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Australia Food Guide, Greatly Terrific Food Outing

GTFO – Greatly Terrific Food Outing: Lot.1 Sydney

December 14, 2015 Talyssa Leave a comment

My, my my, you guys are in for a treat! Swanky and sophisticated Lot.1 has unveiled the first of a three level establishment – a lush cafe – with soon to come, 2 underground bars and a restaurant. Boasting to be Sydney’s newest addiction, nothing says sophistication, affluence and opulence like a 3 level development and a capacity of 400 people!

Setting and Atmosphere

★★★★

Stepping inside Lot. 1, you can’t help but feel a little bit special. Maybe it’s the heritage sandstone, or the way the the liquor bottles stand illuminated against the back wall of the bar. Maybe it’s the friendly waitstaff, the charismatic chefs, or maybe, just maybe it’s the suspended timber spiral feature with purple backlighting. Yep, it’s definitely the timber spiral feature with purple backlighting.

The best thing about Lot. 1 is the space. Tables are well spread out, helping the dining experience to feel all that more private. Naturally, a sophisticated cafe, attracts a sophisticated bunch of people, and in saying sophisticated I don’t mean snobbish (Ivy), I mean well mannered and pleasant – definitely the kind you don’t mind sharing your dining space with.

Food

★★★★

La Gallina, Lot. 1 — La Gallina – Organic chicken, beans, dried tomatoes, puffed rice, lemon olive oil | $15

Panza - Lot. 1 — Panza – Heirloom tomatoes, crunchy bread, cucumber, bocconcini, basil | $12

Cassarecce - Lot.1 — Cassarecce – spicy pork cheek (guanciale) sugo | $15

Polenta Chips Lot. 1 — Polenta Chips | $5

Oh my gosh, I tasted flavours here that I never imagined existed. Let’s start with the hero and my favourite dish of the day, La Gallina. This glorified chicken salad was amazing, it was clever, well textured and one of those dishes where you combine everything together and suddenly, you believe in magic again, because that’s what the flavours taste like. Perfection on your tastebuds. If the whole review was based on this dish alone, I would have rated it 5 stars!

Second on my list of amazingness were the polenta chips! Now these were special – crispy, yet feather light on the palette. I haven’t tried anything more “moreish” in fact, I’m craving right now. And was it just me, or did I taste a subtle hint of truffle oil?

The Cassarecce tasted great, my only disappointment with this dish was in reading “pork cheek” on the menu. I was expecting large, tender chunks of pork intermingled with my pasta, but unfortunately we received small chewy pieces of meat. Not a big deal though, just not what I expected.

The Panza was simple in its taste. Whilst a good accompaniment to the other flavoursome dishes we ordered, for me this dish was a little lacklustre.

As with all good restaurants, tread carefully below – these deserts are irresistible!

Service

Rating: ★★★★★

The staff here were super friendly and made the whole experience well worth it. The food was prompt and the waitstaff took their time to explain the dishes to us and even recommend their favourites. The highlight of my experience at Lot. 1 was talking to chef Grant Croft. Besides being super friendly, it was great to talk to him about his inspiration behind my favourite dish of the day “La Gallina” and the different techniques he tried in order to create a perfectly balanced dish.

Pricing and Value for Money

Rating: ★★★★

Considering the sophisticated and indulgent vibes of Lot. 1, pricing is surprisingly reasonable. Yes portion sizes are on the small side where mains are concerned, but these dishes are created to share, tapas style. With 3 dishes plus a side serving of polenta chips between us, myself and @ningjaeats were full, leaving with two take away boxes between us!

The Details

Where: 18 – 20 York Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

Contact: info@lot1sydney.com.au

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Australia Food Guide, Greatly Terrific Food Outing

GTFO: Porch and Parlour

December 6, 2015 Talyssa Leave a comment

If you’re in to hispter cafes then the Porch and Parlour’s cafe x night bar is for you. It’s creative, it’s got soul food, it offers vegan and vegetarian options and of course, it’s located in Bondi. Need I say more? Hipsters assemble!

Setting and Atmosphere

★★★★

If you’re anything like me, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief when you hear that the Porch and Parlour cafe is located on the quieter, northern side of Bondi. While the cafe does have open front windows for you to enjoy the ocean breeze, the beautiful view of the ocean is unfortunately obscured by the surrounding buildings – which is a bit of a shame. Nonetheless, the hipster interiors are pretty spech and the cafe plays homage to the all too familiar vibes of ‘refurbished warehouse’ and ‘open industrial roofing’, which actually, I still quite enjoy!

Porch and Parlour is small, cosy and not too overcrowded. I especially loved how all the tables were garnished with a small posy of fresh flowers – it’s the little things.

