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Always walk past here going to Aqua S/Chanoma (now known as O Matcha), but never actually went here until now. It does feel like Malaysia with shared tables, stools, and super crowded inside. It has some hawker decor but cleaner than actual hawker stalls in Malaysia where when I went, was scared of getting food poisoning lol.

food spread

Nasi Lemak beef rendang-$14

I managed to have the beef so wasn't too overly spicy. I'm not an expert in Malay food, but beef was full of flavour and not just chilli, and decent chunk of meat.

Char Keoy Teow-$14

I found this had more beef and other ingredients than actual noodle like Chinese sausage which is normally expensive. It did make the dish quite salty so luckily we shared it. It was more on the oily side, but I guess with 'hawker style' street food, noodles are oily. It feels bigger than it looks.

Roti canai-$5.50

Roti was so fluffy and they have a decent serving of it.

Lime Lychee-$6 and Teh Tarik-$3.50

The lime lychee drink was sweet, but there was some sort of lime juice to make it not overly sweet like canned lychee, The teh tarik could've had a stronger tea flavour, but still a nice drink and relief from the saltiness and chilliness of the food.

Chilli Jam

First time eating in this area, and this place is along a nice strip with other restaurants. It’s pretty big inside with heaps of seating. Came here with BW’s church fam and ordered multiple dishes to share.

Green curry w/ chicken-$16.90

Pad thai w/ chicken-$16.90

Chilli jam sauce: Famous Thai cuisine, roasted cashew nut, assorted vegetables, stir-fried in chilli jam w/ chicken -$16.90

Pad see eiw w/ beef-$17.90

Beef massamum curry-$17.90

Decent pad thai which was flavourful without being too sweet. The pad see ew was already really nice. Green curry not too spicy and nice and creamy, The massaman beef had heaps of chunks of large beef and the sauce was really fragrant. The chill jam chicken and veggie stir fri had a more sweeter sauce so wasn’t overly spicy, but I had to stop after a few pieces. Still need to increase my chilli tolerance. 

Chat Thai

I love meeting up with high school friends, even if it’s half the group. Haven’t had Chat Thai in years, and first time trying out this one here in Gateway Sydney. There’s plenty of seating inside, but there was still a wait to get a table on a weeknight for dinner. 

food spread

spicy green mango salad with pickled crab, dried shrimps, fermented fish-$16

 Grilled beef coconut curry with betel leaves-$20

Steam rice-$4 

My friends were kind enough to let me pick out what to eat. I normally am ok in choosing what stuff to eat, but decided to be a bit more adventurous, which was a really bad decision. Some stuff on the menu didn’t say it was chilli, but they were. I know I’m trying to increase my chilli tolerance, but the chilli in the salad and curry was too much for me to try to enjoy. The curry was so spicy, but the salad was a bit more bearable.

Prawn, tofu, coconut and turmeric crepe with house pickle cucumber-$16

Crepe was super thin and interesting combo of toppings.

Pad Thai w/ chicken-$15

The pad thai was decent but their wasn’t much chicken and portion was generally smaller (but I hardly eat Thai so maybe portions everywhere have shrunk). I guess maybe that’s why prices haven’t increased too much. They ran out of sticky rice even at around 7:30pm.

Service wasn’t the best since it took about 5 tries to get the waiters to order our food, and request for other stuff like water and more rice.

I like how they have open kitchens

One Tea Lounge and Grill-Take 4

I don't often 'repeat' restaurants, but this place is probably one of the exceptions. Finally won a food competition thanks to this photo from Night Noodle Markets (NNM) earlier this year, so decided to use the $50 voucher to try the new summer menu. It was also an excuse to over order and to try some things I never got around to trying at the NNM earlier this year and previous years. I've tried most of the things that always stay on the menu despite the season, It was quite quiet for a Thursday night, unlike when I came on a Monday night in August when they had the matcha ramen special. Love how they include lots of photos for some items on the menu.

entree/snacks

Salmon Tataki: lightly seared salmon with matcha yuzu-$12

Salmon was seared well and fresh. The matcha and yuzu both could be stronger, but you can taste more of the yuzu than matcha. Still a nice combo of flavours on salmon.

 

Peking duck fries w/ waffle fries: shredded duck with housemade spicy hoisin sauce and fried shallots-$18

I've always wanted to try these at NNM, but I hardly every order fries as a side, so would feel bad ordering it, but since I had a voucher, can justify ordering this. Duck is my fav protein, and love the combo of using peking duck as a topping. The amount of duck was decent and also included some skin in. The waffle fries were nice and potatoey, but a tad oily. The sauce did have a nice kick of chilli but it was bearable. Wished there were more shallots to help try to lighten this dish.

matcha coconut chicken: tender chicken thigh with matcha coconut cream served in a brioche toast box with grilled vegetables & matcha rice-$29

 

curry in a toast box!

It's a very Taiwanese thing to have a toast box, then they cut up the inside and fill it with the cut up bits of bread, but normally its sweet. First time having matcha curry inside a brioche toast box. It was a nice amount of matcha and creaminess from the coconut in the curry and chicken was cooked well. Wish they gave a bigger portion of rice and veggies though. The matcha rice had a sort of seaweed flavour to it, those people who don't like matcha because of that weird flavour would understand. I guess I didn't mind having that different matcha/seaweed flavour in the rice since it helped contrast a bit to the matcha coconut curry.

dessert spread

Matcha heaven on fire-$23

Our most popular creative dessert show as you watch the orange liqueur burn the candy floss heaven to reveal a beautiful matcha terrarium filled with matcha castella cake, caramel walnut, meringue & red bean azuki mousse

 

She lit the orange liqueur to pour over the fairy floss, then melted it more with the blow torch to reveal the inside

inside

Yes, you are paying for the theatre of the dessert. The matcha cake inside wasn't too strong, but the matcha sauce was quite intense with a bit of orange liqueur in it to make the dessert more matcha-y. Could also dip the fruits in the sauce as well. I did find the candied walnut s way too sweet, and there were heaps of it so couldn't finish it all. The red bean mousse had a slight nutty flavour in it which was interesting. You can't actually eat the fairy floss since it just melts and sticks to the table/plate.

Matcha hokkaido cheesecake: a perfect balance of texture & taste with the famous creamy hokkaido cheesecake paired with matcha along with candied candied lemon, berries & cream-$16

Love the creaminess and cheesiness from this cheesecake, whilst still being light. Still struggled to finish it since we did order 6 things between two...Good balance of matcha in this cheesecake, and the fruits also helped cut come creaminess. 

Cookie shots: delicious crunchy cookie shots with a hot creamy beverage

 

inside after I added some matcha liqueur 

cheers

 

matcha and red velvet with matcha latte

I have to admit, this is a copy of Dominique Ansel's cookie shots, who had a chocolate cookie in the form of a shot class, and filled with vanilla infused milk. His cookie shots are more refined with a thinner pastry all around and coated with choc inside. These ones have a relatively thick cookie base and wall, so the actual volume inside inside that big, and filled each 'shot glass' around 3-4 times with the match latte which I found was quite weak and more towards the milky side. The flavours in the cookies were a bit too sweet afterwards since they're coated with white choc inside to prevent the hot beverage to melt or seep through to the cookie. The red velvet sort of tasted like it, but again the white choc flavour was more prominent. It's still decent for Sydney standards.

Love the inventiveness of the food here with a bit of theatre. If you love matcha, then this is the place for you.