Din Tai Fung in Sydney

One of my favourite places to eat in Sydney is Din Tai Fung. No trip is complete without a trip to this dumpling of a place. 

 

Minced meat and Green Beans

OMG these chilli wontons are my favourite ever! The combination of sweet and hot is just so delicious. It is so extremely addictive, I don't care how many white shirts I might ruin or how hot my tongue gets. Must have!

Chilli Wontons

This was a random dish we ordered because it said it was a Chef Special. Hey normally I don't listen to the chef special, because in so many cases I have been burnt by some old untasty dish dressed up as a special to be sold. But this was a pleasant surprise. The meat was tender and tasty and the veggies crisp.

What else more can I ask for? 

Some Special beef

Ok I admit I love pineapple in my food (think sweet and sour pork and Hawaiian pizza), was that the reason why i ordered this or was it because it was fried with mayonnaise? Who knows. It was delicious! A good balance of batter, not too heavy and over powering. The sauce was simple and a nice way to add moisture to it and the prawns were great. Plus it had pineapples in it! Happy happy

Prawns with pineapple

Why else do people come here other than to eat the Xiao Long Baos. There is some technique to this otherwise you lose the whole experience of it. I picked it up pretty quickly because I know what to expect, but to those who have never heard nor tried it. Don't make any holes in it! You'll lose all that delicious juices that makes it so tasty. So many places (even in Shanghai) make the skin too thick and the juices not gelatin. But this place is one of the best in around. 

Xiao Long Bao

Food!

 I was very surprised about the service here. I'm expecting the asian style service which is minimal, but they offered a bag holder and a jack protector when you drape your jacket over the back of your chair. This is great! Why don't more places do this? It made the whole experience much more enjoyable, not having to worry about your bag or your clothes.

Bag holder

And for our dessert? We had mango pudding. We ate it too fast for me to remember what it was like. That is a good sign ;)

Mango Pudding

www.dintaifung.com.tw

644 George St
Sydney New South Wales 2000
(02) 9264 6010

Richmond Hill Larder

I've been here for brunch before, but I didn't take any photos the last time. Though there was a dish that was seared into my memory. It was the buttermilk pancakes. OMG it was the best pancakes ever! I'm generally not that big of a fan of pancakes, because by the time you eat it, its kind of soft from the steam of cooking it. Its lost its outer crunch, or it just lacks the flavour (this is flavouring without syrup). But this pancake, well it was amazing. Crunchy on the outside, and soft and fluffy on the inside! Its a lot thicker than normal pancakes, but wow it was great. It was sweeter than normal pancakes which meant you didn't have to add any syrup or cream. And there was a slice of banana baked into it too! All in all the perfect pancake. So of course I've been dying to go back again. Finally we found a weekend to check it out. We couldn't make a booking (one of those places that don't accept bookings) so we waited 45 mins for our table.

I didn't take a picture of the pancakes, but I'll tell you about it. *deep breath* I'll be honest, it wasn't good. They over cooked it. It was hard on the outside, hard on the inside, it tasted like a cake. Was very disappointing, I had spoken so much about this to Dylan, we waited over an hour for this, and it turned out to be quite bad. Not average but bad.

We spoke to the waiter about this and apparently they cook it in this huge oven for 20 mins, and the texture/degree of how cooked it is is dependent on how it goes in there. And as orders come in, the oven is opened to put stuff in and take stuff out this changes how cooked/uncooked the pancake is. So that was why my pancake wasn't great. *sigh*

Dylan made a good choice with the crab risotto and avocado. It was delicious and light, filled you up without making you feel to weighed down.

Maybe when you have something so delicious you shouldn't try to recreate that moment, because it will never live up to it.

Crab Risotto with avocado 

View from our table

48-50 Bridge Road  Richmond Victoria 3121
(03)9421 2808

Takumi

When you work so hard it is nice to be rewarded. The company was nice enough to appreciate our efforts and take us out for a nice dinner out. Our designer suggested Takumi and here we were.

Placement at Takumi

Our hot bbq grill

Karubi

Ox tongue

Karubi on the grill!

Squid

Japanese parfait 8.5

Black seasame ice cream

Japanese pound cake

Magawayaki - Japanese pancakes

What can I say? Lots of meat and lots of beer, is always a good combination. The meat was obviously really good quality and everything tasted great. Also great value for money, we were stuffed at the end. The never ending supply of delicious meat. YUM!

32 Bourke Street  Melbourne VIC 3000 (03) 9650 7020