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

Arisun, Sydney Chinatown

 
After falling in love with Korean Fried Chicken at NaruOne, my friends and I were pretty keen on expanding our Korean Fried Chicken experiences and apparently Arisun is one that is pretty good in Sydney! The bar was already raised very high from my experience at NaruOne.

Wasabi mayo fried chicken, $30.00

First up is the wasabi mayo fried chicken. It came boneless and with a giant vat of wasabi mayo which only had a mild kick of wasabi so don't you worry for those of you who are not wasabi fans. While it wasn't bad in terms of flavour, I found the batter to be slightly soggy and was lacking that crunch factor I was looking for. And I tend to love my chicken on the bone as I find the meat more flavoursome. The kimchi had a nice spicy kick and was pretty good though.

Sun's fried chicken with soy sauce, $30.00

As you can see, we were very keen on eating fried chicken, and ordered two fried chicken dishes. There was a noticeable crunch when bitten into, unlike the previous one, but my preference would have to lie with the chicken with wasabi mayo. I was super glad to see wings within the mix and match pieces of the bird, but there were some grisly bits that were mostly bone and didn't have much meat on them at all - it was pretty much a lot of bone and batter and for $30, you would expect some good pieces of chicken in there. The pickled daikon is something that I could continue eating! I love pickled items :D

Fish cake soup, $15.00

One of my friends has a hankering for fish cake, so this soup was ordered. I was looking forward to something warming on the cold, rainy day it was. There were plenty of fish cake pieces floating around. It was alright, but nothing spectacular. A bit on the salty side.

Overall, my experience at Arisun was quite average. If I do get a craving for fried chicken, NaruOne I'm looking at you! I do have to mention that the staff were pretty friendly here though and we managed to score a normally priced $13.00 bottle of sake for $5.00, so that was a redeeming factor. So let me know, what has been your best experience of fried chicken ever?

Arisun
1 Dixon St
Sydney, NSW, 2000

Alrose Garden, Strathfield

Met up with my girlies a few days ago on a Tuesday night in Strathfield for some Korean feed.

Fried chicken, $14.00 with extra sweet spicy sauce, $1.00

Fried chicken!! You have to get the extra sweet spicy sauce because it makes it taste much better. This fried chicken came with the usual pickled daikon (which I love) and the chicken was decent, though it's got nothing on NaruOne, I'm sorry. Just wasn't as juicy or succulent. Could really go back for more of NaruOne's fried chicken right now!

Udon stir fried with udon, $15.00

They definitely were not stingy with the seafood here at all! Look at all that octopus, squid, mussel, and prawns... The spicy sauce had a lovely kick to it.

Beef ribs and vegetables with rice cakes, $15.00

This dish had a similar spicy sauce to the udon but who's complaining when it tastes good and there's rice cakes? I think I have a slight obsession with those chewy strips of goodness. The beef could've had a little more time to cook just to make it fall of the bone, but the flavour was there and it was pretty fantastic. Hidden vermicelli noodles hidden underneath everything! I loved dipping the rice cake into the sweet spicy sauce that came with the fried chicken. That was some good chilli sauce.

Pork schnitzel with rice and salad, $15.00

Holy look at the size of that schnitzel! To give you an idea of how huge that schnitzel was, that little mound of purple rice is the normal serving size of rice you would get when going to restaurants. Yep. The schnitzel was as big as my face. And boy was it good. The crust was so crunchy, yet not excessively oily. The sweet and sour sauce provided on the side really finished things off. Loved the purple rice as well - something I had never seen until now! Slightly more sticky than the normal white rice I eat.

Good food and huge serving sizes. Ended up being less than $15 per person!

Headed over to Yogurberry for dessert because who doesn't have room for froyo? :D Bumped into a few other friends I hadn't seen for a while too - it's always great catching up!

Alrose Garden
7-9 Churchill Ave
Strathfield, NSW, 2135
9764 1117

NaruOne Korean Restaurant, Sydney CBD

Who's eyes light up at the words fried chicken? I know mine do. And I think I have discovered a gem at NaruOne, thanks to grabmyfork. She ranks this fried chicken as number 1 in Sydney! If fried chicken doesn't convince you to drag your ass down there, I'm sure her recommendation will ;)

Fried chicken with spring onion, $32.00

Say hello to my photo-bomber friend right there. But onto the good stuff. This fried chicken is worth every artery-clogging moment. The batter has been fried to a state crispy golden goodness that crunches with every bite. And no stringy chicken underneath that awesome batter, all succulent wonder. Eaten with the dipping sauce provided makes my tastebuds sing with joy. This is a place of happiness. Who knew Koreans specialised in frying chicken? :D There was also some pickled daikon to act as a mouth cleanser. Pickled anything tends to win me over.

Rice cakes stir fried in chilli sauce, $12.00

And I think my Shanghainese background prevailed me into ordering these rice cakes. I love rice cake. At first, you will think that chilli sauce isn't too hot. But that fieriness builds up in your mouth the more you eat until there is a significant burning happening. Water!! I'd say it's worth the burn though. Definitely a different spiciness than what I'm used to.

Who likes chilli? And what kind of hot do you prefer? Or do you tend to avoid anything spicy and hot altogether?

NaruOne Korean Restaurant
375 Pitt St
Sydney, NSW, 2000
9261 2680

Opening Hours
Tuesday-Saturday: 11:00 -  3:00am
Sunday-Monday: 11:00am - 10:00pm