northshoreresident

9 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  8     

An enticing flyer for Pizzacutters appeared in our mailbox last week so we decided to order takeaway from here this evening. The pizzas were phenomenal and the service was super-friendly. We ordered the Garlic Prawn, Supreme, and Vege Pesto pizzas, all in the small (10") size. There were generous serves of all the toppings and everything was fresh and cooked to perfection. I'm eagerly awaiting lunch tomorrow so I can hoe in to the leftovers!

Dec 08, 2010

5 Average

Food  5      Ambience  7      Service  4      Value  4     

Whenever we have a group lunch at work, we always seem to end up at Fook Yuen. I like the spacious dining room and watching the hustle and bustle of the restaurant, but the food never seems to be all that special. Every dish seems to be deep-fried, and many of the dishes taste like all the other dishes. The egg tarts are wonderful, though, and remind me of the ones I used to eat as a child at the homes of my Chinese friends.

Dec 01, 2010

7 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  7     

Ok, I'll admit it. I love this restaurant. It's my go-to place for lunch whenever I'm in Chatswood by myself, and as long as you don't go at peak times, you can walk in, eat immediately, and leave whenever you're ready. I've eaten here so many times I can't count them all, and I've never been able to fault the freshness of the sushi on offer. The only quibble I have is that it gets cold in the winter if you're seated too near the front or the back of the train, but if that happens, just order more green tea (also great!) and refocus on the food!

Dec 01, 2010

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

6.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  5     

I've eaten at Wagamama many times in the past, both alone and with varying numbers of friends/family. I had lunch there yesterday and was pleased to see that some of the menu items are now available in smaller serves. I had a small suzushii chicken salad and the person I was dining with had a small Vietnamese chicken salad. We shared a plate of ebi gyoza. The tamarind/orange dressing on my salad was excellent, but the salad could've been improved by increasing the amount of chicken and including the snow peas that were promised on the menu.

The ebi gyoza were deep-fried, rather than steamed (which was stated clearly on the menu, so my mistake), but they were pretty good anyway. Drinks are, unfortunately, overpriced (a 250 mL bottle of soft drink will set you back $4.20), and I wish the servers would stop offering water at the beginning of the meal and then adding it to the bill at the end (luckily, I learned that lesson several years ago). A bit of transparency in that regard wouldn't go amiss.

As for the ambience, it does get a bit noisy with all the hard surfaces and high ceilings, but I think it's a fun atmosphere with the communal eating benches and awesome under-the-table shelves for your handbag (more restaurants should provide a shelf or hook for handbags!).

Wagamama's frequent noodler club is also great value, it's one of the few store/restaurant membership cards that gives you something tangible as a reward for spending your money there. It doesn't take long to accrue the 100 points required for a free main, and I've never had the slightest bit of hassle redeeming them.

Dec 01, 2010

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  7     

Definitely the best Japanese restaurant in Hornsby. Portions are larger than you'd expect at a similar establishment, so order accordingly. We regularly order takeaway from here, and their California rolls, chicken katsu, and gyoza are consistently great. If you eat in, you'll be rewarded with an expanded menu and some specials that you don't often see elsewhere, such as chicken nanban.

The service is fantastic and if you have a question about any dish, the staff is more than willing to explain anything you'd like to know. I'm glad to see you have to book for dinner now, I'm pretty sure this means that Kibou is here to stay!

Nov 27, 2010

9 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  8     

An enticing flyer for Pizzacutters appeared in our mailbox last week so we decided to order takeaway from here this evening. The pizzas were phenomenal and the service was super-friendly. We ordered the Garlic Prawn, Supreme, and Vege Pesto pizzas, all in the small (10") size. There were generous serves of all the toppings and everything was fresh and cooked to perfection. I'm eagerly awaiting lunch tomorrow so I can hoe in to the leftovers!

