Chefs Gallery (Sydney CBD)

By Boo_e & St

First of all we would like to say a full-and-fat THANK YOU to all who attended the launch dinner for this blog! Woohoo! It was a terrific turn out and we are very lucky to have such great colleagues supporting our mission. Thank you Biljana, Lana, Lucy, Greg, Paul, Ngaire, Ann, Will, James, Tammy, Mike, Tyrp, Becc, Nate and Daniel.

Other special mentions goes to Thanh and Wes who helped out with the blog’s designs. To Timmy and Daniel, thank you for your boundless support.

Back to business. Some people prefer panoramic views of the ocean or hills, while some people like Lucy, enjoy views of the kitchen hands at work. Come in early and you can see them make their signature “piggy face” bun as one chef was nice enough to model for us. Otherwise catch them folding dumplings or winding up seriously never-ending strings of noodles (see handmade noodles below). If you want some free cooking lessons, I recommend sitting down at the table top benches around the kitchen and observe until you think you can replicate the dishes at home or until you make the chefs feel uneasy and there is a good chance they might call security on you :p

Lucy making sure the chefs are hard at work

You will feel like a superstar working in this kitchen *snap*snap*

We split into a few groups and each ordered a few dishes to share.

Pork belly rolls with carrot, cucumber, garlic and vingerette dressing $8.90

Zheng bao zi steamed buns with cabbage and pork $5.90

Thick handmade noodles wok fried with shredded pork and black fungus $13.90

Wok fried rice with 3 types of eggs (chicken, salted duck and century egg) $13.90

Chao shao pork and prawn wontons in a Shanghainese style spicy sauce $8.90

Congratulations for persevering. While all the above were good, (perhaps except the wontons which were not spicy when you bite into them), some dishes were obvious stand-outs and popular with all.

First of the food-stoppers is the fluffy Chinese roti with pork floss. I’ve had pork floss before with rice (you can buy them alone in jars) but how nice was it mixed with some roti? These roti are light and easy to rip apart, unlike the heavy ones you might get from other cuisines. 

Shou zhua bing fluffy Chinese roti with pork floss $6.90

It’s a good thing we listened to Lucy and ordered two of the noodles below. No wonder these are her favs. As mentioned earlier, these handmade noodles stretch for miles. When you think you’ve swooped them all, you see another noodle still dangling with no sign of its end. You feel like asking for some scissors so you can dig in quicker. It’s essentially a dry noodle dish with the spicy sauce heavily infused. Unlike the wontons above, these noodles were smothered in a perfect amount of spiciness that make your lips tingle but without the need to gush litres of water afterwards.

Prawn and pork wontons with handmade noodles in a Shanghainese style spicy sauce $12.90

If you don’t think dumplings and noodles will fill you up and prefer some meatier stuff, try the pork ribs. This was the star of the night as agreed by most from Boo_e’s side of the table. It was deliciously sticky with a sweet caramelized soy flavour. It gained comments on the night along the lines of “finger licking good!” so I think it’s safe to say that it is a dish worth trying if you’re going to visit Chefs gallery. 

Sweet and dark pork ribs $18.90

I wonder what the best dish on Steph’s side was? What dumplings? You got to be kidding!  The dumplings shells were thin and moist and then you had parts that were crispy. Tammy called them “immaculate” and it sounded like she was having some sort of religious awakening. Biljana’s trick to eating more dumplings when one is full is to burp! These were so good that everyone became too polite and not daring to grab the last heavenly piece. 

Guo tie lightly pan fried prawn dumplings $11.90

As with most Asian restaurants, it seems that we are destined to be disappointed with the dessert selection and it seems that Chefs gallery was no exception, granted the little piggy desserts were cute to look at but in terms of taste it was rather lacking.  It would have been a brilliant idea if they had options for fillings such as green tea, mango, custard or like Tammy said, oozing warm chocolate. They, Mr and Ms Piggy, at least are good for taking photos of.

Steamed sesame “piggy face” buns $5.90

James and Tammy had the strawberry ice cream which they thoroughly enjoyed. Greg also enjoyed the strawberry ice cream after giving up on his bland combination of green tea ice cream.

Strawberry ice cream with chef’s own strawberry sauce and fried sweet potato ball $7.90

Green tea ice cream with steamed pearl dumplings and almond flakes $7.90

The service was slow with one half of the table waiting for 10 minutes to place their orders. In the meantime, the other half had already started eating. So cruel when one is starving. The waitress had limited English which made asking for anything without pointing it out on the menu a little difficult. (This shouldn’t have come as a surprised as St spent 5 frustrating minutes on the phone trying to make a booking.)  We had to ask several times for more wine glasses and they tried to charge us corkage on an unopened bottle. The final straw was a mix up with the bill which was handled very poorly by staff and one of the managers and had put a damper on an otherwise great night out with good friends and good food, which is what Wok You Talking About is all about.

