Tetsuya's - The Restaurant

Today marked the end to a long awaited dining experience at Tetsuya's. I made this booking 4 months ago and the earliest booking back then was for lunch in February; if we wanted to go there for dinner, the earliest booking back then was July! So I guess you would understand why I was so excited about this day. We finally made it to Tetsuya's :)

Tetsuya's is renowned for its 10 course degustation menu. The food was brilliant. The whole experience was worth every penny. Expect to pay a minimum of $195 per head (drinks not included) but the hefty price does not just go towards the fresh ingredients that were used but it also goes towards the creativity and the preparation work that go into making every one of the dishes. Last year, the restaurant was awarded the highest rating (Three Chef's Hats) in Australia and was also named Restaurant of the Year. It received many other awards and accolades, one of which ranked it as the 5th top restaurant in the world in 2007.

The restaurant is situated in the city on 529 Kent Street, in between Bathurst and Liverpool Street. It has a big gated entrance. The big gate is sensored and will automatically open when you approach. Stepping through the entrance, you are greeted by one waiter outside the door. When you step inside, you will be greeted by 4 other waiters. One of them will show you to your table. We were seated in one of the rooms with a big wine cellar and facing a Japanese pond. This particular dining room could and did fill around 12 tables of 2, 1 table of 6 and 1 table of 4. The tablecloths and plates are in white, and there is an big artistic ornament placed in the middle of the room. The service is attentive. After the waiter lays your dish down on the table, they will begin to tell you the name of the dish. Your plates will be cleared promptly when you are finished and glasses will always be filled with your choice of drinks. The dishes are perfectly timed so you will never feel like you're being rushed or you are waiting too long for the next dish to arrive.

The first thing they serve us was a choice between 2 types of warm toasted bread - white roll or brown organic sourdough. My husband and I both chose the sourdough. The bread was warm, freshly baked and crusty. It was perfect. Served with this was the most delicious black truffle salsa butter. I usually don't smother alot of butter on my rolls but this time..this time was different. The butter had the most luscious mushroom taste to it.

Warm Crusty Organic Sourdough Roll with Black Truffle Salsa Butter

Here are the courses, as they were served.

Cold Corn Soup with Saffron & Vanilla Ice Cream

Smoked Ocean Trout & Avruga Caviar

Leek & Crab Custard

Sashimi of Big Eye Tuna with Wasabi & Eschallot

Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Daikon & Fennel
Seasonal Green Salad
(Tetsuya's Signature Dish)

Ravioli of Queensland Spanner Crab with Tomato & Basil Vinaigrette

Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Baby Fennel

Twice Cooked De-Boned Spatchcock with Olive & Caper Jus

Seared Fillet of Veal with Wasabi Butter

Comte with Lentils

Marinated Peach with Vodka & Peach Sorbet
Summer Pudding
(accompanied by Mini Lemon Madelines & Unseeded Grape Skewers)

Banana Mousse & Caramel Ice Cream

Chocolate Terrine with Mascarpone & Cognac Anglaise

Coffee or Tea (Flat White shown here)
&
Petit Four
(Almond Shortbread, Coconut Covered Peanut Biscuit,
Chocolate Macaroon with Lemon Buttermilk filling, Green Tea Marshmallow)

We sat there for 3 hours, eating. It was of pure enjoyment. We slowly savoured each dish, analysing what was in each dish and if we could taste the ingredients that were made known to us through their names.

Our favourite courses were:
- Smoked Ocean Trout & Avruga Caviar
- Sashimi of Big Eye Tuna with Wasabi & Eschallot
- Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Daikon & Fennel
- Twice Cooked De-Boned Spatchcock with Olive & Caper Jus
- Marinated Peach with Vodka & Peach Sorbet, and Summer Pudding

Both Ocean Trout dishes were brilliant and we both raved on about the Summer Pudding. I think I might try and make this Summer Pudding in the next week or two. It will surely not taste as good but I'll give it a go. I surprised myself for liking this pudding more than the Chocolate Terrine given that I'm a die hard chocolate fan.

