All-you-can-eat raclette at Loluk Bistro, Surry Hills

What's better than grilled cheese? ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT GRILLED CHEESE. Imagine a landslide of molten cheese, scraped onto a plate of potatoes, bread and charcuterie. With endless cheese. Yep. Unlimited. Non-stop. Never-Ending. Unrestricted. You know you want it.


Melted raclette cheese

Live out all your wildest cheesy dreams with the all-you-can-eat raclette at Loluk Bistro, a quaint French bistro in a converted terrace in Surry Hills. The front dining room is tiny but the courtyard out the back - accessed by a scenic walk through the kitchen - is much more airy.

The all-you-can-eat raclette menu costs $49 which is pretty darn reasonable. That includes unlimited raclette, boiled potatoes and salad. You also get a serve of bread and charcuterie. And friendly staff to serve you all night. And do the dishes. Not bad considering raclette itself costs $55/kg.

It happens every Tuesday and Wednesday night and, unlike most other raclette offerings in Sydney, runs throughout the year.


Raclette cheese under the grill at Loluk

Raclette is a Swiss cheese by origin, popularly melted by a campfire or grill and scraped onto bread. It began as an easy and mobile meal for cow herders, but today it's enjoyed as more of a social event, much like fondue.


Boiled potatoes (unlimited)

At Loluk, the carriage of choice for your melted cheese is the humble potato (unlimited as part of the raclette all-you-can-eat). While the cheese is melting in the kitchen, diners are instructed to start cutting up the boiled potatoes on their plate.


Scraping melted raclette cheese onto potatoes

Staff will then come around and scrape lashings of gooey molten cheese all over your potatoes. It's wondrous.


Melted raclette cheese on potatoes

There's a nutty, slightly acidic flavour to raclette, not dissimilar to Gruyere. It languishes with ease across the potatoes. The potatoes, I have to say, are impressive too, with a waxy lusciousness that makes them ideal for melted cheese.


Charcuterie plate for four

Alongside your potatoes, you'll score a charcuterie plate - a selection of prosciutto, saucisson, coppa, white ham and bresaola served with pickled onions and cornichons. Additional serves of charcuterie are available for $8 but we don't need any more, especially since we're intent on filling our stomachs with cheese.


Salad (unlimited)

Salad is unlimited too. Sure it's only a simple salad of leaves tossed with dressing, but trust me, you'll be relishing a mouthful of greens as a much-needed palate cleanser between all the cheese.


Grilled raclette cheese

"More cheese?" The staff are super keen to keep on plying you with cheese. I'd expected the restaurant to try and discreetly restrict cheese consumption, but the staff on the floor merrily oblige you with as much cheese as you can stomach. Literally.

And there's seriously something so mesmerising about watching the cheese river slide off the half-wheel and cascade onto your plate.


Gooey and golden raclette cheese on potatoes

Glorious cheese. Our table is divided over whether people prefer their raclette all soft and melty or tinged with golden and caramelised edges. I'm all about the latter.


Potatoes and raclette cheese

How much cheese can you eat? It all depends on your greed. And lactose tolerance. I manage five serves of raclette before I have to wave the white flag. And loosen my belt.


Profiterole with ice cream and chocolate sauce

Dessert is included, a profiterole with ice cream and warm chocolate sauce. I wish I could say it's incredible. It isn't. The pastry feels forlorn and the ice cream is low in butterfat.

Not that we needed any more dairy products at this point.



But the raclette is good. And plentiful. And the staff are a friendly bunch too.






Loluk Bistro
2/411 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 7900 6251

Opening hours
Lunch Friday - Saturday 12pm-3pm
Dinner Tuesday to Saturday 6pm-10pm


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Arthur Restaurant, Surry Hills

Ten dishes for $70? Surely this is one of the best value dinner treats in Sydney. Treat yo'self for cheap at Arthur, a small and cosy restaurant in Surry Hills. You'll find it an intimate spot for date night but it's relaxed enough, too, for a special catch-up with friends.



