Taj Indian Masala

North & South Indian Thali $13.90

I have wanted to visit this place for a while since every time I walk past the restaurant I can see many Indians eating inside- makes me think- this place must be authentic!

I finally got the chance when Hubby and I stopped by this place after watching a movie. We were on our way back to the car when we spotted the restaurant was still open so we decided to venture in and try the thali. We ordered one North Indian and one South Indian thali- this was a great way to try all their different curries, condiments/sauces and breads. I loved the variety that was presented to us as well as the quality & quantity of food. I found it all very delicious and quite spicy! I'd love to try the other dishes on their menu if I'm in the area again.

Located in Parramatta Westfields, this small takeaway restaurant is opposite Coles supermarket.

Gumnut Patisserie

My new job involves a lot of travelling. Occasionally I'm in Bowral and I like to stop over at the Gumnut Patisserie to have some morning tea since they have so many amazing sweet cakes on display. Today I tried a hazelnut layered cake and my colleague tried the Opera Gateau. 

This cake has layers of hazelnut mousse and apricot jelly, on top of a hazelnut biscuit base. The mousse is very light and the cake tastes absolutely delicious. The many different textures within these layers of cake make it a taste sensation for the mouth

My colleague ordered an Opera Gateau which was also delicious and rich tasting. Lots of chocolate, coffee & cream!

My coffee (latte) was so-so, a bit too watery for my liking and no creamy frothiness. I've also tried their quiche which tasted nice but unfortunately the pastry had gone soft.

I've heard the pies and sausage rolls are also good but I have yet to try them. Will add an update to this post next time I order one to try.

All in all, if you happen to be in Bowral, Gumnut Patisserie is a really nice place to visit and grab a slice of cake to savour. They've won many awards for their pastries and cakes and I must say, the quality and taste of the 2 cakes I've sampled so far is really impressive. Looking forward to trying some more the next time I'm in Bowral!

Fruit slice & Passionfruit cheesecake

Super Dish Chinese Restaurant

Super Dish Chinese Restaurant in Cabramatta is a great place to get tasty and authentic Chinese food that is good value for money. Service is also very quick and prompt. 

Preserved Egg and Lean Pork Congee $8.50

Hubby and I normally come to this restaurant to have congee. Living in the south west of Sydney, there are not many places that make a good bowl of congee so it's nice to have a place to go to locally and not have to travel all the way to Chinatown. The serving sizes for the congee are pretty big and generous.

Braised Rice Vermicelli in Singapore Style $12.00

Super Dish Chinese Restaurant also has a few Yum Cha dim sims to pick from their menu. I've tried Prawn Har Gow and Chicken Feet ($6.80 per dish). Both were very nice and tasted very authentic. The prawn har gow dumpling skin is thin and translucent with plenty of prawn meat filling whilst the chicken feet dish has  good balance of flavours.

Sugaroom

I love discount vouchers and a recent deal that I picked up from the Scoopon website was a 3 course set menu for 2 people for $74 at Sugaroom in Pyrmont.
I must say that I had a really enjoyable dining experience at this restaurant. Service was spot on and the food was fautless, fresh, delicious and generous.

Beef carpaccio, shaved pecorino, oregano, extra virgin olive oil $20

For entrée I picked the beef carpaccio. I've always wanted to try beef carpaccio and this dish didn't disappoint.

Beetroot cured ocean trout, cucumber and mint salad, chilli $23

Hubby had the ocean trout which was a very refreshing entrée with a subtle hint of chilli that left my mouth tingling.

Pan roasted dory, fennel fondant, broccolini, radish salad $35

Both hubby and I ordered the pan roasted dory for mains which was cooked to perfection. 

Chocolate crème brulee, raspberry marshmallow, macerated strawberries $16

Crème brulee was absolutely delicious- rich, velvety, smooth chocolate custard, with the strawberries cutting through the richness and providing some relief from the sweetness. The sugar top is crisp and snaps as you break through it with your spoon.