Food

★★★.5

Porch and Parlour North Bondi — Seared Chicken Breast with Steamed Greens: Broccoli, green beans, peas, fresh herbs, baby spinach, kale and herb pesto. | $22

Porch and Parlour North Bondii — Raw Cosmic Salad with mixed herbs, lettuce, apple, fennel, beetroot, quinoa, sprouts, guacamole, raw sisterhood sauerkraut, sprouted crackers and ocean trout | $25

Both the seared chicken with steam greens and the raw cosmic salad tasted great, as did our mocha. The chicken was organic, cooked well and moist. The steamed greens were well cooked and well seasoned – deliciously lemony. The raw cosmic salad was well dressed, fresh and creative – I really enjoyed the combination of flavours in this dish.

While the dishes and drinks tasted great, unfortunately we couldn’t help but feel a little cheated for our money. The seared chicken dish at $22 was very small with the chicken portion being particularly underwhelming in size. Similarly adding ocean trout to the raw cosmic salad was an additional $7 and unfortunately, the size of the trout was also not the most generous. With the overall salad amounting to around $25 there seemed to be a bit too much lettuce and less of the good stuff – trout, beetroot etc – and for $25 I expect more of the good stuff. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the sprout crackers which for me took away from the otherwise pleasant taste of the salad, and most disappointing of all was the ‘guacamole’. Just because you smash avocado with a fork, does not make it guacamole!!!!

Lastly the “large” mocha would be a regular size in most cafes, especially since it seems to be the trend nowadays to serve mochas in those huge mugs – I like those mugs.

Service

Rating: ★★★★

Good service, fast and pleasant.

Pricing and Value for Money

Rating: ★★★

Quite pricey, small portion sizes, but the overall taste is good.

The Details

Where: 17-18/110 Ramsgate Ave, North Bondi NSW 2026

Opening Hours: Monday – Tuesday 6.30am – 5pm | Wednesday – Sunday 6.30am – 10pm

Contact: info@porchandparlour.com.au

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Australia Food Guide, Greatly Terrific Food Outing

GTFO: Soda Factory

June 3, 2014 Talyssa Leave a comment

This month’s Greatly Terrific Food Outing features one of Sydney’s most popularly rising bars: Soda Factory. I don’t know what it is but I’m loving the hidden bar culture that is popping up all over Sydney – it just makes your bar experience all that more exciting.

You probably haven’t even realised it yet, but you’ve most likely walked past Soda Factory on numerous occasions. Located on the outskirts of Surry Hills, Soda Factory’s entrance is a black door located in a wall – it’s not even a fancy door or a door that kindly invites you inside. Taking a glance inside you’ll find a small room with a retro hotdog stand and coke fridge.

Hotdog stand to the left and the retro Coke fridge to the right.

But where’s the bar you say??

It’s behind the Coke Fridge!! #MINDBLOWN #OHNOSHEDIDNT (ps. Sora, I have used this photo without your permission. Talyssa xox). Now onto the review!

Setting and Atmosphere

Soda Factory’s interior is reminiscent of an American 1950s diner. It’s low lit atmosphere, pin-up styled waiters and waitresses, and music featuring old classics really help to add to this vibe. Soda Factory’s decor is cool, funky and vintage with it’s biggest downside being that there are never enough seats for the amount of people they allow inside. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself sitting on the floor!

You’ll often find live indie bands playing at various times during the night, but the best part about the place is their theme nights! You’ve got:

Movie Mondays: Soda Factory plays a collection of old school and recent movies from 8pm every Monday. It also includes free popcorn!
Dollar Dogs: Every Tuesday Soda Factory has $1 hotdogs. I’ve got to admit that I’ve only ever been to Soda Factory on a Tuesday because of this…
Fat Bubba’s chicken Wednesday: Featuring $1 buffalo wings and $10 buckets o’ chicken
Soda Social: Thursday brings live music and $12 cocktails all night

Rating: ★★★★.5

Service

Service is the biggest negative about Soda Factory. The place gets so busy that depending on the time you arrive, you can be waiting up to 45 minutes (or longer) for your food. If you plan on going on a weekday, I recommend heading there straight after work (5:30pm). At this time you’ll get your food on time and also find a place to sit. Anything after 6:30pm you’re pretty much screwed. Wait staff are extremely friendly and also quite easy on the eye ;)

Rating: ★★.5

Food

Soda Factory’s American diner theme is complimented by it’s menu. You’ll find gourmet hotdogs, burgers, chilli cheese fries, fried chicken, milkshakes and so on. I’d have to say though, Soda Factory is most popular for it’s hotdogs, which I think are pretty delicious and definitely worth the $1 price on a Tuesday…paying the usual price of $10 for them on any other day however, it’s probably not worth it.

Buffalo Bill. My number one favorite hotdog at Soda Factory!

