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.

Bowery Lane (Sydney CBD)

Bowery Lane opened not too long ago and conveniently for me, it is located a couple of blocks from my office. This lack of distance made it so easy for me to have a mid week dinner with my friends in celebration of one of their birthdays.

It is located in an office building and as we arrived just at 6.00 pm the main entrance to the restaurant was not open so we went up the stairs and entered via the side entrance. As a result of that, I got a glimpse of the kitchen.

As you can imagine, I would have pored over the online menu and as it was, there were so many dishes I wanted to try. Decisions, decisions!

We started by sharing a couple of snack size dishes.

Char grilled lamb ribs with chimichurri and rocket. The lamb was tender and went very well with the chimichurri.

Manchego croquettes with smoked chilli aioli. The croquettes were delicious, not overwhelmingly cheesy but made more interesting with the chilli kick from the aioli. A nice surprise!

We decided to share the 1 kg braised Wagyu short rib which was served with horse radish cream and roasted garlic. I don't think my picture does justice to how beautiful this meat was. It was literally 'fall of the bone' tender and packed with flavour. I didn't need any sauce or cream with the meat. DELICIOUS!

Queenies (Surry hills, Sydney)

After reviewing my recent posts, I have just realised that I have been hanging out quite a bit at Surry Hills lately! I need to break this trend or before I know it, I might just end up living in this trendy end of town! :) Wouldn't that be a hoot?!

A recent mid week catch up with a friend ended up with us having some Jamaican food at Queenies. It is located above The Forresters and I almost missed the corner stairs to get up to Queenies.

As I was walking up the stairs and taking in the decor, I had a feeling of déjà vu. The position of the restaurant and decor reminded me very strangely of The House of Crabs! For the life of me, I know not why!?!

Once again, the concept is shared plates and we decided to try out the following:

Bammies filled with Prawn, mango and ginger; and pulled pork and pineapple. Firstly a little internet research has revealed to me that bammies are West Indian flat pancakes made from cassava flour. Of the two, we definitely preferred the prawn and mango bammy. Such a classic and tropical flavours.

We found the pulled pork a trifle flat in flavour. I know what to order next time. :)