A restaurant that serves only one dish, one wine and only plays one artist’s music? Welcome to OUT Restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo, a tiny 13 seater minimalist restaurant that is perfect for the indecisive diner but especially suited for Japan where specialty shops and restaurants are highly valued.

Sometime last year, the boy and I had just landed in Tokyo and dropped off our luggage before setting out to meet Yas. Jetlagged and getting horribly lost, we finally arrived at OUT and settled at the u-shaped dining table to the sweet tunes of Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog.

Like most places in Japan, there’s a ticket machine in the corner to order your food- ‘The Set’ (¥4,000/AU$50.30) comes with 150 grams of fresh pasta, five grams of fresh truffle, and a glass of wine, or you can get the pasta separately (¥2,900/AU$36.50). If you have any problems with the ticket machine or have any questions, the staff are more than happy to explain.

We watch as the chef dunks portions of fresh tagliatelle into boiling water before draining and twirling onto our plates with a slick of butter and a touch of parmesan.

And then the glass cloche displaying the truffles in the centre of the room is ceremoniously lifted aaaaand then it’s time to rain truffles!

The heady fragrance of truffles fills the room with every whisper thin shave and I can’t help but silently urge the truffle bearer for a never ending shower of truffles onto my pasta. The dish is simplistic yes, but it’s just so delicious- the pasta is spot on al dente with a perfect bite to it, the truffles are delicate in flavour but the incredible aroma has me in raptures.

OUT Restaurant
150-0002 Tokyo-to,
Shibuya-ku, Shibuya,
2 Chome−7−14, Vort Aoyama

Trading Hours:
Mon: Closed
Tues – Sat: 6pm – 12am
Sun: 6 – 10pm

I’ve always thought food in France would be super rich, full of butter and utterly indulgent. It was our first time to Paris and in need of sustenance after a day at the Lourve (much art, daaaaarling), we googled best duck in Paris and managed to snare a table without a booking at Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie.

I have got to mention the absolutely lovely service we received, I’d been warned about the brusque nature of basically the entire population of France but wherever we went everyone was so nice and polite! We had zero problems with communication and were smilingly handed an English menu with no problems. We absolutely loved our first meal here that we ended up visiting again on our last day so don’t @ me with the amount of food in this post!

Noods had his heart set on the Bourgogne snails (6 for €13.80/AUD$22.43) which were tender meaty morsels absolutely drenched in garlic butter. He did almost have a Pretty Woman moment using the escargot tool but luckily no slippery little suckers were flung across the room 😛

The onion soup (€9.50/AUD$15.45) was like drinking a bowl of happiness, it was laden with what felt like the lives of hundreds of onions cooked till tender and then layered with bread and then there’s the magic that is melted cheese.

The roasted duck with balsamic sauce (€17/AUD$27.60) was a beauty, ridiculously juicy and fork tender with a perfect baby pink center. The skin was gloriously crisp and I carefully set it aside to savour slowly. Oh and not forgetting the oh so buttery mash!

The menu had listed a range of foie gras dishes and not wanting to miss out I end up ordering 3 of the 4. When the foie gras carpaccio with honey balsamic sauce and sea salt (€19/AUD$30.90) arrived at our table we were thinking oh crap this serve is friggen massive! I mean we finished it but it was definitely a struggle with all the rich food we’d ordered and consumed the past couple of days! The ribbons of creamy foie gras was served cold and while it did come with a serve of bread I instead relished placing a piece on my tongue and letting it slowly dissolve… be still my heart.

Oh boy. The pan seared foie gras with gingerbread (€17/AUD$27.60) made my heart skip a beat or two and not just because of my rapidly increasing cholesterol! The lobe of foie gras had a great sear to it so there was a great textural contrast of crisp to creamy. I wasn’t too keen on the gingerbread because that’s always a dessert to me but I loved the pineapple which I think was roasted/grilled and provided a relief from the richness.

Foie gras ravioli with a truffle sauce (€19/AUD$30.90) was just mind blowing, the truffle cream sauce though! My god is this what heaven tastes like? Incredibly rich and and oh so creamy the truffle flavour was just amazing and you bet I mopped up each last drop of the sauce with bread! The pasta itself was just so silky and tender and beneath their folds held nuggets of foie gras. Technically the foie gras wasn’t really the star of this dish but to me it felt like a perfect marriage. Of rich and more rich hahaha

Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie
34 Rue Montmartre,
75001 Paris, France

Trading Hours:
Mon–Thu: 6:00 AM–11:00 PM
Fri–Sat: 6:00 AM–Midnight

Ever since eating my weight in buttery croissants in Paris last year (I’ma blog it soon I swear), I’d resigned myself to a life of average croissants in Oz. But earlier this year after visiting Lune in Melbourne and proclaiming my undying love for their flaky croissants, I’ve been lamenting how Sydney is sorely in need of a croissanterie and BEHOLD! Rollers Bakehouse has opened in Manly just a hop, skip and a jump away from the beachfront (and also hidden down a slightly dodgy alleyway).

Raff and I had planned our sick days in advance to coincide for a day of epic eats. After a breakfast of champions of cream puffs (Tamborino ftw!) we made the trek past the horror that is the Spit Bridge and arrived to the hallowed sight of baby pink walls of Rollers. Croissant flavours rotate weekly which meant we missed out on the famed sushi croissant and the garlic bread croissant (!!!) but not to fear for there were plenty on offer that morning (PSA: they get wiped out on the weekends so go early).

The special of the day was the spanakopita ($8.50). The golden croissant was filled with a creamy layer of bechamel, spinach, ricotta and feta cheese but it was just a touch heavy on the pine nuts so beware the dreaded pine mouth. The croissant itself was pretty darn good- light, buttery and flaky with a perfect crumb.

