So not too long ago, Sydney started trialling gourmet late night food trucks including food purveyed by those with impressive culinary pedigrees.
The first one I tried was Eat Art Truck which is run by 2 chefs – one formerly of Tetsuyas & one formerly of Quay. And they did not disappoint.
Theirs is an Asian fusion & western style option. These aren’t no ordinary kebab trucks, they come with state of the art induction cooktops and are custom designed for the truck.
I’m always up for trying new things and I’d walked past this restaurant several times with a mind to go in next time I’m around for dinner. I’ve had Chinese food before (who hasn’t?), but not from this muslim ethnic group in China (and other areas in Central Asia). That means there will be no sweet & sour pork on the menu.
First up, how to pronounce Uyghur? We ask the waiter of this family restaurant and he says ‘wee-gur’.
The decor is very bright
Tetsuyas, many, many years ago, was my first fine dining experience and I absolutely loved it. I know Waku Ghin has been open for a while (and currently ranked 39th best restaurant in the world according to Restaurant Magazine) but I balked at have to pay >50% more in Singapore than his Australian degustation.
However, I was feeling a bit of a splurge coming on so I thought, why not?
Plus I did want to go check out Marina Bay Sands complex (I’m on a boat, yeah!)
Was in Melbourne recently and had to make a pit stop at Yu-U for dinner. We booked a week in advance for a Thursday night and when we got there, they were turning people away as they were booked out.
The first challenge was to find the place. All I can say is, Melbourne restaurants have a different vibe to Sydney (although Sydney is trying hard to copy Melbourne).
Yes, it is in the basement, although there are no outward signs telling me that.
Somehow, all parts of my life seem to tie into Heston Blumenthal. He does some Peking Duck research in Beijing & Quanjude in Beijing is one of THE places to go for Peking duck. Established in 1864 & still going strong in China. Pity for me, I’m just in Australia so I figure when I finally visit China in a few years time, I can try a few places there.
However, I have a stroke of luck as Quanjude has recently opened a restaurant in Melbourne specialising in Peking duck from the homeland. There is no question that I will go here when in Melbourne and I have some very high expectations.
On my recent jaunt to Melbourne, I had a lazy Saturday wandering around town and happened upon Guy Grossi’s ventures in Melbourne. Not wanting to burn a hole in my wallet, I decided to go for the “cheapest” option of The Cellar Bar.
It was surprisingly, not busy around midday on a Saturday which was a relief for me because I’m not one to wait for food.
The decor is well done and I quite like the cosy brassiere feel to it.
It’s a small place, I wouldn’t really consider it a bar, more of a cafe but it was still enjoyable nonetheless. Continue reading
Teppanyaki conjures up images of flying eggs and flinging fried rice. In Japan, it is actually in relation to the iron hot plate the food is cooked on.
I had various foods flung at me a few weeks ago but knew that I would be expecting something a little different at Kobe Jones – less food on the torso, for instance.
Arriving at the restaurant, it looked like it wanted to be a French sitting room, not a Japanese restaurant. There were antique couches and rustic fireplaces.
9 course degustation PLUS 9 circus acts for $99 (sort of – excluding an admin fee from Ticketek)…
Food & circus – a match made in heaven – I was definitely not going to miss out on this.
Ringmaster/mistress giving us the lowdown
I won’t go into too much detail about the circus acts so I won’t ruin the surprise should you choose to attend but there were a variety of acts including trapeze, juggling and hoola hoops.
It can get a bit risqué so I wouldn’t bring anyone on the conservative side (it’s Oxford St so I doubt you would be here without knowing what you were getting into).
Whenever I head to Melbourne, I always stop by here. For food and for entertainment.
The food is good, quick and cheap and the service is atrocious. Which is part of the charm really – especially if there’s a birthday in the house because they will play the loudest, lamest ‘happy birthday’ song, and if there are several birthday boys & girls in the restaurant, you’ll have the pleasure of hearing it 3 times in 20 mins.
It’s always a pleasure to bring Shanghai Dumpling first-timers here without telling them what to expect of the service. Admittedly, I think the staff do play it up a bit as its service is now as infamous and the food is famous but still, a good laugh to be had.
Now here’s a place that I’m regularly refused entry to. No salacious history here or anything, they’re just usually booked out when I’m wandering around Glebe Pt Rd trying to find a bite.
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