Gelato Messina, Darlinghurst

Previously, I wrote about my brother B's birthday dinner at Ume Restaurant (link) and what's a birthday without a cake? Being only 17, the inner kid in him can't seem to get away from ice cream cakes. We had a couple of options to pick from, the ones from Baskin' Robins, Ben & Jerry's.. But we decided on Gelato Messina instead just because their gelato cakes are not decorated with cream. There's just something about the cream on cakes that really annoys me to death. Anyway, so we took a long slow walk to their Darlinghurst store to pick up a cake after looking it up their website (link).

Because B's birthday was ages ago in May, it was still autumn then and I managed to snap some photos of trees that are about to shed. Just gotta love autumn for the postcard-like photos #seriously.

We walked past this cafe on Palmer Street which caught my eye, loving the ceiling to floor glass panel doors #anotherseriouslymoment. 

We arrived at Gelato Messina and  met with their doors shut on us #boohoo, it was only after I googled their opening hours that we realized that they start at 12pm. So we got to walk around for a bit and decided on Forte' Cafe for some food, which I did a photolog on (link). 

Slightly before noon, we made our way back to Gelato Messina and hooray, they were opened! Pardon the nasty shots, I was in a hurry because I had to get myself to the airport before noon to meet with a long-time friend #badplanning. We actually looked up their website to see what sorta flavours of gelato cakes they offer and decided that we were to get one of their gelato cakes and one of their monoporzione. Seriously, we were spoilt for choices. The cakes looked so yummy, we wished we could have gotten all of them. But no, in our opinion their gelato cakes were pretty pricey, ranging from $20 to $90, while their monoporziones were slightly cheaper at about $10 each. 

The last I checked, they had new monoporzione flavours while the older ones had to go so you may not see the flavours that are featured here. I didn't managed to try all of the older flavours but I guess I'll never get that chance again. 

Two of their gelato cakes featured here - Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom (top) (link) and Tiramisu 'Smash) (bottom) (link). I reckon Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom is really a classic Gelato Messina cake, just look at how cute it is! It will definitely be talk of the town to be able to celebrate a birthday with this cake, but alas it was pretty pricey at $85. 

So we picked their Mini Me (I believe it was $9.90), which was the miniature version of Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom (unfortunately they don't sell Mini Me anymore) and a bigger Hazelnut Zucotto ($28) (link).

And nope, this isn't optical illusion. Our Mini Me came like it was toppling over and we didn't notice it till we decided to take it out for candle lighting. If you refer to the picture above, which displays some of their Mini Me, you can tell there are a couple which weren't standing very well. It was a pity really, it doesn't look as cute slouching and I'm not sure if that affected the taste of it. We didn't enjoy the Mini Me as much. The entire "cake" was made up of Dr Evil's gelato, with caramel and peanut butter cookie, also with a layer of flourless chocolate sponge cake to surround the gelato (refer to this link for a pictorial description of the cake). I felt the entire "cake" was a tad too bitter. There was nothing sweet about this cake, other than the popping candy crushed with biscuits. Despite it being a single serve, it was enough to share among the three of us just because we didn't quite like the overall taste of it. Nonetheless, it was interesting to have this Mini Me for phototaking.

We decided to have a bigger gelato cake as well because one Mini Me wasn't enough to justify as a birthday cake. We chose Hazelnut Zucotto ($28 for a small serve) which had a mixture of chocolate and hazelnut gelato (refer to this link for the pictorial description of the cake). This was amaaaazing! Despite it not being as fancy as the mushroom cake, this was indeed a better choice because of the combination of flavours and us wanting more. There are hazelnut gelato and gianduia gelato, which was a perfect match. It's like having chocolate with hazelnuts in it, who doesn't like that combination? The gelato was light enough that we didn't feel that guilty for already having so much food and of course, it left us wanting more. I highly recommend this, even though it doesn't have an outstanding appearance. 

We had another birthday celebration last month for K. Him being a big kid himself, he wanted to have ice cream cakes too and where else to get some but Gelato Messina!? We didn't wanna have too big a cake this time (also because we didn't have space in our freezer), so we picked two of their monos. It was also this time that we discovered they changed out their mono menu, so we were left to pick their newer flavours as much as we really wanted to try their older flavours, like Bitty Bitty. 

