Monkey Magic (Japanese) - Surry Hills

Deciding where to eat around Oxford Street is not easy, as there are so many great options around the area, but the decision was made easier when I was reminded of Monkey Magic's winter special (courtesy of the lovely Phuoc'n Delicious food blog), where you receive 20% off (the bill, not the size of the meal!). We have been meaning to come here for a while now, but other nosheries have taken priority, so the discount certainly persuaded us to finally make the trip (plus it was close to where we parked!).

Walking hurriedly along Crown Street to escape the early evening chill, we passed the usual gaggle of eager people waiting in line outside the no-reservation Billy Kwong; why wait in the cold though when you can just stroll into Monkey Magic and get a table?

Once inside, we headed upstairs to the quite large dining room where the emptiness was another perk to dining early: no uncomfortable din, no people noisily discussing the merits of having a PM born in the UK, and no wait to be attended to by waitstaff. We ordered everything - desserts included - within minutes, and the first lot of food came equally quickly.

Salt and pepper cuttlefish with bean sprouts, coriander and chilli salad ($12)

The salt and pepper cuttlefish (unusual to see the word 'cuttlefish') was not a particularly sizeable serving, but it came with a salad, even if the salad was dominated by bean sprouts, and the presence of chilli was barely noticeable. The cuttlefish did not taste too strongly of salt and pepper, and the pieces were a bit uneven texture-wise, with some pieces tender and others a tad tough. K is a big lover of salt and pepper squid/calamari/cuttlefish, and he was a little underwhelmed.

Beef tataki roll - seared beef, pickled cucumber and shiitake mushroom ($14)

Being quite fond of the occasional sushi roll, we were eager to try at least one variety, and we went for the beef tataki, which we have not encountered before. The rolls were fairly large, and we loved the thin sheaths of beef wrapping the outside of the rolls. The pickled cucumber had that lovely pickled vegetable 'snap', but its flavour tended to dominate, rendering the mushrooms almost non-existent. The texture of the beef was great and its slight saltiness managed to make the roll less cloying.

Slow-cooked pork belly - soy braised pork belly with puy lentils and sauteed English spinach ($32)

The first main, which was also the most expensive, was the omnipresent pork belly. Everywhere you go, there seems to be pork belly dishes these days, and when cooked well, it is stellar, and this one was. Big generous chunks of the luscious pork sat on a bed of lentils with some English spinach, and the slow cooked pork was so tender it almost wobbled. The pieces of meat duly melted in the mouth, and the soy flavour was subtly balanced, which made it perfect with the bowls of steamed rice. There were too many lentils and not enough spinach, but we loved this dish.

Teriyaki chicken garnished with lotus crisps ($19)

Teriyaki chicken is one of those ubiquitous dishes that is often served up in food courts all over Sydney, so we wondered what a restaurant version would be like? This one came with a side of lotus crisps, so that sounded interesting enough to order. When it came, we could see the chicken was breast and not thigh, and it was a little overcooked so it was dry. It tasted balanced and not overly sweet, and the teriyaki sauce had a good consistency. The thin crisps of lotus root were great though: super crunchy, interesting texture-wise, and moreish. A bag of these to take home please waiter!

Having ordered the desserts at the beginning, they came suitably quickly after our mains, and we were impressed by the smart presentations. Japanese desserts for me have always been a hit-and-miss, but these two, with mine not Japanese at all, tickled our sweet fancy.

Banana, white chocolate and shiso spring roll with raspberry coulis and green tea ice cream ($13)

K's spring roll was unusual, as we had expected 'normal' sized spring rolls. These were big and cut into pieces, exposing the filling of banana, white chocolate, chocolate sauce, and shiso. I do not normally like desserts containing cooked bananas, but I found this one to my liking. The gooey sweet insides were encased by a lovely crisp skin, which crunched beautifully. The accompanying green tea ice cream was standard and the raspberry coulis a little surfeit, but I enjoyed it a lot. On the other hand, K, who normally loves bananas in desserts, found it just average, so this dessert certainly polarised us, but at least it was a little Japanese.

Molten chocolate pudding with vanilla ice cream ($13)

My chocolate pudding though, was not in any way Japanese, but it was very moist, and the flow of gooey chocolate sauce oozing from its centre was most welcome, although the sauce wasn't as nice as I've had elsewhere. The vanilla ice cream was a good (albeit boring) cool contrast to the warm pudding, and the slices of strawberries added a touch of sourness to counter the overall sweetness. It was a good but unremarkable dessert, but one which is leaps and bounds above what I've had at most Japanese nosheries previously.

