Sydney - Gourmet Capital

[ChrisW]

Named third best in world cities for food:
http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food/blog ... tinations/

Discuss.

I admit, a lot of these surveys are bolony I think.
And I usually have a hard time eating out here, being vegetarian and the local cuisine being so heavy on meat and seafood. But I just spent a few days in the city and had some of the best meals I've had in a few years. Nothing gourmand like Quay or Billie Kwong, but simple mid-priced dining.

[jkhuri44]

lol, i thought melbourne was better than Syd for good eats...wierd.
Sydney's west shits over the city for food, my opinion anyway.

[ChrisW]

West? As in where?

[tunetown]

I've had some of the finest meals ever at Gemelle Ristorante Italiano in Liverpool. Every bit as good as some of these fancy pants restaurants in the city. IMO....

[jkhuri44]

West? As in where?

West?

Campsie, Eastwood, Auburn, Flemington, etc.... so much good food, outside all the pretentious reviewed garbage....food reviewers...half of em mistake bad service, for bad food. noobile mistake.

[ChrisW]

The chefs hat places are usually not good for vegetarians.

[The Tasmanian]

It definately is.
For years all the OS muso's that came over to Sydney would tell me its the best - and these guys constantly travel the world, and like most good muso's - they are total foodies.
Sorry Melbourne - you've gotta try much harder (especially with Thai food)
Sorry Tassie - you only grow good food and bad politicians
Sorry Brisbane - you've got Cambell Newman (soup)
Adelaide - have not been there for yonks!
Darwin - drink more beer
Perth - who gives a shit?

[ChrisW]

Hmm. About a week ago you got out of bed on the controversial side.

[jkhuri44]

The chefs hat places are usually not good for vegetarians.

haha, Sydney in general sucks for vegetarians, i am mostly vegetarian, and am sick of cafe's ideas of "vego" food, with zero nutrition....but when i eat meat, those places are the ducks nuts...

Indian food does well if you're not a vegan

[ChrisW]

I'm spoilt by British Indian (actually a Raj/Indian/Bangladeshi hybrid).
Everywhere in Oz was average a while ago for Indian IMO, but every year it's getting better and better. Now there are some really good ones, even out in the sticks where i am.
Likely because there are a lot more Indians here. I can't wait for the Mexican's to arrive, so we can do something about that cuisine.

[jkhuri44]

hahaha yeah, mexican is embarassing....not sure why it's so hard for chefs here to do it right. seeing as there's no probs getting most ingredients, and recipes here....

[Alistair]

As a Melbournian (and vegie too Chris), I reckon Sydney food is pretty shit... but it's light years ahead of the rest of the country.
Melbourne has some great restaurants, both expensive and cheap, but the good ones tend to be bloody hard to get in to, and the crap ones outweigh the good 100 to 1.

Overall I reckon food has been a bit lower quality than usual in Australia this year- quality of produce seems to be going down?

And I'm with you on the Mexican- we've had a stack of new Mexican places open up in Melbourne this year, and a few of them are fantastic. Not Tex Mex stuff.

[The Tasmanian]

Hmm. About a week ago you got out of bed on the controversial side.

Yeah - I always seem to put my foot in my mouth ----- doesn't taste any good either.
But I'm always open to a new recipe

[The Tasmanian]

Come on lets start outing the restaurants
We need NAMES and locations !!!!
In all states!!!!

[jkhuri44]

my list of non snob places to get noms:

1) Jonga Jip - Eastwood - More side dishes than i've ever seen in a korean place in 1 go! Amazing meats selection, dont go for the service, its absolute shit. however if you want serious BBq..this is it....its so popular they bought out a restaurant in the next st to open up a second one!

2) Ahbis - Concord. Killer indian....not really much to say than it's consistent, not overpowering, like "traditional" indian spicing can be.

3) Chinese Noodle Restaurant - Haymarket - Hand Made dumplings and noodles, and prrrroooppper chinese fair. Dont expect service, or comfort, and expect to be shoo'd off the table when eating is done, but this place is insane...no sweet and sour goop sauce here, just good shit. Here's a pic of the outside, so you dont guff it up when you go:

http://www.urbanspoon.com/rph/70/152671 ... hoto-photo

4) Auburb Kebab House - Auburn. Not really a restaurant, more like a 2am drunk kebab place, but they make the most serious BBQ adana and shish i've had. So gotta go on the list

5) Kazbah - Balmain/Darling Harbour - Expensive, but yummy morrocan.

