Shop 329-330 Level 2, Harbourside Shopping Centre

Located side by side with the famous Criniti’s Italian Restaurant in the heart of Darling Harbour, Thai Foon restaurant have a tough job to attract the innocent-no-clue walk-in customers. But for those who know, a reservation is the only way to guarantee nice outdoor table (undercover) over-viewing the famous Sydney Darling Harbour.

Sydney skyline and Darling Harbour over your table

Before The Main

Delicious Spring Roll

The table will greet you with 2 stacked platea a la Thai, one on top another. The top (smaller) one is supposed to be use for eating Entree. And when you finish with it just the waiter will take it to get ready with the main.

You can order variety of Entree from the classic spring roll to the signature Thai dishes such as “Money Bag” (similar to chinese’s fried wonton only different look), from the chunky chicken satay on skewer to the exotic Papaya Salad (“Som Tum”). Yes, vegetarian entree is also available.

Tasty Coconut Milk Soup

Our entree order come very fast, it’s literally 1 minutes flat and we are chrunching the yummy Money Bag and Spring Roll.

While you can order your favorite drink, the waiters and waitresses also have a hawk eye to maintain your complimentary chilled water always full in your glass. They use the surveilance to check your entree as well. As soon as we finish the entree, they come to our table and prepare it for the main.

Have to Come Twice

Unique Basil Fried Noodle

Just by looking to the menu on the card, I will recommend to come at least twice to satisfy your curiosity on what is being offered. Really. Only a meal will not enough to get the decent try.

We first know this restaurant around 9 years ago and never disappointed us. Every time we come back we always got a dilema to order the previous one that we know it’s very good, or try the new one. Fifty – fifty is our compromise.

One thing that always satisfy my taste bud: the gorgeous BBQ Beef with special sauce. This dishes they call “The Crying Tiger”. It’s definitely one of the nicest dish they have. Not just ordinary barbecued meat.

The Gorgeous Crying Tiger

Yes, I agree the price is not the cheapest. But with the premium vantage point, it’s definitely worth the treat. Remember, sometime you get dissapointed to pay such premium meal with only half decent food and very stingy portion, well, try it yourself, you will find the food is really also premium in taste and quality with such generous content.

Want more ? Check out their website at http://www.thaifoon.com.au/ for further detail and offer, including perhaps  free parking !

7 Spatha for Thai Foon

Max Brenner Parramatta

We visited the Parramatta branch which is embedded together with Westfield Shopping center just opposite the Parramatta Train Station. The decoration and ambiance definitely casual and rebellious. It’s quite a full house for 4pm session.

If you are not familiar with the center, it probably quite uneasy to find it as it literally at the very edge of the complex bordering and have direct access from the station.

It has outside seating as well although I would not recommend it as it also near the bus hub. Unless you are quite diesel tolerant, just take the inside seating..

max brenner's suckao

You can find all kind of standard chocolate drink and dessert from cookies, fondues, waffles and choc cake to the very exotic signature dessert..

One of the signature drink is “Suckao” (Suck Kakao) where a candle is lit on the bottom of the glass practically become a burner for a shot of milk.

Then you can melt yourself some dark chocolate chip with the thickness that you can decide yourself. You can go to melt the whole serving of the chip and make it super dense hot chocolate. Or just give a hint of chocolate in the milk and enjoy the choc chip like a peanut….

You can choose among dark, milk or white chocolate. This drink will set you back $6.50

We also order a Tutti-Fruti Waffle where a piece of crusty Belgian waffles was drizzled with pure melted chocolate, serve with fresh bananas, strawberry and chocolate ice cream.

The Waffles

This fruity dessert cost you $13.50. You can also order double size for additional $4. I have to say that the waffle is superb but enough just with the chocolate. The rest of the serving did not really belong.

As the maximizer, don’t forget to order “Chocolate Lick” your personal pure melted chocolate for your licking !

Overall, while cannot really complaint about the dessert serve, but to serve all of our order no less than 40 minutes is pretty ordinary.