Passionfruit pavlova, chantilly cream, fairy floss $16

Light, tangy and a refreshing fruity dessert to finish off our meal with. The pavlova is actually a shell and it encloses a ball of cream  inside- so cool!

Would definitely come back to this restaurant again and pay full price! Wonderful experience, ambience, food and attentive service.

Ginger Indian Restaurant

The first time I went to Ginger Indian Restaurant was actually on 3rd July 2011 because I had a "Love It Up" discount voucher. Here was what was being offered: a 3 course meal (entrée, main & dessert) plus x2 side dishes, x2 glasses of wine for two people all for just $49, normally $110. Pretty good deal eh? I just had to check this place out.



Ginger Indian Restaurant is located on 94 Wigram Street Harris Park. Having never dined in Harris Park before, one of the first things I notice when driving down Wigram Street is how many houses have been converted to become Indian restaurants, Indian sweet shops or Indian convenience/grocery stores.

Ginger restaurant is one of these restaurants that is located inside a heritage house which enhances the warm, cosy and inviting atmosphere. What struck me initially about this place was how attentive the service was and how polite the staff were. From the time I made a dinner reservation over the phone to when I was dining inside the restaurant, staff were very friendly, courteous and accommodating.

Food is also delicious and meal prices are reasonable. There is a good selection of choices and food arrives well spaced apart. Overall a very pleasant dining experience. In fact, hubby and I enjoyed it so much the first time we went back a second time without a voucher. Here's what we ate, second time around...

Garlic Prawn entrée $12.90

The waiter asked how spicy we would like our entree so we opted for medium heat which was quite hot for us. When our entrée arrived we noticed that two of the prawns weren't cooked through which was disappointing but since it was seafood I let it go. Had it been chicken though I probably would've brought it to their attention.

For mains hubby didn't feel like eating anything too spicy and I wanted to eat a vegetarian dish so we ended up ordering the navratan korma- which had lots of different vegetables. The waiter explained that there were 9 vegetables in the dish, though I could only visually see 6?

Chicken Tikka was the other main that we ordered. We asked for mild knowing that if we had asked for medium it would've blown our heads off. Can't imagine what their hot curries taste like! 

Instead of ordering rice we decided to have naan with our curries. I was really excited to see garlic and cheese naan (combined) on the menu so decided to opt for that. Normally I would have one or the other but this restaurant offered both!

We were sufficiently full after our entree and mains so we decided to bypass dessert. But since I had a mango lassi as a drink during dinner, I didn't feel like I missed out on a sweet treat :)

Mango Lassi $4.00

Now, I can't really remember what I ordered the first time I dined at Ginger Restaurant (using the discount voucher) but I thought I'd still post the photos on my blog. Well, everything must've been good or I wouldn't have returned a second time around!
One thing I do remember though is that hubby and I were so full we had to lift our stomachs off the floor of the restaurant and drag ourselves back to the car!

Entrée 1

 Entrée 2

Mains

Dessert: Gulab Jamun $7.00

Would've preferred if they served the gulab jamun with a scoop of vanilla ice cream since I like the contrast of 'hot' and 'cold' but since hubby had ordered the mango kulfi it was all good.

Dessert: Mango Kulfi $6.00

Mango Kulfi was delicious, but it was a little bit too frozen. We had to wait for it to melt a bit before we could eat  it and I remember just wanting to just get right into it!

King's Indian Restaurant

King's Indian resturant describes itself as providng fine dining Indian cuisine. Now, I love eating Indian food but I tend to steer clear from fancy Indian places cause my experiences of it are that you often get stingy amounts of food for some exorbitant price that you could normally get at some family run Indian restaurant -you know, the kind of place that other Indians go to- that's how you know the food is authentic :) for a fraction of the price!
But Ouffer.com (group discount website) was offering the following: $35 for 2 entrees, 2 mains, 2 orders of rice, 2 naan breads and 2 glasses of wine (usually $110). Not bad... so I bought the deal a couple of months ago and realising that it was gonna expire soon, made a booking with hubby to check this place out.

