Mas.Que

Made the trek to St Leonards for brunch since I saw the waygu dish. It's a masquerade themed cafe with different masquerades inside. They did open the windows so occasionally there were some flies trying to get near the food. Each table had different animal shaped salt and pepper shakers which I thought was pretty cute. On the day I think we had a new waiter since she wasn't sure what the popular dishes were and had to call the main guy over to our table.

food spread

The magical: natural colour drink with homage flavour and lemonade-$8

 

love the colours

 

after stirring 

The ice in the middle is some flavoured thing so that when it melts, it deepens the colour. The person told us to slowly poor the extra blue coloured tea in it, and some acidity change causes the colour change and you see the different colour levels turn into a gradient. This drink reminded me of Ribena/blackcurrant, but with some bubbles from the lemonade. 

Fig Prawn Tartare Crossaint-$22

Love how the croissant is just spilling with filling and a decent amount of fig. It is pretty expensive for a croissant, and I found there was way too much sauce for the pastry, but I liked the freshness of the flavours, and the tartare wasn't too heavy, just only a lot of it. They use Luxe croissant and it was nice and flaky and buttery. 

Sparkling bubble pop: angry green apple with lychee bubble pop-$8

Super cute emoji bag. It wasn't too sweet since the bubbles helped to cut back on the sweetness. The lychee pops all sank to the bottom of the bag, but it was fun to eat and drink.

Wagyu Tataki & Soba-$25

#yolkporn

They used wagyu sirloin M6+, and super thinly sliced. It was pan seared, but this dish wasn't a hot dish. Beef was well seasoned and could taste the quality, and the homemade soba sauce gave nice flavour to the soba without being too salty. Love how to egg yolk just dripped down from a height. 

Pablo & Rusty's

Situated in the middle of the CBD, walking in you feel like every table is having a meeting of some sort. It’s quite busy even after lunch time, as people just come here for coffee. 

food spread

 

Capp-$4, Daintree sticky chai-$6

The coffee was average with decent foam. The chai was quite nice served in a pot with heaps of spices. It could be a bit more 'spicier' but it wasn't too sweet.

Grilled halloumi, red quinoa, kale and almond tabouli, beetroot baba ganoush, zucchini flowers and vincotto-$22

I’m not a massive fan of halloumi, but I do like zucchini flowers, so when the waitress recommended that this was one of their more popular dishes, decided to give it a go. I liked how this halloumi had a little bit of sweetness to it from the vincotto sauce, and the kale went really well with the slight sweetness from the beetroot. The quinoa helped make this dish quite filling.

Galbi jjim beef short rib, brown rice salad, daikon kimchi, pickles & gochujang ketchup-$26

The ribs were quite nice and had decent chunks of meat. The marinade had a nice sweet taste without being overly salty. The Korean ketchup was too spicy for me. I did find the kim chi a little bit spicier than usual. There was a good amount of rice which made the dish again quite filling.

Bakehouse Garden and Cheeky Chocolate

First time coming to eat in this part of Sydney. I didn't realise this used to be the old Arnotts factory, but I like how they've tried to keep the old factory walls for the local car park, and walls inside and out for the restaurants here. Came here on a hot Autumn evening for wollamsam, the Korean version of rice paper rolls.

Wollamsam. $22 pp

love the vibrant colours

rice paper roll

It is definitely cheaper to have it at home, but you're essentially paying for someone else to wash, cut and prep all the ingredients for you. There are heaps of veggies to choose from including avocado, and 2 types of meat. It's a decent price for a buffet style restaurant, and it's relatively healthy. I don't think I ate $22 worth of veggies, but at least $4 worth of avo, if one avo is $2.50-$3. I ate heaps of rolls that I forgot how many...Was so full at the end.

Blueberry Cheesecake: white chocolate mousse, green tea sponge, blueberry jelly, yogurt cheesecake-$10.50

It's more expensive than your average piece of cake, for an average cheesecake. It was quite dense even though the cheesecake is only about 1/3 of the height of the slice. Wished there was more acidity from the blueberry jelly to cut through the denseness. It wasn't too sweet luckily. Couldn't taste the green tea at all. The bottom was sort of leaking some moisture, looks like from the sponge but tasted creamy. I like this cafe as it also kept features of the old factory within the walls inside. 

   

Juan Bowl & Tea

This place feels like a cafe which would open during weekdays, but it's actually opened more weeknights than lunches. Would recommend to make a booking since there's not heaps of seating, but for walk in there are bar seating. They are quite 'high tech' in terms of using payment systems connected to iPads, and also they show their daily specials on photos on their iPads which I think is quite smart, since specials change and they can save ink since they don't need to reprint menus every day. The menu is super simple, with only 5 items available, 1 of them weren't available on the night but they had a special, so still a choice of 5 for mains, and one entree special, and 2 desserts. They suggest teas to pair with each dish as well. 

food spread

Tonkatsu-rice with onion, 2hrs slow-cooked bungalow sweet pork tonkatsu, free range scrambled eggs, house apple mustard mayo, roasted tomatoes, red cabbage, miso sesame sauce-$23

inside 

It's not cheap for a tonkatsu with rice, opted for the normal koshihikari rice with this. The pork isn't super thick, but it is still a decent area. It could have been a tad bit more crispy/light in terms of the batter, but the pork was moist. Liked how there were two dipping sauces as well. I normally don't like scrambled eggs, but I like the smoothness from Jap style scrambled eggs since they're not really creamy/milky.