Heading up the kitchen is Tristan Rosier whose cooking pedigree (ex-Biota and Est.) is reflected in his seasonal, local-focussed, plant-friendly cooking. The menu includes a detailed note of thanks to a broad list of suppliers, acknowledging the use of produce from Living Earth Organic Market Farm in the Southern Highlands, native ingredients from Outback Pride, Wollemi Honey from Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains, and fruit and vegetables from Rosier's own mum and Nan's garden.



Ten dishes will arrive in pairs, a five-course meal that the restaurant warns will take about two hours. The duration feels like the ideal compromise, long enough to feel memorable without the oftentime drawn-out arduousness of a 15-course degustation.


Arthur's sourdough with cultured butter

We start with housemade sourdough, deliciously crusty on the outside with a mattressy softness.


Raclette gougere with truffle and honey

Our starter counterpart is a plate of raclette gougeres.



These are far tastier than you first expect, the golden brown choux pastry boosted with aromatic truffle, the nutty cheesiness of raclette and a floral hint of honey.


Scallop with globe artichoke and verjuice

The following three courses pair a protein dish with a vegetable-based one. Raw scallops offer a gentle sweetness against pickled globe artichokes and a sunshine yellow splash of verjuice dressing.


Ricotta with broad beans and brussels sprouts

Ricotta with broad beans belies its understated appearance. The milky creaminess of ricotta works terrifically with tender double-podded broad beans, hidden beneath a forest of charred brussels sprouts leaves. We drag our spoons through the ricotta island, scooping up as much vivid green fennel oil as we can. It's one of my favourite dishes of the night.


Kangaroo with bush tomato and peppers

Course three includes a giant raviolo of kangaroo, the silky pasta draped with roasted red bullhorn peppers and bush tomatoes.


Cabbage, fennel and sorrel

On the side is a thick wedge of cabbage, roasted to a blackened caramelised sweetness, the green quotient bolstered with fennel and lemony sorrel butter.


Spatchcock with cipollini and brassicas

Our final savoury course proffers spatchcock, brined and cooked to an impressive succulency. On the side are candied cipollini onions and a tangle of cavolo nero.


Jerusalem artichoke with macadamia

Roasted Jerusalem artichokes are my other highlight of the evening. They're addictively sweet and nutty, smashed and fried so that obtain a blistered crisp at the edges. And then there's the macadamia sauce, velvety in texture and lush in its nutty richness.


Wattleseed, blood orange and strawberry

A wattleseed parfait provides a palate-cleansing segue into dessert. It's a clever dessert, balancing the creaminess of parfait against the refreshment of blood orange with strawberry and the sweet hit of caramelised white chocolate smithereens.


Chocolate, peach and rhubarb

And while we're relieved there's a chocolate dessert too, this one isn't intense or heavy. There's a deftness of touch that tempers a flourless chocolate cake with peaches and rhubarb. Lashings of cocoa dusted cream hit the satisfaction button.

It's a thoughtful and elegant meal although our only quibble is that our table of three consistently receives a single dish to share the entire evening. That would be fine if the dish - normally designed for two, based on our observation of the next table - was increased proportionately, but many looked to have been left as is. It's a small point, but worth noting if you plan to dine with an odd number of people.








Arthur Restaurant
544 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (0)468 991 088 

Opening hours
Lunch 
Saturday and Sunday 12.30pm (Fridays from 11 Oct)
Dinner 
Wednesday to Sunday 6pm
Wednesday to Saturday 8.30pm


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Alberto's Lounge, Surry Hills

Sydney's favourite restaurant, Hubert, has a baby (Italian) brother. Alberto's Lounge takes over the former Berta site, good news for fans of head chef Dan Pepperell's brief Italian stint at 10 William. Expect a compact menu - all in Italian - offering up simple dishes that up the flavour quotient. That includes regional pasta classics like bucatini all'Amatriciana as well as the hearty comfort of Roman-style tripe.


New bar backdrop 

The compact restaurant space, tucked halfway along a Surry Hills back alley, has been cleverly overhauled into a moody lounge. Gone is the open view into the kitchen. Now there's a wall of spirits reminiscent of Hubert's.


