EDIT: CLOSED

So I was stumbling through Llankelly Place in Potts Point one blurry Friday night and happened to see a plate of sea urchin being delivered to a table and instantly knew that I HAD TO HAVE IT. I downed a plateful and stumbled away and then returned the following night with the boy to eat the rest of the menu at Kim Restaurant. Headed up by David Ralph (co-owner of Kakawa Chocolates and ex-Flying Fish) and Tae Kyu Lee (ex-Mr Wong and Ms Gs), Kim Restaurant is pumping out some seriously amazing Korean food.

We start with these Haemul Crisps ($4.50 each) which are bite sized pieces of DELICIOUS! The super light rice flour crisp holds a dollop of smoked cabbage puree, a scattering of fluffy dried pollock and the crowning glory, the uni (sea urchin) is draped ever so seductively on top. The flavour explosion from this salty sweet combo is just pure bliss!

Kim Restaurant occasionally has Spanner Crab Jang as a special if they can source the crabs from the markets but tonight we had the Scampi Jang ($20), soy marinated raw scampi which came with a bowl of rice topped with seaweed, scallions, sesame seeds and an egg yolk just begging to be stabbed. The scampi was so freaking fresh and sweet! I’m a bit sensitive to soy so found it was a touch on the salty side but it was perfectly balanced when the scampi was eaten with a mouthful of rice.

The Tang Tang Yukhoe ($14) is impressive in presentation and tastes every bit as awesome as it looks. There’s the layer of spicy beef tartare, diced nashi pear for some sweetness, surprise bonus of chopped octopus and an egg yolk waiting to be set free from its albumem prison. Mix everything together and place a scoop onto a sheet of salty seaweed and be prepared for your world to be rocked.

We receive a complimentary Galbi Naengmyun, the bowl held a chilled beef broth with slices of grilled pork, slippery buckwheat noodles, shredded cucumber and a perfectly boiled egg with a gooey egg yolk centre. It is the perfect dish for the warm and slightly humid evenings we’ve been having!

I absolutely adore mackerel so the Godeungeo ($14) is a must order for all you oily fish lovers out there 😛 The mackerel is cured and then grilled so the skin is blistered and crispy but the flesh is still beautifully moist. There’s a swipe of lemon sauce which kinda reminds me of lemon curd and a pile of pickled radish so thinly sliced they were almost translucent.

Last but not least is the TKFC ($18/6pieces), fried chicken wings coated in a rich bbq sauce that is lip smackingly tasty but holy crap it was damn spicy!

I couldn’t resist ordering dessert, especially one called Hodoogwaja ($12) which was a whole plate of piping hot mini waffles with walnut praline, creamy black sesame parfait, kiwi fruit, strawberries, basil seeds and a handful of caramel popcorn for some crunch.

We were pretty full but then the kitchen sent out their Rhubarb dessert on the house, tender stalks of rhubarb poached in maesil (Korean plum tea) lie on a bed of smooth Makkoli custard with crispy milk crackers.

Aaand some Kakawa chocolates to finish, the chilli, cocoa powder & dark chocolate sets the tastebuds a-tingle but it’s the almond praline, soy powder & milk chocolate that has me sneakily stealing Noods’ piece before I had finished eating my own 😛

I loved the outdoor seating, the casual vibe and super attentive service but above all else, the food was just bloody amazing! I’m definitely coming back from more uni and will have to stalk their socials so I can get my hands on that spanner crab jang!

Kim Restaurant
7/24-30 Springfield Avenue Via Llankelly Place
Potts Point

Trading Hours:
Mon – Sat: 5pm to 10pm

Edit: CLOSED

Three years ago I stumbled into John Montagu in Woolloomooloo, named after the supposed inventor of the humble sandwich. And now, business partners Raymond Lim and Nerada Kudinar have opened Ms Murray on Liverpool St, a cafe just around the corner from the 3 Wise Monkeys pub. Ms Fanny Murray was an 18th-century English courtesan, mistress to John Montagu and with a menu featuring sandwiches as well as more heftier dishes, it seems appropriately named.

We start with the House Yoghurt ($13) which is as pretty as a picture, there’s a coconut & chia pudding layered with honeyed greek yoghurt and a jumble of toasted oats and iced fruits. It’s deceptively filling and is a great summery dish for when the sun is out. I particularly loved the lychees because well, lychees are delicious.

The Salmon Rillette ($19) is another great summer-y dish, there’s a pea pannacotta that is ridiculously smooth, dollops of cream cheese and generous amount of creamy salmon rillette hides under a tangle of mixed leaves. I loved the coddled egg topped with salmon roe that’s pretty much just begging to be stabbed and I alternate slathering on the salmon on the accompanying slices of rye toast or dunking into the gooey egg. Deeelicious.

And then if the weather changes like it did over the weekend, the Cheese and Sage Toastie ($6) is a soul warming winner. The bread is sourced from St Honoré Bakery and is stuffed full of Maffra cheddar and crispy sage leaves before being lightly toasted until the cheese is the perfect amount of melty.

