Marrickville Road Cafe, Marrickville

This cafe is unworthy of mention to the point that I forgot its name and had to google it. A friend and I ventured to the Marrickville Road cafe on a Sunday. It was empty and unwelcoming. The feature wall gave the cafe some edge, sure, but there was nothing else to be excited about.

The menu at Marrickville Road Cafe is extensive (and cheap) but nothing really stands out. The menu is also unattractively presented in a plastic booklet for lack of a better description.

Eventually my friend opts for the eggs florentine. The service was quick and we had our meals shortly after ordering. The eggs were poached nicely but the accompaniments are a let down. Butter mushrooms and sauteed spinach were scattered roughly over the plate. The presentation overall was a bit dull and the meal could have been easily replicated at home.

I ordered the big breakfast (both meals were around $10) and my was it a disappointment. The "scrambled eggs" were flat, not fluffy, and cold. The mushrooms had the same flavour of the canned varieties and the sausage was nothing special. The Turkish bread was lathered in too much butter.

We found ourselves disappointed with the cafe, both the dull food and the unfriendly service. And it surely didn't help that the cafe was swarming with flies. 

Marrickville Road Cafe, 212 Marrickville Road, Marrickville

Rosebud, Rozelle

My local, Plunge in Summer Hill, has recently been taken over by new staff. Wondering where they all came from, I once asked one of the waitstaff this very question. "I actually worked at our sister cafe, Rosebud in Rozelle," he said. That day, my fate was sealed. I was going to go to Rosebud; I just had to.

A couple of weeks passed before a visit from my father provided the perfect opportunity to do so. The visit landed on a Sunday morning. We pranced into a cafe-restaurant taken over by mothers and their children, but, lucky for us, the local haunt was not quite full.

The decor at Rosebud is quite typical. A blackboard dotted with chalk-drawn specials; wooden furniture; a pinky-red feature half-wall above the counter with "rosebud" scrawled onto it. The lights are a bit fancy; they dangle from draping cords attached to the panelled ceiling. All-in-all, Rosebud provides a unpretentious ambience for either a scrumptious breakfast or romantic dinner, although I wouldn't say it adds much to the experience.

Dad begins with a cappuccino ($3.8). And that's when we determine that the service at Rosebud was not quite up to scratch. I found the waitstaff rude and unaccommodating. They went about their job without so much as a smile and were neither prompt in taking our orders or very helpful. Nonetheless, like Plunge, the coffee is good. 

Battling through one of my very rare the-thought-of-coffee-makes-me-sick days, I opted for the banana and coconut smoothie ($6). It was nice, but I was looking forward to the coconut taste, which wasn't as present as I would have liked. The drink menu is also a bit pricey. A large coffee will set you back $4.80 and an orange juice is $5.

The first couple of times I dined at Plunge, their food wasn't great. However, now, it is simply amazing; something seems to have clicked and I am more excited than ever for the opening of Plunge for dinner (hurrah!). The food at Rosebud causes a similar level of excitement, and they're already open for dinner--lookout Plunge, my impatience is calling. 

The breakfast menu leaves us spoilt for choice. Blueberry oatmeal pancakes with mascarpone and berry compote ($15), a smoked salmon omelette with mustard dreamed leek and fried capers ($17) have my mouth watering, but I opt for organic poached eggs with Sonoma bread, tomato relish and cultured butter ($9), adding field mushrooms and grilled haloumi with Zaatar for $4 each. Phwoaaaar! My food is scrumptious. The toast is crisp, I slice into the eggs and a gooey, soft yolk oozes out. The field mushrooms are presented in equal slices, soaked in flavour and the haloumi, oh my the haloumi. Salty with a bit of bite, thanks Zaatar!

My father couldn't go past the shakshouka: baked eggs, beef sucuk, spiced tomato, pepper, onion and bread. For $17 this was a purely smashing dish. Presented in a neat clay pot, the egg yolk seeped out upon being sliced, like my own poached. Dad savoured the fragrances and seasoning; slightly spicy and yet too good too resist for a man who generally doesn't handle his spice. Also, accompanied with Sonoma toast, this dish was spot on.

