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

Joe Black, Surry Hills

I was looking for interesting cafes to visit one day and saw heaps of positive reviews on Joe Black. It wouldn't be difficult to find a good cafe in Surry Hills but I was kinda looking for a cafe that is within reasonable walking distance (and time) from the city centre and Joe Black falls into that category! It was on my to-go list for the longest time, about six months or so, and I suspect I was trying to save some money and also avoid eating out too often since eating out means high spending and rather unhealthy food. Of course, cafe food can be as healthy as you want them to be (think gluten free options and free range eggs!), but because I'm not the most conscious person on Earth I tend to have the most sinful food in cafes. #firstworldproblems maybe?

The interior of Joe Black is just too.. chill (pardon my inability to describe it better). They reminded me of the cafe Robocog (link), where a couple of their staff (or maybe all of them) wears a moustache. What uncanny resemblance, really! We were seated shortly after arriving and had a quick through their short menu. 

Just look at the graphics, interesting! Well, I really didn't mean to shoot that lady in my photo, but there was no way I could have asked her to move aside :/ 

I would always order a latte, which was pretty good. 

There weren't many options on the menu, which was slightly disappointing. I didn't know what to pick at all, but settled with their pilate pancakes ($12.50). Their dishes had very funky names that you really wouldn't know what to expect just from their names, plus point! They described these pancakes with you'll need pilates after these chocolate covered bad ass mo foes. Exciting, not? This was how the pilate pancakes look like, where are the pancakes you ask? They were so generous with their chocolate sauce that the pancakes submerged within. However, some may not like their pancakes this thin, but I enjoyed it so much that this has to be my favourite pancakes thus far! The pancakes were thin and dough-like, with crisp sides. There was enough chocolate sauce and strawberries to go with every mouthful of pancake, you (and your tummy) will definitely feel overwhelmed.

My friend V had their Stromin' Norman ($9.50), which had a cheery tomato mix with spanish onion, avocado and a poached egg. She ordered a side of mushrooms to go along with her brunch. Unforunately, we were too caught up in our conversation that I don't even remember if I asked how did her toast went. But I reckon she probably said something like, "I must bring friends here one day!". So, does that make a good conclusion?

Sorry this photo is a tad blur, I think I got too hungry that I couldn't care more about taking photos :P

Each time I look at that photo of the chocolate pancakes, I feel like my tummy is telling me "get out of the house to Joe Black!!!" It is a pity that they don't offer heaps of options on their menu, but I reckon their pancakes will always get me to visit them. As much as Joe Black may not be my favourite cafe now, I will definitely recommend it to friends who don't wanna visit busy Surry Hills and yet wanna have some good cafe chillax place to hang around. 

Joe Black (urbanspoon)
27 Commonwealth Street
Surry Hills NSW 2001

Two Good Eggs, Surry Hills

We were in the vicinity while house hunting and were suddenly feeling hungry because we haven't had breakfast. Waking up real early and rushing from inspections to inspections back to back, we really needed some real food to last the day. Lucky we had a slot in between two inspections and decided to walk into Two Good Eggs despite only having a tight fourty minutes break. We made it!

Two Good Eggs is a cafe just around the corner of a building, overlooking Harmony Park. It was so crowded on a Saturday morning, but lucky we managed to get a table just tucked in at the corner near the coffee machine.

The three of us ordered a drink each, a skimmed cappuccino, a latte and a hot chocolate. The hot chocolate isn't the best that I've had ever (the best ones are definitely at Ralph's Cafe in Sydney Uni), but it was good enough.

The obligatory drink shot. My cuppa latte even came with a loacker wafer, nice touch.

Food came rather quick, allowing us to finish them within our 40 minutes break. We had on our table a smoked salmon and spinach scrambled eggs (with dill, sour cream and quinoa and soya sourdough) ($16.90). The toast was dry, a little over-toasted, but the salmon was fantastic!

We also a serve of their two good eggs breakfast ($17.90), which had eggs, bacon, hash, mushrooms, tomate and sourdough toast. I requested for scrambled eggs, instead of the poached eggs that was stated on the menu and it was denied - thumbs up for service! I really liked the hash, it was well-salted although a little oily. Well, hey, oil always come with deep frying so we can't expect less of it. The mushrooms aren't very juicy, but well pan-fried, and I especially love their tomate! I'm not sure if it's homemade, but it was so good. I don't usually like tomato, tomate or anything tomato (except pasta sauces if I can't choose olive oil base) but this was gooooood!

