SweetArwen

Reviews

Restaurants, Italian, Pizza, Serves Takeaway

Overall 6.7 18

7 Recommended

Food 7 Ambience 7 Service 7 Value 7

Hubs, mini me and I went here to have a quick feed here before catching a movie. Had the sizzling prawns and the trio dips. Prawns weren't at all special. Too much oil and the garlic taste hadn't clinged onto the prawns as you would have expected. Liked the dips though. Best part of the meal was the marinated chargrilled lamb pizza. Pizza base was nice, but a little thin towards the middle.

We absolutely loved how they cooked their lamb on the pizza, just the way we liked it. We also tried the oven baked swirls. Lovely, warm and doughy. Goes down well with a coffee. All enjoyed while sitting on the sunkissed overlooking balcony. Oh and they also have a kids menu, which is a good thing when your kids aren't all that adventurous with their food.

May 16, 2012

Blancmange, Petersham

Restaurants, European, Good For Groups, Quiet, Air Conditioning

Overall 7.9 168

6 Average

Food 7 Ambience 7 Service 5 Value 5

Had mixed feelings about this restaurant. One of the waiters, who I believe was the maitre d' knew what he was doing when it came to sitting us down and explaining all the specials and recommendations of the restaurant. The waiter who had taken care of us after was just new and had to keep going back to the kitchen everytime we had a question about a menu item.

When I asked when the dessert would come out I was told "it will come out, but not like right away" lol. Not a big deal, however, service was hit and miss. They forgot my drink order and food came out rrrreeeaaaallllyyyy slowly. We were there for a total of 2.5 hours and after each course we were waiting for another to 45 minutes to the next one. I loved their scallops, which were served with brussel sprout leaves, prosciutto in a creamy sauce.

I didn't believe that $34 was a good deal for my steak. Although cooked medium rare, it was tilting more to the blue side, was pretty cold on the inside and was served with shoestring chips that honestly looked like they had just come out of a freezer packet from the supermarket.

Dessert was lovely and simple: ganache with fresh berries. I don't think I would like to pay $34 for a main dish like that again. The restaurant is lit dimly. The rest of the patrons were a lot older and I was questioning whether they would have been able to actually read the menus. It is like a corner shop, just transformed into a restaurant. Service suffered on rating mainly because of time.

May 15, 2012

Moroccan Feast, Randwick

Restaurants, Moroccan, Restaurant Bookings, American Express

Overall 7.4 63

6.8 Recommended

Food 7 Ambience 6 Service 7 Value 7

Family dinner at this restaurant. Cozy little restaurant, but design of room makes it echo-ey and you can hear the conversation on the far side of the room. Not the best place for a romantic dinner.

Service is good. Manager is straight to the point on how things taste and how big each serve is. Hubs tried was in a joking mood, but don't think that brushed so well with him. Nice fella.

Food was very nice. We started off with the combination of salads and dips. All very pleasant. We particularly liked the babaganoush and Fez Matbah. Extra pita we asked for was another $1.80. We ended up spending an extra $15 or so dollars for. We also tried the Spicy meat Moroccan Cigars and the Rolled Eggplant. Rolled eggplant was especially favoured on the table.

For mains, the lamb tajine (had to try if after reading For Artsake's review-thankyou by the way), the marrakesh chicken and a beef tagine (not on the menu, cooked with tomato and peas) were tasted. A word of caution, don't get too excited with the ordering as one tajine can easily feed two to three people depending on appetite. All were lovely. Came on a bed of coucous and extremely tender melt in the mouth meat...even the chicken was impressive.

Finished the meal with mint tea, waffle with ice cream and cinnamon apple pie. Nothing fabulous though. Mumsie had the Hot apply cider with cinnamon stick. Loved it.

All in all, good night out with the fam. Provided the voucher when paying the bill, but they forgot to take it off. Sadly, I had only realised this almost a week after we had dined. Called up to let them know about it. He said he would take my word for it and I could come back in and use it. Paid about $230 for the night, 5 adults and 2 children.