Dec 08, 2010

5 Average

Food  5      Ambience  7      Service  4      Value  4     

Whenever we have a group lunch at work, we always seem to end up at Fook Yuen. I like the spacious dining room and watching the hustle and bustle of the restaurant, but the food never seems to be all that special. Every dish seems to be deep-fried, and many of the dishes taste like all the other dishes. The egg tarts are wonderful, though, and remind me of the ones I used to eat as a child at the homes of my Chinese friends.

Dec 01, 2010

7 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  7     

Ok, I'll admit it. I love this restaurant. It's my go-to place for lunch whenever I'm in Chatswood by myself, and as long as you don't go at peak times, you can walk in, eat immediately, and leave whenever you're ready. I've eaten here so many times I can't count them all, and I've never been able to fault the freshness of the sushi on offer. The only quibble I have is that it gets cold in the winter if you're seated too near the front or the back of the train, but if that happens, just order more green tea (also great!) and refocus on the food!

Dec 01, 2010

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

6.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  5     

I've eaten at Wagamama many times in the past, both alone and with varying numbers of friends/family. I had lunch there yesterday and was pleased to see that some of the menu items are now available in smaller serves. I had a small suzushii chicken salad and the person I was dining with had a small Vietnamese chicken salad. We shared a plate of ebi gyoza. The tamarind/orange dressing on my salad was excellent, but the salad could've been improved by increasing the amount of chicken and including the snow peas that were promised on the menu.

The ebi gyoza were deep-fried, rather than steamed (which was stated clearly on the menu, so my mistake), but they were pretty good anyway. Drinks are, unfortunately, overpriced (a 250 mL bottle of soft drink will set you back $4.20), and I wish the servers would stop offering water at the beginning of the meal and then adding it to the bill at the end (luckily, I learned that lesson several years ago). A bit of transparency in that regard wouldn't go amiss.

As for the ambience, it does get a bit noisy with all the hard surfaces and high ceilings, but I think it's a fun atmosphere with the communal eating benches and awesome under-the-table shelves for your handbag (more restaurants should provide a shelf or hook for handbags!).

Wagamama's frequent noodler club is also great value, it's one of the few store/restaurant membership cards that gives you something tangible as a reward for spending your money there. It doesn't take long to accrue the 100 points required for a free main, and I've never had the slightest bit of hassle redeeming them.

Dec 01, 2010

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  7     

Definitely the best Japanese restaurant in Hornsby. Portions are larger than you'd expect at a similar establishment, so order accordingly. We regularly order takeaway from here, and their California rolls, chicken katsu, and gyoza are consistently great. If you eat in, you'll be rewarded with an expanded menu and some specials that you don't often see elsewhere, such as chicken nanban.

The service is fantastic and if you have a question about any dish, the staff is more than willing to explain anything you'd like to know. I'm glad to see you have to book for dinner now, I'm pretty sure this means that Kibou is here to stay!

Nov 27, 2010

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  8      Value  8     

We stopped here for lunch yesterday en route to the Huntington Festival in Mudgee. What a find! I'm so glad I did a quick Google search for Lithgow restaurants before we left Sydney, as the secluded location of this wonderful cafe means we never would have stumbled on it by accident. I had a lovely open-faced Cajun chicken sandwich with avocado salsa and homemade thick chips on the side.

All the ingredients were fresh and tasty (chips could've been cooked just a little bit longer, though, some of the larger ones were underdone). My dining companions reported great things about their steak sandwiches and meal-sized salads as well.

The atmosphere deserves a comment, too, the restaurant is an old-fashioned wooden cottage in the middle of a wildlife refuge. It's beautifully decorated and there was even a wallaroo (or maybe a wallaby or small kangaroo) lounging on the verandah when we came in. I only wish we had an establishment such as this one here in Sydney!