So, would I say Rosebud is better than my beloved Plunge? No, but it could be. The cafe-restaurant simply needs to work on showcasing a smiling face, and perhaps needs to develop more of an edge than local competitors.

Rosebud, 654 Darling Street, Rozelle

Badde Manors Cafe, Glebe

Nathan and I are exhausted. It is Australia Day and we've spent ages (forty minutes...) trekking to Sydney University for a Sydney Grade Twenty20. It's also stinking hot and we've just walked half way up Glebe Point Road looking for Wedge Espresso, only to give up and then spot it on the way back. (It was closed, but since then I've been three times--it is amazing!)

Exhausted, bursting to get to the cricket (well, Nathan is anyway) and melting, we stopped at the first cafe that looked decent--Badde Manors.

Every time I have walked past the corner-hugging cafe it has been packed to the brims. I thought we couldn't go wrong.

We swiftly order drinks: a frappuccino ($6.50) and organic orange juice. The pricing for both is ridiculous and the drinks are, really, just horrible. My frappuccino is very weak, and tastes closer to blended milk and ice. There are massive chunks of ice littered throughout and the texture is as uneven as can be. At $5.80 we are equally disappointed with Nathan's "organic" orange juice. It tastes no better than Golden Circle Orange juice which comes at $5.50 for four litres last time I checked.

The menu is quite extensive, and cheap. The stuffed crumb mushrooms are tempting, so are the two risottos available. Among other things, there's a Cajun-spiced eggplant schnitzel, a falafel burger and a Mediterranean platter, but I opt for the sweetcorn, capsicum and coriander cakes. They sound delicious, are recommended by the waitress and are a meagre $12.50.

While we wait, we take the time to observe the service and the decor. A stack of gig posters line the walls, however, apart from this, the space is really low key: spread across a couple of rooms, some booth seating, a handful or two of your average table and chair setting and a nice little display cabinet of goodies in the main area. It's a tad off-putting that general junk and cleaning utensils dot the back end of the cafe (down towards the bathrooms--which are themselves not the cleanest).

Apart from this, the service is okay, if a bit distant. The location is ace: near the Broadway end of the culinary heaven that Glebe Point Road is growing into and roughly 100 metres to Broadway Shopping Centre. The cafe itself is not bad as such, and neither is the food.

My crispy sweetcorn, capsicum and coriander cakes served with baby spinach, sauteed mushroom, fresh tomato and homemade tomato chutney are quite delicious. The texture is a bit doughy and really, they're nothing special, but for $12.50, I am not complaining. The outer skin is slightly crisp, the coriander flavour makes this a pleasant variation of your standard corn fritters and the mushrooms are marinated excellently. The tomato chutney has a bit of bite. Not bad, I say: JUST THOSE DRINKS...

Badde Manors Cafe, 1/37 Glebe Point Road, Glebe

Revolver, Annandale

Revolver came to my attention after its inclusion in just about every list of the whos-who in cafes. Top ten, all the time--so, it's no wonder that I finally made my way there.

This Annandale cafe is an institution, just google "Revolver big brekkie" and look at all the pictures of said dish. With its artsy interiors--including old-school library style wall equipped with sliding latter, antique lighting and lone graffiti wall--hip waitstaff and equally creative cafe menu.

Revolver hugs the corner of Annandale and Rose street. Fortunately, this means double the footpath, that is, double the space for cafe-goers to wait in line. And there is a line.

When we--Mother, Mother's Boyfriend and I--arrive, the cosy cafe is packed. Our name gets taken down and we're advised there's four other parties in front of us. So begins the wait and so, the observations.

The staff at Revolver are as friendly as anything. I watch them so carefully help a lady in a wheelchair to a table and generally conduct wide genuine grins in every which direction. When an elderly man turns up with two bouquet's of flowers for his obvious lover, the waiter doesn't hesitate in fetching a vase and placing the beautiful bunch in front of the tiled wall adorned with mermaid mural. Soon enough, we're seated at a crooked table on Rose Street, with it's very own revolver pattern etched into the woodwork.