However, I was a bit worried about dining in this restaurant and what my experience would be like since I had read on eatability.com.au some people's experiences were far from pleasant. For example, reviewers talked about being treated like second class citizens when they presented their vouchers and management/staff being rude. After reading these reviews, I pretty much sat through the entire evening anticipating that something bad was going to happen but alas, the service, food and the overall experience was quite lovely. Phew! (Maybe they took some tips from the customers/reviewers at eatability.com.au and learnt from them????)

Upon arrival at the restaurant, hubby and I were greeted by a smiling waiter and seated by the window. It was a Tuesday night and the restaurant wasn't completely packed- there were probably just 2 or 3 other tables with people dining.

The menu showed lots of good variety of Indian dishes- there were vegetarian, meat and seafood dishes as well as banquet options.

Angari Prawns $20.90

Since we were not limited with our choice of entree, we decided to opt for something more expensive on their entree menu- seafood options were more pricey than their vegetarian counterparts so we ordered the Angari prawns- marinated in yoghurt and cooked in a Tandoor oven. These prawns tasted absolutely delicious! They were well seasoned and pefectly cooked with a nice smoky bbq flavour from the Tandoor. Also really liked the spice powder that was sprinkled over the top. Not sure what it was though...

Machi Fry $19.90

The other entree we tried was the Machi Fry which were crispy fried flathead fillets marinated with Kishmiri chillies, ginger, garlic and battered with chickpea and cornflour.

One bite into the fish and immediately what struck me was how light and crispy the batter was with hardly any oil to be seen! I'd never had anything quite like it (it tasted even lighter than tempura batter). I was so surprised. The crispyness of the batter was a good contrast to the soft fish inside. Yum! This dish was so moreish!

Butter Chicken $18.90 & Lamb Korma $17.90

Unsure of how the food was going to measure up at the time of ordering, hubby and I decided to stick to some more common dishes for mains- butter chicken and lamb rogan josh.

Out of the two dishes I preferred the butter chicken dish as the chicken was moist and succulent whilst the sauce was really flavoursome with just the right hint of spicyness- great for dipping our naan bread! The lamb rogan josh was also enjoyable to eat as the lamb was quite tender and the sauce packed full of flavour. Both mains were generous serving sizes and provided lots of meat pieces- something that I wasn't expecting since I normally have to fish out the meat pieces in a pool of sauce at other Indian places.

Rice was also really nice with cumin seeds mixed through and garnished with some crispy shallots.

Garlic Naan $4.00

And finally, the garlic naan had good amounts of garlic as well as being nice and soft and not too oily.

Overall, the food at King's Indian restaurant is very good and the portions generous (hubby and I left the restaurant having to pick our bellies up from the floor cause we stuffed ourselves silly). Service was polite and the waiter we had was helpful when we were making our menu selection. The voucher made it all very great value for money however even without the voucher, the cost isn't considered over the top for "fine dining Indian". Our voucher included 2 glasses of wine but since hubby and I didn't want to drink wine we asked if we could swap it for some lassi but we couldn't so we opted for plain water instead. Funny that, I would've thought lassi would be less expense than wine... Ambience of the restaurant is nice- although I'm not sure about the hanging tv wall units that were playing bollywood music video clips. Plus I had some fingerprint marks on my plate- almost a fine dining experience... Would I go back? Maybe...

Moroccan Feast

This is the second time I've been to this restaurant but I didn't blog about this restaurant the first time I went which was in December 2010 (must've been busy with the Xmas season or something) so I thought I should write about it this time.

When you step inside the restaurant you instantly feel that you are transported to Morocco. The table tops are mosaic tiled, there are Moroccan themed coloured lanterns that hang from the ceilings as well as other ornaments like mosaic-style painted plates hanging on the walls and spice coloured fabrics cover the cushions that are placed on either the couches or chairs.

Even the toilet has a Moroccan theme! Here's a photo I took of a cupboard that stores toilet paper!

