Grill’d (Sydney)

Upon bunny’s recommendation, we decided to have Grill’d burgers for our dinner on the second day of the trip. 

She said it was so good that one of her friend would pack it home whenever she has flights to Aussie. Haha. So I guess it’s a must try? 

It’s like a burger joint that apparently serves ‘healthier’ selections and ‘healthier’ burgers with options for a LowCarb burger bun. Bunny went for the Pork burger (after my suggestion hahahaha) while I went for the Wagyu Truffled beef burger. We also ordered two sliders, one Chicken & Brie and the other their Classic burger to share. Burgers are ordered ala carte so it doesn’t come in a meal, so no chips/fries. We decided to go for a Zucchini chips instead for a change, which turned out to be a good choice! 

One thing to mention, is that it being a burger joint, I was kind of expecting them to serve drinks like milkshake or something but they only serve bottled drinks. How odd. 

Anw the sliders were really good, the bun was very nice (even for a non-bread fan like me).

 In fact it’s even nicer than the Macau Cafe ones we’ve been crazy about recently. The chicken & Brie was pretty nice and fortunately the chicken breast was the tender kind so it was pretty good. The cranberry sauce and cheese gelled up the flavors pretty well. The classic burger was pretty good too, not sure if the magic came from the bun for the sliders cuz when we had our actual burgers, the patty was less than impressive. 

My wagyu truffled beef burger (with an extra order of patty) was saved by its accompanying sauce and condiments.

 The truffle mayo and the bacon pulled the burger together, making up for the not-so-juicy patty. 

The pork belly burger bunny ordered on the other hand was pretty good. 

The pork pulled apart easily and was charred just right. The grilled pineapple also served to balance the overall flavors with subtle sweetness and not to mention the bun. Hahaha. See, I always make good food choices. Good thing I suggested bunny to go for the pork belly one. Hahaha. All in all, a pretty nice burger joint. Not blown away but was good dinner experience.

Sydney Fish Market (Sydney)

Visited the Sydney fish market today! Couldn’t wait to dig into the fresh seafood but it was so crowded, had wait quite awhile for the seats. 

We must’ve been really hungry cuz we were basically wowed by almost everything we saw. From the fresh prawns, oysters, lobsters and definitely the Scampi sashimi that I love! We looked around the different stores and decided on Peter’s (mostly cuz of their Scampi)

Ordered a huge array of seafood skewers (think scallops, squid, salmon and of course king prawns!) Most of them were just ok, if I were to head back, likely only going to order the fried king prawns which were packed in flavors, well-seasoned and buttery. The rest of the skewers were either a little too dry or overcooked for our liking. 

Ordered a separate serving of salt & pepper baby squid calamari which was pretty good. Thinly crumbed and not overcooked, but the portion for it was huge and we could barely finish. 

The fried soft-shell crab (served whole) was a little different to the ones we have in Sg too. Much bigger in size and the batter wasn’t exactly to my liking, thick and oily. Would give that a Miss definitely the next time. 

Fish & chips was fresh but somehow just tasted a little different compared to the many other fish& chips I might’ve had. 

Nothing overwhelming so it’s going to be a miss for me too. I guess in a way I went to the fish market looking forward to fresh (& cheap) seafood but really didn’t think it was really any much cheaper than the restaurants outside or in Sg. 

Also had the oyster and lobster mornay, as well as grilled lobster tail. 

Kind of regretted ordering the lobster mornay cuz it was basically smothered in mash potatoes and topped off with a layer of melted cheese, lacking in actual flavor. Whereas the grilled lobster tail was done just right, but inconsistent in freshness. My piece was alright but bunny’s wasn’t very fresh and broke easily when she tried to deshell it. 

Highlight of the day must’ve been the Scampi! 

Loved it so much, we had that, scallop and baby abalone for sashimi. Scallop was ok priced ($3.50AUD/piece) and Scampi was going for $89/KG for the bigger ones. Ordered 6pieces for about $50? Abalone was pretty meh that I almost forget we had that even. Hahaha. By the time we were done, we were too full to order the Oysters that we missed out on. It would be a lot nicer and easier to enjoy the food at the fish market if gone in bigger groups of 4-6pax? Easier to share the items as well. 

Bunny asked if I might wanna head back again before we leave, and I couldn’t decide. Maybe I guess, but will really be taking a number of things off the list. We shall see!

Hurricane’s Grill (Sydney)

Came to Hurricane by recommendations from a few individuals so u can say I went with certain expectations. Made reservations for 2 at the outlet opposite Circular Quay station. 

Was greeted by friendly staff and the server of our table was really polite and helpful as well. Spoilt for choice and didn’t know what to order cuz it felt like we wanted so many items on the menu. But given that it was our first night here, decided to just order a steak each to try, as well as their fried calamari to start. 

Fried calamari was really good! Loved the aioli and the texture of the squid. Lightly dusted crumbs and well seasoned, unlike the typical thick batter where u can’t taste much of the squid. Loved this! 

Milk shake!

The milk shake was good in my view! Texture was not as thick but the milk and chocolate mix was tasty!