Think I will come back here in Winter to have that lovely tagine again. Tastes good already, image how good it would taste on a cold winters night. Definitely recommendable.

Feb 12, 2012

Ocean Room, The Rocks

Restaurants, Asian, Japanese, Seafood, Fine Dining

Overall 7.6 130

4.5 Below Average

Food 4 Ambience 6 Service 5 Value 3

Went out with the ladies to this restaurant to have the tasting menu. It was a friends 30th birthday so we decided to go for the 12 course menu. This was the first time that I had tried degustation and I'm sad to say that it ended up being disappointed at the end of it.

With the lovely bamboo entrance to the restaurant, we were hoping that the food would match such ambience. Sad to say that they did not. Their best courses throughout the degustation was White Gazpacho and Gorgonzola Pannacotta.

Oyster duo: the oysters were not fresh and there wasn't enough dressing on any of them to emphasise the taste that they were trying to achieve.

Tuna Tartare was also nice. The biggest problem that I found with this and with the Deconstructed Summer Ceviche and the sushi collection was that the seafood was not cold enough. The white gazpacho was probably one of the favourites. Half a scallop (small) and a toastie biscuit with anchovy sorbet accompanied this shooter. However, it was only the gazpacho which we thought was pleasant.

Uni Tamago was also served with calamari pops. This was 3 pieces of calamari the size of half a KFC pop corn chicken. These were ok, however, they did not contain any of the crispy mint that it had said it would in the tasting menu. The semi poached free range egg was also very raw. It actually felt uncomfortable eating the egg, it was a lukewarm temperature.

Spanner crab bonito consomme: I was particularly disappointed in this item. The spanner crab was shredded which left no imagination to the soup served in this miso bowl. A good miso soup would have actually tasted better than this. Not a chunk of crab in it and very tiny shiso mochi. We actually dug into the bowl to find the mochi. It would have been nice to see a little more effort put into this consomme. A piece of spanner claw meat or something to add spunk to the soup for better presentation also would have been nice to see also.

Deconstructed Summer ceviche had rubbery octopus prawn, red onion and vinaigrette and slices of ocean trout on the side (again the slices of fish were served at room temperature).

Sikyo Miso Cod: this was a favourite at the table. The ginger risotto was lovely. So too was the orange miso sauce that accompanied it. Smoky Wagyu beef was not as nice as we had hoped. It was quite chewy in texture.

As a degustation menu is quite large, portion sized were not so much the issue. It was the intricacy of the meals that disappointed. It was $90 per person for the 12 course meal. Almost each item has some fault in it. Temperature, texture or taste. The presentation of some of the dishes were nice, others were just not up to standard for a restaurant which prides itself as being one of the best with best views and cuisine.

Other pointers I would have to make is that the waiters don't speak to you loud enough to understand their explanations of all the dishes presented. I also noticed that as mentioned in other reviews, they all seem like backpackers. A different waiter for each dish accompanied with different accent and soft voice. However, our American waiter (based on accent) was very nice. She took care of us with clearing and drinks.

I had my entertainment card on me and we all ordered 1 cocktail each to go with the meal and with the discount we paid about the same as the tasting menu would be...around $93 each between the 3 of us. Within 1/2 an hour, my friend and I were feeling ill. Don't think I'll be coming back, not good value for money.

Feb 12, 2012

Tea Room, The, Sydney

Restaurants, Tea Rooms, English, Modern Australian, Child Friendly

Overall 5.9 72

4.6 Below Average

Food 6 Drinks 4 Ambience 5 Service 4 Value 4

Family and I came here for the high tea on Australia Day Holiday. It was quite hot here despite the high ceilings. The toilets are quite far. I kept joking to mini me that each of the doors on the sides of the coridors have different animals behind them or you end up on another end of Narnia, lol.

The staff seem to be more interested in keeping all tables set rather than to tend to customers. Upon sitting, we were asked how many we were going to dine for the high tea. As it seemed that staff weren't allocated to a certain section, I had to explain our dining situation several times which was really annoying. I recall there also being one waiter who would not even let me finish my request before he would raise his hand to stop me in my tracks and inform me that he would get someone else to handle the issue.

