Jimmy's Recipe, Sydney

Assam laska $7.90
Round rice noodles served with sliced cucumber, pineapple,
red onion, sardine fish and boiled egg in a tropical Malaysian
sour soup boiled with tamarind skin, pineapple and fish

There's always a queue at Jimmy's, but we arrive early at The Galeries Victoria for a weekday lunch. I'd heard good things about their murtabak--a roti crepe rolled up with meat curry and egg--but on this day we feel like rice and noodles.

The assam laksa has plenty of pineapple and cucumber but compared to the dark and pungent broth at Malay Chinese Takeaway, this version is much sweeter and milder with less of the characteristic fishy resonance of mackerel.


Har mee $7.90
Noodles in chilli prawn soup served with prawn, chicken,
fish cake, boiled egg and vegetables

The har mee prawn noodle soup is also pale and subdued in comparison to the one served at Malay Chinese. It's not particularly strong with the flavour of prawn shells, but on the plus side, as least the post-lunch breath isn't as bad either.


Nasi lemak with chicken curry $7.90
Rice cooked in coconut cream and screw pine leaves served with
ikan billis (chilli anchovies), cucumber, boiled egg,
peanuts, Malaysian pickled vegetables
and a choice of either chicken or lamb curry or beef rendang

Nasi lemak is served in a bright blue melamine plate complete with handy partions. The coconut rice is rich and fragrant, and the chicken curry is tender. I enjoy the crunch of the pickled vegetables and the sambal has a moderate heat. It doesn't feel quite right having nasi lemak with loose rice (usually it's packed into a bowl then upturned on your plate so it resembles a dome) but the fried shallots add an interesting texture.

Prices are competitive for this end of town and service is fast if cursory. Jimmy's also serve roti, laksa, murtabak, satay chicken and Ipoh hor fun.



Jimmy's Recipe
The Galeries Victoria
RG16, Ground floor
500 George Street, Sydney
(best approached from Pitt Street, next to the Arthouse Bar)
Tel: +61 (02) 9267 288

Monday to Friday 9.00am-6.00pm
Thursday 9.00am-9.00pm
Saturday and Sunday 9.00am-3.00pm

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Malay Chinese Takeaway (assam laska), Sydney, April 2007
Malay Chinese Takeaway (har mee), Sydney, April 2007

Cafe Kasturi, Haymarket
Kopitiam Malaysian Cafe, Ultimo, April 2007
Kopitiam Malaysian Cafe, Ultimo, April 2006
Malay Chinese Takeaway, Sydney, April 3, 2007
The Malaya, Sydney
Tan's Malaysian, Ultimo

Chocolateria San Churro, Glebe

San Churro hot chocolate

Okay so I've been meaning to get to San Churro for weeks now, the Victorian franchise that opened up its first Sydney branch in Glebe over a month ago.

Chocolate con churros bring together perhaps the two greatest things in this life: melted chocolate and freshly made donuts. As Homer would say, anghhhhhhhhhhhhhkkkkkk.


San Churro Truffles $1.95 each

It's a warm and cosy cafe that greets you, plenty of dark wood, a splash of tangerine on one wall and a Spanish arch that leads to an alcove of tables. At the front are shelves laden with shiny cellophane bags containing chocolate buds, cocoa powder and gift packs containing t-shirts. But the eye is more likely to be drawn to the display cabinet of chocolate cakes and pastries, the sliding drawer of truffles that resemble fine jewellery, or the huge vat of oil into which lengths of churros may be sizzling and crisping to a golden bliss.

The hot chocolate is extremely thick, the texture of thickening custard, and served at a very hot temperature. Both its density and its heat mean the use of a spoon is somewhat necessary.

We sample four different truffles, containing absinthe, peanut butter, balsamic vinegar and chilli. It's hard to detect the absinthe, but the peanut butter is smooth and creamy, the balsamic has a nuance of raspberries, and the chilli truffle is both flavoured and dusted with tongue-tingling chilli powder.


Churros kids serve $3.95

But it's the churros that is the main attraction and they are indeed the highlight. I'm childishly pleased with the kids serve ($3.95), two churros that come with your choice of melted chocolate (I chose dark over milk and white) and even better, a little pot of hundreds and thousands as well.