One of the mono that K picked was their Gula Melaka ($12), which had gula melaka (aka palm sugar) gelato, rosewater praline fudge, hazelnut feuilletine and raspberry gele (link). I was particularly attracted to the flavours of gula melaka and the hazelnut feuilletine. I imagined the sweetness within the gelato and the texture of the feuilletine, which sounds like perfect. But nay, it was far from it. The raspberry gele was way too sour that it doesn't balance with the sweetness of the palm sugar gelato - pity. We didn't enjoy this at all, despite it being a rather refreshing taste. And $12 for this tiny piece? Money is better spent elsewhere. 

Another interesting flavour we decided on was Pop Porn ($10) - wildflower honey gelato, gianduia gelato, dark chocolate fudge and caramelized popcorn. This one looked fancy on their website (link), but somehow it looked really different from what we had even though ours gave way a little. The spilling chocolate fudge wasn't meant to happen but it did, which made it look ugly as a cake. Oh well. 

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I like the soft texture of this cake, which resembles slightly like a fondant. You pierce a spoon or fork into it and the chocolate innard just spills out like no one's business. There are caramelized popcorns at the base of the mono as well, which makes it difficult to cut through. Unfortunately, the honey in the wildflower honey gelato was so faint that I couldn't even detect any honey in it. Everything about Pop Porn was sorta ruined by the chocolate fudge because of its bitterness. 

If there is one thing I am allowed to pick on, I would definitely say the packaging. No dry ice was given to ensure that the cake doesn't wither. You'd have to bring your own cooler bag if you're walking, or.. just bring a cooler bag no matter what or you'll end up in a sorry state like we did. It's also a pity that the monos are becoming increasingly pricey for their size. I may end up buying the gelato cakes rather than the monos the next time, but I don't think I can resist the idea of trying more flavours rather than having more quantity of something. 

Gelato Messina (website)

Shop 1/241 Victoria Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Opening times - Sun-Thu: 12pm to 11pm / Fri-Sat: 12pm to 11.30pm

Yok Yor Thai Food Factory, Haymarket

The initial plan for this post was meant to just be a photolog (where I just put up a couple of photos with minimal words, for reasons like the lack of memory or information). The reason for that was because I either lost some photos, hence wasn't able to write a detailed entry on my visit to the restaurant, or I was too hungry I actually forgot to snap some photos which will eventually lead to the former excuse. But thankfully, I managed to grab some photos off my dinner partner-in-crime, which explains why some photos are different in colour and filters (I tend to only use filters only when photos come from a phone rather than a proper camera). So, lucky me will actually get to put my memory to good use!

The restaurant in topic today is Yok Yor Thai Food Factory in Haymarket. I walked past Yok Yor countless of times, but it's always a wrong timing when I do. They are located on Castlereagh Street, which is away from the usual Thai street (aka Pitt Street). Whenever I do walk past Yok Yor, it's always the after-dinner walk that leads me there, or late in the night when having supper really isn't an option. Also, Thai food is always a challenge for me. I can't take too spicy food that kills all my taste buds because I'll end up with a sore throat and swollen lips. Sexy much? Yok Yor has a really interesting concept of a food factory, the people working in there are in overalls and it's very much like a construction site! They reminded me of the minions in the movie Despicable Me, how cute.

We needed some drinks to start with, so we ordered Thai milk tea and Thai black coffee. Both drinks are at $3 each, which is the cheapest I've ever had. I liked how the milk tea isn't too sweet with too much condensed milk in it, and surprisingly I liked their black coffee too! I'm not an espresso person, so anything black is not my taste. But their coffee, oh my, it's not too bitter and there is this sweetness within its bitterness. Is there a recipe to make this? I totally need to get my hands on them, yum! The drinks also came in handy with an impeding spicy experience, read on!

The entree we picked was the gai hor bai teuy ($6.20 for 4 pieces). They are fried marinated chicken wrapped in pandan leaves, which wasn't quite I imagined it to be. Think Cantonese style glutinous rice wrapped in pandan leaves, that is what I thought it'd be. However, this was a good pick. The chicken was so well marinated - no dryness in the meat, juice flowing out with each bite you take.. Hahaha, I reckon calling it juice is very adequate because it's not sauce and it's flowing out of the chicken! You can actually eat the pandan leave if you like. I've tried both - the first try without the leave, the second piece with the leave on. I prefer the chicken without the leave though, just because barbecued leaves are a tad difficult to tear/bite apart. 