The menu at Revolver is full of fancy cafe style dishes with a bit of flair. Everything sounds too luscious and I would most certainly have needed god's help to choose a few to mention here (luckily, picking my meal was a decision cut out for me, I just couldn't go past the infamous big breakie).

For drinks, my mum and her boyfriend, Bret, both opt for the Red Dragon organic ginger beer ($4.50) and I, for the mango smoothie ($5.50). Mum and Bret are rapt with their ginger beers and couldn't give more positive reviews. It is from Byron Bay, organic and apparently damn tasty (I can't stand the stuff), so I'd say it's worth the price. The photo does my smoothie no justice, it is most certainly massive. The liquid itself isn't the best I've had. Revolver has an extensive list of teas.

Our meals arrive promptly, on cute, antique (probably op-shopped) plates. Mum couldn't rave anymore about the nine hour roasted lamb bruschetta with housemade hummus, fire roasted capsicum relish, spiced almonds ($15.50). The lamb was tender and the dish had a bit of grunt thanks to the spiced almonds and relish. The toast was perfectly crisp. Really, it couldn't get any better for less than twenty dollars.

My big breakie of two baked eggs in housemade beans, honey cured bacon, roast tomato, mushrooms, honey mustard sausage and toast ($16.50) certainly was ace. The baked eggs were soft and the yolk melted in the mouth. The bacon was spot on with a hint of honey, the honey mustard flavour was definitely present in the sausage and with toast and pesto on the side, the meal was basically impossible to finish; it was certainly very sizeable. I must admit, however, that I'm not a fan of baked beans, and this failed to convert me. The tomato sauce can also get a bit sickening after a while.

Bret wasn't very peckish so opted for something light: the pocketed bacon and egg roll with rocket and awesome sauces ($8). Simple and yet sophisticated; the meal was spot on in terms of flavour, was presented very cleanly and a godsend to the tastebuds with those "awesome sauces."

Revolver certainly lived up to the hype. Everything about the visit was streamlined to perfection: the warm, caring, efficient service; welcoming interiors; convenient and yet secluded location on a residential road and, most of all, creative and damn tasty menu. This cafe really is the centre of its community (a trend the media seems to preach lately) epitomised by the Revolver community noticeboard that greets you at the door. And for once, a cafe is absolutely worth the label.

The only thing I want to know is where I can get a clay pot a la the Revolver big breakie? Let me assure you, it's a great dish to replicate.

Revolver, 291 Annandale Street, Annandale

Sai Cuisine Indian Restaurant, Ashfield

Nathan and I are very fond of Indian. We eat "curry" quite frequently at home and must I say that it is one of the easiest, most delicious things to cook. But after dining at a proper Indian restaurant, the canned variety (I know - shame) just doesn't compare, and I am even more hooked.

Sai Cuisine Indian Restaurant is tucked away on a little one way street heading to Ashfield Station. We walk in the door and are straight away greeted with wide smiles. The service remains the same throughout our meal: friendly and unpretentious.

We order chicken vindaloo, chicken korma (both $13.15), roti and a plain rice ($2.95). Our meals arrive very quickly and oh my is it delicious. The vindaloo is extremely hot and spicy (I could only just handle it), yet with the perfect balance of flavours.

My chicken korma is lovely. With its tender chicken, the smooth, creamy sauce and the added bite of the nuts, it is hard to beat. And it is ten times better intricately wrapped in a torn piece of roti. The roti is so delicious and crisp; it makes the meal. Nathan and I previously had not eaten our curries with bread, but after our visit to Sai, I vowed to change that. Now, not a curry goes eaten without being accompanied by some gorgeous roti ($1.90).

All the food we order is presented beautifully and cleanly in metal dishes. All serving sizes, particularly the rice (which is perfect, by the way) are generous and well worth the price tag.

The only downside to the restaurant is its ageing decor, but such is the norm for so many restaurants of this kind. It's not awful, with bold bright walls and basic tables and chairs, but it's not great either. Still, it's an easily looked-over pitfall when the food is so good and cheap!

