow ($16) but unfortunately we did not. It was a bit too oily for our tastes, however we don’t have much of a reference point to compare it against. I was grateful for the serving of charcoal garlic toasted bread, which helped to mop up the fattiness from the bone marrow. The herb and pickled eschalot salad on top did double duty in providing a different flavour and a further foil for the fattiness of the bone marrow. This dish was not personally to my taste.
The R-Rated Eggs & Beans ($18) + Chorizo ($5) was my partner’s choice of main. The R-Rated Eggs & Beans by themselves are similar to a vegetarian shakshuka with a large portion of sumac flavoured whipped goat’s cheese, so I’m not sure why it is restricted to adults only. It may be the two chilli symbols on the menu, however the spiciness of the dish was far overstated – it was more tomatoey. My partner thought that the goat’s cheese was too goaty, but otherwise enjoyed this. My personal opinion, not being a connoisseur of shakshuka, was that it was OK but nothing to write home about. I didn’t really like the taste of the chorizo, but understand that its course texture was a hint that it was more authentic and perhaps housemade compared to the Don Chorizo you get from the supermarket.
The chocolate milkshake ($6) was thin and watery and not so good. We didn’t add the extra dollar to turn it into a thickshake, but even then I think a milkshake should not be this loose.
UPDATE 8/12/2020
We went back for a second round. The gentleman who appears to be running the place greeted us with a “welcome back”, but I’m not sure if he really recognised us. If he has I’m sure he hasn’t yet linked us with the blog.
Pannacotta
Social Society’s Pannacotta ($14) is quite a large and elaborate dish for the price. The vanilla based pannacotta was nice and bouncy with a flavour that was not too sweet. The lemon meringue and lemon curd was however a bit sweet for me, but provided a nice sourness to the dish which was nicely offset by the salty pretzels. I quite liked the preserved slice of citrus as I thought it had good depth of flavour, but my partner thought i was intolerably sour. Overall this was multiple times better than the $16 panna cotta at Ripples Chowder Bay in Mosman.
Fries (truffled with parmesan)
The truffled fries with parmesan ($12) are a monster serving. The fries are mega thick and large, crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The parmesan was a welcome addition, however towards the middle of the dish I felt like I was fenced in by the sheer volume of potato. This is definitely one to share between 4-6 people, not just two.
Magic Mushrooms with thick cut bacon
The Magic Mushrooms ($21) with thick cut bacon ($5) was a stunner. The real star of the dish, strangely absent from its name, is the delicious truffle infused folded eggs. It is a very thick egg omelete, cooked to a medium degree and delicately folded. It is extremely moist and buttery, and topped with mushroom and chives. The assorted sauteed “forest mushrooms” that the dish gets its namesake from were juicy and not overcooked, but the folded egg was definitely the best part of the base dish. The thick cut bacon was a very welcome add-on. The bacon was essentially 3-dimensional, a bacon so thick that I’ve provided a cross section. It was more like rashers of pork belly with a deliciously caramelised taste. This dish, along with the seafood indulgence, make what is in my opinion Social Society’s “must tries”.
UPDATE 17/12/2020
Salmon ramen with hot smoked salmon and crispy salmon
My third visit to Social Society was alone. I took the opportunity to go by myself to try out the Salmon Ramen ($28 with crispy skin salmona nd house hot-smoked salmon) whilst my other half was at work. The salmon ramen is generally offered with a choice of the crispy skinned grilled salmon or the house hot-smoke salmon, but not wanting to go again I asked for both. The promise of an 18-hour seafood broth was alluring, and I had expected something similar to the sauce that was on the Seafood Indulgence, reviewed above. Unfortunately what I found was a thin and quite sour soup, which didn’t have the rich seafood flavour that I had been expecting. The fried onions were soggy on serving, and the thin soba noodles were a bit floury. While the crispy skin salmon was good, I didn’t enjoy the smoked salmon so much. Unfortunately I had high hopes for this dish but I was well disappointed.
VERDICT
Despite the silly name, Social Society really does do a good brunch. The seafood indulgence is my pick of the bunch, but there are several more dishes I’d like to go back and try. While I didn’t take advantage of this, I also like that there is no additional charge for non-standard milks. As a genetically inferior lactose intolerant person I’ve never enjoyed paying an additional 50 cents for a soy milk that is not really much more expensive than normal milk. I’m glad that these guys are leading the way for the bean rights movement.
4.5/5. Can recommend. This place offers something special.
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Social Society 7 Ebsworth St, Zetland NSW 2017 (02) 7903 0693
Kentaro is a Japanese-themed cafe in Surry Hills. Its menu and name are suspiciously reminiscent of Orantek in Redfern. It remains unclear if these similarities are a product of convergent or divergent evolution.
We were seated on either end of a very long table outside, presumably due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. These restrictions did not apply to the diners sitting next to each other inside the cafe. I cannot comment on the decor as we did not go inside.
Matcha Mille-feuille
Matcha Mille-feuille – Good. Matcha slightly bitter. Girlfriend enjoyed the brown sauce but misidentified it as vegemite.
The Pork Katsu Sandwich
The Pork Katsu Sandwich was very good. Light fluffy bread with fresh, juicy katsu. My only critique would be that it was oversauced on the rightmost piece and undersauced on the leftmost piece. There’s probably no way to prevent this. The sandwich was very reminiscent of the one that I had from Oratnek a few months ago.
Hojichamilkshake
The Hojichamilkshake was actually amazing and I want four more. Very nice. Not too sweet. Braved it even though I didn’t have lactase on me.
Overall rating: I would recommend to a friend or colleague.