Matching tea-organic lemon myrtle: native Australian from QLD rainforest, tangy and sharp, sweetened to taste, provides a refreshing and zesty palette cleanser, great health tonic-$8

It's not cheap for tea, but when tea is in the restaurants' name and they suggest pairing teas, well then I couldn't resist not trying. It did give a nice subtle tang and slight zest to help lighten up the pork, mainly cause deep fried food is generally oily and relatively heavy. It's a nice light tea, but I like teas more flavourful. The only other time I've had a matching tea was in some tea region in Taiwan, where it's an actual tea house with like 50 tea options.

Wagyu: rice with garlic butter sauce, 2hrs slow-cooked wagyu roasted beef, free range onsen egg, crispy lotus root, beetroot miso, wasabi, snow pea sprouts, onion sauce-$24 (extra $1 for 12 grain rice)

no yolk porn from the onsen egg ):

12 grain rice

Beef was thinly slices and also quite tender. It wasn't super flavourful in terms of the meat itself. Was disappointed that it looked like an onsen egg, but the yolk was overcooked from the normal leaky yolk. The lotus root could've been crispier as well. The 12 grain rice is sort of like brown rice and tasted quite healthy, but wasn't really garlicy. The waitress warned us that the onion sauce is quite salty and just pour it depending on our taste, but I didn't actually find it that salty when you mix it with the rice, although it could be more oniony. It's an expensive dish for beef and rice, but it's good quality and nicely plated. 

Matcha tiramisu-$12

the top is so flat

 

inside

I've had a similar dessert in HK, where it was also a matcha tiramisu or some matcha cake inside a wooden box. There was a nice hit of matcha, but not the really bitter type. I think cause they premade it quite early on so it was quite soggy/wet inside. There wasn't much sponge, and a bit too much cream. Some of the liquid from the cream/marscapone/alchool just seeped out over time, and you end up with a watery puddle at the bottom. The dessert was nice, but I've had better tiramisus before.

inside

Motto Motto

Another new restaurant opening in Macquarie Centre. You go to the counter, order and pay for the food then you find a seat.

food spread

Wagyu beef rice bowl: tender MB6-9 wagyu beef strips, w/ fresh veg in rich yakiniku sauce-$15.90

It's not cheap for a bowl of rice. The beef could have been more tender, since it didn't really taste like wagyu. Obviously it wasn't a super high grade, but I just expected more flavour from it, rather than relying from the flavour of the sauce. There wasn't a lot of veg for the amount of rice they gave. The sauce had a nice sweetness to it.

Pork belly Jap roll: slow-cooked pork belly, crispy green salad, onion, tomato, pickled cucumber and mild mustard w/ authentic Japanese sauce-$14.90

Again, not cheap for a roll. Not sure what makes this Japanese since it just tasted like a brioche roll. Ended up eating this in layers since it was slightly falling apart when it came. Pork wasn't dry and good amount of flavouring. Thought basic salad leaves and veggies didn't make it taste Japanese at all, and neither did the 'Jap' sauce, which I'm not sure what they used as their sauce since it didn't taste very Japanese...

This place is a different addition to the shopping centre, but it really didn't amaze me.

8bit

There's a new place in town-Steam Mill Lane as part of Darliing Square (which I think was a car park  before al the renovations started happening). There's heaps of restaurants opening up in this cute laneway. It reminds me of Barangaroo, although that one is more 'romantic' and 'mature' where as this lane is more 'fun' and 'family friendly' with the coloured lights and cheaper food on average. Now I don't have to go Melbourne to try these burgers.

Didn't occur to be that 8bit=1 byte until BW pointed to it, which I'm guessing is like one bite of their burger...It's got a nice sort of modern retro feel to the restaurant.

burgers

it's cute how it's served in burgers

8bit with cheese: beef, tomato, lettuce, red onion, pickles, mustard, cheese, ketchup, 8bit sauce-$11.50

I always try to get a plain-ish burger without too much stuff added in just so it's easier to compare to other places. I didn't find this beef burger that amazing tbh. It tasted like a fancy Big Mac, but not as tangy. The 8bit sauce wasn't super prominent in flavour, since I think with the mustard and ketchup mixed you couldn't really taste the original flavour in their sauce. The beef is juicy without being too oily. The bread held well together and was soft (unlike Maccas where it was soft and felt apart just from your fingertips).

Golden Axe: crispy fried chicken, cheese, sriracha mayo, slaw-$12

We both liked the chicken one better since the beef was nice but there wasn't anything that stood out to make it different. There was a nice thin batter on this chicken, which make it extra crispy, and felt like less oil was soaked into the chicken. The chicken was also moist, and went well with the slaw to help freshen it up. The sauce had a nice kick to it without being too spicy.

cute arcade games

I think you could actually play for a while in these since the game I played was pretty say and hard to die in.

openish kitchen

 

I feel like there's more outdoor than indoor seating. Didn't have the fries or the shakes since this was a pre dinner for an actual dinner for me, so maybe next time.