The Kittyhawk, Sydney

Chips are good but homemade crisps are better. Especially when they're a vehicle for creme fraiche, caviar and briny pops of trout roe. It's just one of the snacks at The Kittyhawk, the French restaurant and cocktail bar you've probably walked past a million times and never noticed. Kittyhawk isn't entirely new, having opened in 2016. My interest to visit was piqued when I realised Alex Lynn, former head chef of Casoni, was now rattling the pans here.



Entering Kittyhawk feels like a bit of a strange and awkward maze at first, but keep walking and a second door spits you into a moody dining room. The semi-circular banquettes are where you want to be - cushioned and cosy comfort for the entire table. The dimly lit room is filled with prints, dark toned timbers and empty liquor bottles.

What I do love is the menu, a terrific range of dishes that can easily accommodate your table's collective appetite. Because you can order throughout the night, too, it means our late-running friend, doesn't miss out either.


Sardines, pickled lemon, aioli and toast $19

We kick off with Ortiz sardines, the saltiness of these prime fillets offset with pickled lemon slices pickled fennel and a dollop of aioli. The charred toast offers a pleasing smokiness.


 Trout roe with crispy potato $14

The trout roe with crispy potato is ridiculously addictive, like the fanciest chip and dip you and your boujee friends could possibly imagine.


Trout roe and caviar on crispy potato

Slather generously and savour that creamy lusciousness against carby crunch. Bliss.


Steak tartare with horseradish $20 

Housemade crisps also arrive with our steak tartare, seasoned with just enough cornichon to make me sigh with relief. Could I just have all my meals served on potato crisps please?


Bone marrow, parsley and black garlic toast $17

Ordering bone marrow on any menu is usually a no-brainer for me. This one is cooked to perfection, the trench of marrow wobbly with fattiness but still whole, slicked with a parsley sauce in forest green. The black garlic toast on the side reminds me of Vegemite toast, but truth be told, I end up preferring to eat these components separately so I can appreciate each of them on their own and unadulterated.


Boudin noir with French toast $16 

Boudin noir blood sausage arrives as crisp slices on top of rafts of French toast. Melted cheese adds a extra layer of decadence, the whole shebang crowned with petals of pickled onion.

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Gruyere cheese donuts $8 for 2 pieces

And because Chef Lynn has realised I'm dining tonight (I'd sent him a direct message on Instagram to reserve an order of scarlet prawns), we're sent out a round of gruyere cheese donuts from the kitchen.


Inside the gruyere cheese donut

If you love cheese, you'll love these donuts, elongated footballs of cheesy sophistication.



Let's not forget the drinks list either, a comprehensive menu that includes a depth of rum and cocktails like lean in all different directions. The Ledo Road with pandan leaf, lime juice, pandan syrup, toasted coconut milk and Bacardi has my name all over it.


Gnocchi Parisienne with mushroom fricasse and asparagus $27 

We finish up with larger dishes, including the gnocchi Parisienne. This French take on gnocchi is potato-less, instead using choux pastry that is boiled and then pan-fried. It makes for a starchier and slightly chewier mouthfeel, the golden-seared pillows served with a deeply rich and savoury mushroom fricasse. Crisp asparagus spears provide much appreciated freshness and crunch.


Scarlet prawn tagliatelle with prawn bisque $38 

And of course we have to have to the scarlet prawn tagliatelle. These are huge portions, each one easily shared between two. The scarlet prawns themselves are enormous, cooked so the flesh is still soft and sweet. The highlight is in the prawn head of course, a bonanza of prawn intensity that deserves to be licked, scraped and sucked with enthusiastic abandon.


Rum baba brioche cake with rum and creme patissiere $14 

Dessert is a classic rum baba, theatrically set on fire at the table. Once the blue flame subsides, you're left with a boozy brioche laced with rum, best eaten with a good spoonful of creme patissiere.


Creme caramel with miso caramel

And because it was my birthday, the kitchen sends out a complimentary dessert: creme caramel with miso caramel on the side. It takes us a while to work out the flavour of the caramel on the side - later verified with Chef Lynn - its savoury saltiness adds nuance and complexity to this traditional French dessert.

All up, good food and good fun. And if you enjoy live music, swing by on Thursday nights when blues-rock band Cass Greaves and the Ragin Cajuns perform.