The churros are warm and crispy, the golden corrugations perfect vessels for holding lashings of sweet melted chocolate. The rainbow of hundred and thousands make for a total sugar overload, but it's such a cheerful juvenile indulgency that I can't resist... over and over again. The adult version ($7.95) comes with four churros but really, being a kid is much more fun.


Chocolateria San Churro
47 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9692 0119

Open 7 days 9am-11pm
(Friday and Saturday til midnight)


Related GrabYourFork posts:
Churros at Miro Tapas Bar, December 2006 and August 2004
Chocolate con churros recipe

Oscars, Pyrmont

Salt and pepper squid $15.00
Tender squid battered in a salt and pepper coating
with mixed leaves, tomato and spanish onion
with a zingy chilli and lime dressing

With tickets to Miss Saigon on a Friday night, we met up for an early dinner at Oscars on Union Street, only a short stroll from the casino.

We shared a plate of salt and pepper squid between four as an entree; it's actually listed as a main and we felt sorry for anyone who expected to fill up on eight morsels of squid. As a light starter it worked well, even if the squid did look like it had been pre-battered and frozen. The squid was tender and light but I was looking for a little more salt and a lot more pepper.


Premium 400gm ribeye on the bone $30.00
with mushroom sauce

All four of us ordered the premium ribeye, 400 grams of beef 'n' bone served with your choice of sauce (pepper, mushroom, bearnaise or red wine jus) and either salad, chips or baby broccolini with garlic oil. We all took the calorific low ground and opted for chips.


Premium 400gm ribeye on the bone $30
with prawns sauteed in garlic butter $3 surcharge
with red wine jus

Bellboy opted for the optional prawns in garlic butter, five glistening prawns perched on top of his steak.


Premium 400gm ribeye on the bone $30.00
with red wine jus

Veruca and I ordered exactly the same: chips, medium rare, with red wine jus. Charred to perfection, we were, however, both similarly distraught at our chips buried beneath the steak, getting soggier every minute in the puddle of jus. Chips on the side! Chips on the side! I was quietly screaming inside.

Good thing the steak made up for it. The thick slab of meat was cooked to a bloodless dark pink and rested well. Most the fat had been rendered out, caramelising the remains to a smoky sweetness. Chewing was minimal , the meat sliding down the throat with the greatest of ease.

The bone at the end was the ultimate prize, nibbled and gnawed on until quite clean.




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Oscars
84 Union Street, Pyrmont, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9660 5933

Monday - Saturday: Midday til late
Sunday: Midday til 10pm

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Oscars, October 2006
and its sister restaurant Southern Cross Hotel, St Peters

Pyrmont - Astral
Pyrmont - Little Snail
Pyrmont - Sydney Fish Markets
Pyrmont -Viva Goa
Pyrmont -Yots

Passion Ate

Food blogs are borne of passion.

From that first quivering post, a nervous food blogger soon becomes helplessly addicted. Within weeks they are documenting their every meal, excitedly recounting their experiences and studiously contributing to a growing pool of local knowledge and loyal readers.

Passions ebb and wane however, and whilst many food blogs peter out, just as many soldier on. I've been lucky that whenever I feel the energy start to flag, something unexpected happens that puts a smile on my face and some urgency back into my sometimes tired fingers.

I'd been in the midst of a lull until I received an email from Masako of Kei's Kitchen today, alerting me to an article she'd written on her website. Apparently many of the students enrolled in her kaiseki cooking class had mentioned Grab Your Fork, having seen the account of my own experience. This led her to exploring the site and so impressed was she that she's written a wonderful review of this very site.

It's certainly made my day (or week, or month, or year perhaps!) and her detailed observations articulate why so many people do enjoy food blogs. The sentiments of her piece tie in nicely with Ed's latest post on traditional media vs food bloggers too.

And whilst I am very appreciative of the comments, feedback and media exposure that this site has received over the years, I urge you, reader, to leave a comment on all those blogs you frequent and enjoy. A little encouragement goes a long way and you may just make someone else's day.

