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A couple of weeks ago there was some disturbing revelations about some of NSW's restaurants. On the 2nd, July, The Daily Telegraph posted a list of offending restaurants which the state government have identified for breaking the health and hygiene laws.
Just by looking at the pictures they show makes me want to puke. It's so disgusting to even think people would actually eat at these places. Have any of you readers been to any of these restaurants? If so, please share.
THE following 12 restaurants and food outlets have been named by the NSW Food Authority for breaking health and hygiene laws.
1) Thip Thong Thai Restaurant, Penrith, fined $660, fail to keep clean premises and keep clean fixtures and appliances
2) Law Kee Chinese Restaurant, Penrith, fined $660, fail to keep clean premises and keep clean appliances and equipment
3) Subway Lakehaven, Lakehaven, Wyong, fined $660, fail to keep premises clean
4) Bon Appetit Family Restaurant, Wollongong, fined $660, fail to maintain potentially hazardous food under temperature control
5) Long Hua Meals Link, Balgowlah, fined $660, no hot water to hand wash basin and fail to maintain potentially hazardous food under temperature control
6) Brown Jug, Fairfield Heights, fined $330, fail to maintain hand wash facilities
7) McDonald's, Tumbi Umbi, fined $660, fail to maintain hand wash basin in good working order
8) Kenta, Military Rd, Neutral Bay, fined $330, unclean meat slicer
9) New Addison Chinese Takeaway, Erskineville, fined $660, fail to maintain fixtures, fittings and equipment in clean condition and fail to maintain handwash facilities
10) Bun Bo Hue Dong Ba Restaurant, Cabramatta, fined $990 fail to keep premises clean and unclean shelving
11) Rengaya Japanese Restaurant, North Sydney, fined $660, smoking in dry food store
12) Game meat processing plant, Walcha, fined $330, carried on food business without licence
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Okay, here's another ever popular family restaurant opening up in the changing and expanding Macarthur area, Pancakes on the Rocks. Many of you may think this famous restaurant only exists at "The Rocks", Sydney. Well, that's what I initially thought. I must be the last person that lives in Macarthur who found out about Pancakes opening here. Apparently, Pancakes on the Rocks have also sprouted in Northmead and Darling Harbour. Here are the list of locations.
THE ROCKS
4 Hickson Rd, The Rocks, Sydney
Trading Hours: 24 HOURS, 7 DAYS A WEEK
Phone: 02 9247 6371 | Fax: 02 9252 2900
Email: therocks@pancakesontherocks.c om.au
NORTHMEAD
100 Briens Road (Corner of Redbank Road) Northmead
Trading Hours: Sunday to Thursday 7am-11pm | Friday and Saturday 7am-Midnight
Phone: 02 9683 4322 | Fax: 02 9683 7587
Email: northmead@pancakesontherocks. com.au
DARLING HARBOUR
229/230 Harbourside Shopping Centre, Darling Harbour
Trading Hours: Sunday to Thursday 7am-11pm | Friday and Saturday 7am-Midnight
Phone: 02 9280 3791 | Fax: 02 9280 0467
Email: darlingharbour@pancakesonther ocks.com.au
CAMPBELLTOWN
Centric Park, 4 Hyde Parade, Campbelltown
Trading Hours: Sunday to Thursday 7am-11pm | Friday and Saturday 7am-Midnight
Phone: 4627 5656 | Fax:4627 8086
Email: campbelltown@pancakesontheroc ks.com.au
PARKING AVAILABLE underneath, entrance just past Gloria Jeans
Since it opened in Campbelltown earlier this year, I'd been keen to give it a go and see whether it was able to maintain the standards of its mother restaurant at the Rocks, Sydney. I wasn't in a hurry to enter it's doors. I knew the place will be totally packed for the first few months after opening. Campbelltown residents have been deprived too long from restaurants other than McDonald's, Red Rooster, KFC etc... etc..