It seems although the number of staff is quite abundant, the serving speed need to be given more attention as none of our order is required any brewery. Just take from the self. Yes, the guest was quite crowded, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

Chocolate Lick

Other than that small whinge, we have a great afternoon.

6 Spatha for Max Brenner

The Bird Nest

The Bird Nest: Crunchy Egg Noodle with Seafood

The name of the menu card is “Crunchy Egg Noodle With Seafood” but it really remind me of a bird nest. Beautiful setup. The deep fried crunchy noodle form a circle with thicker edge, similar like a donut only the middle it’s not really a hole. The “topping” is of some seafood ingredients: prawn, squid, fish ball, mixed with a serve of stir fry veggies.

The serve size is really generous. Even a big man like me has a bit struggle to finish it off. Really value for your money as you can share this meal with your spouse or friend and still satisfy both.

Although it was deep fried, you cannot really feel the oily part. So, don’t worry about excessive fat from the oil. It is well drained. Eat it with sliced chili or chili sauce accompany with hot chinese tea, this dished will satisfy your taste bud and made your day!

The Restaurant

Saigon BBQ, Homebush West

When I say “takeaway” above, actually it’s not quite precise. The restaurant is quite decent size hosting around 15 tables. The name of the restaurant is “Saigon BBQ” . Yes, it’s a Vietnamese style cuisine located on the suburb of Homebush West. The address is 8/90 The Crescent, Homebush West, around 12km west from Sydney CBD.

8/90 The Crescent, Homebush West, photo: Google Map

It’s literally just a cross the street from Flemington station (hence, Flemington market) on the south side of the railway (not the market side). So, taking the train could be a straight forward idea.

It’s just a stroll away from Hudson Park Golf Course and it is in the middle of local shopping precinct. So, there are plenty or parking although it’s quite busy with the locals, but you will find one without sweating.

After meal, you can do a little bit Asian grocery shopping around the area.

Of course as a Vietnamese restaurant, you could order the usual Vietnamese beef noodle, Pork Chop with Fried Rice, and all other vietnamese meal and dessert. But for me, “The Bird Nest” was the highlight.

It’s not that difficult to make this dish at home, although a little hurdle will be to have a big wok full of oil to make the crunchy noodle.

6 Spatha for The Bird Nest

Photo from http://outbacksteakhouse.com.au/

Believe it or not, this is just the humble onion. The official name is even registered trademarked: Bloomin’ Onion® one of the signature dish from Outback Steakhouse Australia

The meal comes very quickly. Within 5 minutes of order, this magnificent meal has been placed on the center of our table.

Well, since it was deep fried, we cannot say that this one is the healthiest meal on the planet but both our 1 yr and 5 yr old eat this one without any complaint. The first cut is a bit struggle as we don’t know exactly what will be the easiest method to start eating it without really breaking it too much. But after few second, we just take the dip sauce a side, and cut it from the center as if it was a birthday cake.

The rest is history, within the next 10 minutes all mouths on the table are busy chewing this tasty starters. The spiciness will bite you a bit since we are actually eating onion, but I find it really pleasing with a sip of Coke on the rock to sooth you mouth – then keep eating it until none left!  The dipping sauce itself is not really special, probably just ordinary cheesy mayonnaise, but enough to complement the onion and make it a beautiful appetizer.

I would imagine, making it home made will consume some considerable amount of time to handle the onion and make it blooming. Since this has been a commercialized meal, then Outback must have had a special tools to cut open the onion, put the crumb/flour and deep fried it within minutes.  I guess this dish will also the most profitable product with practically only Onion and crumbs as the main cost.

You should try it yourself !

This has been a review for Bloomin’ Onion® from Outback Steakhouse Australia : A true Outback original. Our special onion is hand-carved by a dedicated bloomologist, cooked until golden and ready to dip into our spicy signature bloom sauce.  On your table for $9.95 as per November 2009.

7 Spatha for Blooming Onion®