Innards!

I was much more in love with the ham and cheese ($8) which is beyond adorable topped with a teensy cornichon and pickled onion.

Inside the croissant is gruyere cheese, slices of ham and wholegrain mustard. Oh how I wished this was piping hot! I couldn’t help but compare to Lune’s version where theirs is lightly toasted so that the cheese is that amazing balance of ooze on the inside with crisp edges! But this was still very tasty and one I’ll definitely get again. To toast at home 😛

I couldn’t resist the maple bacon snail ($6) because, BACON! The smoked maple bacon pieces were crispalicious and delicious against the maple custard embedded within the swirls of pastry.

And of course we couldn’t go past the kouign amann ($6), a beautiful golden swirl of a pastry with bagaillion thin, shatteringly crisp layers and glorious sugary, golden edges and the inevitable shower of pastry flakes everywhere.

Rollers Bakehouse
19 Rialto Ln,
Manly

Trading hours:
Mon – Sat: 7am–3pm
Sun: 7am–2pm

Amsterdam! Land of delicious stroopwafels, insanely beautiful canals and frites!

We stayed at an airbnb in the De Pijp area of the Oud-Zuid district which was pretty great with a bunch of restaurants and wine bars nearby and was walking distance to the tram stops which have pretty regular services from 6.30am to about midnight. We didn’t dare hire a bike and ride around like the locals because my god their speeds!

But also I picked this area to be around the corner from Albert Cuypmarkt, Amsterdam’s largest and busiest street market with about 300 stalls selling everything from clothes, electronics, flowers but most importantly food 😀 Trying a fresh stroopwafel was high on my agenda and Goudse Original Stroopwafels (€1,50/AUD$2.40) drew me in, the sweet perfume of the molasses-y syrup being pressed into wafer thin waffles calling my name. Definitely a sugar rush after consuming one but it was just irresistible especially piping hot in the middle of winter (ok fine it was end of Autumn then but my god was I cold).

The stroopwafels also come in mega ginormous Superstrooper size (€3,50/$AUD5.65) bigger than my face! You can also choose to get them dipped in chocolate (extra €0.50/AUD$0.80) but I preferred them plain without the chocolate. Yes I know my blog is called ChocolateSuze but shh…

Dutch herring (nieuw herring) is another specialty that we ordered from Vlaardingse Haringhande (€2.50/AUD$4.05). It’s a salted fish that’s served raw and cold, with onion and pickled cucumbers that I actually quite liked- the flesh is buttery soft and not at all ‘fishy’ for such an oily fish. You can also get the herring served in a sandwich (broodje haring) but eh do it like the locals!

We took a self guided 1.5 hour Heineken tour (Stadhouderskade 78, 1072 AE Amsterdam) at the original brewery (€18/AUD$29.20, €3 discount if you book online) which was actually pretty interesting as there was a lot of interactive displays and of course free beer to be drunk. Oh and at the end of the tour you end up downstairs in a warehouse type of space where you’re able to take a crash course on how to pour a beer from a tap with the perfect amount of foamy head.

So beautiful <3

When the munchies hit, get yourself a paper cone of Patat Frites aka the most perfect fries from Vlaams Friteshuis Vleminckx (Voetboogstraat 33, 1012 XK Amsterdam), a tiny hole in the wall joint. There’s frites stores everywhere, usually with a fries sign glowing enticingly out front but Vleminckx has a cult-like following and it just happened to be conveniently across the road from the coffee shop we were at. Join the queue and shuffle your way to the front, don’t worry it’ll move fast! The piping hot fries is smothered in the sauce of your choice- I’d chosen the special mix of curry ketchup and mayonnaise with a handful of chopped raw onion which makes for the most ridiculously tasty combo and all for the low low price of €3,60/AUD$5.80.

Pancakes were another highlight of my eats, in Amsterdam the traditional Dutch pancakes are of the super thin crepe variety and just so delicious with the barest of toppings. I was taking care of a certain someone who was having a bad reaction to a brownie he ate and needed a place to hang so into Pancakes Amsterdam (Prins Hendrikkade 48, 1012 AC Amsterdam) we went, which had such a great view of the canals. I ordered the traditional bacon and cheese (€9,50/AUD$15.40) which was utterly delightful, the pancake was light as a feather with gloriously crispy cheesy edges and embedded with the most deliciously perfect bacon strips.

De Carousel Pannenkoeken (H.M. van Randwijkplantsoen 1, 1017 ZW Amsterdam) was highly recommended to me for their dessert pancakes, specifically the poffertjes- small fluffy pancakes. The restaurant is built around a small carousel which borders on the slightly gaudy but hey we’re here for the pancakes! There’s just something about eating miniature versions of food that really hooks me haha the menu had poffertjes with every kind of topping under the rainbow but I stick with the classic icing sugar and whipped cream (€6,50/AUD$10.50). The serve is deceptively large and by the midway point I was struggling with the sugar overload.

We did the Amsterdam More Beer (self guided) pub crawl as a way to walk and see more of the city and I was v determined to drink 5 beers and get the free tshirt. Most bars serve snacks but the one that held my sway every time I spotted it was my beloved bitterballen- deep fried, bite sized beef and gravy croquettes.

If, after a late night out on the town and you’re ravenous but nothing’s open, it’s time to hit up a FEBO automat aka vending machine from a hole in the wall. The Dutch chain of snack bars sell deep fried croquettes and burgers which are then placed immediately into the vending machines waiting for the inevitable fumble for coins to insert. Don’t want to interact with humans? This is the place for you! I choose the neon hued cheese filled croquette (€1,80/AUD$2.90) which satisfied those snack cravings.

Aaaand special mention to all the cute tiny cars everywhere!