Paper Plane Cafe (Parramatta, Sydney)

I think I mentioned in previous posts how food trendy Parramatta is becoming these days. One of the main reasons is this café. Since it first opened a few months ago, it has been packing it in.

Paper Plane Café is located in Horwood Place, off the main streets of Phillip Street and George Street. After seeing so many photos of the food on Instagram, I had book marked it on my list.

My first visit was breakfast on a Saturday morning. I had the Truffled Eggs which was scrambled eggs with truffle oil, tomatoes, mushrooms on organic sourdough with a side of rocket parmesan salad.

I wasn't sure if I would taste any truffle but I was wrong. The earthy flavours of the truffle oil was prevalent throughout the eggs. It certainly made the scrambled eggs a whole lot more interesting.

On my second visit, my friend and I visited for lunch. I certainly liked the look of the lunch menu which is only served from noon on the weekends. We were lucky enough not to have to wait too long for a table.

Emma's Snack Bar (Enmore, Sydney)

A recent opportunity came up to check out the newly revamped Emma's Snack Bar. It used to be Emma's on Liberty and shut down for a while to undergo an interior and menu revamp. Since re-opening, there has been many positive reviews on social media.

I have always found eating Lebanese food to be very communal. It brings out the desire to order many dishes and share amongst the group. Emma's Snack Bar is such a place.

We booked for 6.30 and got there slightly early. At that time of the evening I would have anticipated it would have been half empty but I was wrong. It was quite full of people, mainly families with young children.

Here is a list of our feast!

Homous - a different spelling to what I was used to. But our focus was on the taste! Freshly cooked chick peas crushed with tahini, garlic and lemon. Yep, it definitely tasted good and we kept going for more with our pita bread.

Garlic dip - pure garlic dip blended with extra virgin oil. AF wanted to try this so we did! Not as garlicky as we anticipated, it had an interesting whipped texture.

Baba Ganouge - smoked eggplant on open fire with tahini. Oh boy! We could taste the smokiness and this was seriously so good. The smokiest baba ganouge I have ever had and it was yummy! Big thumbs up!

Fried Potato and Coriander - hand cut garlic potato and fresh coriander. Honestly didn't know what to expect but it surpassed all our expectations. Super crunchy roasted potatoes with delicious garlic and coriander potatoes. It was a surprise hit dish for the group.

Tounoya (Eastwood, Sydney)

These days Eastwood is seriously buzzing as a food hub. And it has been happening in the past few years. Now it is a suburb predominantly filled with Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese eateries. For example there are 6 outlets selling BBQ duck, pork and other Chinese roast meats. And counting..

Recently a friend of mine mentioned there was a new Japanese restaurant in Eastwood replacing what was the shoe warehouse. I strolled by one evening and could see effort was made in furnishing the restaurant.

I decided to check it out for dinner with some friends and made an effort to book a table. A decision I made when I realised there was a queue to get a table during my stroll.

To the right of the restaurant are booths with a tablet on the wall for ordering our meal. To the left is a more open area with tables that can take a large group of people. The rear of the restaurant are 2 Karaoke rooms for those who want to exercise their vocal chords on a night out!

We were seated in one of the booths and was engrossed looking at the dishes on the very small screen. So we resorted to asking for a menu and then ordered on the tablet. Absolutely convenient!

Soft shell crab salad - the soft shell crab was nicely crunchy and topped with a slightly tangy Mayo sauce.

Unagi don - sorry but I didn't get a chance to take a photo but young B devoured the unagi and left all the rice for her Dad. I can only imagine how delicious it was.

Yakitori and Pork Belly grilled skewers - this was ordered from the Grill section of the menu. Of the 2 meats I preferred the Yakitori chicken, there was a nice and smokey flavour to the meat.

Sushi and sashimi mix platter - nice presentation. I found the sashimi of scallops, tuna, salmon, ocean trout, and eel to be quite fresh.

The Lemon Tree (Sydney CBD)

The Lemon Tree is conveniently located right under Australia Square, smack in the city centre. As a matter of fact it is walking distance from Wynyard station and I had the opportunity to check it out over two visits.

I like the look of the little restaurant, it had an alfresco feel to it and certainly reminded me of the southern part of Italy. Which is exactly what was intended. The cuisine is intended to reflect the southern part of Italy and the decor of white chairs, tables and an open air atmosphere certainly does add to the vibe.

On my first visit it was lunch time and we arrived just after noon and managed to grab a table at the bar side, i.e. high chairs with a high table. The menu is quite limited and kept deliberately simple.

There is the Bar section with dishes such as Rock Oysters, and Sicilian Olives. Primi Plati which is pasta dishes, Contorni (side dishes) such as salads and fries. And obviously there is Dolci for desserts.

For lunch we had:

Spaghetti E Vongole - this was my dish and I liked the light touch of olive oil, parsley, and fresh chilli to the al dente pasta. The Vongole was nicely cooked but the meat from the clams was a little small for my liking.

Lasagne Di Carne - this was a tasty dish, it reminded me of a home cooked lasagne. It was not overly robust but definitely tasty.

For dessert we couldn't resist the Lemon Tart. It was sublimely rich in the lemon flavour, tangy yet sweet and super smooth. Delicious! Sorry about the quality of the photo, it got cloudy and I wasn't lucky with my timing of the photo.