Tag: zetland

Categories
Chinese

Yummy Duck BBQ – Zetland NSW Restaurant Review

Yummy Duck BBQ and Brazilian Flame Barbecue sit on either side of a particularly long traffic light. It was this extended wait at a traffic light on my way to Brazilian Flame that first put me on to Yummy Duck BBQ, and I am glad that it did.

I visited Yummy Duck BBQ just before a night shift in the emergency department. I ordered in English, and asked to eat in but with an extra takeaway box in case I couldn’t finish my meal either due to abdominal or time constraints. It seems like something got lost in translation, however, as I ended up getting my meal served directly in those takeaway containers.

Roast duck and rice

The roast duck and rice ($13.80) was very cheap and very tasty. The amount of roast duck provided was extremely generous for the price, not to mention quality. The skin was nice and crispy, and the meat the perfect amount of juicy and tasty. The greens on the side were a nice touch, and the juices from the duck seeped into the rice below, providing it with a nice quacky flavour.

Wontons

The wontons ($10.80) are your average meat-focused wontons served in an extremely salty clear broth with seaweed and shallots. While the wontons themselves are good with plenty of meaty filling, the broth does let the dish down and takes it from a recommend to a don’t recommend.

DISCUSSION
Yummy Duck BBQ seems to have its own cohort of faithful locals. During my brief visit to Yummy Duck I witnessed warm interactions between the staff and not only the predominantly student-aged Asian crowd but also middle-aged Caucasian men in high-vis alike. I would characterise this loyalty to Yummy Duck is well deserved – they have some of the best roast duck I’ve had in the past three years, and will definitely be my go to while I’m still living in the area.

Yummy Duck BBQ
392 Botany Rd, Zetland NSW 2017
0415 773 777

Categories
Chinese

China Bowl – Waterloo NSW Chinese Restaurant Review

This review is about China Bowl in Waterloo (Sydney) NSW Australia, not China Bowl in Waterloo Ontario Canada.

Pan-fried pork and cabbage dumplings

The pan-fried pork and cabbage dumplings were minimally fried, with juicy insides and no breakage in the pastry. Pretty good. Also comes in boiled.

shredded pancake with beef

My partner’s order of shredded pancake with beef was not our favourite. It was a huge portion of food, but taste did not meet the expectations set by the other dishes.

The Biang Biang Noodles were yummy, a large portion with lots of toppings. It’s important to eat this with a spoon as otherwise the toppings sink to the bottom and you end up just filling up on noodles. The noodles themselves were very jin dao (bouncy)

cold poached chicken in chilli oil and peanuts

The cold poached chicken in chilli oil and peanuts (口水鸡, mouth-watering saliva chicken) were delicious. My partner’s second favourite dish, even though she doesn’t normally like Sichuan cuisine. It was also a large portion.

All in all China Bowl is good food at a good price. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to a colleague for a quick late night meal, especially if you live in the area.

4/5

China Bowl
5 Gadigal Ave, Waterloo NSW 2017
0432 521 980

Categories
Italian

Lucio Pizzeria – Zetland NSW Restaurant Review

There’s lot of praise floating around for Lucio Pizzeria. After having dinner there tonight I don’t really think it’s warranted.

Lucio

The Lucio ($24), Lucio Pizzeria’s signature pizza, is a half margherita half calzone. It is an interesting concept to create a pizza in such a way. While the flavours weren’t bad, I just wish there would be more of everything – more tomato, more basil, more ham. The calzone filling of ricotta and ham was good, but underseasoned.

Campagnola

Lucio’s Campagnola ($24) continues the tradition of underflavouring. While the sausage itself had good flavour, the flavours on the rest of the pizza where overwhelmed with cheese and cheese alone. This was a very cheesy, oily pizza, and a little bit of salt, a little more mushroom or sausage, would have gone a long way.

If I had to give my meal at Lucio Pizzeria an overarching theme it would be that it is underseasoned, bland, yet very oily. My compliments where compliments are due would have to go to the pizza’s thin base. It’s not awful – but it’s expensive, and I definitely wouldn’t travel for it.

The next pizza on my hitlist in the local area is Da Mario in Rosebery. I hope they will not disappoint me as much.

3/5 unworthy of their medals. Simply did not live up to the hype.

Lucio Pizzeria
East Village 2, 4 Defries Ave, Zetland NSW 2017
02) 9697 3028

Categories
Thai Vietnamese

Nam2 (Nam Squared) – Green Square/Zetland NSW Restaurant Review

Nam2 (Nam Squared) is a pan-south-east-Asian restaurant located in Green Square. A quick Google tells me that it is related in terms of ownership and management to Mr Nam, one of my favourite Vietnamese restaurants in the South Sydney area. Nam2 also happens to be co-owned by the husband of one of the people I work with, but rest assured this will be a fully objective review.

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic this is a takeaway review.

The Rare Beef Saigon Pho ($14) is very good. The flavours are on point and the beef the perfect done-ness, which is rare for delivery pho. There is an ample provision of bean sprouts and leaves, which is again often lacking for delivered pho. According to my colleague this is a borrowed specialty from Mr Nam. I can recommend this dish.

The Lot Noodle Salad

I enjoyed most elements of The Lot Noodle Salad ($17). It features crispy pork belly (TBH only ok), BBQ chicken (also ok), lemongrass beef (good!) and a spring roll, and while some of these elements are not so strong by themselves, the combination of all four elements is synergistic and ensures one never gets bored. The vermicelli is soft and fresh, and the remaining salad elements – herbs, carrot, and daikon, really bring the dish together. Would recommend.

Nam’s fried rice

Nam’s fried rice ($19) was probably the most disappointing part of the meal. It is advertised to feature spanner crab, brown butter, egg roe, and salted egg shaving, however most of these elements (apart from the tobiko) seemed missing in action. It was difficult to identify any crab or salted egg shavings. The flavour overall was OK, and I did appreciate that it was not too salty, but as the most expensive dish that we tried it was really quite underwhelming.

Saigon Spring Rolls

The Saigon Spring Rolls (4 for $8) were good and I thought much more fairly priced than at Mr Nam. No complaints here.

Nam’s Dry Suki Seafood

The Nam’s Dry Suki Seafood ($19) with glass noodle, egg, mushroom, and “Chinese kale” was good. The flavours were quite nice, and I enjoyed the noodle and mix of seafoods. I didn’t enjoy the mussel but I don’t enjoy mussel in general.

Chicken Nyonya Laksa

The Chicken Nyonya Laksa ($14) is very good. Very similar to Mr Nam’s, if not identical. I liked this so much that I actually bought this for a mate and brought it to work for him for overnight dinner.

Overall I think Nam2 is worth a try. Their food is quite good, and they do have some $10 meal deal specials on weeknights for those who want to pick up the food themselves. I am also glad that there is no markup for DoorDash, which is a rare treat. I will order from here again.

UPDATE, DECEMBER 2020

We had the pleasure of having our work Christmas dinner at Nam2. I won’t go through all of the things we ate but it was a very extensive banquet menu with two courses of dessert that are not pictured here.

The highlights of the meal were the shrimp in betel leaf, scallop on XO sauce and vermicelli, deep fried barramundi, beef skewers, vegetarian stir fry (believe it or not), deep fried shrimp in dipping sauce, the spring rolls, and the egg atop the stir fried beef dish. If you have a chance to order any of these dishes a la carte I highly recommend it. I also take back my previous comment about Nam’s fried rice – I could definitely identify the spanner crab pieces this time.

Nam2
13 Ebsworth St, Zetland 2017
 02 8003 3393