EDIT 12:41am 25/10/07: About ten minutes after I hit "publish" and headed out the door I realised I had forgotten to thank you, dear reader, and all the comments you have contributed over the years. I have my wonderful regular readers and I'm also grateful to the passersby who happen upon a post and leave a brief message, feedback or information update. So thank you. Now pass it on :)

Iron Chef, Cabramatta

Roast duck deboned and topped with minced taro in a light batter $26.80

As much as I'd love to attend the Iron Chef dinner at the Observatory Hotel, the $495 per person price tag is a little beyond my budget, even if it does feature two Iron Chefs.

Instead we head to Iron Chef. There is no Chen Kenichi, no Hiroyuki Sakai, but on 25% dinner discount Tuesday, Iron Chef is packed with patrons who are seeking their own Allez Cuisine!


Complimentary house soup

The house soup is a clear pork broth that includes a sole corn cob dispensed to one lucky person.

The roast duck coated in taro arrives first and is my favourite dish for the evening. The duck fillet is plump and juicy, encased in a starchy cushion of taro mash, then battered and deep-fried. It's a rich dish that is helped along with spoonfuls of oyster sauce gravy and its bed of finely shredded cabbage. It reminds me a little of woo gok, those footballs of deep-fried taro filled with saucy pork mince served at yum cha.


Stewed beef tendon and beef brisket $20.80
with turnip in a traditional bean sauce

Stewed beef tendon and beef brisket is hearty, chunks of gelatinous beef canoodling with cubes of soft daikon in a sweet bean sauce.


Blanched gai lan Chinese broccoli garnished with oyster sauce $16.80

Most tables seem to be opting for the four Chinese vegetables steamed in a bamboo basket ($20.80) but we stick with a simple serve of gai lan that is crisp and crunchy.

It's hard not to notice the constant procession of peking duck orders that trundle past our table - I count seven at least, whole ducks carved at the table, their skins rolled up in paper-thin pancakes by waiters clad in rubber gloves, adding cucumber, shallot and a daub of hoi sin sauce.

Twelve fish tanks out the front are also trawled by unrelenting customers, buckets of flapping fish and crawling lobsters extracted to meet their fate.

The restaurant is busy but we find service a little distracted despite the army of floor staff. We do enjoy our house desserts though: a plate of watermelon and fresh oranges and, after some pointed prodding, bowls of sweet red bean soup flavoured with mandarin.

A surprisingly swish restaurant (high-backed dark wooden chairs, small solid tables, a barbecue prep area lined with calligraphy-cutout wood panelling and flood-lit bamboo installation) in the heart of Cabramatta.

Next time I'm definitely ordering the peking duck.


Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant
84 Broomfield Street, Cabramatta, Sydney
(opposite Cabramatta railway station)
Tel: +61 (02) 9723 6228

Lunch
Monday to Friday 10.00am-3.00pm
Saturday to Sunday 9.00am-3.30pm

Dinner
Monday to Friday 5.30pm-10.30pm
Saturday to Sunday 5.30pm-11.00pm

Current promotions (as at October 2007)
25% discount on Tuesday nights (excludes drinks)
50% discount off mud crab market price on Thursday nights
Please phone the restaurant directly to check validity

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Cabramatta--Duc Thanh
Cabramatta--Hung Vuong
Cabramatta--Thanh Binh

Chinese--Crystal Seafood
Chinese--East Ocean
Chinese--Friendship Oriental
Chinese--Golden Century
Chinese--Hung Cheung

Golden Century, Haymarket Chinatown

It's midnight at Golden Century and the place is packed. Sure they've closed down access to the second floor, but the first level is still teeming with diners feasting on siu ye, a Hong Kong tradition of late night snacking.

Friends, couples, businessmen and families chatter amidst the click-clack of chopsticks and the occasional spin of the lazy susan. We spot not one, but two whole lobster sashimi being served, a envy-inducing spectacle that is hard to miss, arriving on a huge platter in a dramatic shroud of dry ice mist.


Congee rice porridge with cod fillet $10.50

Siu ye is more often than not all about congee, a thick rice porridge that is usually eaten for breakfast. We order a bowl to share, warm spoonfuls of boiled down rice flavoured with pork broth and filled at the bottom with thick tender chunks of cod.


You tiao (yao char gai) fried bread $3.00

Because congee is pretty much fat-free, there's not excuse not to order a plate of you tiao, Light and crispy, I love eating these airy fried bread batons dunked briefly in congee, giving a perfect contrast between dry and wet, soggy and crispy, white and golden, tasty and tastier.