The last we had was buttermilk pancakes ($14.90) and B chose it with bacon and maple, just because he doesn't take anything exotic, fruity or anything-not-bacon-and-maple. This little brother of mine has a very picky preference so sometimes he always chooses the same ol' stuff. We didn't expect the pancakes to be this thin, because they're usually not (duh). It looks like a real tiny portion for a big boy like him, and indeed he wasn't feeling filled from that. Lucky I had the breakfast which was a massive portion, so he cleared up most of what I couldn't finish. Good stuff about brothers ;) But this isn't quite a must-try for me, since we can easily get pancakes with bacons elsewhere.

It isn't like Two Good Guys are very out of the way. It's closer to the city (where we live right now) than the usual Surry Hills cafes, so it's a good option if you're in the vicinity. I wouldn't say for sure that I will visit again, but I definitely like it and will recommend! 

Two Good Eggs (website/urbanspoon)
148 Goulburn Street 
Surry Hills, NSW 2010

Robocog Cafe, Surry Hills

I've heard and read of many good stuff about Robocog Cafe, about their interesting robotics decor and funky staff with moustache. It was definitely on my to check out list when I read about all that interesting things and food.

My folks were in Sydney for a week, so it was perfect excuse to check out a new cafe while they were here (Hehe, money comes from holiday fund so we getta splurge a little :P). The five of us had a good walk from the city to Robocog, a good walk-out before a hearty meal we always tell ourselves. Plus, it was perfect weather in Sydney that day! Cool and breezy, not entirely that warm though it was still summer.

Cappuccino vs latte.

The best thing about going out to eat in a big group is that we get to order a wide variety from the menu and share! From young, we've been taught that sharing is caring so what better way to show that we care? However, we had a couple of eggs fanatic in our group, which makes repeated but different variations of eggs benny. Thankfully they score pretty well :) Anyway, I couldn't find their menu online so I'm writing most of the stuff based on my memory (and my memory only has a space of perhaps.. 218mb?)

First up - pancakes with mixed berries, banana and honey. Frankly speaking, I was kinda disappointed by this. I was expecting fresh berries rather than dried up tiny bits of them and the pancake batter seems a little too thick to be eaten folded. Maybe I tend towards the regular round pancakes.. 

Now, here begins our extensive list of egg bennys..

We have the vegan eggs benny..

Eggs benny with bacon.. 

And eggs benny with smoked salmon! I remembered the egg bennys scored fairly okay, but K was slightly disappointed with his smoked salmon eggs benny. Mom and brother were happy with their eggs benny, mainly because they were both hungry I reckon. Oh and the toast seemed a little too tough to chew. 

And because I was slightly disappointed with my pancakes, I ordered extra serve of mushrooms! They made up for everything simply because I love mushrooms. They weren't exactly the best I ever had but they suffice.

Lastly, this was what Dad ordered but I just don't remember the name for it. It is a sandwich (duh) with bacon, avocado and spinach I think? Anyway, I trade half of my pancake with Dad for half of this sandwich and the both of us just didn't quite enjoyed it. I would prefer if the avocado was smeared across the sandwich, rather than a lump of it in the middle. And as usual, everything got so messy all over the plate when I was chewing on it (ooooops). 

A cross-section of the sandwich. See the lump of the yummy looking avocado there? 

 

Robocog Cafe 
249 Riley Street 
Surry Hills NSW 2010

Citizen Corner, Surry Hills

I looked up some restaurants a couple of months back when my friends flew into Sydney for a few nights. One of those that I did my googling on was Citizen Corner. Unfortunately, my friends decided to have something else instead so we had to skip it then. But, I managed to visit them anyway, because I had an option to pick on my birthday :) We visited them in August, but it appears that they have a different menu now.

For starters, we decided to have their bread with balsamic and olive oil ($7). It would have been better if the bread was toasted, but it's a personal preference.

There was a bit of a mix up and we were served their pan-fried barramundi, served on mash and gravy. It looked really good and I wouldn't mind having this pan-fried barramundi, if not that I was keeping away from fried food. So glad that my first instinct when food is served is to grab my camera to snap a photo. 