Kittyhawk
16 Phillip Lane, Sydney
Tel: 0455 041 172

Opening hours
Tuesday to Saturday 4pm-12am


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Crescent Ramen Bar, Sydney

Japanese hostess bar or ramen noodle house? Why not both? Club Crescent's evening gentlemen's club turns into a ramen house by day  - surely a stroke of commercial genius. We bet you've walked past this basement bar and never noticed it before, a discreet set of stairs between the Hilton Hotel and the old Gowings building opposite the QVB. Now it's one of the most talked about ramen joints on Instagram.


Crescent Ramen lounge area

Club Crescent still operates as a Japanese hostess bar, kicking in at 9pm each night. That explains the bar area set-up with numerous lounge chairs and low-set tables for drinks. A couple of private rooms with oversized lounges look a little worn and tired. They're also devoid of tables. It's worth arriving early to score one of the counter seats around the L-shaped bar.


Monthly ramen specials

The menu includes seven varieties of ramen with two monthly specials. You'll need to order and pay upfront at the bar. There's a 50 cent discount if you pay by cash. Take your numbered order holder back to your table and staff will deliver your ramen with surprising efficiency.


Miso chicken and pork stock ramen $16.50

The standard ramen base here uses a mixed of both chicken and pork stock. The resultant hybrid is a pleasing and flavoursome broth, the rich chicken stock emboldened with an undertone of porky unctuousness.

Order the miso ramen and the soup takes on a more savoury and earthy nuance. A good sprinkle of sesame seeds add a toasty nuttiness.The standard noodles served are thick and chewy, the ideal width for carrying the weightier soup. A handful of bean sprouts provide a palate-cleansing crunch.


Bonito chicken and pork stock ramen $16.50

Bonito ramen means a third protein added to the stock, enhancing the flavour profile with a smoky umami accent. Chef Tsuyoshi Shishido appears to acknowledge its weightiness by adding a good handful of raw sweet onions to the mix.


Spicy salt yuzu ramen $15.50

Spicy salt yuzu ramen is a monthly special I can't resist. It's not noticeably zingy with yuzu citrus, but there's definitely a good whack of chilli. It's also one of the few ramen bowls to be served with a sail of nori seaweed (salt shrimp ramen, anchovy ramen and the tsukemen dipping noodles are the others).


Gooey yolked ajitama seasoned boiled egg

The noodles are cooked to the right amount of chewiness, and the pork is tender and fatty but it's the ajitama seasoned egg that steals the show. One bite and the yolk threatens to spill forth like a river of sunshine.

Crescent Ramen is still officially a pop-up but they have extended their original Monday to Friday lunch trading hours to include Saturday lunch and early. They'll be open from 12pm to 8pm on Saturdays. At 9pm it switches back to Club Crescent mode. Ahem.


Entrance to Crescent Ramen Bar on George Street




Crescent Ramen Bar
Basement 468-472 George St, Sydney
Tel: +61 (020

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 11.30am-2.30pm (last order 2pm)
Sat 12pm-8pm (last order 7.30pm)
Closed Sunday


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Esquire Drink + Dine, QVB, Sydney

So you've met Reign at the QVB. Esquire is her brother. And you couldn't find two restaurants with greater contrast. Where Reign is light and airy and all things pretty, Esquire is determinedly dark and moody with an aesthetic more geared to practical comfort. It'd be sexist to assume that Reign is marketed to women; Esquire to men. I do know that I take one look at the Esquire menu and feel right at home.



The food menu is listing on a single black page, neatly compartmentalised into bar fare, small plates, larger plates, the grill and sides. The drinks menu is a weightier tome. Unlike the champagne parlour that is Reign, Esquire is all about whisky (there are more than 180 varieties) and wines (about 200).


Seared steak tartare $21

We can't resist ordering the steak tartare, even if we are a little nervous about the preceding "seared" on the menu. Thankfully it's not as cooked as we feared. The hand-cut beef tenderloin is pale pink and soft, a fresh contrast against earthy cubes of roasted beetroot and rich egg yolk. Finely chopped eschallots, cornichons and fresh horseradish add brightness; pommes gaufrettes provide the requisite crunch.


Crumbed sweetbreads $22

Crumbed sweetbreads should appear on more menus. Here, the waiter explains, they use pancreas instead of the usual thymus gland, cooked with expertise so each mouthful offers a yielding lushness protected by golden deep-fried armour. Lemon, cauliflower, smashed hazelnuts and nutty brown butter add roundness and complexity.


Esquire dining room and bar


250g Riverina Angus sirloin steak $43

Protein options include pork jowl schnitzel ($32), blue eye cod ($39) and a whole roast chicken for two ($75 served over two courses as chicken salad and then with potato gratin). We're all about steaks though, ordering three steaks between the four of us.