Salt and pepper squid and white bait $18.80

Salt and pepper squid is always welcomed. We order a combination plate which comes with white bait. The squid is a little chewy, but the white bait is wonderfully delicate. I would have preferred a little more crushed Szechuan peppercorns, but this doesn't stop the happy scrabble of chopsticks toward this dish.


Fried noodles $16.00

There's a minimum order of $9 per person after 10pm at Golden Century, so we continue the feast with a platter of fried noodles. A crunchy nest of deep-fried noodles is lubricated by a saucy mix of pork, long yellow onions and fresh bean sprouts.


Gai lan chinese broccoli $13.80

A plate of gai lan chinese broccoli, bright green with freshness, provides all the vitamins your mother could hope for. The stalks are crisp and crunchy, although somewhat potent with liberal use of fresh garlic.


Complimentary fruit and sweets

Complimentary house desserts include cold wedges of super-sweet navel oranges and a plate of sugar biscuits and pastries dusted with icing-sugar.

We'd done well. Dinner at 6pm, a Sugar Hit at 9pm, another Sugar Hit at 10.45pm, and then a round of siu ye to round off the night. Oh yes, all four posts took place on the same Saturday evening.

Gluttons? Guilty as charged.

Would I do it again? Absolutely.




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Golden Century Seafood Restaurant
393-399 Sussex Street, Haymarket, Chinatown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9212 3901

Open 7 days, 12pm-4am

Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Golden Century (Jan 10), (Oct 07), (Nov 06), (Oct 05) and (Jul 04)

Good Food Month Sugar Hit: Westin Sydney

Seasonal berries in aloe vera jelly
with citrus curd and pineapple mousse

Even though our first Sugar Hit was still pumping through our digestive system, we indulged in another, heading to the Lobby Lounge at the Westin in the grand old post office building at Martin Place.We arrived unannounced at 10.45pm and after a quick check with the kitchen, staff were happy to seat us for another hit of sweeeeet sweeeeet sugar.

Arriving in elegant bent stem martini glasses, we were all pleasantly surprised by the deliciousness of this dessert. Our spoons dug through the soft igloo of pineapple mousse and into a cool pond of aloe vera jelly set with fresh blueberries and strawberries. A runny citrus curd puddled its way on top adding extra tang.

I found that fingers were necessary to eat the garnish of fried vermicelli noodle on top, as well as the shortbread biscuit resting between the mousse and the jelly, a thick shortbread disc that was rich and buttery. Each bite of the shortbread snapped with authority, before disintegrating into buttery crumbs.

A surprise hit of the evening.

Sugar Hit at the Westin Sydney
Lobby Lounge
1 Martin Place, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8223 1111

Available: Every night in October from 9pm-11pm

Cost: $20
Includes a dessert plate
and a glass of Hennessy Cognac or Brown Brothers Orange Muscat and Flora
or tea/coffee/soft drink

More Sugar Hits available here


Related GrabYourFork posts:
GFM 2007: Sugar Hit #3 at the Westin Sydney
GFM 2007: Sugar Hit #2 at the Sofitel Wentworth
GFM 2007: Sugar Hit #1 at the InterContinental Sydney

GFM 2006: Good Living Growers' Markets
GFM 2006: Hats Off dinner at Becasse
GFM 2006: Night Noodle Markets Week 3
GFM 2006: Night Noodle Markets Week 2
GFM 2006: Night Noodle Markets Week 1
GFM 2006: Spring Picnic
GFM 2006: Sugar Hit #4 at the Sofitel Wentworth
GFM 2006: Sugar Hit #3 at the Intercontinental Sydney
GFM 2006: Sugar Hit #2 at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney
GFM 2006: Sugar Hit #1 at the Park Hyatt Sydney
GFM 2006: Sydney Food & Wine Fair

GFM 2005: Good Living Growers' Markets
GFM 2005: Night Noodle Markets
GFM 2005: Spring Picnic
GFM 2005: Sydney Farmers' Market
GFM 2005: Sydney Food & Wine Fair

GFM 2004: Twilight Trail: Cocktails and Sugar Hits

Good Food Month Sugar Hit: Sofitel Wentworth

Lenôtre Opéra
Chocolate pastry with layers of almond biscuit,
decadent chocolate ganache with coffee butter cream
and topped with gold leaf

Our second Sugar Hit for 2007 took place at the Sofitel Lounge, home of the Lenotre-trained Mark Stone and host to arguably the most decadent high tea in Sydney.

