Rise - Mother's Day Dinner 2007

I have a whole list of restaurants that I want to try and Rise Restaurant has been on the list for as long as I remember. Because Darlinghurst is not as easy to get to as some City restaurants I’ve put off making a visit to this place until now.

Mum is a big fan of Japanese food so I wanted to take her to somewhere a little different for Mother’s day. After some googling I realised that Rise Restaurant has a 30% discount for their Omakase 7 Course Degustation Menu on Sundays, making that $42 per person – perfect!

I was dead tired after work, the store was really busy with people buying last minute mother's day gifts. I was looking forward to dinner all day long, and my shift couldn't end soon enough!

The restaurant is really small and exudes a feeling of comfort and intimacy. The service is amazing and it’s really exciting to watch the chef prepare the dishes on the bench top near by. The only source of light came from small tea light candles, as a result it was extremely hard to get good photos (I usually turn off the flash as I don’t like to interrupt other people who are enjoying a quiet meal).

Appetizer -prawn & grapefruit salad on cauliflower mousse with sweet chilli sauce

The portions are small but the flavours are powerful and is just enough to leave you craving for more.

Soup - clear soup lemongrass, oyster tempura & tofu

The fried oyster in this soup is just sensational!

Sashimi - assorted fresh market sashimi,

We also ordered some hot Sake $12 for 180ml and a few Asahi beers $7 to have with our meal

Seasonal plate - spicy tuna tartare in wonton cup, soft shell crab sushi roll, cured salmon with spiced mayo

Pasta dish - grilled scaloop & bucatini pasta with coconut cream sauce

Main course - chicken confit, sauteed potatoes, mushroom & bacon with soy red wine jus

My chicken was succulent and moist, if I had any criticism it would be that the chicken was a little on the salty side, but once you eat it with a bit of rice it's not too bad.

Dessert - pannacotta with persimmon compote & granita

I'm back here again with a few of the girls on Wednesday for our bi-monthly dinner, sadly it will also be our farewell dinner to Jill. Hopefully I can get a good shot of the food preparation by the chef when we come next.

Rise Restaurant

23 Craigend St.
Darlinghurst NSW
PH： 02-9357-1755　

Omakase Degustation Menu (30 % discount, Tue, Wed & Sun Only -$42/per person)
A la carte on other days
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I know it's suppose to be mother's day and all, but some how I ended coming home with all these gifts that Mum had bought for me at a sale. A pair of Sass & Bide jeans, a dress by H&M, Estee Lauder Lip gloss & Skin care set, a Bobbi brown make up travel brush and a new winter suit from Events.

ViV's 22nd @ Aurora Bar & Masuya

22....sooo young!

The night kicked off at Aurora Bar located behind Chifley Plaza, the birthday girl downed a few shots whilst Matty entertained Joe and myself retelling the story of a particular crotch grabbing incident. Joel on the other hand tried to rally support for Hovember in place of Movember for next year; needless to say that his idea was not a success with the girls.

At 8:00pm we headed off to Masuya for some much anticipated dinner. I love Masuya because it's a classy Japanese restaurant without the expensive price tag. It comfotably seated our group of 20 and the food came out super fast.

Entrees

Beef tataki: $10.80 x 4
Spicy Karaage chicken: $9.80 x 4

Pipi Chilli & Garlic, $15.80 x 4
BBQ Calamari: $10.50 ea x 4

Mains

Tofu & Avocado salad: $8.80 x 4
Sushi & Sashimi deluxe: $27.80 x 4

Wagyu premium beef misoyaki: $28 x 2
Masuya chicken cutlet: $15.80 x 4


Wagyu premium beef teriyaki: $28 x 2
Tempura seafood: $16.80 x 4

Unaju BBQ Eel: $16.80 x 4
Birthday Girl with a lot of $$ x 1


Tash & I (She's leaving us for Melbourne soon.. booo)

There was so much food that people were rolling around moaning "I'm soo full..". The night was full of great laughs and great food, a perfect way to end the week. After dinner the young people kicked on for more drinks whilst the oldies like me went home.

Happy Birthday Viv!!

