Momofuku Seiobo, Pyrmont

As an extremely belated birthday present from my dearest younger sister, she treated me to a dinner at the Momofuku bar - what a darling :) Dining at the bar is as easy as 1, 2, 3. There is no need to go through the rumoured frustrating online reservation process. Just stroll right in after 6:30 and you could be eating pork buns in as little as 15 minutes without having to fork out for their degustation menu! I have desperately been wanting to try the pork buns here after really enjoying the ones from Ippudo :D

Our eyes were clearly bigger than our stomachs and we managed to order majority of the menu minus the pickled items. Shame because I really am interested to see what a pickled egg is like!

Pork buns, $15.00

The pork buns come as a serving of two and looked ever so inviting with two pieces of pork belly sandwiched in the middle with cucumber and hoisin sauce. Give a little squeeze from the sriracha bottle depending on how spicy you like it and it was perfect. The pork was so tender! The bun was so soft! It felt like biting into a pillow hehe. The flavour profile is completely different to that of Ippudo, so I really wouldn't compare the two at all.

Confit chicken wings, $16.00

Though the menu said wings, it came as a serve of three mini drumsticks and three wings. The chicken was deliciously succulent and coated in a super flavoursome sauce. Tried to keep it classy by eating these with our chopsticks :P

Spanner crab roll, celery salt chip, $22.00

While the crab brioche roll was nice, I wasn't particularly enamoured with it, instead being incredibly wowed by the celery salt chips on the plate! I would not have picked up on the very subtle celery flavour if it wasn't mentioned on the menu. I only paid careful attention because I was aware of it. That aside, I loved the chips! Thin, crispy, delicate. What's not to like?

Roasted rice cakes, xo, lamb, $17.00

I've had this dish twice now, with my friend ordering it when I came back for a revisit. When I first tried it, the ginger completely overpowered the flavour of the lamb. Was the mince beef? Pork? It was hard to tell, despite trying to get past that ginger hit. There was also a tad too much spice however, I still quite enjoyed this dish. It was quite addictive with the crunch of the outside of the rice cakes giving way to a soft, chewy centre. The balance of flavours on the second time around were spot on though! I enjoyed it much more that time. I'm just a bit surprised at the huge inconsistency in flavour at this high end establishment though.

Fried brussel sprouts, fish sauce vinaigrette, $15.00

I used to hate brussel sprouts but these mini cabbage-like vegetables have grown on me over the years. I generally enjoy them with bacon! However, this version won me over all over again. Slightly tart from the vinegar yet there was a strong salty kick from the fish sauce. Not to mention that crunch you get from the popped rice and the vegetable had slightly crispy outer leaves from being fried. I would've been happy with just this and a bowl of rice.

Top to bottom: bread & butter pudding, pear & almond, pecan danish, caramel au buerre sale, pineapple, caramel banana balsamic, salted butter caramel on toast, popcorn, lychee & coconut, fingerbun

And the sister and I could not resist getting a box of macarons from Zumbo right opposite of Momofuku. Special mention goes to the caramel banana balsamic which stole my heart! I was very wary about this one, despite the store assistant raving about it but boy am I glad we decided to get it after all. There was none of that artificial banana flavour crap, and it melded extremely well with the dot of reduced balsamic glaze in the centre of the macaron. Delicious! All of these were gone much too quickly. They were all way too delicious. I had my heart set on trying out the zonut, but apparently they are all gone by 1pm already :( Better luck next time I suppose.

Momofuku Seiobo
The Star, Level G, 80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont, NSW, 2009
http://momofuku.com/sydney/seiobo/

Opening Hours

Lunch
Friday + Saturday

Dinner
Monday - Saturday

Bar
Monday - Saturday: 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Friday + Saturday: 12:00noon – 2:00pm

BLACK by Ezard, Pyrmont

Oh dear I am quite horrible at this blogging thing. I haven't made a post in far too long! In between working, festive AND new year celebrations, I haven't had a chance to make any posts about the yummy food I've been nomming on! I guess I'll start with the wonderful meal I was taken out to today (thank you!) to celebrate recent happiness.

Upon seating, a complimentary loaf of brioche was brought out. I've seen it being blogged everywhere and everyone mentioned how small and cute it was, but I definitely did not expect it to be as small as it was! It was about the size of a softdrink can! It looked so much bigger in photos... And even in mine, you can't tell how small and cute it really is. But onto the brioche loaf itself, it was so soft and buttery like a croissant but not as sweet. Despite the oil sitting on your fingers, you can't help but lather on some more butter and sprinkling on some volcanic sea salt. Yum. Service was extremely friendly and they asked if we wanted an extra loaf of brioche as soon as they noticed we finished ours. Not wanting to fill up on bread, we shook our heads as we anticipated for the dishes to come!

Grapefruit mocktail, $13.00

We quickly picked out starters and mains and I was surprised at how the the dishes came out in no time at all! I started off with this grapefruit mocktail which had a zing of lime and elderflower which I found very refreshing. I know grapefruit isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I myself really do love this fruit so this mocktail was right up my alleyway!

Organic farm egg, $25.00

I've heard great things about the organic farm egg and it was a dish I was definitely excited to try. I noticed that they've changed it and it no longer has the shavings of black truffle on top. Shame because I really do love truffle. But excluding that, it was like a fancy breakfast. The soft boiled egg with its runny told was encased by a wonderful crisp pastry. Together with the salty prosciutto, the flavoursome potato cream and iberico jamon, I really enjoyed this dish and it was a great start to our dinner!

Oxtail, $27.00

The other starter we chose was the oxtail which had been caramelised so there was a delightful crunchy skin surrounding the tender meat which fell apart when I prodded it with my fork. The biggest surprise was the sichuan peppered enoki, chive and taro salad which was topped with a mushroom soil. I didn't expect it to have such a depth in flavour, which was mostly from the mushroom soil, and the crunchy taro pieces were a welcome surprise!

Handmade potato gnocchi, $29.00

Gnocchi is something I've actually never tried before despite being curious about it for the longest of times. It was chewier than I expected because I've heard it to be described as soft pillow clouds somewhere. Though I'm not complaining about chewiness because I am a fan of chewy Asian desserts (: I was hoping for a stronger spinach flavour in the spinach cream but the parmesan cheese provided enough flavour. Overall a pleasant dish.

Lamb rack, $48.00

Oh my, look at that pink lamb! This definitely outshone the gnocchi. The lamb was cooked to a perfect medium rare and the mustard, herb and black olive crust and the roasted garlic sauce, it was just divine. It paired very well with the creamy Jerusalem artichokes and watercress salad!

Chocolate, $23.00

We ended the night with a rich chocolate dessert. Our waitress poured on the warm ganache as soon as it hit the table! I was upset I didn't get to capture the perfect sphere that was our dessert before the ganache was poured on and melted the ball :( Oh well. The chocolate sphere encased a peanut butter mousse and dulce leche icecream which was okay on their own BUT tasted amazing when all the elements were combined together. This dessert definitely tipped me over the edge into almost food coma territory.

We were all smiles as we left The Star to nurse our full stomachs. Celebratory dinners definitely make happy days.

BLACK by Ezard
80 Pyrmont St
Sydney, NSW, 2009
9657 9109

Opening Hours
Lunch Wednesday - Friday: 12:00 - 3:00pm
Dinner Tuesday - Sunday: 5:30 - 11:00pm