On both occasions that I dined at Moroccan Feast I had a discount voucher. My first voucher was from 'Jump On It': $39 for a 3 course meal and a bottle of wine, normally $80. This deal was pretty good value for money. I thoroughly enjoyed the food very much and I was sufficiently stuffed by the end of the night.

Spicy Meat Moroccan Cigars with Tahini~ 6 pieces $15; Rolled Eggplant stuffed with seasoned minced beef & topped with Tahini ~ 3 pieces $16

For entrée we ordered the spicy meat Moroccan cigars- kinda like a Moroccan version of spring rolls and rolled eggplant stuffed with beef. Both entrées were absolutely delicious.

Prawn tagine

For mains, hubby ordered the prawn tagine since he felt like eating some seafood but this dish was a bit ordinary in terms of flavour, maybe it wasn't the best choice for a tagine...

Lamb Tagine

Lamb tagine on the other hand is absolutely to die for- lamb meat falls off the bone effortlessly and is sweet tasting from the combination of apricots, caramelised onions and dates.

The dry, undercooked couscous is probably the only let down. Not even a topping of the tagine sauce can revive it.

Chocolate Soufflé $9 and Apple and Cinnamon Pie served with vanilla ice cream $8.50

Desserts were a bit ordinary and not very Moroccan- chocolate soufflé and apple pie!

My only suggestion for them would be to introduce some traditional style Moroccan desserts on their menu to cap off the Moroccan dining experience.

For drinks, instead of a bottle of wine we ordered home made lemonade with mint which was nice and refreshing and a perfect accompaniment to our meal.

My second voucher which I used on this occasion was from 'Spreets' and the offer was:
2 course feast for two including drinks $48 (valued at $96).

Second time around we didn't get a choice of what we wanted as an entrée  Instead we were given the Agadir Feast which was an assortment of salads served with pita bread and dips.

Agadir Feast~ a combination of 6 salads and dips $26; pita bread for dipping $1.80 a piece

Starting from the top, going from left to right there is the:

Chickpea salad, made with Moroccan Feast's special spice recipe
Tangier beetroot salad seasoned with the chef's spice mix
Smoked eggplant dip seasoned with garlic, lemon and salt
Red cabbage salad with coriander and fresh herbs
Lentil salad with capsicum, lemon and fresh herbs
Fez matbuha (tomato and capsicum dip with chilli and garlic)

All the salads and dips were delicious, very flavoursome and fresh tasting- my favourite was the smoked eggplant dip. It was great to sample so many different dishes

Lamb Tagine

For mains, hubby couldn't go pass the lamb tagine which we had ordered the first time we went to this restaurant and it was actually this dish that made me fall in love with this place. The lamb is melt in your mouth tenderness served with sweet dates, apricots, sultanas, almonds on a bed of couscous which was better this time since the sauce soaked into the couscous. The first time we dined here the couscous was served separately with some vegetables on the side and it tasted rather ordinary and a bit dry.

Chicken Marrakesh served on a bone with olives

Chicken was nicely cooked and again, the meat falling off the bone. Good flavour and generous portion size.

Overall, I would highly recommend this restaurant if looking for authentic, honest, home style Moroccan food that is tasty, good value for money. Service the first time we went wasn't that good- we had a very grumpy looking waitress who hardly spoke to us and made us feel a bit like second class citizens for using a discount voucher but the second time we got a lovely gentleman that was very accommodating with our last minute booking, polite, friendly and not overbearing-  he checked on us every so often without it feeling like it was intrusive or constantly interrupting our meal, the waitress was no where in sight- maybe she had left?

Adriano Zumbo Patisserie

Caught up with some girls from church over brunch and we stopped over at Adriano Zumbo's patisserie at Balmain for morning tea and then an afternoon tea at Adriano Zumbo's Cafe in Rozelle! Pure indulgence, I know!

