Sydney - Iiza

www.iiza.com.au

Saturday night in Sydney was spent going out for dinner and drinks nearish to where my friend S lives.... so after one of the scariest cab rides of my life (and I have been in cabs in Vietnam and Thailand so this is saying something), we arrived outside Iiza Japanese restaurant in Newtown. Trusty Urbanspoon seemed to have good things to say, so I trusted my friends judgement in saying this was a good restaurant.

The restaurant was packed out, and this was only the downstairs area. Apparently there was a whole other level upstairs, which explained why there was always numerous groups coming and going through the restaurant.

We ordered a whole bottle of Umeshu (plum wine $38 per bottle) between us to drink, the first thing I noticed was that it was Kikkoman - same brand as the soy sauce - and that it was rather darkly coloured. The only plum wine I have ever had was a pale yellow colour. It was a lot stronger flavoured than the plum wine I have previously had, but was still pleasantly sweet and easy to drink.

Sydney - Cafe Cre Asion

www.creasionmacaron.com

In Sydney for the weekend, I had hoped to try and make it over to Adriano Zumbo's patisserie for some macarons, however as this was probably not going to be likely, I searched for somewhere else to grab some as a present for L. 

I came across Cafe CreAsion on the NSW Urbanspoon site, it had been reviewed by numerous bloggers and seemed to be the place to go in the CBD for macarons.

My friend and I trudged around the city trying to find it, and finally managed to locate it in this little back street at about 5 o'clock on the Saturday. I hadn't high hopes for actually finding the place open at this time, but to my surprise it was, although all they were selling was macarons, which was okay by me.

Sydney - Charlie & Co Burgers

www.charlieandco.com.au

 

Well I went down to Sydney last weekend to visit a friend, unfortunately L didn’t come with me, and the weekend didn’t end up involving as much food as I would normally like (and if L had have come with me, we would have probably eaten out 8 times a day).

One of the places I did visit was the food court at the top of the new Westfield on Pitt St mall in Sydney city. This food court is absolutely amazeballs in my opinion, and I would love to either a) live in the foodcourt or b) for something like this to appear in Brisbane. Neither option is likely to happen soon though.

Justin North, chef of Becasse, who I remember appearing on Masterchef a few times, has a burger place in the foodcourt called Charlie and Co. You have the option of paying a couple of dollars more for eating in, with table service, or the cheaper option of takeaway, and sitting almost in the restaurant anyway, however having to go collect your food when the buzzer goes off. It’s not really worth paying extra for table service in my opinion, as you still get a plate and proper cutlery, and it’s really almost the same. 

The Norman Hotel

www.normanhotel.com.au

We've eaten at "Brisbanes Worst Vegetarian Restaurant" the Norman plenty of times, but until recently always thought the Breakfast Creek hotel was better. Lets face it, their menus are fairly identical in terms of types of steak, accompaniments and pricing. Our last visit at the Breakfast Creek hotel didn't particularly excite us however, so when friends suggested we go to the Norman, we were interested to see if it could be better. 

In our opinions it definitely was. The Norman partially burnt down a while back, and the last time we visited, part of the eating areas was set up as a plain tacky marquee. Things have definitely improved atmosphere wise since then, and in fact its a much nicer venue than the Breakfast Creek. 

L and I both ordered the large eye fillet steak ($38.90), which came with garden salad, a breadroll and a potato with bacon filling. L's had chilli sauce and mine, pepper sauce. All in all, pretty identical to our last meal at the Breakfast Creek hotel.