Hiroba and The Smelly Cheesecake

This place is conveniently located next to the station. It's a Korean run Japanese restaurant, and has a mix of Jap and Korean food, so was glad when they had sides.

Sashimi and udon-$16

It is pricey for what you get since it's a bowl of udon and some raw salmon. Fish was fresh thankfully, since sometimes small shops sashimi might not be as fresh, which is a problem if you ate not super fresh raw fish. Udon soup was well seasoned without being salty and always reaching for water.

sides

Vegetable Tempura (large)-$15.50

It could've had a lighter and crispier batter, but it was decent and had different veggies. Thought the large size would've been bigger though.

Agedashi Tofu (medium)-$13.50

This had a nice firm skin on the outside, and the sauce with it wasn't too salty.

Cheesecakes-$23.50

Been here a few times. Didn't get the individual prices. I've had the matcha souffle and the blue cheese cheesecake before, so opted for other flavours this time.

Parmesan cheesecake

Nice and light cheesecake with a good amount of cheese and not too overpowering. It had a tiny bit of sweetness which worked. This one was our favourite.

Camembert cheesecake

Super dense cheesecake, and had a nice cheesy and slightly salty flavour. Good to share since probs way too hard to eat by yourself.

Mixed berry cheesecake 

I liked how it had seperate layers in this, and it was quite light. It wasn't sweet compared to your average cheesecake, but in comparison to the other 2, it was sweet. Would've liked more acidity from the berry flavour.

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. 

   

Ms G's

This place has been on my places to visit or a while, so finally decided to make the trek to this side of the city. There’s a lot of fusion dishes here, where they take the ‘basics’ of cuisines such as Viet, Thai, Korean, Chinese and Western food and literally mix them up. Being on this side of Sydney, dishes are more pricier than your average dinner.

Tables are small and it’s quite crowded inside with dim lighting, so if you’re after a quiet dinner to chat, this isn’t the place for you. Ended up using iPhone torch light to take photos, and other people around turning heads #noshame

food spread

Cheeseburger spring roll-$6

inside

This sounded pretty interesting on paper, and it was really good. Tasted exactly like a cheeseburger with the beef mince, melty American cheese, and pickles wrapped in a spring roll. It was deep fried well with a good crisp and not too oil.

Squash, peas, butterbeans with pickled radicchio, mint, yuzu and white miso ranch-$18

The salad sounded interesting with a yuzu sauce, but I wouldn’t order it again since I don’t think it’s worth the money. The yuzu was quite subtle, and the actual salad was average.

Vietnamese pork and prawn pancake 'Korean style'-$24

The pancake had more toppings than actual batter and was quite oily. There was a nice crunch from the shrimp heads without being too salty, and still interesting to try. It’s just nothing like your Korean pancake as there was a lot of air in between this pancake, and only bits of batter sticking the toppings together.

Tom yum fried rice with snow crab, kaffir lime & crispy wonton skin-$29

Our favourite dish was the fried rice. I didn’t realise you could buy those Thai Tom Yum paste in grocery stores. I still remember when I went to Thailand around 9 years ago that the Tom Yum soup was way too spicy to drink. The fried rice was cooked well with that dry sort of rice texture without being dry, and there was just the right amount of spice for me to enjoy. Would recommend this dish as well.

red lighting=not ideal for food photos

Alrose Garden

Came here for dinner after visiting BW's church as Strathfield is close by. This place is quite simple with not an extensive menu choice, and not many side dishes either. One thing I love about Korean food is all the side dishes.

food

Clam hot noodle soup-$13

Decent amount of clams in these noodles, and the soup wasn't overly seasoned. There was actually quite a decent amount of noodles in the bowl and we couldn't finish it. It is a more healthier alternative for dinner out, compared to the next dish.

Fried chicken (half)-$18

I normally don't order fried chicken since it's so unhealthy and not good for your skin (hence haven't had KFC in so long), but would still have some if I'm sharing. I no fried chicken expert but I thought this chicken was decent, not too salty and decent chunks of meat. There was this deep fried pork with cheese inside that looked so good when it was cut into.

Jang Ta Bal and Square Cafe

I'm actually not a huge fan of kbbq since you're essentially eating a lot of fat, and bbqs in general aren't healthy or good for the skin. They are good to for catchups though since you can slowly cook and talk. Love going to Korean restaurants for the sides. My chilli tolerance has increased ever so slightly since I can handle kim chi spiciness. 

food spread

meeeat

This place gives a different sort of vibe when you step in, as the actual seating is at the back, sort of like an open garage and half outdoors, with stools only and large communal tables. Doesn’t feel like you’re actually in Sydney. Ordered quite a bit from different sets/platters, to individual meat dishes. Food arrives pretty quickly, and service was ok. They were willing to change the mesh if you asked, but really meshy/wire ones have the meat stuck to it really easily. All up we paid around $30pp. 

Bing soo is always a good idea after KBBQ. This medium size was ~$32 each. They have the nicer milky ice here rather than the hard flavourless ice. The fruit was nicer than than mochi/almond one . It is overpriced ice, but it’s sometimes fun to eat stuff out of a massive jug with friends. Can’t really make this stuff at home unless you have an ice machine.

The Barn

I hardly come to this part of Sydney, but meeting new people over Korean food is always a good idea.  Half the time I have Korean food is because of the side dishes, then again, I hardly have Korean food.

sides!

 Fried chicken bibimbap-$14

Tbh, I don't really know how to tell a good bibimbap from a bad one. I guess they all taste similar, with the nice crunchy bits on the bottom. Good to know my chilli tolerance is increasing, or maybe there wasn't any chilli in the sauce which goes with the rice. Would have been nicer if there was more chicken though.

Beef short ribs-$15

Nice flavourful soup without it being too salty. Decent chunks of meat inside and loved the addition of those glass noodles (I'm sure there's a better name).

Dumplings-$12

I feel like I'm not Asian enough to compare between different types of dumplings. Maybe these could have been a tad bit crispier. 

Steamed egg casserole-$8

First time having Korean style steamed egg. It's so cute how it comes bubbling in one of those stone bowls. It's a bit fluffier than the Chinese style, but not as silky. It's quite interesting since to try different ways of egg since I mostly go for the typical poached eggs at cafes.

Seafood pancake-$15

There wasn't heaps of seafood in it, but it was pretty big and thick for the price. It also wasn't too oily unlike some seafood pancakes.

They actually have quite cute decor with random animals inside to create 'The Barn' feel. 

Wooden Bowl

On a hot summer's day, cold Korean noodles are perfect to help cool down (it's now Autumn, and I love the colder months→ kbbq and hot pot!)

Soybean cold noodle soup+peanut butter-$13

Special black bean sauce noodles-$11
Japchae: potato noodle with beef and vegetable-$29

I was disappointed there were only 3 sides and it didn't seem like they offer refills. The soybean was very interesting, first time having something like that. I'm not a big fan of the soybean taste which has a bit of saltiness to it. Completely different to a soybean drink. The black bean sauce noodles were the highlight-love that sauce which wasn't overly seasoned. It tasted like black bean but better than the black bean Chinese paste. I found the Japchae to be lacking beef, and was more on the small side for the price. Probably a bit too many veggies than noodles. I can have veggies at home, but when I order this I want more noodles pls.

  

Original fried chicken (half)-$18

The chicken came with the other salt/spice to dip in, but I found that the chicken itself was already heavily salted. It didn't have the crunchy batter compared to other KFC (korean fried chicken). Chicken was a tad dry in parts, probably below average (not that I've had many KFC before since I actually try to avoid deep fried meats because it's so unhealthy).