Affettati misti cured meat platter $28, crudo di tonno raw tuna $24,
peppers acqua pazza $22

We start with a bowl of patatine housemade potato crisps ($4) before moving onto entrees. The crudo di tonno is the ideal summer dish, plump chunks of chilli and chive marinated raw tuna brightened with a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Acqua pazza, or crazy water, is a tomato and basil oil usually served with fish. Here it's ladled over red peppers, grilled until soft and tender, and white anchovies.

We have the most fun exploring the affettti misti cured meat platter, a party plate of finely shaved mortadella and prosciutto di parma garnished with ribbons of pickled daikon and crunchy grissini sticks. The piave vecchio is crumbly like parmigiano reggiano but slightly sweet, an Italian cow's milk cheese that has a distinct nuttiness and crystalline texture. The long twists of spiced and dried pork loin are another revelation, like impossibly elegant pork jerky.


Trippa alla Romano $22

Roman-style tripe is one of our meal highlights, the curls of honeycomb tripe cooked until meltingly soft. It's not overly rich or heavy with oil either. This is the kind of dish you could happily eat all to yourself with a slab of crusty bread.


Gnocchi al cacio e pepe $26

The gnocchi is so light on flour it's more like a disc of riced potato than dough. That makes for a feather-light carrier of the silky pecorino sauce, strewn generously with salt and freshly cracked pepper.


Burrata caprese $22

Burrata caprese arrives as a plate of white on white dotted with extra virgin olive oil.


Tomato and basil underneath the burrata caprese

It's not until we peek underneath that we realise there's a huddle of tomato and basil hiding beneath the burrata blanket. The tomato has been deskinned and distilled to a heady intensity of flavour, its umami notes countered by the sweet zing of fresh basil and the creamy milkiness of the burrata cheese.


Paccheri alla Bolognese $26

Paccheri are oversized pasta tubes, here acting as carriages for the meaty rubble of bolognese. It's interesting to note, too, that the sauce is quite removed from the usual tomatoey sweetness we associate with bolognese sauce.


Bucatini all'Amatriciana $26

Bucatini is a marvel, the hollow spaghetti tubes tangled up with guanciale cured pork jowl and freshly shaved parmigiano. The guanciale is on the uncomfortable side of fatty and salty on its own, but eaten in just the right ratio with the bucatini, it makes for a tasty mouthful.


Cotoletta $36

Cotoletta is the Italian version of the schnitzel. Here they add tapioca flour to the batter for a noticeably golden armour to the thin veal fillet. It's a joy to eat, that satisfying crunch of batter against the juicy resistance of tender veal.


Swordfish con sardine $38

And there's much to love about the swordfish with sardines too, a thick wedge of masterfully cooked swordfish draped with sardines, plump raisins and the biggest pine nuts you'll ever see. A liberal amount of lemon zest keeps the sweetness of this dish in check.


Cannoli $8 each

Dessert? We only have eyes for the cannoli. It's a beauty. The cannoli are piped to order so the pastry shell retains its bubbled crunch. The filling is light but creamy, whipped ricotta cheese garnished with candied citrus peel. Go for the tripe, the burrata caprese and the amazing cannoli.



Portions are a touch on the small side for the price, but that hasn't stopped the swathe of Sydneysiders packing the place out every night.




Alberto's Lounge
17-19 Alberta Street, Sydney

Opening hours
Monday to Thursday 5pm-12am
Friday and Saturday 12pm-12am
Sunday 12pm-10pm


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Gogyo Ramen, Surry Hills

Is it ever too hot for ramen? According to the bustling dining room at Gogyo, Sydneysiders say no. Gogyo, the younger wilder sister to international ramen juggernaut Ippudo, opened in Surry Hills in late December 2017. It's the first outlet to open in Australia, joining branches in Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Hong Kong.


Kogashi miso ramen $18

Gogyo's specialty is kogashi-style ramen, a buttery charred broth that requires lard to be heated in a wok to an eyebrow-singing 300 degrees Celsius. We order the kogashi miso ramen, but you can order the kogashi shoyu (soy sauce) variation too.


