Chur Burger, Surry Hills

If there's one thing you cannot eat gracefully, it's got to be the burger. But there's just something about burgers that always hit the spot. Definitely not the healthiest thing in the world, but if you're gonna splurge on your health kick, it may as well be on something amazingly delicious like a good old burger right? Alas, I love food too much to ever think about dieting (as do my fellow food lover friends) and that is how my fellow friends Chef Meathead, Miss Dentist-In-Training and I end up at Chur Burger on a Tuesday night - lured in by the promise of $10 burgers.

Pulled pork, Chur BBQ sauce, red slaw & fennel mayo burger, $10.00

There was one burger and one burger only that I was going to order. I only had eyes for the pulled pork. It comes to you looking deceptively small, but this baby's packed to the brim full of pulled pork. Would you like some bread with your pork? Would I ever! The pork was incredibly juicy and wonderfully sweet and simply just worked with the slaw and mayo. Some flavour combos are just meant to be you know?

Crumbed fish fillet, pickled cucumber, lemon mayo & dill burger, $10.00

Miss Dentist-In-Training was ever so kind enough to give me some of her fish burger and I was pleasantly surprised that it was quite nice because I am not normally a lover of things reminiscent of fish fingers. However, my heart was stolen by the pulled pork burger very early on in the night. I gotta say, I think Chur's winning mayo is what makes their burgers so awesome.

L to R: Sweet potato fries, $5.00 / Crumbed fish fillet burger, $10.00 / Strawberry milkshake, $8.00

If you love that artificial strawberry flavour like you can get at those old school milk bars, go for the strawberry milkshake! I personally love it, though I know some people are quite against it, so I really loved drinking the milkshake and feeling like a kid again. Chef Meathead's salted caramel milkshake was also pretty good but he did say it started getting a little bit too sweet the more he drank it.

Sweet potato fries, garlic & lime, $5.00

I'm an avid fan of sweet potato, and I love them baked just plain BUT if I'm going to order them at a restaurant, I would expect more than just the same kind of sweet potato that I make myself at home. I was excited about the garlic and lime but unfortunately I didn't get a taste of either. And I know there's something nice about home style chunky cut chips, but some of the pieces were huuuge. I'm talking half a sweet potato per single chip...

Chips & chilli salt, $5.00

These were much more crispy than the sweet potato fries and don't worry if you can't handle your chilli because the chilli powder wasn't very hot. My friend ended up chucking on a whole tonne of tabasco sauce for that chilli kick he was looking for.

Chef Meathead happily demolishing his pulled pork burger

Seriously do not underestimate the size of the burger! It looks so small but there's so much filling that we all left Chur Burger in a semi food coma-esque state. But we also had a lot of potato to get through (with Chef Meathead ordering a whole batch for himself). I think our eyes are too big for our stomachs - I always want to order everything on the menu! And especially with my friend Miss Dentist-In-Training who has eyes equally as big... We are a bad combo :P

I really wanted to try the chicken wings here but we had nowhere near enough stomach space to do so. Ah, next time. So tell me, do you guys have issues with wanting to order everything on the menu like I do?

Chur Burger
48 Albion Street
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010

Opening Hours
Monday: 11:30am - 5:00pm
Tuesday - Saturday: 11:30am - 10:00pm
Sunday: Closed

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

Grill'd, Darling Harbour

There's something satisfyingly good about tucking into a bigass burger that has an assortment of everything in it. And today, my friends and I were looking for just that when in search of a good feed for lunch. Luckily Harbourside was open this long Easter weekend! And we can always trust Grill'd to serve good burgers.

Clockwise from top: regular chips, $4.95 + herbed mayo, $0.70; summer sunset, $12.50; moroccan lamb, $12.90; almighty, $13.50

The chips were crunchy and generously seasoned with oregano. Combined with the herbed mayo, we got an oregano hit with these sticks of potato! My friends both enjoyed their burgers and said they were really good :)

Almighty stuff this burger

I was eager to tuck into mine - I ordered the biggest out of all of us! We were given a choice out of wholemeal or white sourdough and I went with the latter. Sourdough just gets me every time - would've been perfect if there was a wholemeal sourdough option!