I was able to finally drag the hubby out of bed for 10 o'clock Sunday brunch. I decided it was pancake Sunday. So off we went. Not knowing exactly where is was. All I knew is that it was in the new development area between the Catholic Club and Macarthur Square, called Central Park.
When we got there, the place was about half full with lots of staff walking around. We sat and decided our menus. The waitress came and took our orders. Then the long waiting game began. It was unbelieveable. We waited for about 40 minutes for a simple pizza and chicken mushroom crepe. It was only after we did receive our meal, our drinks decided to turn up. It took for my husband to go up to the bar himself to alert them we were still waiting for our drinks. I thought that was bad enough.
While we ate, the people next to us were receiving their drinks. Suddenly, there was a huge splash of sticky drink everywhere. The waitress accidentally spilled the drink all over the customers table, clothes and on the floor. What we thought to be very wrong was that the waitress just stood saying sorry while the customer started cleaning it up with their serviettes, including the floor!! I don't know if those people got compensated for that. They should have at least been given a free meal.
Food was ok. Nothing surprisingly exciting about it. I thought is was just right for brunch. I did not like the long wait very much at all. By the time we finished, it was lunch time.
It's what happened next after we got up to pay for our meals that made me realise what was one thing this restaurant was lacking. A waitress (I'm not sure if it's the same one) carrying a glass of strawberry milkshake dropped it and splilled it all over the timber floor. I couldn't look. I felt so bad for the waitress. The waiters were inexperienced. Well, either that or just very clumsy.
The total cost of the meals was very cheap. Having the Entertainment Book voucher makes a huge difference. We only paid about $24 for two people. Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the place. I think I won't be going back there in a hurry. I think I'll wait until they settle in a bit more. Hopefully the service improves significantly and speeds up. It's a bit of a worry that we had to wait so long for simple brunch in a not so full place. I can imagine what it may be like during a full house during dinner, eeeccckkk.... Yep, definately can wait awhile before I go back there.
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Of the many, many times I have been to the Hunter Valley, this was my first time to try Hungerford Hill's famous restaurant in the region, Terrior Restaurant. We tried to have lunch here last year by just rocking up there with no reservations. Not only did we get rejected at the door, we felt it too. The waiter, or who ever he was was so rude. There is a pleasant way to say they are fully booked. Oh well. Maybe he was having a bad day at the time.
Although our first impressions were not so good from last year. I was still determined to try this place out. It's been highly recommended by the Hunter Valley tourism booklets. So I made sure I made reservations days before we arrived.
When we arrived around lunch time, 12:30pm on a Saturday, we were very surprised on just how empty the place was. No one was there at all! A huge contrast from last year.
We took our seats near the window with the view and sun ( because it was a rather chilly day). Since we were the only customers there at that time, we had very nice personalised service. Food arrived at the right time and it was a delight. Terrior Restaurant is considered to create modern Australian cuisine. Menus which purposely compliments the Hungerford Hills award winning wines.
For mains, husband ordered the eye fillet of beef with truffle butter, mushrooms, roast garlic and confit tomatoes $40; wine match glass - 2005 Hungerford Hill Shiraz, Hunter Valley, NSW
I was feeling a little ill from the ride from Sydney to Pokolbin, so I ordered an entree for my main. scallops, almond tarator, asparagus and green olive salsa $24:
wine match glass - 2007 Hungerford Hill Pinot Gris, King Valley, Victoria
Food was top class. Hubby enjoyed his very tender beef and I very much enjoyed the scallops. Serving was just right. Service was a lot more friendly this time. The waiters would come to chat a little with us and made sure we were ok with our meals. It was a pleasant experience. Soon the place started to take in more patrons. I thought, thank goodness for that. I just hate being the only customers in a big restaurant. There's something about being the only one there and the waiters are so attentive to our every bite  Ahh.. maybe it's just me?