Wokking rating /5:

Chefs Gallery

501 George St

Sydney
02 9267 8877

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Glebe Point Diner (Glebe)

Retro-review from July 2010 by St

I always struggle trying to find a restaurant that will astound Timmy. I decided on GPD because it was on The Gourmet Traveller’s top 100 list and I know Timmy hasn’t heard of it so the surprise element was heightened (proportionate to a possible disappointment factor too....). 

As you know, there is a plethora of restaurants on Glebe Pt Rd just off Parramatta Rd. I expected GPD to be around here but you must drive all the way down towards the harbour and it’s nestled between residentials. Adopting the name, the diner is fairly small (seats ~40), modern with a chilled, smart-casual vibe.

Thirlmere goose liver pate with onion jam and toast $18

Birthday boy Timmy chose this cos he likes his pates. (Pate transports me back to year 4 when my mum used to make strong pate sandwiches for lunch almost every day… my stomach is screaming illllllll.) Like their pasta and butter, the bread is made on site and this toast was crispy and great for slathering on the pate. Onion jam was superb and went well with the pate which wasn’t overwhelming in taste or smell.

Macleay Valley rabbit braised with pearl barley, pancetta, chestnuts and sultanas $30

Hearty hearty stuff matey. Timmy says the rabbit tastes like chicken. A bonus for the dietitian was the nutritional value of the stew- pearl barley, chestnuts, sultanas. A different main to what we usually order but he thoroughly enjoyed it describing it as heavy and wholesome, drawing a similar comparison to a risotto.

Coorong angus scotch fillet with red wine butter, hand cut chips and cavolo nero $35

Hold the press! Let it be known that I am the biggest sucker for any mains that comes with chips. And that is also my downfall. The scotch fillet was satisfying, cooked medium rare to perfection but it was like any other fairly good steak. All along I thought I was eating spinach but actually it was cavolo nero, also known as black cabbage- great for accompanying meat/fish. You could also pay an extra $5 for some truffle supplement.

Watching the room, many people were ordering the Winter pie for their mains (roasted pumpkin, goats’ fetta, onion lyonnaise and sauteed cabbage). It must have been really good or else every second diner was a vegetarian. Something else I should have tried (but it didn’t come with chips!) was the roasted Burrawong chook (sautéed brussels sprouts, bread sauce and pancetta). I read the desserts are great here too but Timmy and I were going to head back up the road to Badde Manors for some good coffee and apple rhubarb pie and cannelloni!

Funnily, when Timmy walked into GPD, he thought it reminded him of Cumulus (http://wokyoutalkingabout.blogspot.com/2010/10/cumulus-inc.html) in Melbourne. This was echoed in the bathroom as they too had Aesop soap! Nb- I’m sorry diners, I love good food but also love clean, polished amenities that go that extra mile. The Aesop theme strikes again. Now, if only I can get Aesop to sponsor this blog, sigh... my life would be complete :p 

GPD did have one chef’s hat in 2008 and 2009 but lost it this year. Having read a few reviews on it, I know many people adore the place and it’s easy to see why. Ingredients are sourced locally and fresh (some grown in the GPD’s backyard) and most of the food is organic. Also, for any north-shorers, GPD just opened in Neutral Bay in July. 

I’m positive my rating would be higher had I ordered the pie or chook for my mains.
Wokking rating /5: 

Glebe Point Diner
407 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe
9660 2646

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Din Tai Fung (Sydney CBD)

By Boo_e

“World’s best dumplings” is their claim. I just had to see for myself just how good these dumplings were. We wandered down George St towards World Square after work drinks, and our anticipation grew with each step. In fact I was so excited that by the time we got there I had shouted, “that’s us”, loud enough for the whole floor to hear when our number was called out. It was quite embarrassing, but not enough to put us off our long awaited date with Din Tai Fung’s dumplings.

I'll have one of those on the wall please.

We ordered 2 serves of the soup dumplings because that’s their most famous dish. It even had instructions on how to eat them. I didn’t follow the instructions because let’s face it, I’m a seasoned dumplings eater and need no direction in that part of my life. One advice I would give you though is to wait a little before you pop one of those suckers into your mouth- it will burn the begeeezes out of your tongue and ruin the rest of your meal. These soup dumplings were quite good, the soup to dumpling ratio was perfect but the flavour of the dumpling itself was not so much different from the usual pork and chive dumplings you can get at any other dumplings restaurant.