One of our other orders was this raved wagyu beef pie. Many reviews on Eatability talked about this and we definitely need to have a go at this! We were surprised though because the pie doesn't quite look like a pie at all. It was served with mash, with the wagyu beef beneath the puff pastry - Interesting. The beef was pretty strong in flavour and it got pretty jelat (jelat is a word in Malay that describes how after you've had so much of the same food that you got quite sick and full from it) after being halfway through. But I reckon it was pretty popular since it would be sold out if we were to arrive even later for dinner. 

This was the accompanying salad with the beef pie. Nothing fancy but very refreshing to be served with the beef pie. 

After quite a wait, I was finally served what I originally intended - barramundi risotto with mushrooms. I had pretty high expectations of their risotto since many reviews raved about their range and flavours of risotto, but I was slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong, this barramundi risotto is nice and delish but it just lacks the 'omg I'm in a sea of food' reaction *cues that scene from that anime* 

The staff were very apologetic towards the wrong order and they very kindly insisted on giving me a dessert on the house. It was a nice gesture, though I wasn't angry or exploding, so I agreed anyway. All of their desserts were going at $10, where else can you find such deals? I ordered their creme brulee ($10), which I reckon is a pretty safe choice. I was pretty amused by the waitress who took our dessert order. After we ordered two desserts to share, she continued to ask which dessert was mine (since mine was on the house). I thought that was pretty amusing since all desserts were $10 and it wouldn't matter which dessert was mine since either or is free anyway. But anyway.. The creme brulee, if I must, was slightly disappointing as well. The burnt caramel on the top was so hard and thick that I could hardly break through it without using heaps of strength. Well, if I had to go through such strength to get to a yummy custard base I would be satisfied but I wasn't quite either. The custard was bland and ain't sweet at all, the biscuit didn't make up for it either. 

The other dessert we order was their apple pie served with vanilla ice cream ($10). I was very keen i

The ambience at Citizen Corner was really pleasant and cosy. It is quite a small restaurant, but still able to cater, say about 20 people when it's full house. The staff are friendly and always smiling, it was definitely a very kind gesture to offer the dessert on the house for the wrong order. However, the food wasn't all that satisfying for me because I felt like my stomach was pretty empty after a two-course meal. Nevertheless, glad that I've tried and would probably visit them again since they've got a new menu up. 

Citizen Corner
118 Devonshire Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Australia

Fifi Foveaux's, Surry Hills

When it comes to café hunting, Surry Hills has just so many of them. It can be quite difficult to pick one among the list to go to on a Saturday, for sure we can expect heaps of people at cafés on a weekend. Another thing I dislike about going to a café in Surry Hills was the climb up Crown Street, or any street that is sloping. This could just mean working out before pigging out, so you do a little bit of exercise so you wouldn't feel very guilty over the immense calorie intake later. Sounds like there would be more café hunting in Surry Hills for me.

Lucky for us, Fifi Foveaux's wasn't too crowded when we finally arrived. We managed to find a comfortable corner outside the café and was served with the menu right away. Despite being right at where the traffic junction is, it wasn't too noisy or anything unpleasant so our visit was enjoyable.

The skimmed cappuccino came full loaded with cocoa and a bite-sized chocolate! It was my first time encountering an accompanying chocolate, so that instantly brought me a big wide grin. I love chocolates, not that this chocolate piece was a cheap thrill. 

Double-hearts art on the latte? The chocolate that came along wasn't anything fantastic but it was interesting enough because of the multi rainbow bits on it. 

Big breakfast eggs (the way you like) - Crispy bacon, pan fried mushrooms, baby spinach, roasted Roma tomato, served with Italian rustic bread ($16.50). The mushrooms were really juicy and well done. The toasts were a little too tough, I reckon they should have toasted it before serving. The egg was slightly bland but goes well together with the bacon, which was too salty to have it on its own. The egg was also really creamy!

The portion is really huge, this was what's half left to be finished by me! Looks exactly like a half but filling portion of the original. 

Big breakfast with scrambled eggs ($16.50)

French toast and bacon served with fresh strawberries and maple syrup ($13.50). The french toast was really thick and slightly salty on first try. But I really liked the texture of the toast, even though K doesn't enjoy it. I reckon there could be better french toasts, but I would still have this if I visit Fifi Foveaux again. 

French toasts ($13.50)

After which, we took a slow stroll back to the main street. It was a quiet and peaceful Good Friday, definitely enjoyable.

Hello autumn! 

Fifi Foveaux's
428 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Tel: (02) 9380 6881