Masuya (Jan)

Masuya (April)

Masuya
Basement Level
12-14 O'Connell St Sydney
PH:(02) 9235-2717

Living in a hole

Some times I really do wonder if I have been living in a hole, I say this because Jacky came home one day and said:
Jacky: "Did you know that there is a food court under Woolies in Town Hall??".
Me: "Oh you mean the Galleries Victoria one?"
Jacky: "No, No I mean directly under Woolworths"
Me: "You mean the one near the IGA and there's a Michel's?"
Jacky: "No under Woolies!"
Me: "There's no stairs to go down, how can there be??"
Jacky: "It's there! I'll show you"

I just wouldn't believe him, I mean I've lived in the City all my life went to Syd Uni and worked next to Woolies in Town Hall for over 5 years! How could I not know if there was a food court there?!!? So this week Jacky took me there for lunch to prove it.

To get there you enter Woolworths on George St, walk straight towards the other end of the store till you see this exit sign and walk through.

When you exit you will come out at a Japanese/Korean supermarket and in front of you, you will see stairs with a big arrow that says "Food Court".

Once you go down you will see a food court full of Asian dishes to choose from, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai you name it! What shocked me the most was that this food court was packed! Every other Asian person in Sydney was here, this reiterated the fact that I MUST have been living in a hole all these years!

Jacky had something Japanese (was really nice) whilst I settled for the beef noodle soup. Prices here are all at the $8 mark, though there seems to be $5 specials from 3pm to 5pm.

Angii I can't believe that I bumped into you here, of all places! see you at Dinner on Thursday.

Recent Eating Adventures

Baba Laska House

I cook lunch to bring to work on most days but now and then we'll meet up with friends for a bite. You can live in Sydney for years and years walk past a place every day and not notice it at all until someone points it out to you, Baba Laksa House is one of these places. It is located on York St and is tucked away inside the building pictured below. The only thing that points to the existence of this place is the little sign outside the door giving a run down of their most popular dishes. Come 12 0’clock the place gets packed! The food comes out fast and the wait staff is polite. My favorite is the Hainanaese chicken rice (you can pick between the breast or thigh) but what I really come for is their chili garlic sauce that leaves me with killer garlic breath.

Jacky had the laksa, I've yet to try it myself but judging by the amount of people that have it, it must be pretty good. Dishes aren’t the cheapest (around $7.80-$9.80) but are consistent with city prices.

Baba Laksa House
ShpG8/ 77 York St Sydney
(02) 9299 5833

Masuya

Everyone knows that I have a lot of Masuya love, I come here about once every 2 months because I love the service, the food and because I have a frequent diners card.

Oriental Beef Salad: Rare cooked thinly sliced sirloin beef, onion cucumber, coriander, mint leaves with lime citrus dressing $9.80

Sapporo Hot Pot -Seafood, chicken, fishcake, deep-fried tofu, udon noodle, coriander and vegetables in soymilk and dashi soup with fresh chili and garlic$22.80 p.p.

To enjoy this dish you must be a fan of soy milk! although the minimum is for 2 people you can easily feed 3. You start with the soy milk, bring it to a boil and progressively add the seafood, chicken etc.

Yum-O!

Masuya
Basement Level
12-14 O'Connell St Sydney
PH:(02) 9235-2717

Star Bar & Scruffy Murphy's

(The battle of the $5 dollar steaks)

Well not really $5 because Star Bar has now up their prices to $5.95 but I just loveeee steaks! and eating out can get really expensive. I always knew that you could get cheap steaks at the bar, but I always thought 'for $5 it MUST be pretty crap', I was so so wrong!

The only condition is that you have to buy a drink and to me it's bargain no matter how you look at it.

Star Bar

Star Bar has a much nicer atmosphere and is a great place to sit down for a drink after work, but when it comes to the food the clear winner for me is Scruffy Murphy's. It took a lot of convincing before Jacky could get me in there, but now we're there for dinner almost once every week. It's cheaper, the mash is tasty, the gravy is really nice and they provide you with a selection of other sauces (Tomato, sweet chilli & worcestershire).

Scruffy Murphy's

Scruffy Murphy's
43-49 Goulburn St Sydney
PH: (02) 9211 2002

Star Bar
600 George St Sydney
PH: (02) 9267 7827

Quiznos

About 6 years ago Jacky and I were devastated when the whole chain of Quiznos subs closed down. Back then we were such devoted fans of Quiznos we refused go near a Subway. You can imagine our delight when we found out that the stores had re-opened (via the vouchers in the Entertainment book). Today after many years we had our first Sandwich….ahh the memories….

Quiznos
World Square Shopping Centre
Shop 9.6 Goulburn Street Sydney
PH:02 9283 8663