Xiao long bao (soup dumplings) $8.80

For me the best dumpling dish of the night was the wanton style dumplings in spicy sauce. They were delectable! The sauce had a spicy, peppery sweetness that went so well with the dumplings. There was a choice between pork or prawns. I liked both of them.

Prawn and pork wonton in spicey sauce $8.80

 We also had some non dumpling dishes as well, such as: the hand made sesame noodles, pork and cabbage salad, hot and sour soup and Din Tai Fung's vegetarian salad. I liked having the option of getting a small salad and some noodles with my dumplings. There seem to be lots of dishes on the menu but you’ll find that if you look closely, the dishes are just various combinations of the same things. 

Sesame noodle, dry $10.80

Picked vegetable and shredded pork salad $3.80

Hot and sour soup with shredded pork, reg. $7.80

DTF vegetarian delight with seaweed, dried tofu, glass noddle with sesame dressing $3.80

For dessert we had the mango pudding. It was very ordinary and I would not recommend sticking around for dessert at Din Tai Fung. You’re better off just moving on to another place for your sweets.

Mango pudding $5.80

Wokking rating /5:

Din Tai Fung

644 George St

Sydney

02 9264 6010

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Marque (Surry Hills)

By St 

Boing! Boing! That’s supposed to be the sound of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh jumping in excitement. That’s how I felt eating at a 3 chef’s hat restaurant. Not only that, a few weeks after dining here, Marque was named the 2011 SMH Good Food Guide Awards Restaurant of the Year. Boing!

It’s hard to spot classy Marque on Crown Street but look for Bill’s and Billy Kwong and you will find Marque smack bang between them. Only recently did they start opening for Friday lunches so Timmy and I sacrificed a working day (oh, the things we do for food) to try out the lunch prix fixe ($45 pp).

Wow, a h'orderve to open up the palate and it presented itself in such simple elegance: a semi-poached egg. Chaud-Froid free range egg to be exact. It has two temperatures: the warm yolk and chilled whipped cream. Three flavours come from: salty grissini, sweet cream and sour from some vinegar. The idea is to dip the grissini into the runny egg to experience all three flavours at both temperatures all at once. Of course! I could have dreamt of that in my sleep. You could also smell the subtle aromas coming from the clove, chives and nutmeg. 

Chaud-Froid free range egg

Hmmm… the entrée looks like a science experiment. Despite the tremendous greenness, this experiment was a success! The incredibly big chunks of fresh kingfish, swimming in the green pea sea with bursts of lime was marvelous. Having been to Japan and drinking their matcha latte like it was water, I am going to say I am a matcha expert (green tea). For those who don’t like it, never fear as the matcha in this dish is so subtle, I the expert, could not detect it :(

Kombu cured kingfish with pea, matcha tea and lime

I don’t have duck much (except the fatty ones with my pad thai) but I’m telling you, this was one super soft and silky duck. The green flowers are nasturtium, used to pretty up the plate but also edible (just tastes like chlorophyll). The duck was incredible but teamed up with the fried quinoa, which added flavour and crunchy texture, this dish transformed from model to supermodel. Tyra would be thrilled and it also took a fierce photo.

The staff suggested we have the potato puree with grand cru butter (extra $14) with the main. It was creamy, not too heavy, and went well with the duck. 

Roast Muscovy duck with baby leek, quinoa and nasturtium

The pre-dessert was a sauternes custard and crème caramel. It was very bitter due to the wine and so I ended up scraping off the caramel and having the custard on its own. Like the egg earlier, I think this was to clean the palate but I would have preferred something else like sorbet. 

Sauternes custard

The smell of the violets and caramelized pastry was so heavenly. The entire plate looked so divine with the violet touches that you did not want to break and eat it but inhale, inhale. The apple and bayleaf icecream filling was good but mild, nowhere as tasty as its exterior. 

Smoked vanilla mille feuille with apple and violet

They must sponsor all the top restaurants around but again, Aesop soap in the bathroom!

I know a few people who were strongly disappointed when they went to Marque, vowing not to come again. These comments can’t be a coincidence. Maybe they were there for dinner and so I can’t judge but my experience from the food to professional service to the bathroom was very enjoyable.

Wokking rating /5:

Marque Restaurant

4/5 355 Crown St

Surry Hills

02 9332 2225

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