Bookings are essential for this Sugar Hit; apparently only a limited number of desserts are prepared according to the number of bookings per evening.

The Lenotre Opera is deceivingly rich, its layers of coffee butter cream thicker than I remembered. Luckily for me I can check the photo from my last visit, and indeed this portion has a lot more cream and a lot less almond biscuit layer by ratio.

This leaves me feeling the effects of the cream, but still strangely hungry for more. I scrape at the chocolate swirls until the plate is clean.


Sugar Hit at the Sofitel Lounge, Sofitel Wentworth
61-101 Phillip Street, Sydney First floor bar
Tel: +61 (02) 9228 9157

Available: Every night in October from 9pm-11pm

Cost: $20
Includes a dessert plate
and a glass of Hennessy Cognac or tea/coffee/soft drink
Bookings essential

More Sugar Hits available here


Related GrabYourFork posts:
GFM 2007: Sugar Hit #2 at the Sofitel Wentworth
GFM 2007: Sugar Hit #1 at the InterContinental Sydney

GFM 2006: Good Living Growers' Markets
GFM 2006: Hats Off dinner at Becasse
GFM 2006: Night Noodle Markets Week 3
GFM 2006: Night Noodle Markets Week 2
GFM 2006: Night Noodle Markets Week 1
GFM 2006: Spring Picnic
GFM 2006: Sugar Hit #4 at the Sofitel Wentworth
GFM 2006: Sugar Hit #3 at the Intercontinental Sydney
GFM 2006: Sugar Hit #2 at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney
GFM 2006: Sugar Hit #1 at the Park Hyatt Sydney
GFM 2006: Sydney Food & Wine Fair

GFM 2005: Good Living Growers' Markets
GFM 2005: Night Noodle Markets
GFM 2005: Spring Picnic
GFM 2005: Sydney Farmers' Market
GFM 2005: Sydney Food & Wine Fair

GFM 2004: Twilight Trail: Cocktails and Sugar Hits

Mamak, Haymarket Chinatown

Teh ais $3
Iced milk tea

Mamak is a cheerful splash of red on Goulburn Street, a slick and stylish eatery that is filled with Malaysian students on a Saturday night in Sydney. Mamak refers to the cuisine of the Tamil Muslims of Malaysia, whose 24-hour snack stalls usually include flaky rounds of roti, meat-filled murtabak, nasi lemak and mee goreng.


Kari ikan $12.00
Tangy fish curry cooked with fresh tomatoes, okra and eggplant

There are no bookings taken here, but our group of eight manage to grab a table just after 6pm. Throughout the evening we note the constant queue of people out the door.

The staff are all smartly dressed in black t-shirts and pants; the wooden tables are shiny with laquer. It's a happy bustle of people tonight, groups of students, clusters of friends and the occasional family sharing a meal, the children meekly perching on the edge of their stool.

Our drinks mainly comprise of teh tariks, the Malaysian sweet tea aerated by pouring from a great height from glass to glass. I order the teh halia ($3.00) which promises a hint of ginger. It's refreshing and sweet although I wish the ginger had a bit more kick.

Kari ikan fish curry arrives in a generous-sized portion that is instantly aromatic. Chunks of fish are soft and tender, the curry is sweet, salty and a tad sour. The thick tangy sauce is delicious on rice ($2 per person).


Sambal udang $14
Stir-fried tiger prawns with fiery sambal sauce

The sambal udang prawns look a little naked on the plate (a bit of greenery required perhaps?) but they are reasonably plump and smothered in sambal. The sambal is more a warm hum than the promised fire, but I take delight in scraping the remainder of the sauce on my rice regardless.


Sambal sotong $14.00
Stir-fried calamari with fiery sambal sauce

We also order the sambal sotong, strips of calamari that are surpisingly crunchy, as if they'd been dried and rehydrated.


Beef and chicken satay sticks $10.00

The satay sticks are swooped on by the crowd, thin strips of beef and chicken cooked over charcoal until caramelised and smoky. It arrives with chunks of cucumber and red onion as well as a deep bowl of satay sauce.


