
mahjong room, surry hills
It’s Friday night. I’m two weeks into a new job where I have been a little sponge learning new factoids, ingratiating myself to new colleagues and undertaking market research on every café in the vicinity in the pursuit of the perfect coffee spot.
By dinner time, I want a swift glass of vino and a fabulous meal with minimal effort, in fact I don’t even want to think. Some meals you go out for because the restaurant is your favourite place with very specific favourites and sometimes you are trying new places where you want to approach the evaluating and selection of food from the menu like a treasure hunt. Continue reading →

brown sugar, bondi
What I’m looking for in the perfect brunch place, apart from the mandatory good coffee, is an exhaustive menu of breakfast options that will cater for my everchanging morning cravings. Being the first meal of the day you want to get your day off to a terrific start whether it’s in a sweet or savoury direction (the big decisions). Continue reading →

hainanese chicken
I have been beating a path all over this fabulous city trying to find the best Hainanese Chicken. There are some pretty good versions out there but I often find myself craving it in a very specific way – good quality chicken that’s not too cold, rice flavoursome but not too garlicky. Continue reading →

4fourteen, surry hills
It’s a rainy day in Sydney town with the day stretched before me with no plans and no place to be. Perfect.
Ordinarily I would use one of these Sundays to scour through cookbooks or piles of magazines to find something fabulous to cook, but today I don’t feel like a long, slow involved recipe. I do however feel like some ‘hug you from the inside’ comfort food which leads me through the storm to Colin Fassinidge’s 4Fourteen for Sunday Roast. Continue reading →

hartsyard, newtown
I must have been a little over excited the first time I visited Hartsyard because not only did I arrive one week early for our actual booking, every single photo I took was blurry. I have good reason to be excited, the American style restaurant in Newtown has been highly recommended and on my radar for some time but the availability of a table and my willingness to venture inner west had not quite panned out until now. Continue reading →

din tai fung dumpling bar, Sydney CBD
Din Tai Fung do some of the sweetest, neatest soup dumplings in the city however the overall menu at the restaurant in World Square is not as much of a favourite as Chef’s Gallery or New Shanghai.
That’s why it’s perfect that the Din Tai Fung team have opened a dumpling bar in the Westfield Shopping Centre so I can grab a sneaky fill amidst my city retail activity. Continue reading →

palings kitchen, sydney CBD
I guess we all need a little makeover every now and then. A little booster. A little freshen up. And so it is that what use to be Mad Cow on Level 1 at the Ivy is now Palings Kitchen and Bar. In truth this is more then a little booster – more a complete overhaul then a simple nip and tuck, but what they’ve done seems to have created a much more open and approachable dining experience that should appeal to the weekday office crew. Continue reading →

china lane, sydney CBD
The group booking. I don’t know this as fact but I’m pretty sure that restaurants dread this as much as the diner stuck settling the bill at the end of a dinner for 20.
The co-ordination of attendees, accommodating special meal requirements and allergies down to picking a venue that is going to set the perfect tone for the evening can be quite the chore. Continue reading →

kitchen by mike, rosebery
If you are going to enjoy Kitchen by Mike you need to be comfortable with a few things. Queuing is one. Co-ordinating food selection and ‘bagsing’ a table is another.
The first time I ended up Kitchen by Mike was because the nearby Grounds had its usual out of control line situation so we biked it around the corner to this canteen. Since then, Kitchen by Mike has become my favourite in the neighbourhood and my preferred casual lunch spot of the two. Continue reading →

cipro pizza al taglio, alexandria
It’s been a week of joining the queue for our meals and it’s more of the same as we put our names down at hot new pizza place, Cipro Pizza al Taglio in Alexandria. Here’s the tip, use the opportunity to take a wander and pick up a cool dozen of your favourite vinos at Dan Murphy across the road. We waited a half an hour for a table on this sunny Sunday afternoon which when you’re selecting Rose whilst you wait, absolutely flys by. Continue reading →
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