Restaurant Review: Lunch at Jamie's Kitchen, Sydney

About a month ago, I went to Sydney for a weekend. Whenever I travel, I spend a great deal of time checking out restaurants, cafes, bakeries, patisseries, pretty much anything and everything food related. On this particular trip, I had a list of places to go to, one of them being Jamie's Kitchen on Pitt Street (Sydney). I've researched and googled the restaurant and found out that they don't do bookings. Although I am just going there alone, I didn't want to be disappointed and not get a table, afterall I don't have much time with this trip. Anyway, I decided that I will go to Jamie's on a Saturday morning, line up if I must, I would be there before it actually opens hoping that I'll be one of the first. As planned I got there about 5-10 minutes before it opened. As I have thought, there were already people waiting outside. It was amazing to see that I'm not the only crazy person in Sydney that Saturday morning. We waited and finally the doors opened, people started pouring in. I got seated quickly as I asked for a table for one and was the third person in the doors.

The restaurant design is fantastic. My only criticism was the lack of light where I was seated, hence I could not take decent photos of my meal. But nevertheless, the decor and atmosphere was great. Service was very good as well which always adds to the experience.

Now onto the food, since it was fairly early, I decided that I would just get an entree and a dessert. I chose the Squid Ink Risotto with Blue Swimmer Crab and for dessert, Panacotta with Berries. The food was great (prices were not bad at all). Full of flavour, well cooked and well seasoned. I couldn't ask for anything more. It looked simple yet the flavours were anything but.

I definitely recommend Jamie's Kitchen.

Restaurant Review: Lunch at Haan Ssie, Adelaide

This is one of my favorite Asian/Korean restaurants in Adelaide. The numerous times I've been to this place since it opened late last year, I've only ordered from their dinner menu. I have been a fan since the beginning.

A couple of weeks ago I've noticed that they have introduced a lunch menu, completely different to their Asian/Korean menu, which is both quirky and unusual. Although I was a bit relunctant to try this new western inspired menu, we decided to give it a go as prices start as low as $4.90. We thought why not, it's cheap and if it is anywhere as good as their Korean dishes, then it will be worth it.

We started the meal with their "Basketball" & "Baseball" appetizers or munchies as they call it. The first one is a mashed sweet potato ball deep fried & served on a bed of crispy noodles. Baseball on the otherhand is a deep fried meat version with mozerella inside & served with a sauce similar to what you'd expect if you order the japanese takoyaki. After our munchies, we had an "Eiffel Tower" & "UFO". Eiffel Tower is simply tempura calamari rings on a bed or should I say big mound of salad with apple & kiwi dressing. It is absolutely yummy. UFO is Haan Ssie's version of the good 'ol cheeseburger, served with none other than crispy fries & dipping sauce. There was a choice of soy mayo or sweet chili mayo sauce. We picked the soy mayo. The burger was juicy and the sauce was different but good.

The verdict, our meal was satisfying and delicious. I prefer the dinner menu (Korean menu) over the western-inspired lunch menu but then again I love Korean food. So lunch or dinner, this restaurant seem to be doing good, just hope they don't change or delete their Korean dishes off the menu just because most people in Adelaide aren't that familiar with them.