Overall, we enjoyed the meal, having tried as many dishes as two stomachs can handle. The spacious dining room and decor is exceptional, the service is good and attentive, and the food is above average Japanese fare. For now, the monkey is missing a little magic but we're hopeful it will come in the not too distant future, and we can't wait to find out.

View Larger Map

Doughboy Pizza (pizza) - Petersham

In my house, State of Origin night usually equals pizza night. This year, we have neglected to apply this rule, so for the third and final game, it was a necessity, even if the Blues have already lost the series to those marauding Maroons from north of the border.

In years past, for the sake of simplicity, speed, and proximity, we have mainly opted for takeaway pizza of the Dominos variety. This year, armed with a $25 voucher, we headed a little further afield to Petersham to Doughboy Pizza, dragging our friend B along with us.

Despite having six stores in Sydney, Doughboy Pizza had escaped our attention until now. Looking on their website (which is currently undergoing maintenance), it looked more than your average pizza shop, and the menu certainly offered a great variety.

The Petersham branch was the closest to us, so we headed that way for an early meal before heading home to catch the game on television (sadly not in 3D).

Once we arrived at the opening time of 5.30p.m., we were greeted by the usual empty dining room, which was to be expected. The room has an industrial warehouse feel to it with the concrete floors, but also a bucolic slant with a wooden bar-height table and stools to match. The storage room is an interesting sight as well, with its contents of flour and ingredients being visible because of the glass walls. A lot of their business would be takeaway and home delivery, so there is a large counter and sizeable waiting area just opposite the entrance. It is a very relaxed space, and the walls are also adorned with really creative entries in their pizza box art competition, where people are encouraged to use the pizza boxes to create a piece of art.

The food on offer here is as expected, predominantly pizza, although there are two calzones on the menu as well as the option of three side salads. The variety of pizzas on offer at Doughboy is quite impressive, and there is something for everyone, despite the dubious names the pizzas are monickered with. The Petersham branch has for an internet special, a free size upgrade; whether this changes daily is unknown, but we were happy to have two medium pizzas upgraded to large for no extra cost.

We ordered the Gilligans Island and Potato Head, but also decided to have some garlic bread to start, meaning plenty of carbs to fuel us through the night.

Garlic & Cheese Bread ($7.50)

The garlic and cheese bread was a little different to what we're used to, being large fingers smothered in gooey, stringy mozarella and lots of garlic. They were a little messy to eat but we enjoyed them.

Potato Head - chorizo sausage, shaved potato, caramelised onion, rosemary, ricotta, pesto, and fresh basil ($15 - Medium)

I'm not sure of the reason for ordering the Potato Head pizza but, because there were no chips on the menu, perhaps we had to somehow compensate by having at least some form of potato. Hmm. The pizza, like all their pizzas I assume, is beautifully thin-crusted. The toppings are distributed uniformly and there is a good amount, and everything is very thin to ensure even cooking. I personally could not taste the potato shavings, but I enjoyed the smoky flavour of the chorizo and onions, plus the odd dabs of ricotta on this pizza.

Gilligans Island - double smoked ham off the bone, fresh pineapple, pesto, and fresh basil ($15 - Medium)

The Gilligans Island pizza is Doughboy's clever name for their Hawaiian pizza, and so there is obviously ham and pineapple amongst the toppings, even if the ham is a little embellished by being called 'double smoked ham off the bone'. We liked the flavours and textures of this pizza, especially the wafer-thin slices of pineapple, and if the Domino's version is the equivalent of a Kia Cerato, then this is a Volkswagen Golf.

I remember the first pizza I tasted as a child was of the fast food variety (Pizza Hut probably), and I loved the deliciousness of the pan crust. This has perhaps brainwashed me into disliking thin-crusted pizzas, as for years and years I never truly enjoyed them nor ordered them regularly in restaurants. Recently though, after having a wonderfully nuanced thin-crusted pizza at Hugo's Manly, my mind was changed, and the pizzas here at Doughboy have furthered the cause. The thinness of the crust enables you to appreciate the toppings rather than being swamped by the heaviness of the pizza bread, and we thoroughly enjoyed the offerings here at Doughboy. The next State of Origin game may be eleven months away, but I am certain we will be back for more Doughboy pizza before then.