Nasi lemak with fried chicken $9.50
Coconut rice with sambal, peanuts, crispy anchovies,
cucumber, boiled egg and fried chicken

Nasi lemak as a prettily plated ensemble of coconut rice, fried chicken, boiled egg, anchovies and dry fried peanuts.


Kangkung belecan $10.00
Stir-fried water spinach with chillies and shrimp paste

We order both versions of the belecan, one with kangkung water spinach, the other with kacang panjang snake beans. Both make use of belecan, a fermented shrimp paste that is traditionally feisty in nature, potently hot, sweet, garlicky and decidedly fishy. Again we find this rather mild in temperature.


Kacang panjang belacan $10.00
Stir-fried long beans with chillies and shrimp paste


Rojak $10
Malaysian-style salad with prawn cakes, fried tofu,
hard boiled eggs, potatoes, bean sprouts and cucumber
topped with a thick spicy peanut sauce

There's only one vegetarian dish available on the menu, kari sayur vegetarian curry that is totally sold out, we discover to our dismay. The only alternative, our waiter advises, is the rojak Malaysian salad minus the prawn cakes. The lack of vegetarian options surprises me, but the rojak is tasty if a little rich, what with the fried tofu drenched in rich satay sauce.


Roti canai $5.00
Served with two curry dips and spicy sambal sauce

The roti is one of the last dishes to arrive, two young men on roti duty busily frying out the front. The roti is soft and feather-light, although not as crispy and flaky as I'm used to. We tear off small pieces and dip them into the curry dips and sambal provided.

We also order the roti bawang ($6.00) which arrives as four roti pockets folded into quarters and filled with thin slices of Spanish red onion.


Murtabak $8.50
Roti filled with chicken or lamb curry, eggs and onion

We order both the chicken and the lamb murtabak, a roti crepe that holds a mixture of meat, eggs and onion. This version is more omelette-like, both the chicken and lamb encased in a thick padding of beaten egg.


Ais kacang $5.00
Red bean, sweet corn and grass jelly topped with shaved ice,
rose-syrup, sweetened milk and palm sugar

The dessert train pulls out with two traditional desserts. Ais kacang is sweet and refreshing, a mountain of ice atop cubes of grass jelly, sweetened red bean and corn kernels.


Cendol $5.00
Starch noodles made from fresh pandan leaves
served with coconut milk, gula-melaka syrup and shaved ice

The cendol is topped with a ladle of coconut milk that is saltier than usual. Just as well the gula-melaka is sweeter than usual too, although the palm sugar crystals are crunchy on the tongue, rather than a thick caramel syrup.


Roti kaya $6.50
Roti filled with kaya pandan and coconut spread
and served with ice cream

Roti kaya is a crowd pleaser, a dessert version of roti with its heart of pandan and coconut jam. We're happily satiated until we see the roti tisu sail past, a giant upside cone of roti that towers with great spectacle on the plate.

It's amazing how much the appetite can grow.





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Mamak
15 Goulburn Street, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9211 1668

This has been included on Grab Your Fork's Top 10 Sydney Eats for Tourists. Read the entire list here.

Open 7 days (no reservations)
Lunch: 11.30am - 2.30pm
Dinner: 5.30pm - 9.30pm
Supper: till 2am on Friday and Saturday

BYO $2 per person
10% surcharge on public holidays

Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Mamak Haymarket (30Jul09), (15Jul09), (Nov07) and (Oct07)

Malaysian -- Kopitiam, Ultimo (Dec08), (Apr07) and (Apr06)
Malaysian -- Makan at Alice's, Thornleigh (Feb08) and (Jun07)
Malaysian -- Malay Chinese, Sydney (26 Apr 07) and (3 Apr 07)
Malaysian -- Mc Lucksa, Haymarket
Malaysian -- The Malaya, Sydney
Malaysian -- Tan's Malaysian, Ultimo
Malaysian -- Temasek, Parramatta (Jan09) and (May08)

Suminoya, Sydney

I'm glad I'd printed out a map, because even though I'd heard about Suminoya plenty of times, and its all-you-can-eat Japanese yakiniku, I hadn't realised its location "behind Martin Place" really was behind Martin Place. Not down a side street from within the pedestrian mall, but accessed by a narrow dingy alley off Castlereagh Street that leads you past garbage bins, garage doors, driveways and finally behold, a brightly lit doorway that trumpets Suminoya in both Japanese and roman script.