We didn't order much given our limited budget, but Sai serves a variety of curries with several different meats. The restaurant also serves takeaway at great prices. We will definitely be back to try everything.

Sai Cuisine Indian Restaurant, 23 Hercules Street, Ashfield

Hangry, Rozelle

Sometimes, what we originally perceive as foreign and unfamiliar, over time, becomes one of our deepest loves. When I walked into Hangry's wide open glass doors to do a profile on the cafe for the Inner West Courier, I was scared. I had no idea what this place was about, had never before had, or even heard of, half of their menu items and lastly, I was an intern being trusted with a job that needed to be done that day, that hour.

But when I walked through those doors, I was embraced by the staff, the warm terracotta interior and the smile on the customers' faces. The owners, Sam and Lorraine, soon greeted me, making it damn clear that Hangry is more than a cafe, rather being a big happy family. Such atmospheres are the best when it comes to trying something new, especially when one has the Sam and Lorraine's of this world to be their guiding angel (when it comes to choosing from a very different menu than what one is used to).

When I visited the cafe for the profile, Sam ran me through Hangry's most loved dishes - namely the pancakes, Fooul' Medammis and Eggs Taleggio - with great descriptions, tales and talk of the ingredients. I sampled a chocolate brownie, a housemade raspberry and pistachio muffin and a latte. This was more than enough to draw me back.

Nathan's mum, Yvonne, Nathan and I visited on a Sunday morning around 8am. Hangry wasn't very busy meaning we had the gorgeous waitstaff almost to ourselves.

Like my first visit, the waitstaff were friendly and warm, looking the part in their "I [heart] Hangry" t-shirts. They were quick to take our orders and extremely pleasant overall.

Nathan's mother and I both ordered the eggs taleggio with two baked eggs, Mauri taleggio cheese in a clay pot with roasted tomatoes, baby spinach and crusty bread ($15). If you're on the brink of becoming hangry (so hungry that anger starts to sneak in), I suggest you go for the three eggs for $2 more. Nathan, feeling a bit under the weather, opted for a light meal with the homemade muesli.

I must say that our meals took a while to come out. The eggs taleggio, to be honest, fell a little short of my expectations - mind you, Yvonne had just used the wait to rant about how luxurious baked eggs had been for her in the past. For me, the eggs tasted hardly different from those that had been fried in both flavour and texture. Yvonne agreed. On the other hand, the cheese, spinach and roasted tomato was a great combination, and the freshness of the produce (which Sam sources locally) was clearly evident. I must add that it's impressive that Sam ventures to farms himself to source the eggs, so that those his much-loved customers consume are the best there is.

Nathan, still feeling sick when his homemade muesli with yoghurt and strawberries, topped with a dollop of honey ($9) arrived, struggled through it. He said it was delicious but couldn't stomach much more than the yoghurt, strawberries and a couple of spoonfuls of muesli. I thank god for this because that meant that I got to eat it for lunch, and boy, was the muesli tasty, and somewhat addictive. My only wish was that Nathan had eaten less.

Hangry serves Di Gabriel coffee, which, although nice, is not one of my favourite blends. My mocha was okay but could've done with a richer chocolate flavour.

And as for the odd menu at Hangry - I must correct myself and say that it's not that unusual. That is, if you're unlike me and didn't grow up in the restrictive dining hole that is Port Macquarie. Hangry's menu is loaded with Middle Eastern influences and yet still has something for everyone - whether for breakfast, lunch or a cake and coffee.

After sampling some of what it has to offer, I can say with certainty that I will be back.

Hangry, 4/595 Darling Street, Rozelle

If you missed it, read the profile here

Pub and Bar Food, Sydney

There's this thing about pub and bar food. It's either really bad or really good. I don't think there's an in between. You might think the pub grub you're eating is good because it's so cheap, but great food also comes cheap. You might love the portion size you receive for your money, but generally there's less ingredients, and these are of a lesser quality than restaurants. So really, you are receiving what you pay for.