After long consideration, I went for the Rump steak while bunny went for the New York strip. We ordered both steaks medium-rare but both came overdone. Requested for a change and the helpful server sent for their manager to have a look. Unfortunately the manager wasn’t as helpful as the rest of his staff. Was insistent that his steaks are done just medium-rare as requested, but would offer a change if we really want to. Of course, we want to. Clearly overdone but still trying to snake his way out of it. Tsk tsk. 

The re-done rump...

Yet the potato was redone too and was kinda dry after all that reheating.

Anyway, always felt that the Rump was a very tasty part of the beef due to the Rump steak at Brazilian Churasco at Bukit Timah. Haha. Turns out it was a tad dryer than the usual steaks, even after they got the doneness right. 

Bunny didn’t really enjoy her steak either. Felt the texture of the beef a little too grainy or something. But we decided to give hurricane a second try at the outlet bunny first tried them at before we conclude. Hahaha. Hopefully it doesn’t disappoint!

Macchiato (Sydney)

We took the recommendation of our hotel conceirge to try this Macchiato!

Great service from generally all service staff in the place. I guess that is also the general standard set out over here. Price was one of the more reasonable for the quality and portion of food. Right down to the grilled octopus salad which was evenly seasoned and nicely plated. 

The bolognese we ordered was a little too gamey though, to the point of tasting like mutton. And the pasta texture was slightly less than ideal. 

As for the truffle mash, bunny said it was alright for her. But I felt it tasted more of sour cream than it did Truffle, but texture was to my liking with bits of potatoes. Overall for our first meal in Sydney, still a satisfactory one!

Pancakes on the Rocks (Sydney)

So it’s Saturday and it’s Sydney. The only thing I know we can do (aside from heading back to the hotel) is Pancakes On The Rocks!

I was here previously with shan and joey. I remember really liking their pancakes!

Bunny ordered a hot chocolate marshmallow...

While it may not look its best, the marshmallow chocolate was pretty good!

Pan cakes wise, she couldn’t bear to give up her strawberries while I couldn’t bear to give up the macademia One! Which means we can’t share!

Both were pretty good! I had the macademia nut One with had nuts embedded amidst the fluffy pancake! 

Ninja Bowl

We have both been quite supporters of Ninja Bowl food. Their bowls are one of the better ones around (pun intended!)

The meal started with the coconut mint lemon...

Refreshing pretty drink!

Our bowls! Love their marble bowls! 

I ordered the beef cheeks with addition of orzo! The orzo looks like some pasta in grains form and goes super well with the brown sauce from the beef cheeks!






Bree has the scallop bowl which I liked the fact that their scallops are huge and pan fried except that the scallop felt kinda not so fresh today!

Btw, if anyone is keen in the marble bowls, you can buy them from shop.luzerne.com !

We later also realised that their desserts look damn good! So we ordered 2 of the cakes!

We had the rocher and the pocky!

Both were pretty good! In comparison I think we all preferred the pocky One! 

Lunch was short coz I had to rush back to work but it was a good catch up!

Isteaks Diner

After the hairdo, fifi came down to meet and catch up with me and we had dinner at iSteak!

Located at level 2 of iVillage! In Fifi’s recommendation, this place is like Ashton’s but way better!

Seating is free seating and orders are at counter!





HAHAHAHA, I only just noticed the expression on the 3 guys faces! Omg hilarious!

Anyway here’s the menu!



Some of the sides we had, olive fried rice and onion rings!




Gourmet sausages...

I went for the ribeye which was decent...

Bunny had some promo aged steak or something that was way better. It was really quite good!

Fukusen

It was a very impromptu end of week treat from Bunny after a long week and cravings for Uni Uni Uni!

Fukusen very quickly came to mind because of its high quality of food, taste, location and great service!

On point! On point! 

Never fails! The Uni is a generous portion despite this bowl being Only $37! And the egg yolk thingy in the middle is also very good! The texture is thicker than a normal egg yolk, very nice! 

And I must say maybe its because it’s a small cozy restaurant, the service is also very cozy and good! I love this place!

Tai Lei Loi Kei

The Da Li Lai encounter is a built up experience and not a deliberate one.

It all started with one random day, we were headed for a movie at Vivo. I passed by Da Li Lai and saw that they have pork chop bun. Decided to give it a try and I can still remember during my first bite into the bun amidst my movie, I decided that we need to revisit this place! The bun despite being the baguette style, was not hard. It was of a right texture (trust someone who doesn’t like to eat bread) and the pork chop was tender and in fact somewhat tender! I eagerly yet reluctantly shared it with Bunny. Eager to let her know how good this was and relunctant to share! Hahaha

And on another occasion when we visited Da Li Lai for the pork chop bun, we saw another person having their curry noodles. With one bun each, we were unsure if we should... we did anyway and the curry noodles became another MUST order over our next few visits / dabao!

And dennnn we brought friends who also ordered other things and den we discovered more n more yummy items e.g . 咖喱鸡丁饭，鱼片米粉汤，捞面，Portuguese cheese chicken rice...

There were more n more list of must eat on the list! The result was us visiting almost 4 times a week!

Yes that’s how much we loved the food! We rotated between their outlet at Vivo Vs Nex. We prefer Nex outlet for its menu (yes, slight diff in menu), the way the egg is done, the seats (bigger space). Service wise, both outlet had rather nice staffs. 

So yes I’m sharing our new found love with you! We also later realised this is actually a damn popular brand in Macau!