It was about elevenish when we visited his patisserie in Balmain and there was already a small crowd hanging outside. When we went inside there was an assortment of pastries, breads and perfectly presented desserts.

I had originally picked 5 desserts but in the end decided to not get the chocolate mousse as the shop assistants advised for it to not be left out for more than half an hour. Since the girls and I still had plans to visit the Balmain and Rozelle markets I thought I could pick it up later in the afternoon but alas there was none left! So in the end I purchased a lemon meringue éclair, pear perfection, malteaser and passionfruit/citrus tart.

Lemon Meringue Éclair- as the name suggests, is a cross between a lemon meringue tart and chocolate éclair (two of my favourite desserts combined together). This dessert was simply delicious- the eclair choux pastry was cooked golden, filled with a lemon curd type filling- there were even chunks of lemon inside it which gave this dessert bursts of extra lemon, yum! For the top of the eclair instead of the usual chocolate fondant it was the meringue. It was very moreish!

Pear Perfection- by far the most elaborate looking out of all the ones that I had bought. This dessert was also featured in a pressure test on Junior Masterchef so naturally I was very keen to try this. I have to admit though I was slightly disappointed with this dessert as I didn't taste much pear flavour but having said that, pear isn't a very strong flavour in and of itself so it would've been hard to carry alot of that through in this dessert. As you can see in the photo below, this dessert was perfectly stacked with each layer perfectly defined. You can also see the different techniques and effort that went into making this dessert.

Malteser- This dessert had melted alot by the time I brought it home. In fact, it had collapsed and was a sloppy mess but despite the presentation being lost, the flavours remained intact and they were  fantastic and it tasted as the name suggesed, like those little balls of Maltesers.

Citrus tart- The most unassuming and plain looking of all the ones that I bought but it tasted absolutely delicious! The pastry base was nice, thin and short and the citrus filling was flavoursome and tangy. So refreshing to eat, elegant to look at and simple flavours to enjoy.

Unfortunately there wasn't a huge selection of macaroons to pick from on the day which was disappointing since I wanted to get a pack full of different flavours to share with other friends (I'm personally not a big fan of the macaroon).
Coffee Brulee was by far my favourite flavour out of the entire selection available on the day and as the name suggests it was like a creme brulee only coffee flavoured. Sugar crystals were coated on the outside of the macaroon with a coffee flavoured filling in the middle.
Lemon and Olive Oil- a classic combination flavour that always works well together. Could definitely taste both flavours infused into the macaroon.
Rice Pudding- this really did taste like a rice pudding! And I know what you're thinking 'durrh! That's what it says' but I didn't expect it to taste so much alike. This macaroon had a coating of cinnamon powder on the outside whilst the filling inside was soft and tasted "ricey".
Pear and Vanilla- again I couldn't taste much of the pear flavour in this but you could taste the vanilla. My girlfriends simply loved this flavour.

In the afternoon we decided to pay a visit to the cafe to get a cup of coffee and relax after a day of shopping. To our surprise, the place was a lot more smaller than what we had made it out to be and there really weren't all that many seats to sit on, maybe 9 in total? It was more like a bar with a couple of stools! Having said that though, where you are seated, you have full view of inside the kitchen and where they make all those yummy desserts ready to be delivered to the shops and customers.

I saw Adriano's team of pastry chefs piping macaroons and making various slices and bases. Some customers came to the shop to pick up their orders so I was also able to see 1 croquembouche and 1 macaroon tower. Impressive looking indeed!

Then suddenly, whilst we were enjoying our pastries, we caught a glimpse of the man himself Adriano Zumbo, inside the kitchen giving some directions to his staff. We all giggled hysterically that we caught sight of him and were frantically grabbing our cameras and phones from our handbags to take snapshots of him. Some of the girls were even banging on the window hoping to get his attention. Whilst it would've totally been awesome if we could've all got a photo with him it was still pretty cool that we got to see a glimpse of him in the flesh =)

Next time we're going to try and visit his new shop in Manly! Can't wait to try some more of Adriano's creations.