Another trip back to Sydney - for work. This year feels like "visit Sydney year", at least for me. This round surprisingly was up to a week long so am pretty happy to explore new places.

This time I was put up in Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney. Not much of a view from the windows but great location and comfortable stay. Facilities include indoor heated swimming pool, jacuzzi, steam room and 24 hours gym. Thank you work.




The 24 hours gym gave me very little room to find an excuse not to exercise especially when my food plans was rather extensive.

So, here comes the food, in the order of time of consumed.


Chinatown Noodle Restaurant
73 Bathurst Street, CBD, Sydney, NSW

I went with one of my work colleague and we shared half serve (6 pieces) of pan fried eggplant dumplings ($6.80) and half serve pan fried pork chives dumplings ($6.80). We also ordered a cumin lamb bun ($7) each. It was my first time trying eggplant dumplings, it was good but I might give it a miss if I am after just savoury food as it was more on the sweet side.

Cumin lamb bun

Bowery Lane
1 O’Connell St, Sydney

I ordered the chilli fried eggs which was described as chickpeas, yoghurt, rye toast, smoked paprika grilled leek, sumac salt, nasturtium leaves on their menu. The cafe has a good ratings online but I find it just average.

Chilli fried eggs ($18)

The food didn't wow me but the space looks good.




Malay Chinese Takeaway
1/50-58 Hunter St, Sydney NSW 2000

This was one of the best Malaysian eatery in Sydney. Cheap and happy. I ordered the specials of the day which was assam laksa. I have just checked their website again and looks like the daily specials menu has changed, compared to when I visited and assam laksa is no longer on the menu.

Assam laksa ($12.5)

Lorraine's Patisserie
Shop 5, Palings Lane, 320 George St, Sydney NSW 2000

I came across this patisserie on my walks and picked up a Ruby's Cake. On their menu, the cake is described as "orange scented choc mousse, hazelnut dacquoise, choc hazelnut crisp, vanilla mousse, cinnamon meringue". It was good cake but I find it a little too sweet and didn't get the orange scent, unfortunately. The crispy bits at the top was a good contrast texture. It is on the pricey spectrum for a slice of cake as well.

Ruby's Cake ($10)

ARRIN Asian Fusion
1008/30 Glen St, Milsons Point NSW 2061

This was visited purely for convenience of location. Service was good but food was ok. It probably wasn't a fair comment though as my friend requested for adjustments to be made due to dietary purposes.

Mango curry

Thai Basil fried rice

Flour & Stone
53 Riley St, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011

I read rave reviews of their pannacotta lamington and hazelnut torte, so one lunch time I went for a walk and bought some bakery goodies. I didn't see any hazelnut torte on my visit so I got myself a piece of the lamington and cinnamon donut.

Even though the cinnamon donut was crispy as it is more like churros and traditional donut, I don't smell of any cinnamon. In fact I recalled the smell of oil, unfortunately. The taste was ok though. As for the lamington, I am still not a fan of lamington.




KOI Dessert Bar & Dining
46 Kensington St, Chippendale NSW 2008

E, S and I went to their tasting menu! We went on end of September and I noticed that the menu online now is different. I don't know how often they change their menu but it could be per season? It was $88 per person and we ordered a serve of "MOSS" to share.


E doesn't take coconut and they changed it to another dish, "Titan" (Guava, green apple, chervil, orange blossom and streusal). On the menu, it mentioned that they require all guests on the table to have the set menu so we all thought we will all get "Titan" instead. We were surprised when only E gets Titan but S and I were still served "Unknown". We are not big fan of coconut either, especially from the description, it was heavy on coconut element.

Snack of pie tee and the other on nori

Bread with some infused butter

Chawanmushi, ikura, spanner crab, chives, ponzu

Quail, celeriac, pear, shimeji

Grilled beef short ribs with lettuce, mushroom puree, hazelnut, smoked jus

Unknown - caramelised coconut, lime, calamansi, coconut water, brown butter

This was the Titan that E had, while S and I were served Unknown (picture above).