The service was not very good. We were dining in the QVB Tea Room...and for 43 dollars a head, a little attentiveness would have been nice.

For this particular high tea, we would be given a small pot of loose leaf tea. As mini me and my younger sister were not so keen on this option, they asked to have an iced chocolate instead. They were able to avail this option with no extra cost. Their version of getting more tea was having the pot refilled with more hot water and the iced chocolates I'm sad to say were quite a pathetic attempt. They came in small water glasses. No whipped cream and not even filled to the brim.

The China on the table was lovely. It was not enough to save them from the review. The scones were large and nice. Served with cream and jam in China bowls. Sandwiches were ok. We were given egg sandwiches, tuna sandwiches and cucumber cream cheese sandwiches to begin with. When they were finished, we asked for another plate. Seeing how skimpy they were on everything else, I was hesitant to ask for more in fear that this would be another cost.

The next plate had ham and watercress sandwiches. The only "hot" item in the high tea was spinach and cheese pastries. One for each person. The cakes on the tier were very small indeed. Passionfruit shortbread with cream, Opera cake, mini muffins and small tarts about the size of your thumb surrounded the other plates as you will see in my picture. I have to confess that I did like these passionfruit shortbreads. However, the only downfall of these were that they were crumbly and very hard to pick up.

All in all, I probably wasn't so sour about the whole experience due to the fact that I was absolutely palming for high tea. Had it not been for the scones, I don't think I would have walked out of there full anytime soon. I don't think I'll be coming back here. Certainly not worth the money. Go somewhere else. At least you get nice robust items on your tier and is almost half the cost.

Jan 31, 2012

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Last updated on 1st Jun 2012

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Displaying: 1 - 10 of 28 reviews

Bondi Pizza Bar, Bondi Junction

Restaurants, Italian, Pizza, Serves Takeaway

Overall 6.7 18

7 Recommended

Food 7 Ambience 7 Service 7 Value 7

May 16, 2012

Blancmange, Petersham

Restaurants, European, Good For Groups, Quiet, Air Conditioning

Overall 7.9 168

6 Average

Food 7 Ambience 7 Service 5 Value 5

May 15, 2012

Moroccan Feast, Randwick

Restaurants, Moroccan, Restaurant Bookings, American Express

Overall 7.4 63

6.8 Recommended

Food 7 Ambience 6 Service 7 Value 7

Feb 12, 2012

Ocean Room, The Rocks

Restaurants, Asian, Japanese, Seafood, Fine Dining

Overall 7.6 130

4.5 Below Average

Food 4 Ambience 6 Service 5 Value 3

Feb 12, 2012

Tea Room, The, Sydney

Restaurants, Tea Rooms, English, Modern Australian, Child Friendly

Overall 5.9 72

4.6 Below Average

Food 6 Drinks 4 Ambience 5 Service 4 Value 4

Jan 31, 2012

District Dining, Surry Hills

Restaurants, Modern Australian, Citibank Dining Program, Licensed, Serves Dinner

Overall 7.4 80

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

6 Average

Food 6 Ambience 7 Service 6 Value 5

Little harder to find, tucked away in a corner is this cute little restaurant. The ambience is quite nice. Wooden floors, space toilets that light up when you enter. They have nice handwash too. We tried the marinated olives, quails eggs and pigs ears and crispy prawns for starters.

The food was nice. Crispy ears were devoured by mini me. Kids seemed to like salty things. Best of the starters had to be the school prawns though. Mains we ordered the snapper fillet, wagyu beef brisket (on special), 12 hour slow cooked lamb and the seared scallops to share. Although the snapper tasted nice, it would have been nice if it was served piping hot. Considering that this is a deep fried dish, no time should be wasted in getting it to the dinner table.

The whole egg mayonnaise made it a little filling to eat. The scallops were also cooked lovely, however, it would be nice to have seen just a couple more on the plate. Wagyu beef very tender, but seemed to have a lot of fat in it. I didn't get to taste too much of the lamb, but I know this was also cooked quite tenderly. I had to ask the waiter for some bread to help us get a little full.