Nov 27, 2010

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

I've had lunch here twice in the last few weeks - once on a busy Saturday with friends during Sculpture by the Sea, and another on a quiet Thursday with some family members visiting from overseas. On both visits the service was efficient and friendly, and all of us found the pitas to be great value for money (seriously, one overstuffed pita plus a drink and I'm good for at least the next 5 hours). It's lovely to sit outside around the corner and watch all the goings-on in the Kosher Triangle.

Nov 24, 2010

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  6     

Our dinner at Darley's was one of the highlights of the fifth wedding anniversary trip that my husband and I made to the Blue Mountains last year. This year, my parents are visiting us from overseas, so we took them to Darley's last night for dinner. While the setting was as spectacular as ever (we had the corner table with views of the sunset over the Jamison Valley), the food and service was not quite up to 2009 standards.

We began with a prawn and scallop ravioli that was similar to the entrees we had enjoyed at Silk's Brasserie in Leura two nights prior. The flavours of the ravioli could have been enhanced with some sort of Japanese-style vinegar-based dressing, but were instead almost obliterated with a very pungent roast chicken consomme. For the main course, two of us had the veal tenderloin and two had the lamb. The lamb was reportedly excellent. The veal medallions were of top quality and was served atop a bed of braised lentils.

A lovely combination of flavours, but a potato dish on the side might have been a better choice than the brisket that accompanied the veal. I did not have dessert, but my tablemates enjoyed the rum savarin, the blueberry tart, and the panna cotta. The wines were eye-poppingly expensive; I'm not a wine drinker myself, but even I could recognise that the prices were far and above what they would be at a comparable establishment. Ironically, the drinkers in our party commented that the wines they chose were not as good as those we'd had at Silk's earlier in the week, although they were twice the price.

Service was reasonably good, although our server inexplicably put my bottle of sparkling mineral water in an ice bucket adjacent to another table, which necessitated my getting up and down to refill my glass. Honestly, I would've preferred the bottle to remain on the table. The young man who brought us our amuse-bouches was so quiet that we could barely hear his mumbled descriptions of what he was setting on the table. Staff were friendly and welcoming, however.

Nov 24, 2010

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

9.8 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  9     

Our party of four had a wonderful evening at Silk's this past Sunday. We shared two entrees to start, the scallops with marinated salmon and avocado, and the tortellini of prawn with bok choy and shiitake mushrooms. Both dishes were beautifully presented with unique and delicate combination of flavours. All four of us had the tenderloin of beef as our mains, and they were perfectly done (three medium, one rare). Our server was friendly and funny without being intrusive, and she recommended wine that the drinkers in our party absolutely loved. We also had a lovely chat with Stuart, the owner, at the end of the meal. The pace of the evening was all the more impressive given that there was a table of 20 that was seated shortly after we arrived, which the staff handled very capably. The next time we visit the Blue Mountains, we will be sure to book a table at Silk's!

Nov 24, 2010

6 Average

Food  4      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  4     

My parents, husband, and I visited Lily's Pad for lunch yesterday as part of a short holiday in the Blue Mountains. We chose this cafe due to its high ratings on this site. Unfortunately, the steak on the open-faced sandwich I ordered was of poor quality and was too tough to cut or chew. The casserole of the day, Thai chicken and vermicelli noodles, was edible but nothing special, and the accompanying salad was little more than a pile of rocket with a few pieces of pumpkin on top (the sesame dressing was conspicuously absent).

We ended up sending the steak sandwich back as I could not eat it, but did not have time to order an alternative as we had already waited 45 minutes for our meals. To add to our disappointment, the staff responded to our polite complaint about the sandwich by saying, "No one else has ever complained about the food here before." That may be so, but it struck us as defensive and, frankly, irrelevant. However, they did remove the sandwich from the bill as requested, and they did give us our drinks on the house, which we thought was very generous.

On the positive side, the one person in our party who ordered from the breakfast menu lucked out with some excellent eggs and bacon. Additionally, the location is beautiful and tranquil, and our server was friendly and knowledgeable.

Nov 24, 2010