The whole experience was absolutely worth it. We were actually glad that we went there for lunch instead of dinner as we had enough time to digest the food for the rest of the day :) After Tetsuya's, we worked it off by playing a round of golf. What a great day.

I said to my husband that we should go to Tetsuya's for our wedding anniversary and make this a yearly thing. If that's the case, I might have to call up and make a booking soon for this coming December!

Tetsuya's Restaurant
529 KENT STREET
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Telephone: +612 9267 2900

Lunch: Saturday from 12 noon
Dinner: Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm

Ten course degustation menu is $195 (GST inclusive) per person
Accompanying wine course is an additional $90 (GST inclusive) per person

Seachange Cafe and Grill @ Dee Why

My husband and I headed up to the beach suburb of Dee Why on Saturday afternoon. We leisurely strolled around the beach and before we knew it, it was already 7pm. I wasn't really that hungry so I could settle for anything. My hubby, on the other hand, was getting hungry and was craving for good ole fish'n'chips. There are quite a number of restaurants and cafes facing the beach but none of them took our fancy except for one because, unlike the other restaurants on this strip, this one seemed alot more cosy and laid back than the rest.

This cafe is a small establishment, with tables set quite closely together. Good thing we didn't feel claustrophobic sitting so close to the other diners. The cafe is one that serves all-day-breakfast but we couldn't go past their wide selection of seafood main courses and salad variety. Although my hubby did want his fish'n'chips earlier on, his mind changed when he saw big pieces of succulent fish on the other diner's plates.

We ended up ordering an entree of Turkish Bread with lemon and herb to share. I ordered one of their warm salads which consisted of snow peas, roast capsicum and mixed leaves served with "BBQ'd blackened Salmon chunks with 4 thai king prawn cutlets, lemon myrtle 'n' chervil vinaigrette & pineapple salsa". Hubby ordered their "Chermoula rubbed Tuna Steak; buttermilk mash, honey & sesame wok fried baby greens, chilli plum saucee & BBQ'd lemon".

Lemon & Herb Turkish Bread

Not long after we ordered, our entree arrived. The turkish bread was delicious! It was warm and I loved the herb and butter taste. I couldn't taste any lemon though which was a shame. But I didn't care too much. The bread tasted so good! While we were eating our second slice of bread, the rest of the food arrived.

Snow peas, roast capsicum and mixed leaves served with BBQ'd blackened Salmon chunks with 4 thai king prawn cutlets, lemon myrtle 'n' chervil vinaigrette & pineapple salsa - $19.90

Oh my, take a look at the big pieces of marinated salmon on my salad leaves. On top of this laid 2 skewers of big prawns and on the side of the dish was a small spoonful of pineapple salsa. It didn't matter that the amount of salsa they give you is so little because the salmon and prawns were so well marinated, you didn't need any salsa to go with them. The pineapple salsa was just "there" and seemed a little out of place.

Chermoula rubbed Tuna Steak; buttermilk mash, honey & sesame wok fried baby greens, chilli plum saucee & BBQ'd lemon - $28.90

This was my hubby's dish. Our dishes both looked very similar. However his had a big tuna steak which was very meaty and cooked just right, with a tinge of rareness in the middle. Same as my dish, he also had 2 skewers of king prawns laid on top of his tuna. Beneath his tuna were the butternut pumpkin mash, a good number of asparagus and strings of beans.

Both dishes were quite similar in taste. The only major difference was the fish. Come to think of it, my hubby should've ordered the tuna & king prawn salad instead because the ingredients were the same as his main course. His main cost us $9 more and the only difference was that the main had the buttermilk mash, asparagus and beans instead of salad leaves. OH WELL! I feel jipped now but we'll learn next time. That said though, both dishes were very well made and enjoyable.

Seachange doesn't offer a wide selection of desserts. If I recall correctly, there were only 3 types of desserts on offer. I would've loved to finish off with something sweet but we were full to the brim after dinner and couldn't fit any more food in our stomaches.

