La Rosa The Strand, Sydney

Forget the cheese trolley. Forget the dessert trolley. The porchetta trolley reigns supreme. It's wheeled through the dining room at La Rosa with sombre ceremony. Did everybody's heart skip at beat at the sight of the golden crackling, or was it just mine? I bet yours did too.


Dining room

Porchetta might be the flashy star of the show at La Rosa but the menu, which focusses on Roman cusine, has plenty of other equally tasty contenders. It's a little less formal (and less expensive) than sister restaurant, Pendolino, but still date night-worthy with crisp white tablecloths and attentive table service.


Spaghettoni with stinging nettle puree, hazelnut and pecorino $19

The pastas are all handmade inhouse. We toy between the capellini with chicken and rosemary, ricotta ravioli and rye flour bucatini with prawns before settling on the spaghettoni with stinging nettle puree.

It's a pretty dish, not dissimilar to pesto in appearance, although the work involved in removing the nettle stings is far more significant. The pasta has a great textural chew. The only thing missing is a splash more olive oil.


Lasagne al fondo e finferli  $39.75
Pork and White Rock's veal lasagne with truffled chantarelle fondo bruno

For maximum richness, it's hard to go past the pork and veal lasagne. It's down the more expensive end of the menu at $39.75 but it's such a heavy dish, you'll probably want to share. The truffled chanterelle isn't really necessary but the white sauce. The melting puddle of cheese. The hearty meatiness. It's everything you want in a lasagna, enveloped between silky sheets of slippery pasta perfection.


Fior e lardo Roman pizza $25.50
Pizza bianco, zucchini flowers, mozzarella, pecorino and lardo

Roman pizza? It differs from Neapolitan pizza with the inclusion of olive oil in the dough. This makes for a slightly stronger base that isn't quite as floppy as Neapolitan pizza. Ours is strewn with zucchini flowers, mozzarella and pecorino and shavings of luscious melting lardo.


Porchetta Castelli Romani

The porchetta is a thing of beauty, wheeled out on a trolley like a Roman god, complete with regal wreath. There are only four servings of this a day. We're the first customers to nab a portion.


Volcanic rock spit roast Golden Plains Ariccia-style porchetta with two sides $55

The porchetta is cooked spit roast-style over volcanic rocks. The flesh is super tender, encased in a perfectly bubbled sheath of golden crackling.


Fagiolini (normally $14.50 but included with our porchetta)
Steamed green beans with burnt butter, toasted almonds and garlic

Two sides accompany our porchetta. We love the crunch of steamed green beans, amped up with burnt butter, garlic and toasted almonds.


Patata fritte (normally $14.50 but included with our porchetta)
Potatoes, rosemary, garlic and pork crackling

The fried potatoes are also a treat, a bowlful of crunch with garnished of deep fried garlic chips as well as pork crackling.


Dat crackling


Buon appetito

We didn't have room for dessert but will definitely have to return for the zeppola potato doughnuts!






La Rosa The Strand
The Strand Arcade
Level 2, 133/193 Pitt Street, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9223 1674

Opening hours
Monday to Saturday 12pm-l1pm

All-you-can-eat crab at Yok Sod Thai at Mr B's, Haymarket Sydney

All-you-can-eat crab for less than forty bucks. You read that right. Where? It's on at Yok Sod Thai, the eatery housed within the ground floor bar at Mr B's on the corner of Pitt and Goulburn Streets.


Crab menu


The crab festival, which runs only during crab season, features ten dishes starring blue swimmer crab. Order them a la carte (most are $19.90 each) or arrive hungry and hand over $39.90 for all-you-can-eat. You know what we did.


Pro-level - bring your own gloves

It's my first time at this crab fest. For three of my fellow diners, this was not their first rodeo, which is why the G-Man offered to bring everyone a set of disposable gloves...

Um. GENIUS. Do not underestimate this vital step. This is hella messy eating without the niceties of finger bowls or wet wipes. They will provide you with nut crackers and serviettes.

Gloves mean that we attack the crab with wild abandon. Wear dark clothing. Crab shells, crab flesh and sauce will end up in your lap, all over your shirt and in your hair. But maybe that was just me.


Steamed crab 

Your table will have 90 minutes in which to order as much as you can eat. Be warned that staff will inspect your dishes at the end to make sure you've sufficiently eaten the crab ordered. If you haven't, you're liable to pay a wastage fee. Your ordering end time will be marked on your table.

The best value dish is the steamed crab. That's two whole blue swimmer crabs with a dish of chilli sauce for dipping. This is the most expensive dish to order a la carte at $25.90. Every other dish features just one crab and is $19.90.


Crab omelette

The crab omelette is the only dish where the crab picking has been done for you. This was so popular, we end up ordering two omelettes.


Raw crab salad

Does the idea of raw crab freak you out? It shouldn't. Like any dish, there's nothing to hide behind when food is served raw. I find the raw crab has the plumpest flesh of all the dishes. It is also incredibly sweet.