Tequila Sunrise. The bar is pretty standard and you can order most alcoholic drinks available at any bar. I love the extra detail they put with their red and white striped paper straws!

Rating: ★★★.5 – Not all hotdogs are as amazing as the Buffalo Bill.

Pricing and Value for Money

On an ordinary night, I would say pricing at Soda Factory is a bit overpriced – $10 for a hotdog is way too much, especially since they are smaller than usual sized hotdogs. Luckily enough, Soda Factory’s plentiful theme nights and specials, means you can indulge in the menu at a much more affordable price!

Rating: ★★★

Where to Find Soda Factory

Address: 16 Wentworth Avenue Surry Hills, New South Wales
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Opening Times:

Monday – Wednesday: 5pm – Late
Thursday: 5pm – 2am
Friday: 5pm – 3am
Saturday: 5pm – 5am

Greatly Terrific Food Outing, Korea, Korea Food Guide, Travel

Korean Themed Restaurants and Cafes – Part One

November 22, 2012 Talyssa 2 Comments

Get ready to get salivating because these next series of posts are all about the unique food experiences on our Korean Trip.

Whilst the entire trip was filled with amazingly grand and ultra delightful banquets of delicious foods…

….there are just wayyyyy too many photos and experiences for us to show all of them in one blog post. So I’m going to focus on those places that went that extra step further…to the level of themed restaurants and cafes!!

We would be lying if we said that everyday of our Korea trip we were all outgoing and did adventurous Korean things, completely immersing ourselves into the culture. Bu alas, some days we reserved entirely for eating. Yes eating. Whilst inside Siree lies a little piggy that enjoys her food….inside Talyssa the mammoth of all little piggy’s lays dormant, only to be epic-ly released during meal times. In fact I actually LOST weight in Korea because Siree couldn’t handle eating 3 meals a day + snacks. Level up Siree, level up!

Onto the restaurants~

Whilst we saw many themed restaurants in Korea, there are just so many places that look amazing to eat at, that we really only visited one themed restaurant (cafes are another story…).

We were guided by some Korean friends to a restaurant named Flying Chicken – a military themed restaurant in Hongdae. When Koreans do a theme, they go all out. The chairs, to the tables, to the utensils/drinking glasses, to the entire interior design was military themed. We even got served these crackers/biscuits, which our Korean friends kindly let us know that they were a typical snack they ate whilst doing their compulsory military service.

We went to Flying chicken at night – I don’t think it’s open during the day. It is located above the Bar “Vinyl” which is popular for its robot shop front and for serving alcoholic beverages in zip-lock bags!!

The interior decor! It really does have a military vibe!

Here you can see the beer served in the military container. Our Korean friends told us they drank from these shaped containers whilst doing military service. You can also see the ‘military biscuits’ we were served.

Can I just say, that I am so thankful we came here with Korean friends. Amongst our side dishes was some rice wrapped in seaweed and a boiled egg – If we had come here by ourselves Siree and I would have had no idea what to do with it or that we were suppose to mix it in with our chicken! haha

Food Specialty:

Spicy chicken dishes.

Directions:

Follow the blue line on the map.

The map makes the restaurant look really far away, but its not actually that far. From exit 9 of Hongik Station, continue walking straight on the road you are on (Yanghwa – ro) and turn left into Hongik – ro. Follow the road all the way up until you get to the front gates of Hongik University. Facing the front gates of Hongik University, turn right and walk down Wausan – ro. Flying Chicken is located next to a 7-11 and above the popular bar “Vinyl.”

Address:

411-1, Seokyo-dong, Mapo-gu.

Side Note – Korean Bars

This isn’t technically a themed restaurant, but I thought it was an interesting cultural aspect to include…especially since I thought these places were just another type of restaurant…turns out they are actually Korean style bars! Unlike bars in Sydney, which are more of a social event amongst randoms, a Korean bar is completely friendship group orientated, with the seating being confined to separated booth spaces. Why I decided to include this here, is because the bar we went to was decorated all cool – like!

One thing I love about Korean drinking culture is that when you buy a drink, boy do you get value for money!! Not only is the drink significantly huge (check out the beer above!) but you can actually taste the alcohol inside, for example, mixed alcoholic beverages like Vodka lemonades!! Alcohol in Korea is affordable and non stingy, which seems to be the opposite of Sydney – over priced with zero alcohol! The picture on the right shows the anju we ordered. When drinking at Korean bars, it is customary to order some food snacks with your drinks. You must always do this!!

Location:

This particular bar was located near where we were staying in Gaebong. Korean bars however are practically everywhere in Korea and easy to find.

This concludes the end of Part One. Part two here!!!

Run by two travel and lifestyle bloggers, The Hidden Thimble focus’ on creating truthful and in-depth travel guides, food & beauty reviews. Enjoy drool-worthy photography from around the world!