Next time, I'll be back to try out their breakfast menu which I've read good reviews about.

Breakfast Menu

Seachange Cafe and Grill
The Strand, Dee Why NSW 2099
Phone (02) 9971 9692

Ryo's Noodles @ Crow's Nest

Ryo's Noodles has to be the best ramen place in Sydney. The restaurant is located on Falcon Street, Crow's Nest which is only a short drive from the city and across the Harbour Bridge. It's not situated in a prime location as there's not much around except for a Thai takeaway next door and a petrol station opposite the road. But people know where to find good food and even though the restaurant is not located on the busiest side of Falcon Street, people flock there and line up for their infamous ramen.

When my husband and I arrived, we were told that there will be a 20 minute wait. There were 2 groups waiting in front of us and after we got there, more people arrived. The waitress doesn't take down your name or give you a ticket number, you just need to wait outside until she comes out and tells the groups of people waiting outside that there's a table for 2 or table for 4 etc available. You basically need to remember who came before you and who came after you and judge when you're supposed to go inside without offending someone by accidentally pushing in.

The restaurant is quite small but cosy. I think there are only 6-7 tables. In some cases, you may need to share with other patrons. For us, we were lucky to get our own table at the back of the room. From where we were sitting, we saw autographs on A4 pieces of white paper stuck on the wall. We didn't know who they were but must've been from Japanese celebrities who visited the restaurant. We also saw quite a number of different Bruce Lee stickers on the fridge and big pieces of fatty pork in plastic rectangular baskets sitting on the fridge and on boxes stacked up behind where I was sitting. My husband pointed out that the guy cooking the ramen is kind of mean looking, with a look that says "I mean business" but I didn't think so :)

We sat down and ordered 2 bowls of Ramen Noodles in a Pork Soup and a serve of gyozas. With my ramen, I ordered corn kernals as an accompaniment whilst my hubby ordered pieces of seaweed. These accompaniments arrived with our ramen but in a separate bowl/plate and not in your ramen noodles. At Ryo's, water and pickled ginger are self served from the counter.


After waiting for around 10 mins or less, our noodles arrived. I wanted to dig in right away but had to take photos of it to show you all how yummy it looked. The bowl of noodles were pipping hot, topped with strips of pork which were of decent thickness, served with half an egg with the yolk still slightly gooey, and topped with a big handful of finely chopped spring onions and a decent amount of sesame seeds. The soup base is the best - it wasn't watery but was almost thick and had the most intense pork flavour. I think this was what made the ramen tasted sooo good. Ohhh, the thought of it makes me want to devour another bowl.




The gyozas came a few minutes behind our ramen and they were cooked to perfection. Although a little oily but the ingredients inside (I believe they were made out of pork and cabbage) were very fresh and the dough was slightly crunchy at the bottom where it was pan fried but the rest of the dough was chewy and soft. They were good. Very tasty.


I took my time eating every strand of ramen, loving the chewiness of the noodles and the intense flavour of the soup. I shouldn't forget to mention the strips of pork in the ramen as they were of decent size and the meat seemed like it was going to melt in my mouth. I don't remember chewing the meat at all to be honest.

One thing worth mentioning though. That night, my hubby managed to ram his car into someone else's bumper while he was trying to find a park on the side street. His car wasn't damaged at all which was a miracle but the other car's bumper was quite badly scratched and stripped off its own paint. Needless to say, I wasn't happy with him for being so careless but all was almost forgotten when our food arrived. The owner of the other car was actually a patron at the restaurant too and when she gave us a call about her car, we were just about to leave the restaurant expecting an angry person waiting for us in front of their car. Luckily she was nice about it. Tonight ended up being an expensive night for my hubby. An excess of $500 would probably need to be paid for to fix up that poor girl's car. **me shaking my head** So much for him making sly comments about women drivers on the way to dinner!


Ryo’s Noodles
125 Falcon St
Crows Nest 2065 NSW
Phone: +61 (02) 9955 0225
Thu-Tue noon-2.30pm, 5pm-9.30pm
Cash only; no bookings available