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Casuarina Restaurant is the name. It's not in Sydney but rather in the heart of Sydney's closest wine country region, the Hunter Valley. The Hunter Valley is a very popular destination for Sydneysiders and it's only 2 hours from Sydney. So even if it's not a "Sydney" Restaurant, I thought I should make a review on their faboulous restaurants. Casuarina is a definate favourite of ours.
Hubby and I made our annual pilgrimage to the land of the vine over the Queen's birthday long weekend. Being lovers of wine, dining and cheese, I can't think of a perfect place to visit and not having to travel too far for it
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Wow.... I was totally impressed with this place. For years now since moving to the Camden area, I've been wanting to try this place out. It's been recommended several times in the Macarthur Dining Magazine and won many awards.
It finally happened one cold Thursday night when our plans to exit the M5 and head for Macarthur Square was abolished after seeing the ridiculous Narellan Road traffic. Instead we turned right and headed for Narellan. I then thought it was a great opportunity to try out Lexies. The hubby was hungry so he was not in the right frame of mind to say no. Bingo
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In my last post, I publicised how Sydney restaurants making it into best restaurants in the world ranks. This time a new revelation has surfaced. The best bars in the world.
To my surprise, Sydney managed to score 3 bars to make top 100. Seeing there were 1407 bars, in total, is not a bad effort at all. Chosen as number 38 Jimmy Liks in Kings Cross, followed by theloft at 68 and Water Bar at 76
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Results have come out. The top 50 restaurants in the world according to S.Pellegrino, was published on SMH last week. Sydney own Tetsuya's remains to be in the top 10!!! Now at number 9. The other only Australian restaurant to make the top 50 is Sydney's Rockpool (fish) which came in ranked 49.
Here is a listing of the complete top 10 in the world
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This has got to be the best spanish restaurant I've been too. It certainly is the only one I would like to come back to. Encasa is located in the CBD. It offers a large variety of tapas and other menu items including the ever famous paella. I say this because even when my husband and I got to the place rather early, there was already 5 orders of paella waiting to be cooked. Sadly, therefore we weren't able to try out the paella. We couldn't wait 1.5 hours for it. So Tapas it was for us.
Coming to Encasa for Friday night dinner was a last minute thing. We decided to have dinner in the city before heading home. My husband has been talking about Encasa for quite some time. He's been boasting about it since his business lunches were held there.
I have to say, we were extremely lucky to get a table there without reservation. We ended up taking the last available table just near the front door. From there, we were able to see all the disappointed faces of those people being rejected because the restaurant was now fully booked. I reckon they should put a sign up on the window letting people know they are fully booked. Saves people from analysing the menu on the window for 20 minutes before they enter just to only find out they can't dine there. Or maybe it would be wise to ask if there are available tables before wasting time checking the menu.....or even better call and book
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I love it, I love it, I love it. This place totally reconsidered my perception about outer Sydney restaurants. If there is one restaurant that dispels any notion of outer Sydney restaurants being below par with the inner city restaurants, then this is the one.
I really didn't expect much out of this local Menai restaurant & bar. But the moment I walked in, I could sense that this was no ordinary local eatery. The entire place is somewhat of a mix bag. The front of the restaurant has the bar with very comfy lounges and bar stools. A large LCD TV that is constantly on the sports channel. There is an upstairs, I believe caters for private functions. The atmosphere of the dining is very classic. The tables are covered in classic white linen, the furnishings are elegant and matches perfectly with the timber floors. There are artworks displayed on walls for customers to look at and possibly purchase
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This is the newest addition to the line up of Bavarian Bier Cafe spring up around Sydney. I only recently got introduced to their York St. cafe not long ago. Check out my review of that place! While I was quite impressed with the York Street cafe, I could not say the same for the one located in the Entertainment Quarter (formally known as Fox Studios).
My same group of friends and I decided to do a quick dinner here before we head to the Russell Peters comedy show at the Horden Pavillion close by. It was a lst minute decisionn to dine there. I was quite excited to try this place out so to compare with other Bavarian Bier Cafe in the city
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