All these plates were supposed to be share plates. If it wasn't for the bread, we would have been pretty hungry still. As mentioned in an earlier review, the staff are a little flaky, you have to glance over a few times before they think you really want something. There was one waiter who was more attentive than the rest, which is a shame because service can really change your dining experience. The night ended with a $150 bill. Still think it was a little steep for what it was.

Jan 19, 2012

Bayside Lounge, Darling Harbour

Restaurants, Modern Australian, Seafood, Fine Dining, Quiet

Overall 7.3 13

7.3 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 6 Service 7 Value 8

Came here with the ladies for high tea. What I like about this place is that the ceilings are so high and it seems to be quite spacious. In saying that, there weren't very many people to fill it when we had gone. I believe this is probably the best high tea I've had in terms of value. For $30 you get a tea or a coffee, the high tea tier and a glass of champers or a softdrink if you prefer to stay away from the alcohol.

The high tea includes a duck pie, smoked chicken sandwich, prawn on baguette. For the sweets you get a macaron, mini eclair, creme brulee and a very rich chocolate cake with cream on top. We loved the sandwiches so much, we had to buy more of them. Pretty good value for $30 if you ask me. This may be a shorter review compared to some of the other ones I've posted, but I think that it is simply good value for money. I'm already making arrangement to go back with my friends for the sandwiches.

Jan 19, 2012

Heritage Court Restaurant, The, Hurstville

Restaurants, International, Seafood, Steak House, Good For Groups

Overall 8.2 22

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

7.8 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 7 Service 8 Value 8

I tried this place long ago, almost 10 years ago with my family and love it when my old hospitality teacher used to run the joint. Seeing it under new management with a new touch on it's exterior after so many years, I was hesitant to try it again. I'm am glad to say that I'm happy I came back.
A good friend and I were warmly greeted by Jane and taken to our our table through the blue hue coming from the bar. Dim lights with candles made for a private yet homely atmosphere.

Shortly after ordering, we received a little garlic bread. Mama bear and I started off with the Clam chowder in a bread roll ($8.80) and the Octopus with garlic and chilli oil ($12.80). Immediately, we were blown away with the tenderness and tastiness of the Octopus. I loved the way that they used garlic chips to add to the texture of the salad. The clam chowder was nice, however, I can't say that I have actually tasted clam chowder before, so room for a comparison was not present. Either way, it came to our table piping hot and we devoured that (including the bread casing) We were so excited to get the mains.

Ordered the Roast rack of lamb with mushroom sauce, mash and veggies ($25.80) and Grilled Tasmanian Salmon Fillet with white wine dill sauce and veggies ($22.80) Both the dishes came with carrot and brocolli, just the right amount to go with the mash potato. Lamb was cooked perfectly to order (med rare-med) and extremely succulent. Salmon and sauce went together well indeed. We were both extremely pleased with quantity and quality. Of course there had to be room for dessert.

We wanted to try their apple struddel with ice cream, but we weren't able to as they didn't have it so we settled for the banana puff with ice cream to share($7.50). Simple dessert: light, crispy and just the right touch to end our meal.

Total price for the night was $82, including two drinks. I find this very reasonable for a perfect dinner. Service was good: helpful, attentive, but not intrusive. We were given a lot of space and they brought everything out to us in a most timely manner.

All in all: a most pleasant experience. The only suggestions I would have:
a) As mentioned in a previous review, get rid of the TV, was lucky not to have been seated near it, but I know had I been I would have been distracted
b) A little more lighting would have been nice. Candles are a romantic touch, but could have done with an a little more wattage
c) I did ask for a decaf coffee, but they did not have this. Good investment for dinner service as well as for those who aren't able to drink it eg pregnant ladies

Apart from that, I can't fault the food...It was good honest homely food that I will be introducing to my family and closest friends. We were already talking about who we should take back the minute we finished out meals. Check out the photos I've attached. It will give those interested in giving Heritage a go a better idea of what to expect. Keep it up, Heritage. You can be guaranteed that I will be bringing more people your way to try out what you have to offer.