Because of my slight obsession with boat noodles, we had to order the pork kuay teaw rua ($4.90 for small bowl).  It is a traditional rice noodle soup in brown both - the broth contains cinnamon, star anise and occasionally pork blood. There are meatballs, vegetables and pork lard in this boat noodle soup, which is awesome. For $4.90, I can't really complain about anything except that it was way too spicy for me. I could sense the flavours in the soup broth, which was really fragrant, but I could hardly taste much of it. That was a major disappointment, but I would recommend it if you could go past the spice level. 

Another challenge was posed. Being huge fans of pad prik khing, we needed to try Yok Yor's version to see if this could fight against our favourite at Satang Thai. Pad prik khing ($14.50) - which was pork belly tossed in red curry paste, green bean and lime leaves. We have had PPKs in other Thai restaurants, some do it well but was served with raw green beans while some were way too spicy. This was it. Yok Yor's PPK was way too spicy that even K couldn't take more! We packed the remainder home and tried to cook it with heaps of sugar, but that didn't help at all. So, try it at your own risk! Otherwise, I remember the green beans were cooked and the pork belly was crisp. Nothing to fuss about except that I can't even rate it because I couldn't taste it at all. 

We made a right decision in ordering their goong ob woonsend ($14.50), which was glass noodles tossed in soy sauce with braised king prawn in a hot pot. This was absolutely delicious, given that we had some major trauma done to our taste buds in the previous dishes. Having said that, the glass noodles were a tad too soggy and wet that they stick together, so they end up in clumps. Otherwise, the wok taste is sufficient and it was flavourful (finally something we can taste well!). The prawns were a little tough but still juicy though. Not a must-try, but I reckon it's worth trying!

By the end of our spicy trauma, we needed a really light dessert to comfort our taste buds so we decided on their Thai tea ice cream with sweet potato ($5.90). This ice cream is made from Thai milk tea, which was truly comforting on my raging tummies. It was light, not to sweet, which was exactly like how their Thai milk tea tastes like! The addition of sweet potato was a tad weird to me, but it creates a slight crunchy texture to the ice cream which is a nice touch. It's like having bubble tea with pearls ;) 

The French House, Waterloo

I've been feeling like a parent since the beginning of this year. My brother B is here in Sydney for school and I became his guardian. I remember bringing him to school for orientation on the first day and it was overwhelming. All the other parents who attended the orientation were real parents, whereas I was just a fake and probably looked like one of them (the students). I just couldn't wait to leave the school before I was mistaken to be one of the students #phew.

My duty as a guardian included collecting the result report. Hence, I had to make a trip down to the school and also had the chance to walk around Waterloo area. We were in search of a good cafe where we can sit, chat and eat. We walked passed The French House, which looked really fancy and classy and decided this is it. The interior was all Parisian like, with antique-like seats and round wooden tables. You have to order at the register, so if you meet a brunch/lunch crowd then you gotta be prepared to be standing for quite a bit.

My chamomile tea came in this metal serving tray! Somehow, I felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast all of the sudden, except that my teapot and tea cups can't sing and dance around. However, that entire tray was way too huge for our mini round tables, despite having two stacked together. 

We ordered french toast, which was served with bananas and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately, the french toasts were really bland even though the choice of bread was a perfect one to make french toasts. Also, it would have been heaps better if the bananas were caramelized rather than served as is. 

It was really difficult to decide what else to have because the menu was only available at the register. When it gets to your turn, you will have the cashier waiting for your order and the line behind you waiting to order so it is stresses quite a bit. A regrettable decision was to have their chocolate croissant.  

Despite the pastry being really thick, it will be perfectly fine if there was sufficient amount of chocolate innards to go along. But no. Looking at the photo below, you can already tell we didn't enjoy this very much. 

The fruit and chocolate tarts they have on display looked really yummy, but we didn't make it to have some of them mostly because we were not satisfied with what we had. Apart from the ordering system, the food also took ages to come. Perhaps, if we ever walk by The French House again we'll have their tarts to takeaway, but otherwise, we probably wouldn't return. 

The French House (urbanspoon)
1 Danks Street
Waterloo NSW 2017

Photolog: Forte' 40 Cafe, Darlinghurst

We were gonna go to Gelato Messina to pick up a gelato cake, but didn't realize that they weren't gonna be open till 12noon. So we wandered around and chanced upon Forte Cafe and decided to have brunch there.

They seem to be called a different name online but look up the address (at the bottom of this post) if you wanna be sure!

Forte 40 (facebook)
277 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Home Cafe (Chinatown), Sydney

Happy August, everyone! August is a month of celebration for me because my birthday falls in this month (yay to good food!) and so are the birthdays of my sister A and my brother E (psst, we share the same birthday). I'm hoping this month will be filled with more happiness and less worries and gloominess.