The Almighty burger wasn't given that name for no reason at all - just look at how much they jam-packed into this baby. Grilled grass fed lean beef, tasty cheese, crispy trim bacon, free range egg, a couple of slices of beetroot with salad, relish and herbed mayo was what comprised this massive burger. Patty was tender and not at all dry and went together so well with every other element in this burger mmm... My bacon wasn't crispy, but I'm not fussy - it was easier to eat this way :)

Clockwise from top: passionfruit soda, $3.00; iced sweet potato latte, $4.30; grapefruit juice, $3.00

With all the crowds exploring the Easter activities around Darling Harbour, we decided to venture over towards Town Hall for somewhere quieter. Tom n Toms is a nice little cafe and we quickly nabbed the last table before anyone else could steal it. If you like your drinks sweet, definitely go for the sodas! Passionfruit soda always goes down a treat. The sweet potato latte really tasted of sweet potatoes - definitely never imagined sweet potato being made into a drink with milk but it worked surprisingly well. The grapefruit juice was slightly tart - exactly what I needed to break down the heavy burger I just had :) What I do want to try from here next time is the garlic butter toast or the cream toast!

So what do you think makes a good burger my fellow readers? Any favourite combinations that you have that you believe makes the ultimate burger?

Grill'd
10 Darling Drive, Harbourside Shopping Centre
Darling Harbour, NSW, 2000
9281 5121

Opening Hours
Sunday - Thursday: 11:30am - 10:00pm
Friday - Saturday: 11:30am - 11:00pm



Tom n Toms
97-99 Bathurst St
Sydney, NSW, 2000
9267 9989 

The Abercrombie, Chippendale

 
Who's heart stops just thinking about a deep-fried Golden Gaytime? As if the Golden Gaytime itself was rich enough, the crew over at the Abercrombie just had to dip it in batter and chuck it in the deep fryer too! My friends and I decided to catch up over a super late lunch after uni, since this hotel is very close by.

They have specials during the week as well as tonnes of lunch specials from 12-4pm for just $10! CHEAP AS.

Korean fried cornflake chicken, $10.00 lunch special

Who doesn't love fried chicken? I've never had one with a cornflake batter, but this was just as good with a nice crunchy exterior, succulent meat and damned awesome with a squeeze of lime and dunked into the spicy mayo on the side. The ketchup heart was a cute touch don't you think?

Deep fried mac n cheese, $10.00 lunch special

Mac and cheese is already comfort food at its finest - creamy, carbolicious and heavy. With a crunchy batter on the outside? Even better. Not something I'd have every day of course :P And definitely goes down with jugs of beer and cider - get them at only $10/jug from 12-10pm Monday to Friday which is insanely good value!

Double reuben dog, $10.00 lunch special

I normally have enough trouble finishing one hot dog (damned being a small Asian girl) so when this huge as double dog came to the table, I was stunned. How was I to finish this? It was bigger than all my guy friend's schnitzels and burgers! They were definitely generous with the mustard,sauerkraut and dill pickle sauce. And squeeze on the ketchup they give you on the side and you have a solid hot dog. Waaay too filling for me but hell yes to getting your bang for buck!

Deep fried chocolate brownie, $7.00

Yes, they now have a deep fried brownie. Whaaat. A bit too heavy for me - I think I'll stick to traditional brownies thanks :)

Deep fried golden gaytime, $7.00

To be honest, I wasn't particularly overly keen for this as it has been hyped up by the food bloggers all over the blogosphere. It was good, but not something so fantastic I wouldn't be able to help myself but rave about it to everyone. It really is like the deep fried ice-creams you get at Asian restaurants but with a Golden Gaytime centre instead :)

All in all, the Abercrombie has solid pub food that is great for uni students on a tight budget. Relaxing vibe, cheap booze and as long as you have good company, you're set for a good time.

The Abercrombie
100 Broadway (Corner Abercrombie Street)  
NSW, 2007, Chippendale