The steaks are just that. A hunk of seared meat on the plate served with a cheek of lemon and your choice of sauce (bearnaise, red wine, mustards or peppercorn).


350g pasture-fed Pinnacle scotch fillet steak $46

The sirloin steak is good but the scotch fillet is better, a little juicier overall with succulent pockets of delicious fat.


250g Grainge signature MB3+ rump cap steak $44

My rump cap steak, from Grainge Black Angus cattle, isn't as tender as I expect although it has been cooked to more of a medium than medium rare at one end.

If you're in serious need of an iron boost, you can order the 800g T-bone steak for $90.


Glazed carrots with miso, sesame and maple $12

We accompany our steak with carrots (the new cauliflower?), glazed with miso and sweetened to an almost dessert-like intensity with lashings of maple syrup.


Potato puree $10

The little pot of potato puree is decadently good, like a Paris mash you want to savour slowly.


Gruyere de comte jaffle with fries and pickle $20

Bar snacks include the classic wagyu cheeseburger ($26) and jaffles. You can order your favourite after school snack fancied up with ham and aged clothbound cheddar but it's hard to go past the cheesy satisfaction of gruyere and comte. The molten cheese stretches like a long hot summer afternoon.









Esquire Drink + Dine
Queen Victoria Building
Level 2, Shop 1 (Market Street end)
455 George Street, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8023 7609

Opening hours
Monday to Wednesday 12pm-12am
Thursday to Sunday 12pm-2am


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Reign at the QVB

Reign at the QVB, Sydney

Remember the ABC shop in the QVB? It's now Reign, a glam and gleaming champagne parlour (yes, a parlour, darling) decked out in Insta-friendly tones of gold, dusty pink and marble. You would never know that the bar was once a display area for Dr Who, Bananas in Pyjamas and Wiggles DVDs.



The Reign concept provides cocktails, wines and nibbles in a luxe and decidedly feminine setting. The emphasis on walk-ins (reservations are only available for groups of five or more) seems like a clever way to easily accommodate city shoppers. Its late night trading hours (until 2am Thursday to Sunday) are worth remembering.


Champagne Districts tasting flight $75
NV Pierre Gimonnet Blanc de Blancs Cuvee Cuis, NV Nathalie Falmet Brut Cuvee,
NV Laurent-Perrier La Cuvee Brut, NV GH Mumm Grand Cordon Brut Cuvee

Bubbles include sparkling wines and champagnes by the glass. Otherwise you can go all out with a tasting flight that includes thorough tasting notes ($55 for sparkling, $75 for champagne).

The food menu varies depending on whether you're dining at brunch, lunch or supper. A dedicated nibbles menu - which includes an eclectic mix of meatball sliders, wagyu beef dumplings and an okonomiyaki burger - applies at all other times.


Bacon and egg roll, kipfler potato, scarmoza, watercress pesto and bbq sauce $21

We dine at brunch, when offerings are as light as bircher museli or as heavy as pork fried rice with king brown mushrooms. The bacon and egg roll at $21 seems a tad steep at first, but the huge hunks of deep fried kipfler potato add a heavy hit of carb-loading satisfaction.


Smoked salmon, creme fraiche, salmon roe and pikelets $24

Far more dainty is the smoked salmon with pikelets. There's been some obvious effort with plating but it feels somewhat forced, especially with the salmon rolls that are tightly compressed and a touch too chilled making it difficult to appreciate its flavour. We could do with a lot more creme fraiche too, but otherwise enjoy making little salmon and pikelet sandwiches. The table is divided over the relevance of lemon jam with this dish - I end up using this on my crumpets instead.


House crumpets, cultured butter and preserves $12

I'd only expected two crumpets for $12, so am pleasantly surprised when three arrive. They're thick and soft although a little on the stodgy side of spongy. Accompaniments include butter and raspberry which doesn't help when I immediately get a craving for honey and butter instead. Surely every crumpet desires to be drowned in honey? It's like Vita Wheat needing Vegemite. Pavlov effect indeed.

The food offerings may be a little patchy but I expect that won't deter its target audience. And there's much to be said for a spacious bar with comfortable seating and great views in the Sydney CBD.






Reign at the QVB
Queen Victoria Building 
Level 1, Shop 48 (Druitt Street end)
55 George Street, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8023 7608

Opening hours
Monday to Wednesday 11am-12am
Thursday to Friday 11am-2am
Saturday to Sunday 10am-2am


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All you can eat crab and prawn buffet at Mojo Restaurant, Sydney

It's back. And bigger than ever. Last year's all-you-can-eat crab buffet has expanded to include prawns as well. That means menu choice has more than doubled from ten to 22 dishes. It's in a new venue too, running upstairs at Mojo Restaurant, on the former site of Scruffy Murphy's (RIP). Did we eat our money's worth? You bet we did.