Anyway, back to the review!

When renovations were going on last year, we got excited when they spotted the Home Thai logo on the outer wall! You know, the one with yellow diamond and the word "home" in it. We got excited because 1) it was something familiar, 2) it should most likely be a place with heaps of good food and 3) could it be something different from the usual Home Thai restaurants?

So finally, we managed to bring ourselves to Home Cafe after feeling really hungry and not knowing what to eat. It was no doubt that they were managed by the same group/owners, given the menu, the food and of course, the name. Home Cafe is a two-level restaurant, with an interesting concept to it. They have the rustic sort of furnishing which I love, so it felt really cosy and chill. We were then given the menu, which were essentially the same stuff offered by Home Thai restaurants - we were kinda disappointed.

We had lunch at around slightly after 3, so it wasn't crowded at all. Though we were disapopinted with the menu, we went ahead with our order because we were just so hungry and it didn't take too long for our thai milk tea and thai iced coffee to be served.

We ordered two mains and one entree to share! Sorry this photo is a little warped, I reckon I was trying out the panorama function on my phone :/

For entree, we ordered the duck spring roll ($9.90 for 6 pieces), which was roast duck wrapped with pickled cucumber, pickled carrots, cabbage, coriander, sweet basil and mint and they were served with black bean sauce. 

I remember seeing this on the menu at Home Thai Sussex St, but never got the chance to order it because everything else looked better. The duck rolls were refreshing with the inclusion of mint, but otherwise this was slightly disappointing. It was a tad dry and it would score so much better if they added the black bean sauce in the roll instead, rather than smearing it across the plate. 

One of the mains we had was pad thai woon sen ($9.90) - wok tossed vermicelli with soft tofu, egg, pickled radish, garlic chives, bean sprouts, chilli powder, tamarind sauce, palm sugar and fish sauce. I chose the option to have vegetables since we ordered a duck roll and beef curry. I eat very little spice and this killed way too much taste buds than I ever liked. I didn't think it was this spicy when I ordered it, but I can't fault them either. I should have placed a special order for one without chilli powder, my bad. But otherwise, it wasn't too bad a dish if not for the spiciness. Even K who take spicy food pretty well couldn't take it either. So, the both of us can't really say much about this noodles at all. 

The other main we shared was Masamun beef curry with rice ($13.90) - slow cooked beef with Masamun curry paste, coconut milk, tomato, onions, peanuts, topped with fried onions. We had this a couple of times at the main Home Thai branch, so you can say it is a safe choice. The curry is sweet with a tingling spiciness in it, which isn't too overwhelming for me. Despite the small portion, we had difficulty finishing it since we ordered too much food again, but this curry was the best decision in our meal. 

I honestly didn't think the menu will be same for this cafe-style Home Thai. I've read a little about it on Urbanspoon and it seems like they do coffees pretty well. Apparently, they have a wine bar concept coming up, so I'll be sure to wait for that to happen before I visit Home Thai again. 

Home Café (Wine Bar) (website/urbanspoon)

Corner Liverpool Street and Dixon Lane
Sydney NSW 2000

Ume Restaurant, Surry Hills

People always splurge on special occasions, be it Valentine's Day, Christmas Day or any other day you feel like it. For me, I splurge on my family (even if it means not using my own money hehehe) on their birthdays. I will always pick out a restaurant that could cater to all of us because we're always such a big group and we usually spend hours just eating and chatting. I haven't been able to celebrate most birthdays with my family in a couple of years now, so I'm really glad to have my brother B with me in Sydney at least for this year.

We finally decided on Ume Restaurant, hence the title of this post. This is my first time to a one hat restaurant and I was really excited how it will turn out :) We visited them at the end of May (oops, what a belated post) so they might not be serving the same menu anymore, but do check out their website (link) for more information! Also, if you're into photography like me (I'm still a noob at my newly received hand-me-down Canon EOS) or instagram like B then be sure to have more patience for the shutter because we ended up with so many blur photos that I need to apologize for them, sorry!

What's Japanese food without sake? Haha well, the paradox is we don't always order sake when we have Japanese food, especially sushi. I prefer green tea anytime because of its health benefits, but a special occasion calls for sake. Do you prefer a warm or cold sake?