Sep 08, 2011

Angelos Portugalia, Kensington

Restaurants, Burger, Portuguese, Good For Groups, Licensed

Overall 6.2 51

5.3 Average

Food 4 Ambience 6 Service 8 Value 3

My friends and I have past this restaurant numerous times in hopes of being blown away with great food. Sadly, they have were not able to live up to our expectations. We were the first to be seated in this restaurant early at 6:15pm on a cold July's winter night. As the first customers here (and only customers for the first good 40 minutes) we had hoped to get the best out of the kitchen as they had just opened their doors for dinner service. Glass tables mixed and matched with the background wall painting (which I thought looked really nice) but confused with the other half of the room. If only the food had the same warmth and encouragement of the service staff, a better rating may have been awarded.

To start off with, we opted for the garlic mushrooms, crispy pork belly and the clams. The garlic mushrooms were in a cream sauce and were nice, however, the emphasis seemed to be more on the cream rather than the garlic taste. As a sauce on steak, this would have worked quite well. The crispy pork belly was disappointing. As the name suggests, we were expecting the pork to have crispy skin. This did not. I believe the clams were the best part of the entrees. Althought they weren't very big, they seemed to have their bearings right in regards to the taste that they were trying to achieve.

For the mains, we decided to have the half chicken, prawn scallop and chorizo skewer and the half back ribs. Working in a clockwise direction, we decided to start off with the prawn scallop and chorizo skewer. How this was charged at $29.95 is beyond me. We were under the impression that we would receive 4 skewers of either a mix or of each element. Instead what we received was ONE skewer, not even a metal one which had 4 very average prawns and scallops and 4 pieces of what we were told was chorizo. The chorizo did not even taste like it was chorizo.

It tasted like the sausages that you get from a Woolies deli that's on the verge of expiration. The half rack of ribs were nice, but too dry. No sauce had basted these ribs and when I had requested some sort of sauce, they gave to us in a 30ml silver cup some sort of oil, garlic oil that tasted like what was used to grease their bbq for cooking with. Judging on the time that it took to get this to our table, sauce was not something that they had contemplated would be necesssary to make this dish. The chicken that they had and we had ordered was quite small. On a positive note, the breast of this chicken was was quite moist, signiture of a well cooked chicken.

In the end each of us (3) paid about $30 each, this was the cost with 25% to the value of $40 off. We did have a jug of Sangria (which was absolutely lovely) I would return to this restaurant simply for the Sangria. I would also return for a second chance as I make it a personal policy when dining. They don't seem to have been around for very long and they could possibly be just trying to find their ground. For those who are not so adventurous or forgiving for that matter: For the food and the price that they charge, you are far better off somewhere else.

Jul 11, 2011

Mand's Indian Restaurant, Randwick

Restaurants, Indian, Serves Takeaway, Menulog Delivery and Pickup

Overall 7.2 28

7.5 Recommended

Food 8 Ambience 5 Service 8 Value 9

Went here with my girlfriends last night. There were 3 of us and we basically rolled out of there by the end of the meal. We ordered one each of the vegetable samosas, seekh kebabs, dahl, garlic and pashwari naan, rice, butter chicken and fish curry. Upon seating you get a serving of papadums with raita on the side.

Do not let the size of the meals fool you: as with most Indian restaurants I've been to, they are usually served in little copper pots. These were perched upon tea light holders to keep the food warm. Food was just perfect. Ambience is like a typical take away store: the basics. Tables, a television screening Bollywood musicals. Nothing fancy.

Service was fast, but half way between our eating, the other table who happen to be there just finished. So pretty much no tables to be competing with. I'll leave the toilet without any influences on my review. Someone did mention in another review that you have to walk outside into a little ally way to get there and yes it's tiny and they could probably give it a better scrubbing.

Apart from that, the food was good. I'm so happy to have found a place that does good Indian food closer to home. I promised that I'd be back with the family. For $23 per head to get stuffed to the brim, well worth going to.

Jun 01, 2011