@alwayseating has chosen the Bacon and Egg Bun ($7) which is pretty damn tasty with super fluffy scrambled free range eggs, uber crispy bacon and a tangy housemade barbecue sauce on a soft sesame seed bun.

I can’t resist the John Montagu Beef Cheeks ($17), it was my all time fave item at John Montagu and it’s been a while between sandwiches! It was every bit as delicious as I remembered, the slow braised beef cheeks are meltingly tender and the rocket and spanish onions helps to cut through the richness. There’s also some aged cheddar cheese in there but tbh it probs doesn’t need it as the sandwich was rich enough as it is but hey who am I to reject cheese 😛

Papa Choc has ordered the Fish Burger ($15) minus the cheese (I love cheese about as much as my parents hate cheese haha). The fish is pretty spectacular, incredibly moist and flaky in an irresistible crunchy batter. The accompanying fries are a nice touch, each baton is golden and fluffy and tossed in a smoked paprika sea salt.

Noods chose the Smoked Wagyu Benedict ($18) which was pretty humongous. A sesame studded bun is filled to the brim with ribbons of smoked wagyu, a forest of sauteed kale, dollops of eggless horseradish hollandaise and a poached egg. Definitely a meal for the hungry!

And because my eyes are bigger than my stomach I ordered the Peanut Butter French Toast ($12) which was the very definition of rich. Slabs of eggy french toast are sandwiched with peanut butter, doused in a Baileys maple cream sauce and topped with caramelised banana and a scattering of walnuts. Yeah, I couldn’t finish it but I sure gave it my best shot!

With awesome food, amazing coffee and service with a giant grin, Ms Murray’s looks set to be a hit with the locals!

Ms Murray
Shop 2, 88 Liverpool St
Sydney

Trading Hours:
Mon – Fri: 6.30am – 4pm
Sat & Sun: 9am – 4pm

So full disclosure, I’ve known Alex Wong aka Lex for a while now. From his days cooking epic meals at home; eating amazing food from his stints at Chica Bonita and China Doll, to eating stupid amounts of cheeseburgers after a night out on the town. He started Yang’s Food Truck to satisfy Sydney’s Malaysian food cravings and now together with his partner, Tina Nguyen as restaurant manager, they’ve opened Yang & Co in Castlecrag.

Anywhos onto the food! Lex starts us off with a bowl of crispy chicken skin which is omg SAH CRISPEH! There’s a puddle of chilli sauce on the bottom but me being the chilli noob I steer clear of it and appreciate it unadorned, closing my eyes to savour each crispylicious bite. Lex would like to make them a staple on the menu but ends up eating half the batch by himself 😛

The serving size of the Twice Cooked Masterstock Lamb Ribs with Nahm Pla Dressing ($17) is pretty damn generous, there are 4 ribs but each rib felt like it had 2 ribs worth of deliciously tender meat, complete with a gloriously creamy layer of fat. Seriously, lamb ribs are my fave! The flavour of the ribs were amazing, rich and slightly smoky and it didn’t really need any of the dressing tbh. I took my time ripping off shreds of meat with my teeth, sighing with regret when it was too late to fight Richard over the 4th rib!

My fave dish at Yang’s food truck was their Singapore Chilli Soft Shell Crab with Mantao ($17) so I was super glad to see it make a comeback at Yang & Co! The soft shell crab is lightly battered and as crunchy as ever and still manages to maintain its natural sweetness. We eagerly break apart the deep fried mantou buns and dunk them into the chilli gravy which is rich and just spicy enough to set the tastebuds alight.

Australia’s fave dish is on the menu, the Salt and Pepper Squid with nuoc cham ($16) is bang on the money, each curl of squid is lightly battered to a satisfying golden crunch.

When Helen and I saw the chalkboard special of Picked spanner crab, bone marrow, spicy Hennessy sauce and baguette ($29) we knew it had to be ours because well, bone marrow calls to us in our dreams. Blobs of bone marrow bob alongside sweet crab meat in a sauce that’s pretty damn fiery but I figure, no pain no gain right 😛 Crusty baguette halves are lightly toasted and probs didn’t need the added calorific richness of butter but hey it’s the perfect vehicle for schmearing everything on and delivering to my ready and waiting incisors.

The Roti Paratha with Chilli Caramel Pork Belly & Kimchi ($16) is pretty full on, the caramelised pork belly is so deliriously tender and fatty on the flaky roti but it’s pretty rich that I actively seek out the spicy kimchi for relief.

We were nearing explodey point and then Lex sends out the Poached QLD Banana Prawn & Corn Wonton in Ramen Broth with Onsen Egg ($16). I loved the broth, it was light and packed with flavour and we took great joy in stabbing the egg releasing a river of gooey yolk.