All you can eat prawn and crab menu $49.90

The new prawn and crab buffet means a price hike from $39.90 to $49.90, but to be honest, we're not complaining. It's still incredible value given the quality of food provided.

The set-up remains the same. Your table has 90 minutes to order as much as it can eat from the special buffet menu. Each dish is cooked to order, and yes, you'll be expected to eat everything or risk being charged a penalty fee for food waste.


Som tum prawn papaya salad, Thai-style

We kick off with som tum papaya salad. You'll be asked whether you want it Thai-style (clear with fish sauce) or Lao-style (darker brown with salted crabs). They'll also ask what level heat you're after - remember they're talking on a Thai scale. We asked for mild and it still tasted pretty fiery.


Som tum crab papaya salad, Lao-style

The som tum crab only comes in Lao style. Here you get to relish the salty fishy pungency of salted crab.

My biggest tip? Bring your own gloves. I'm not joking. Sure you may feel like a fool packing them into your handbag, but you'll be having the last laugh as you rip apart those crab legs with unbridled glee. And trust me, you are going to get messy.


Raw prawns with chilli sauce

Raw seafood is one of my favourite indulgences. Its glassy sheen yields a silky sweetness that is immediately lost upon cooking. And if you're worried about freshness, you shouldn't be. You should know straight away if a raw prawn is less than fresh, both in taste and texture. Here the raw prawns are simply peeled and dressed with a pounded chilli sauce, raw garlic slices and raw bitter melon.


Goi goong raw prawn spicy salad

If you like larb, you'll like goi goong, raw prawns marinated in the same fish sauce and roasted rice dressing you find on chicken or pork larb. Again it's hotter than we expect, but that doesn't stop me wiping the sweat off my brow and going in for more.


Blue swimmer crab omelette

Too hot in here? You'll want to load up on the crab omelette. The pockets of blue swimmer crab flesh are a little hard to find, but we appreciate the hit of protein anyway, especially as this is one of the few dishes that don't require crab extraction.


Steamed blue swimmer crab

Steamed blue swimmer crab is also ideal for those who prefer their chilli sauce on the side. There's a fair amount of meat in the claws. Make sure you share those crab crackers around.


Raw blue swimmer crab

I'm all over the raw blue swimmer crab though. There's something amazing about pulling the meat out from the claw and admiring its blue and uncooked hue.


Grilled king prawns

Grilled king prawns are a crowd pleaser, aromatic as it hits the table and easy for everyone to peel.


Prawn tom yum goong

We hoe into the tom yum goong soup with prawn...


Pad thai with king prawns

and decimate the pad thai with king prawns. This is a dish you'd happily eat on its own, with noodles that are sauced to expert sufficiency, without heading into soggy territory.


Prawn tom yum noodle soup

And if you didn't know the Doo Dee Paidang crew are behind this joint, you'll immediately realise it upon first taste of the tom yum noodle soup. It's got all the spicy, sour, salty and sweet addiction of your cheap eat favourite, upsized of course.

Picture a bowl that'll feed four people, and you've got some idea of how huge this serve will be.


Crab fried rice

The crab fried rice isn't as good as the one we had at Yok Sod but it's still tasty enough for us to order a second plate. Did I mention you should come in a group? I just did. We had a table of 11 adults that enabled us to eat through most of the menu. Go as a table of at least four people so you can plow through a variety of dishes.


Stir fried prawns with black pepper sauce

The fried rice comes in handy to soak up the black pepper sauce surrounding the stir-fried prawns. You'll probably appreciate the handful of green beans in this dish too.


Prawns in curry sauce

The curry sauce prawns is one of the richer dishes, a dish that's like curried scrambled eggs colliding with prawns.


Blue swimmer crabs in curry sauce

Curry sauce crab is even messier. You'll be licking that curry sauce off every crevice of that carapace.


All you can eat crab and prawn feast

Between eleven of us we managed to polish off 29 dishes. That's an average of 3.8 dishes per person. We haven't lost our buffet mojo.






Mojo Bar & Restaurant
43-49 Goulburn Street, Haymarket, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9211 2002

Open daily 10am-2am

The all you can eat crab and prawn buffet runs for the duration of crab season. Staff have indicated the buffet should run until the end of April 2019 at least, but call ahead to check. Bookings are essential. 


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