6) Seabay Handmade Noodle Restaurant - Again, like 3) awesome traditional chinese...go for the Lamb chargrill skewers (i dont even know if this is really chinese or not, but damn its ridiculously good) and the "number 6" which i believe is a handmade noodle and dumpling soup witha blackpepper chicken broth...whoa.

7) Din Tai Fung - Chinatown? A world wide chain of restaurants, again handmade dumpling place...no noodles this time, a fancier version of the above stuff, better for clients, dates, that kinda thing.

8) Lat-Dior - Enmore. Awesome african food. nice clean place, and super friendly owner.

9) White Cockatoo - Petersham - massive chicken shnitzel....wtf...looks like 2 chicken breasts hammered together, comes with chips, salad, and garlic aeoli!

10) The Botany View Hotel - Enmore/Newtown - 5 Star Pub Grub, downstairs might mislead you, but this place is getting pretty popular with the hipsters!

more to come, when i can remember them...

[The Tasmanian]

Sydney Thai:
Spice I am - Wentworth ave Surry Hills - (been eating their since they opened about 8 years ago)
Try the Ho Mok (entree) - unbelievable - all the curry's are killer - everything is insanely good.
Voted in the best 100 restaurants in the world by an international survey of where chef's go to eat.

Also - Chat Thai - Campbell St Haymarket - absolutely killer - but the curry's dont compare to Spice I am

Both of these restaurants have other outlets that are not as good as the originals (above)

[Alistair]

Some cheap, some not so cheap.

Mamasita- my favourite restaurant in Melbourne by a long shot. Really good mexican, and I've never been disappointed. Apparently the fish stuff is a bit hit and miss, but vegie stuff is consistently great.

Chin Chin- very good wankers Thai food. Good quality produce, some interesting stuff, but not traditional.

Vegie Bar- an institution- cheap and always good westernised versions of everything. Flourless chocolate cake is probably the best choc cake in Melbourne.

Laksa King in Flemington- super good, super cheap.
Coconut House in the CBD- another Laksa place run by some sort of Malaysian missionary thing. Scarily cheerful kids running the place, but the food is really good and cheap.

Fonda Mexican in Richmond- pretty good canteen style Mexican.

11 Inch Pizza. Sounds like a porno, but really good quality pizza in the CBD.
+49 (also a shit name!) used to be the best pizzeria in the city, but they have taken a dive in terms of quality lately.

Auction Rooms in North Melbourne used to do the best breakfast around, but they won too many "The Age Best Coffee" awards and now are a bit too busy and the menu changes every week or two, so who knows what you're gonna get.

There's a little chain of pizza places called Mr Natural that do veggie hippy pizza which are bloody good. There's one in Fitzroy and another in St Kilda.

Hanabashi- Very posh Japanese place on King St right between the lawyers and the strippers. It's not cheap, but it's great.

Hu Tong- best dumplings in the city I reckon. Other food is pretty good too. Famously bad service.
Shanghai village is an institution- good cheap dumplings, but everything else is pretty rubbish. Even more famously bad service.


Seems you're right Chris, not many Thai restaurants on my list.

[The Tasmanian]

The Vegie bar is still going?
Its been there for at least 15 years
good tuka

[ChrisW]

Yeah, one of my great Sydney meals last week was at Spice I Am.
We've been there many times, but mostly for take-away. This time we enjoyed the place itself.
Semi-posh - Had a great pesto rigatoni in Bills (Crown Street) a few days ago. New chef from London, and I think he's shaking things up there. It got boring and predictable i think after 'Bill' moved to London.
Our favourite super cheap eat is Corelli's in Newtown. Awesome fruit crumble too.
Had an amazing cheese plate at an Italian deli Ocello on Bourke Street. Many obscure cheeses to choose from. Apart from Gorgonzola, the rest I chose I'd never heard of before, and I've been to Italy many times. My partner had a fantastic Lamb panini.