Kogashi miso with charred miso broth, chicken broth, half umami egg,
pork belly chashu and medium thin noodles

The slick of oil across the surface of the ramen is an indication of its richness. Its smokiness is more on the nutty side, like brown butter pushed to the edge than say, the smokiness you associate with woodfire. There's a mouth-filling buttery richness to the soup, coating each noodle strand with defiance.

Like any self-respecting ramen house, noodles are taken seriously here. Four types of noodle, of varying width and hydrolysis (water content), are matched to specific ramen bowls. That means flat medium-thin noodles with low hydrolysis for the kogashi miso, kogashi shoyu and gogyo tonkotsu; wavy medium noodles with medium hydrolysis for the tori (chicken) shoyu and chilli shoyu; thin soba noodles with medium hydrolysis for the shio (salt) soba and flat medium whole wheat noodles with medium hydrolysis for the veggie soba.


Tonkotsu classic ramen $17
Silky pork broth, half umami egg, bamboo shoots, pork belly chashu and
medium thin noodles

The tonkotsu classic ramen is not to be underestimated either. There's an umami heartiness to this broth, spiced up with a tingle of chilli. The accompaniments - fatty tender slices of pork belly chashu, a gooey boiled egg, pickled bamboo shoots and a generous huddle of chewy noodles - hold their own.


Freshly cooked ramen noodles

It goes without saying that the best seats in this ramen house are at the kitchen counter. It's here that you score a front seat to all the ramen-prepping action, although I was secretly disappointed there was no shaking of ramen basket water all over the floor like they do in Japan. OH&S. Go figure.


Adding ramen fixings

What do you get is a non-stop performance of diligence and precision.


Arranging the pork belly chashu

The kitchen functions like a well-oiled, and quiet, machine.


Cucumber stick $3.50

Before our ramen, we'd started with snacks in the main dining room, where the lighting was much more... romantic. Admittedly I'd scoffed at the idea of a $3.50 cucumber stick, but it turns out to be tastier than I expect. The whole cucumber has been quick pickled so it hasn't lost its crispness, then rolled in sesame seeds for added crunch.


Crackling piggy roll $6

The crackling piggy roll is everything you'd want in a soft and yielding milk bun, with purple cabbage providing a cleansing foil to the sticky slab of pork belly.


Wagyu sukiyaki spring roll $5.50

The wagyu sukiyaki spring roll is another surprise, eating more like a wagyu meat pie with its filling of tender and saucy sliced beef.


Fried rock potato $11

When we finally score a seat at the coveted counter (patience comes to those who wait. And those who keep tabs on exactly which seats are being vacated and when), we continue our snackfest with a order of fried rock potato. Do you love crunchy roast potatoes? You'll love these.

If you can imagine a bowl full of golden potato bits, the kind where the crunch to innards ratio is almost equal, then this could be your dream come true. I know it was for me. And if you're the kind who rejoices in chips with mayo, then the generous puddle of garlic aioli has you sorted.

Codfish saikyo miso $28

We also order the codfish saikyo miso, marinated in sake, mirin and miso before being cooked on the robata grill. The result is a buttery and delicate fillet that flakes apart with the barest of nudges. The flavour is mild miso with a gently caramelised sweetness.


Red bean taiyaki with sobacha ice cream $11

We finish with red bean taiyaki, cute fish pancakes cooked to order in a special taiyaki machine. It's served piping hot in a paper bag just like you'd get at a traditional street stall in Tokyo. You can get a Nutella filling instead but the traditional red bean paste is smooth and not-too-sweet.


Sobacha ice cream

The taiyaki ice cream comes with a scoop of sobacha ice cream on the side. Sobacha means buckwheat tea, its flavour translating to a muted nutty tea flavour. I detect a floral backnote but others say it definitely reminds them of soba noodles.

In any case, Gogyo for the charred ramen. And the fried rock potatoes too. Try the sobacha ice cream for kicks.






Gogyo
52-54 Albion Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9212 0003

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 12pm-3pm, 5.30pm-10pm
Saturday 11.30am-3pm, 5.30pm-10pm
Sunday 11.30am-3pm, 5pm-8.30pm


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