View Larger Map

Ad Lib (French) - Pymble

It is not often we travel forty-plus minutes to dine out, but having a prior engagement led us all the way north-west to Pymble on this particular evening. What also attracted us to Ad Lib - besides the chef (Berowra Waters Inn's Dietmar Sawyere) and the glowing recent reviews from the food media since its opening a few months ago - was the opening time: 5p.m.! Perfect for us early eaters. :-D

Ad Lib is located on the uber-busy Pacific Highway, and it took us a little while to find it. Luckily, Google Maps is fairly accurate in this case.

Even at 5p.m., the bistro already had two tables occupied, which is a really unusual sight for us; normally the noshery is empty at our eating time!

Another unusual sight? Adequate lighting! Ad Lib is lit up like a beacon when compared to other restaurants, and this was a very welcome and pleasant change, especially when it comes to taking photographs. I love the bright red walls too.

Complimentary bread rolls

The menus are a little neat, an A3-sized sheet folded into a small rectangle and placed on top of the napkin on top of the plate. You open it up and the whole menu is revealed in easily readable font, although it is a tad cumbersome to handle because of the size and the fact the page keeps trying to fold back onto itself.

The menu has a good selection of various French favourites as well as the odd interesting dish, and it took us a while to decide what to have.

Soup of the day ($10)

K's soup du jour was a mushroom soup, and it was a good hearty start to the meal on such a cold Saturday. It tasted robustly of mushrooms and it definitely warmed us up.

Boudin noir, with caramelised pears and celeriac ($25)

I ordered the boudin noir despite not having had blood sausage before, but I enjoyed this one. It was rich, strongly flavoured, and cooked to a medium consistency, but the richness was balanced by the sweetness of the pears, celeriac puree, and squiggles of onions. It was quite a large entree for me but I managed to finish it.

Baked cassoulette of duck confit and pork belly ($29)

My main of cassoulette (I'm not sure why it's spelt like that though) was a little different to what I had expected. The stew contained a yummy balance of tomatoes, beans, and pork belly, but the duck was separately served as two stumps of shredded duck meat wrapped in a spring roll-like pastry. This was indeed very delicious as you could really taste the duck flavour, and the crunchy skin was a good textural contrast we enjoyed. In comparison, the little pork belly pieces were a bit lost in the cassoulette.

Peppered beef fillet steak 150g, baby spinach ($32)

K's beef fillet steak is something he's not had in a long time, as I discourage him from ordering steaks when dining out because he likes his cooked medium to well done. This one was a big thick piece of beef well cooked to his liking, but was still tender and tasty. There was a foam on top of the steak as well as drizzled around the side, but I'm not sure what it was as I did not get to taste it.

French fries and mayo ($9)

As usual, we order "deep-fried potato batons" as a side, and these ones were surprisingly hand-cut, unlike most other places we have visited. The fries really brought back memories, as they have the old-style milk bar chips taste, whereas most chips these days are rather homogenous in taste and texture. They weren't super crunchy, but the inside was fluffy, and the accompanying mayo was good as well. I took great pleasure in finishing these off.

Spaetzli noodles with fried onions ($8)

The other side dish we had was the spaeztli (again the spelling is unusual). We've never had spaetzli before, not even when we were in Switzerland and Austria, so it was interesting to see what it was like. When it arrived, the first impression we had was mac and cheese, and that is what it tasted like too, with a hint of corn. It was a little stodgy as expected and it tasted fine but we found the texture not to our liking, because it seemed like blobs of pasta clumped together.

After the savouries, it was time for the sweets, and the selection here had a few tried-and-true classics, so we went with two of them, a mousse and a tart.

Lemon and lime tart ($12)

My lemon and lime tart was elegantly presented, and the taste matched its presentation. The filling was luscious and the pastry sublime.

K's dark chocolate mousse came served by the waitress, who had a mountain of mousse in a large bowl, ready to do her bidding. Two big scoops later, we had our dessert, a little messy but its the taste that counts right?

Dark chocolate mousse ($12) with white chocolate ice cream ($3 per scoop)

And the taste was gorgeous. Light and rich at the same time, with the flavour of cocoa abundant, the mousse was quickly gobbled up, and I only had a tiny spoonful! The white chocolate ice cream was a little decadent and naughty but it went well with the mousse. A bit overly sweet perhaps, but a great way to finish off our meal.