Titan - Guava | Green Apple | Chervil | Orange Blossom | Streusal

Tonka - Tonka bean gelato, mandarin, orelys genoa, espresso ganache, licorice

"MOSS" - Pistachio monte, caramel, lime curd, matcha, lime yoghurt, apple

Cafe Cre Asion
101/21 Alberta St, Sydney NSW 2000

This cafe serves very yummylicious matcha food. I ordered matcha fondant (matcha lava cake and matcha gelato), $9 and also matcha latte, $6.

Matcha fondant on the left, matcha latte to the right

La Rosa
The Strand Arcade, 133/193 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000

This came recommended by a couple of my colleagues and I did feel like Italian food, just why is pasta so expensive! :(
But... since we are getting good Italian food, might as well go all out so I got myself a glass of Waihopai Sauvignon Blanc, $13.90 to go with a main meal plus dessert. My colleague even went as far as telling me that even if I don't eat main meal, but order this zeppola dessert.

I was a bit worried that I might not like it when the dish was served to me because I didn't realise that one of the component is caramel...

Rye Flour Bucatini, Spencer Gulf Prawns, Southern Calamari, Olives, Tomato, Chilli, Garlic, $45

Zeppola (traditional potato dough doughnut with vanilla bean gelato, caramel sauce), $17.65

Lady Fairfax Restaurant, Radisson Blu Sydney
27 O'Connell St, Sydney NSW 2000

I haven't had a breakfast buffet for awhile. So on the Sunday I was there I decided to sleep in and enjoy a long breakfast.




Rey Jr.
13 Little Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000

I only had dessert, after a very full-filling breakfast. I find the ube parfait a little on the sweet side but I enjoyed the crunchy bits very much.

Turon with Ube (Banana spring roll with ube parfait, calamansi sauce and jackfruit), $13

Yayoi
Westfield Sydney, Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000

I missed this one the last time but I have remedied this. I went to the Westfield branch because that was the one nearest to the hotel. I had the Yayoi Gozen again because greedy and wanted a bit of everything. I swapped the miso soup to asari miso shiru by topping up $3.

Japanese food paired with a glass of aged 3 years umeshu, $8.

Yayoi Gozen, $34 + asari miso shiru, $3

Dessert was one of my favourite mochi, warabimochi. The one on offer was the matcha warabimochi.




Radisson Blu room service
I wasn't feeling very well so I decided to stay in and ordered a room service for dinner. I am convinced that I am not unwell after that because I finished all my food haha. I was surprised though that the menu mentioned herb butter sauce so I expected to have the sauce over the fish, instead of solid herb butter served on the side.

Barramundi fillet with side of beer battered fries and herb butter sauce

Happy As Larry
THE MET CENTRE, 23 Jamison St, Sydney NSW 2000

Decided to have a hispter-ish breakfast of acai bowl and it was yummy. Fueled me up properly before a full day workshop.

Acai bowl (strawberries,  blueberries, banana, chia seeds, roasted almonds, shredded coconut & granola, $17

Balcón by Tapavino
17 Bligh St, Sydney NSW 2000

This was part of team bonding dinner. We chose it initially because it was on 30% discount on The Fork but it was good food. Unfortunately some of the photos were blurred because dim light, I took them quickly and didn't check the photos after. Can't stand between hungry people who doesn't photography their food and food.

We also ordered another side of fried potatoes with garlic and parsley, $12 but that photo was way too blurred so I skip posting it.

Charcoal grilled chicken, cucumber, capers, guindillas, fino sherry, burnt bread sauce, $38

Aromatic braised lamb shoulder, herb salad, white bean puree, mustard seeds, $42

Basque style jack's creek angus flank steak mbs3+, ajo blanco, $38

Roast eggplant, smoked eggplant puree, nuts, seeds, golden raisins, $14

'bunuelo' - spanish doughnuts, catalan cream & blood plum jam, $15

'Paula's pastelitos' - alfajor, raspberry & ruby chocolate macaron, almond bombon, turron, $12

'limpia-chiminea' - pedro ximenez ice cream, espresso, 60ml Perez Parquero 'Los Amigos', $14

I am pleased that I managed to try different places this round and they are pretty good too.  In fact out of all the above, I've only been to Malay Chinese Takeaway when I used to live in Sydney, Yayoi in my past trips and only done some takeaway desserts from KOI previously.


Side note: It's turning into visit Sydney blog...