Edamame soy bean pods

We'd all prepared our stomachs of course. An all-you-can eat Japanese barbecue is not to be taken lightly. Yakiniku means grilled meat. All-you-can-eat, in my dictionary at least, should always be taken literally.

The ground floor dining area is only small (there's another larger dining room downstairs). There are only about eight booth-style tables. What you do notice immediately are the air vents, silver helmets that descend from the ceiling and hang ominously over each table to suck all up the barbecue smoke. They look like they've come straight from outer space. Or from a high-tech hair salon.


Beef sashimi

There's a choice of 46 savoury items on the laminated gourmet buffet menu ($41 for adults, $16 for children). The premium buffet is available for $49/$19 with a few more sashimi options (tuna, salmon, kingfish and squid), eel, salads and lemon sorbet, but the gourmet seems more than sufficient.

With ninety minutes allocated for eating--last orders are taken at the sixty minute mark--we are soon playing tabletop chess as plate upon plate arrives on our table. We tuck into soft tender slices of marbled beef sashimi, plump pods of soybean edamame, bowl upon bowl of various spiced radish, cucumber and cabbage kimchee.


Kimchee

Our griddles are soon groaning with slices of meat, chunks of raw seafood and the occasional vegetable, fussed over with tongs and occasionally prodded by an impatient pair of chopsticks.


Raw beef rib, beef harami and pork loin
We order a mix of beef rib, beef loin, beef harami and beef rib finger, which arrive marinated in a sweetened soy. There are slices of deliciously fatty pork, frozen but quite to cook on a griddle that occasionally erupts into licks of flame.



The pescatorian is happily tending to rings of squid, rounds of scallop, unpeeled prawns and little foil cups filled with marinated fish that is amazingly soft and juicy when cooked. We make a cursory nod to vegetables with orders of salad, the seafood and seaweed salad is dressed with a tasty squigle of wasabi mayonnaise, and the spinach and almond salad is a contrast of soft baby spinach leaves mixed with flakes of tuna and the crunchy of toasted almond flakes.


Seafood and seaweed salad


Spinach and almond salad

Beef intestine

Who would've thought beef tongue had such a following? The menu restricts this option to "one plate per person". We order our maximum quotient. The paper thin slices are gobbled up in a flash. I also enjoy the beef intestine, which is soft and squishy, and yukke, the Japanese version of beef tartare: thin strips of fresh raw beef served with egg yolk, slivers of green onion and a vinaigrette dressing.


Yukke raw beef

It is very smoky. At one point you can barely see your neighbour through the thick plumes and I'm in tears halfway through the evening, my eyes irritated by all the smoke. The eyes do recover (yes, they are rather sensitive and yes, I'm the only one at our table of eight who is reduced to tears), especially by the time dessert rolls round.


Green tea ice cream with red bean, cream and cornflakes

The scoop of matcha green tea ice cream is cold and soothing, made all the more elegant and delicious by the dab of sweetened red bean, a squirt of aerated cream and the Japanese garnish of corn flakes.


Coffee jelly

We mix scoopfuls of the green tea ice cream with spoonfuls of the coffee jelly, a knockout caffeinated wobble that is strong to the point of being bitter. Its topped with a whisper of cream and a puddle of condensed milk, but I'm grateful for the green tea ice cream.

I'm also grateful I don't burst on the way home.

Suminoya
1 Hosking Place, Sydney
(behind Martin Place, enter from Castlereagh Street)
Tel: +61 (02) 9231 2177

Lunch Monday to Friday 12pm-3pm
Lunch menu

Dinner 7 days 6pm-10.30pm
Dinner menu

Sister restaurants:
Koh-Ya, Shop 1, 9-17 Young St, Neutral Bay
Menya, Shop TG8, 8 Quay St, Haymarket
Rengaya, 73 Miller St, North Sydney
Related GrabYourFork posts:
Ramen - Menya, Haymarket
Teppanyaki - Narita Teppanyaki, Haymarket
Yakiniku - Nagoya, Haymarket