We admit we may have over ordered, especially when I can only manage a sliver of the Tea Smoked Duck, Hoi Sin, Mustard Sauce, Cucumber, Shallots with Roti ($39). The duck was moist, tender and lightly smoked but oh boy oh boy was I full…

When the Lemongrass Marinated T-Bone with Vietnamese Salad ($37) arrives, my stomach pretty much started screaming in protest at me to not fit in more food but THE HEART WANTS WHAT THE HEART WANTS DAMMIT! And I wanted steak! And it was delicious! Charred on the edges with melty pockets of fat, this steak is definitely a must order. And lol I gladly welcomed the pile of salad on top, a jumble of fat bean sprouts, mint and watercress that cut through all the richness.

We deliberately picked the lightest sounding dessert on the menu- Sago, Rockmelon, Poached Nectarine, Honeycomb & Granita ($12). It was light and refreshing and the perfect palate cleanser and I may have sneakily eaten more than my share of the buried rockemelon pieces…

I wished I lived closer to Yang & Co for it to be my local but I know I will definitely be back for those lamb ribs and more of those crispy chicken skin crackles!

Yang & Co
79 Edinburgh Road,
Castlecrag

Trading Hours:
Tues – Wed: 6pm – 10pm
Thurs – Sat: 4pm – 10pm

The boy and I celebrated our 6 years wedding anniversary last week by escaping to the Hunter Valley for the weekend. Normally when we’re in the Hunter we buy a whole lotta wines and cheese and that’s our dinner haha but this year we decided to splurge and dine at Muse Dining for their 7 course degustation menu and opted for the matching Hungerford Hill wines ($160pp) and alternate premium wines ($200pp). The light faded super fast so apologies for the progression of dark to darker photos, I swear it’s not an indication of how much I was drinking 😛

There’s a trio of ‘snacks’ before we start, we’re advised to eat the taro chip with a dollop of black and white garlic puree first, followed by the ras el hanout spiced macaron sandwiched with a creamy labna cheese filling. We finish with the incredibly fragrant shiitake, lemongrass and ginger tea, that had us nosily slurping up the last drop.

The Sashimi of Hiramasa Kingfish is the perfect starter, the curls of kingfish are fresh and zingy with the rice wine and eschallot dressing and I greedily scrape every smidgen of avocado because my god when will the prices of avos go down?! There’s pickled choko and celery which provide a pleasing crunch and I manage to chase each and every last grain of crispy wild rice.

The King Brown Mushroom ‘Noodles’ is spectacular in presentation, the deep black of the squid ink wafer contrasts against the almost pure white ribbons of cuttlefish and mushroom which are incredible tender and absolutely delicious swirled in the sake and miso cream. I know most people love the whole texture thing and would eat a bit of everything in one go but I chose to eat the wafer separately first, dipping a shard into the dabs of yuzu and ginger cream and slowly relishing the slight chew of each ‘noodle’. I think this was my fave dish of the night!

The hand chopped Venison Tartare is a hit, I’m quite taken by the crumbled hazelnut and what I initially thought were olives are in fact juicy blueberries. There’s a thin slice of apple on the bottom and some dabs of cultured goat’s milk to jazz up each mouthful. I would’ve perhaps loved a slice of toasted sourdough?

I have pretty low expectations when it comes to chicken because I’ve just been disappointed too many times but woah I was blown away by this course! The Little Hill Farm Chicken was super tender and was layered with a beauuuutifully creamy gorgonzola custard that had the perfect amount of saltiness balanced by the sweet corn polenta.

I was reaching max capacity when our final savoury course of 70 hour slow cooked Wagyu arrived but after one bite I was hooked and just could not stop eating it! The Wagyu was so ridiculously tender I could’ve used a spoon to cut it! And we absolutely loved the smokines of the charred broccollini which cut through the richness of the Wagyu. It probably didn’t need that large dollop of  katsuobushi butter but hey I mopped up every last bit all the same 😛

After the richness of the Waygu, the refreshing palate cleanser of gin granita and a rainbow of sweet, juicy grape halves is greatly appreciated.

The first of our desserts is pretty in pink, a quenelle of buckwheat sorbet sits atop piped coffee cream with dehydrated raspberry and white chocolate pieces scattered throughout. I love the nuttiness of the buckwheat, it’s a pretty addictive flavour that makes me yearn for more.

And the extremely Instagram worthy finale of the Muse Coconut! A dark chocolate shell holds coconut mousse and vanilla coconut water- definitely one for the coconut lovers!

There was an optional cheese course for $10 and I chose the Le Conquérant Grand Camembert cheese because well, there’s always room for cheese! It’s deliciously ripe and creamy and I loved the little wedge of honeycomb!

And Noods went for the Tarwin Blue Gippsland cheese which was super pungent oh boy haha

Muse Dining was an incredible dining experience, the service was spot on and the sommelier took the time to explain all the wines which put us at ease. I absolutely loved the food and am already planning my next trip to the Hunter Valley for a chance to dine here again!

Muse Dining @ Hungerford Hill Winery
Broke Rd,
Pokolbin

Lunch
Sat & Sun: 12noon – 3.00pm
Dinner
Wed – Sat: 6.30 – 10.00pm