So, was it worth the long drive out to the affluence of the upper North Shore for such a meal? Yes and no. Ad Lib is a neat little noshery: good food, friendly competant service, and reasonably priced, as long as you live reasonably nearby. We dined at the similar Flinders Inn earlier in the week and the meal there was quite good as well. It's a lot closer to us so if we had a choice, we'd go for the proximal option, even if Ad Lib has a menu with more interesting variety.

 
View Larger Map

Flinders Inn (French) - Paddington

With the mercury barely registering on the thermometer, it was indeed an atypically freezing Sydney day. This made it particularly difficult to leave the warmth of the humble home and venture into the city to honour a dinner reservation at Flinders Inn in Paddington. However, the fact that K had an appointment and the thought of heartily digging into servings of pork belly and duck made it slightly more bearable.

When we arrived at our usual 6p.m. booking, the street - despite being a perpetually busy main road - was deserted of pedestrians, and the restaurant was the same, with a stark dining room occupied by empty tables and two waiters. Thankfully, it was well heated and we soon forgot about the icicles that were about to form on our extremities.

The bistro menu is very compact and we were able to choose quickly, but we decided to eschew ordering entrees in favour of having mains with two sides, which is something we had not contemplated. But the thought of pork belly and duck with sides of fries and legumes du jour was too good to pass up.

Being the only diners in the restaurant, the food arrived expectedly in a very timely manner, and before you can say "Two, four, six, eight, bog in, don't wait!" we were already digging in.

Duck leg confit, peas a la francaise, sauce anise ($29)

My duck was a decent sized hunk of intact leg and thigh, which I'm unaccustomed to as the majority of duck dishes I've had recently have been sliced pieces. This one was plump with the shaved leg bone protruding like the sword Excalibur, and it sat in a shallow pool of broth along with the vegetables. The duck had a good crispy skin but I found the meat dryer than I'd like and it was a little bland, but the anise broth moistened the meat and gave it some flavour. The vegetables tasted fresh although I would have preferred the small lettuce leaves to have soaked in the broth a bit more and be less crunchy.

Crispy pork belly, roast cauliflower puree, caramelised apples ($29)

K's pork belly was a good chunk of meat with a few squiggles of crunchy pork crackling on top. In his words, it was one of the best pork bellies he's had, and texture-wise I'd agree with him, as it was superbly tender and melt-in-the-mouth; flavour-wise though I thought it was - like my duck - a little lacking in seasoning. Again, the pork was sat in a broth, and this gave it a good flavour. The accompanying cauliflower puree was very smooth and had a slightly burnt flavour which was lovely, although it could have had a better presentation. The caramelised apples rounded out the dish well.

Pomme frites ($7) and Legumes du jour ($7)

With our sides of fries and green beans, they were welcome without being too noticeable for their flavour. They were just good and adequate accompaniments. I did wish though the chips were hand-cut.

By the time we had finished our mains and sides, the restaurant was still empty, and even as our desserts arrived about ten minutes later.

Brioche with chocolate sauce, mandarin cream, and fresh strawberries ($12)

I ordered the dessert special, which was a brioche with chocolate sauce, mandarin cream, and fresh strawberries. The brioche was essentially a bread and butter pudding I guess (it also looked similar to a profiterole, only bigger), and it had a nice buttery flavour. The thick chocolate sauce was great, as were the strawberry slices and the delicious mandarin cream. I enjoyed the combination a lot.

Chocolate gateau ($12)

K's chocolate gateau (I neglected to get the complete description) was a small round cake consisting of a chocolate base, a light creamy centre, and a jelly top. It was, like my dessert, a combination of sweet and sour, and each component was well matched. We weren't enraptured by it but we weren't disappointed either.

As we mopped up the remainder of the sweets, other diners finally arrived to liven up the place a little, but it was too late as we were about to leave! I had to use the bathroom so, after discovering to my horror it was accessible only from the outside, I grabbed the key and skedaddled hurriedly to the side door through the still freezing night air. To my surprise though, the bathrooms were excellent: clean, bright, colourful, and with fresh hand towels neatly rolled up and stacked. It is always a surprise to find a nice restaurant bathroom, and this one is very impressive, bettering many other restaurants we have visited in Sydney. So the last impression of the restaurant was a great one, even though it was the W.C.!

View Larger Map