We ordered two miso soups to share, the first one was scampi miso soup ($9), which was a sweet miso with shiso, shallots and of course, scampi! I'm not one who loves miso soups, I seriously dislike them for their extreme level of salt content as much as I love Japanese cuisine. To be real honest, I've never had sweet miso before and this sweet miso is the bomb! This was a favourite among all three of us, that one bowl just wasn't enough. Alas, we didn't order one more of it because we had to save our tummies for the extravagant amount of food afterwards. 

The other miso soup we ordered was their miso shiru ($7), which was koji miso with tofu and wakame. On the contrary, this miso tasted like regular miso you can get in other Japanese sushi places or restaurants. There was nothing special about it, it was just as salty as other miso soups and regrettably, it was a bad decision. 

Sorry this photo is a bad one!

Being Asians and being really greedy Asians, we could not go without rice ($5.50). There is really something nice and sweet about Japanese/sushi rice, it just makes me crave for more. But at $5.50 for a bowl of rice, I could really do without.

One of the entrees we had was their carpaccio - seared scallop ($21), which was highly raved on Urbanspoon (link). It had soy brown butter, finger limes, young sorrel and dulse, and of course scallops! I was quite excited about their scallops after reading so much about it, but maybe the anticipation got me way too excited that I thought they were a slight disappointment. Each scallop was sliced so thinly that it melts in your mouth, but they didn't have much of the flavours that were stated on the menu (the flavours in italics mentioned above). It was nothing less than fresh, but not quite a must-have in my honest opinion. 

Another entree we ordered was on their specials board outside the restaurant! Pardon me, I don't remember the exact name for it but it was pork dumplings with rice crisps. The description got us anticipating cute dumplings that don't look like the regular, so on first thoughts these dumplings fall short. I like how there was so much meat within the dumplings even though the skin was rather average. They (the skin) weren't like the melt-in-your-mouth kind, which makes this dish rather forgettable. 

The next dish we had was their butaniku no kakuni ($22), which was soy braised free range pork belly with fermented chinese cabbage, karashi and crackling. For the portion, $22 was rather expensive. There were only four pieces of pork belly and each piece was so tiny you can finish it off in a mouth. I guess this is the price to pay for a fine dining experience. 

I thought this was gonna be my favourite dish of the night, but unfortunately it's not. I'm not someone who is conscious about fats and meats, I eat almost anything unless I choose not to. Some people might dislike pork belly because of the amount of fat in it, but I absolutely love it. This pork belly wasn't to the extent that it melts in your mouth, however there was so much flavour in it that I enjoyed it very much. The charred sides of the pork was well done as much as the meat was a little too tough. Now you know why this isn't the favourite one..

The other main we had was the charcoal roasted wagyu ($42), which was David Blackmore wagyu 9+ with house made yuzukosho, zucchini, shiso ponzu and rice crisps. Again, for the price the portion was a little tiny. Nonetheless, it was recommended on Urbanspoon (link) that we had to try it for ourselves and it definitely didn't disappoint. 

I love the rice crisps! It isn't something you can buy from Asian supermarkets or find elsewhere. Ume does their crisps really well (you'll see one more below) and they're just so good. I know, I know, they are just rice crisps. But if they can do simple stuff well, I think it earns a brownie point from me :) According to K, the yuzukosho went really well with the beef, which he suspect was slow-cooked. I'm not a big fan of beef, so I wouldn't be able to differentiate the grades of beef in the market. But to me, a good dish of beef is good beef. Does it make sense? The wagyu is definitely really tasty and can be awarded the must-try!

The last main we had was their Cone Bay barramundi ($34), which had a poached barramundi in shiro dashi butter, with Jerusalem artichokes, crisp wakame, soy and yuzu dressing and sea herbs. This was the hottttttttttttttt favourite of the night, it was that awesome. The fish was fresh and sweet, there's nothing to doubt about that. The shiro dashi butter gave the fish a nice coat, while the soy and yuzu dressing complemented that coating really well. There was really nothing to pick about this barramundi, so it definitely is the must-try!

The last item of the night has to be desserts! We were so full after two soups, two entrees and three mains, but we just could not miss having the desserts, either desserts take up space in another stomach or for review sake. We decided on their dark chocolate 'terrine' ($15), which was Michel Cluizel 70% dark chocolate, white chocolate crumble, matcha soy ice cream, quandongs and soy milk crisp. This is the other "crisp" I was talking about earlier! There's just something amazing about the soy milk crisps that three pieces to share among three just weren't enough. I was tempted enough to order another of this just for the soy milk crisps! Otherwise, I think this dark chocolate dessert is rather forgettable. I had no idea what quandong was or the taste of it and I haven't never seen them before, apparently it is a native Australian fruit! #ilearnsomethingneweachday It was sour, which kinda went wrong with the bitter 70% dark chocolate, but something about it we just didn't like. I also reckon that the soy matcha ice cream didn't go well with the dark chocolate at all, they probably added it to give it a Japanese touch? I don't know, but I don't think it agreed with our taste buds. 