If you want over priced and over hyped, come to The Hunter.

[ChrisW]

Favourite place in Adelaide is in Willunga - Russell's Pizza.
It used to be incredible (IMHO), but now Russell has left, it's only very good now.
Favourite place in Perth is The King St Cafe, although major caveat in that I've only been to Perth a couple of times in the last five years, so I'm bound to be out of touch.

[Thirteen]

There is a Lebanese couple that run a stall each weekend at Roselle Markets. I have yet to find better Lebanese anywhere at even 5 times the price.

[jkhuri44]

There is a Lebanese couple that run a stall each weekend at Roselle Markets. I have yet to find better Lebanese anywhere at even 5 times the price.

Lebanese, the further west you go, (Lakemba, Bankstown, Auburn, Granville, Guildford, Harris Park) the better, better than the city varieties imo....

one of the best value places i know is La Shish - Guildford....i took 20 people there for a birthday, they each gave me 20 dollars per head to pay for dinner, turned out to be $12 a head, for many many combinations of plates....ridiculous value....we gave them the extra money, the didnt understand why we tipped so much

[chribble]

plenty of good eats in sydney, lots mentioned above.

no-one has really mentioned italian food yet which is interesting. And there are a million options for italian between Leichardt and Haberfield.

others.
Rosso pomodoro at balmain - Pizza.
Vini , surry - great if you can get a seat, good wine.
Jamies Italian, city - Great food and priced well.

Million Japanese places in Neutral bay not getting a mention either.

[ChrisW]

Yeah, I've enjoyed Bar Vini a few times.
They tend to only have one dish for vegetarians, but that's understandable as their menu as a whole is brief.

[jkhuri44]

They tend to only have one dish for vegetarians

middle eastern vegetarian, is rice...with lamb mince...WHY YOU DONT EAT MEAT!! YOU GETTING SKINNY!!! (arabic grandma voice) hahaha, bloody 'ell!

[Wiz]

When I was vego, and living in melbourne..I liked Goples (sp) in swanston st probably not there anymore...and there was one in Lygon Street, near the corner of Queens Parade, on the western side of the street.. cant remember its name, but it was a fancy vego restaurant.

I really miss the food of melbourne.

Would kill for a a great saganaki (greek grilled cheese) and grilled octopus.

[Chris H]

........that word "Gourmet" is just an excuse to charge like a wounded bull!
One of my favorite restaurants in Melbourne is the Embassy Taxi Cafe, 547 Spencer St, West Melbourne.I've been frequenting the place sincs the early 80's........... Just read the reviews, It's a classic:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/760638/r ... -Melbourne

Ah! Gopal's has been there since 1982 and is still in business....run by the hari krishnas. Sort of not bad but not my favourite by a long shot ( as in very ordinary if you ask me ), sorry Wiz... way too much sugar
http://www.iskcon.net.au/food/gopals/

[Wiz]

........that word "Gourmet" is just an excuse to charge like a wounded bull!
One of my favorite restaurants in Melbourne is the Embassy Taxi Cafe, 547 Spencer St, West Melbourne.I've been frequenting the place sincs the early 80's........... Just read the reviews, It's a classic:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/760638/r ... -Melbourne

Ah! Gopal's has been there since 1982 and is still in business....run by the hari krishnas. Sort of not bad but not my favourite by a long shot ( as in very ordinary if you ask me ), sorry Wiz... way too much sugar
http://www.iskcon.net.au/food/gopals/

hehehe...

I havent been there since around 92... The Embassy cafe... I remember going there after gigs, and the souvlaki stand in flemington road... 8).. Oh and there was a killer Souvlaki shop in high street, preston. I also, miss the pizza. Pizza up here blows chunks.

[ChrisW]

I've been embroiled in numerous angry online pizza battles with Aussies.

Pizza isn't one hundred toppings, cooked under a stainless steel grill with a conveyor belt.
Not claiming it's any better in the UK mind you.

[Alistair]

When you're in Melbourne, try the pizza places I suggested- super thin base, 3-4 toppings max.

In the Swanston st Hare Krishna battle I always preferred Crossways! I haven't been there for years though.