If you love raw scampi, this will be right up your alley. The raw crab salad was my favourite dish of the night.


Som tum crab 

You can also order som tum crab, raw crab served with a fiery papaya salad. We weren't asked what chilli level we wanted but staff must've presumed "fire of a thousand suns". Try and ask for mild or otherwise enjoy the hallucinations.


Crab curry sauce

You'll want to go in a minimum group size of four people so you can try a variety of dishes. The crab curry sauce is sweeter than you'd probably expect, but terrifically fragrant with fresh curry leaves. 


Stir fried crab in black pepper sauce

The black pepper crab featured a whole heap of green capsicums in the photo so we're pleased to find it arrive vegetable-free. We're focussed purely on value-for-money here. The black pepper sauce is a little on the oily side but I'll confess I'm not usually a fan of black pepper crab anyway.


Crab tom yum creamy

Crab tom yum creamy comes with a rich coconut broth that's reminiscent of tom kha gai. There are no noodles in this dish, unlike the crab tom yum.


Crab tom yum noodle

If that crab tom yum noodle reminds you of Do Dee Paidang, that's because Yok Sod is its sister restaurant. Here it's a massive serving. Staff suggest it's designed for four people to share.


Fresh rice noodle in the crab tom yum soup

The soup is that familiar addictive combination of spicy, sour, sweet and salty, filled with a huddle of chewy fresh noodles, deep fried wonton wrappers for crunch and a whole crab just waiting to be eaten.

We demolish the bowl with such speed that our table of five debates loudly before we agree to order another one. Even the waitress raises one eyebrow at our appetite. That tom yum soup is laced with crack.


Crab fried rice

The surprise of the night? The crab fried rice. I'll admit I tried to stop this order happening. Too many carbs. It's just rice. How good could it be?

How wrong was I. The fried rice is seriously amazing, with just the right amount of fluffiness and seasoning. I declared I'd only have one spoonful for tasting purposes. Then I had three. Or four.

End result? We finished 13 dishes between five people. And I don't even want to think about my cholesterol levels.

The Yok Sod crab festival menu is available Monday to Friday from 4pm for walk-ins only. Arrive early as the crab tends to run out by 7pm. The festival will finish with the end of crab season which is expected to be April 30, 2018.




Yok Sod Thai
Ground floor, Mr B's Hotel
396 Pitt Street, Haymarket, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8080 7777

Opening hours
Daily 11.30am-1.30am


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Boodle fight at Sizzling Fillo, Lidcombe

No cutlery. No plates. Just one long table piled with food. This, my friends, is a boodle fight. It’s how the Filipino military used to eat in an army mess hall, soldiers standing shoulder-to-shoulder battling to eat their fill before the food ran out. Eating together wasn’t just about efficiency – it also represented equality and camaraderie for all troops.

Today’s boodle fights have evolved into more of a communal feast for family and friends, while still acknowledging its traditional origins. So hand-to-mouth combat sounds like your kinda thing? Sizzling Fillo has ten different banquets to choose from, including special lovers’ feasts for two. Sexy times. For a less intimate meal, it’s worth rounding up at least three of your mates who won’t freak out about eating with their fingers. And yes, they have a vegan feast too. Nobody misses out here.


Serving the garlic rice on banana leaves

Pre-book at least three days in advance and when you rock up, you’ll find your table covered in banana leaves. The dining room is a happy hubbub of Filipino families and friends, with most ordering from the a la carte menu.

On your signal, staff will start bringing out your food, piling it up on or around fragrant garlic rice planted straight onto your banana leaf-lined table.


Sizzling steak

You’ll get everything from steamed crabs to sizzling steak to fried baby milkfish depending on the banquet you’ve ordered. Veggies are always included.


Fried milkfish with salted egg


Sizzling sisig

Sizzling sisig is a Filo specialty worth trying, a hot plate of shredded meat from the pigs head and liver mixed through with egg yolk.


Stirring the egg yolk into the sizzling sisig pigs head with liver



Plating the crispy pata deep fried pig trotters

But the undoubted star of the show is the crispy pata, deep fried pork trotters that you tear apart and dip into vinegar and soy. If there’s going to be a fight, it’ll be over the hunks of crunchy crackling.


You know you want it

Relapse to childhood and get down and dirty with your fingers. It might feel weird at first but you’ll be ripping apart that milkfish like a seasoned Survivor contestant in no time.


The best kind of finger food

Finish up with deep fried banana fritters, leche flan crème caramel or halo halo, mixed fruits topped with ice cream. The sago’t gulaman doubles as dessert too, a brown sugar drink served icy cold with tapioca pearls and cubes of agar agar jelly.


Sago't gulaman


Boodle fight


Fried milkfish with salted egg and garlic rice


Crispy pata deep fried pork trotter






Sizzling Fillo
36 Railway Street, Lidcombe, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9649 7939

Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday 5.30pm-9pm
Saturday to Sunday 11.30am-3.30pm and 4.30pm-9pm

This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.