It was a good experience dining at this one hat restaurant - the service was attentive and friendly, the food was generally good and we enjoyed our dinner there. I'm currently craving for their sweet miso soup and their rice and soy milk crisps! It's always the little things that makes me wanna go back to Ume, I'm just weird as that. It costs us about $70 per pax, if anyone wants to know, and it was worth while.

I took such a long time to complete this post that I'm really glad that I've finished it #phew.



Ume Restaurant (website/urbanspoon)
478 Bourke Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010

Seoul Ria, Sydney

I've never thought of going to Seoul Ria for Korean food, I honestly wonder why. Maybe because there are heaps of Korean restaurants on Pitt Street (where there are many Thai restaurants too), so it is always easier to pick from there - okay, this doesn't quite make sense. Nevertheless, a group of friends from home visited Sydney and another friend A suggested that we should take them to Seoul Ria, though technically I'm not qualified to take them there since I've never been there myself.

On my first visit to Seoul Ria, I was equally surprised by the price and the quality of the food. Not that it was surprisingly cheaper than other Korean restaurants, the food was actually pretty yummy. I didn't take any photos that first time because we were all famished and we could only take a group shot before digging in. A group of 10 of us were seated at the back of the restaurant, and it was so difficult to get anyone's attention! I can't remember if there was a buzzer on the side of the table like all other tables, but the wait staff was not that attentive for sure. Also, the staff don't acknowledge that they understood our needs (like asking for a pair of scissors to cut up the meat or for more water..), and sometimes they may end up bringing the extra pair of scissors after we already had two extra pairs. Our total bill worked out to be about $16 per person, which was superb!

Anyway, we visited Seoul Ria again because their seafood pancake was that good. Other than that, I don't ever think I'll visit again for any of their ban chan or dishes or hotpots.

Here are the pictures!

As with all other Korean restaurants, their ban chans are free of charge and you can ask for more whenever you're finished with any of them. Like always, the best way to know if you're ever coming back to the restaurant is to have the simplest dishes that they offer - the ban chan is definitely one way. Sadly, we have had better ban chan elsewhere (read about my favourite Korean restaurant Boom Bi Na here).

Here comes the bomb - the Korean seafood and shallot pancake ($18). Without a doubt, this has to be the best seafood and shallot pancake I've ever had in Sydney. There is a generous amount of seafood and an equal amount of chives/shallots in it and the pancake was pan-fried to perfection. The centre of the pancake was slightly dough-like and soft but not too much that it's not cooked. The sides were also crisp and the pancake wasn't bland that you need to dip into the accompanying sauce. Other than the fact that it's oily and this really can't be helped at all, there's really nothing to pick on this seafood pancake!

On the page for chef's recommendation, we picked their gganpoong gi ($28) which was spicy and sour fried chicken. Some pieces of chicken were slightly soggy, while others are crisp. The spicy level for this dish was beyond me so I could only have a couple of pieces. Otherwise, this dish didn't leave an impression on me.

The last we had was hae mul oden jeongol ($45), which was fish cakes and seafood hotpot. There weren't any pictures showing how the dish looked and it was seriously a gamble. The hot pot didn't turn out the way I thought it'd be, especially with all frozen food on skewers. However, the pot was so full that paying $45 was pretty worth. But I doubt I'll have this ever again because 1) it was so difficult to cook the individual skewers and 2) the soup stock was not that great. 

I wouldn't say service was pretty good when we were there. Despite having the buzzer at the same of the table, some wait staff sorta pretended they didn't see us "calling" for help. Also, we were told that the hot pot comes with two bowls of rice. When the rice wasn't served after a long while, we asked another staff about it and he wanted to add that two bowls of rice into our bills which was ridiculous. Not that we couldn't afford paying for two bowls of rice when our bill was almost $90, but the fact that we were told it was complimentary and yet we have to pay for the mistake by the staff who took our order. After going back and forth explaining the situation and how we were told of the complimentary bowls of rice instead of imaging that it was free, they eventually didn't charge us for it so all is good.. for now. 

Seoul Ria (urbanspoon)
2/605 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000