Now, I am in search of a great pub. A pub with great food, great prices and great quality (mind you, if I come across a pub or bar that serves Rekorderlig, I can't assure you that these traits will matter so much). And what a great time it is for such a search, with my boyfriend dragging me around town to watch the T20 Big Bash. Let me just say that dining is a great time consumer!

Ashfield Hotel

I'm not sure that the term "pub grub" really fits this joint. The menu has a lot of class, and still contains all the staples - parmigiana, schnitzel, the beef burger - it deviates from your typical pub food quite a bit. Honey glazed pork belly, Atlantic salmon, butternut pumpkin risotto and Hawaiian chicken - I'm not sure about you, but none of these ring a bell from my many pub visits.

While I was tempted by the rosemary and garlic roasted half chicken, my mother and boyfriend couldn't go past what they're used to, opting for parmigiana and a beef burger.

To no surprise, orders need to be placed at the counter. It's a quiet weekend night and the girl behind the counter seems bored. It's lucky our bill for 3 was $45, if it hadn't been I would've expected more.
Our meals arrive promptly, and I must say, I am impressed upon their arrival. My rosemary and garlic roasted half chicken served with sweet potato mash and green beans ($16) is well presented, as opposed to being chucked on a plate, pub-style. However, cutting into the chicken, I receive a fright. You see, it's very pink, and raw chicken is definitely not a good thing. Needing peace of mind, I ask the kitchen if this is standard for that dish, and they assure me that it's the way they cook it. And hey, I'm still alive and kicking so it must've been fine.
The beans are beans - nothing special there. The mash, on the other hand, although a bit rough in terms of texture, is delicious and my favourite part of the dish.

Mum orders the chicken parmigiana served with crunchy steak fries ($14). The serving size is huge, but both her and I have had better, especially at Bill and Toni's Stanley Street restaurant (post to come). The chicken is dry and the cheese and tomato sauce lacks punch.

Of course, Nathan can't go past the burger menu - and my is it a burger menu with Cajun chicken, Wagyu, spiced lamb and the two beef burger to choose from. Nath opts for the Almighty Angus two beef burger with bacon, cheese, pineapple, beetroot, lettuce, tomato, gherkins, Spanish onion, served with chips ($15), and receives a tower. Personally, I'm not sure how one could eat something that tall, but he manages. Still, he concludes that the patties could be more juicy and that more sauce is needed. The chips are okay.

What else should you know about Ashfield Hotel? It has a sports bar where actual noise comes out of the televisions, it's open for functions, the pool table costs $3, cocktails are available on selected nights only, there are nice, comfy booths as well as outdoor dining and that's about it.

Summer Hill Hotel

Familiar and cosy. That's how I would describe Summer Hill Hotel. 

This local haunt is a suburb closer to the city and perfectly situated across the road from Summer Hill train station. What first got me hooked was theie $7 Absolut cocktails. Although these are now gone, there's still much to love.

I must say, compared to other pubs, the food is quite expensive, with most meals between $15-25. Like Ashfield Hotel there's pub staples, non-pub staples and a couple of tempting desserts.

We order two burgers; I the Moroccan spiced chicken [grilled chicken breast with Moroccan spices, rocket, marinated capsicum, eggplant and tzatziki, served with [salad] ($14.50)], Nathan, a casual beef. We're given a buzzer that doubles as a coaster and head to our seats, in front of the plasma TV on which is playing The Big Bash.

Quite soon, our meals arrive. The salad I request to replace my chips is aesthetically pleasing. It also is well-dressed, so that, for once, the (small) hassle that is replacing chips in meals doesn't go to waste. The burger is decent, but has way too many greens. Secondly, the tzatziki dominates every other flavour, including the chicken's seasoning. Fortunately, I highly rate the tzatziki.

Nath give his beef burger with sauteed onions, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, cheese and BBQ sauce, served with chips ($14.50) the okay, but doesn't make weird I-love-this-too-much sounds like he did at  Bill and Toni's, Balmain. And so, the search for Sydney's best pub burger continues.

Pontoon Bar, Darling Harbour

We, along with the rest of the world, visited Sydney Aquarium on New Year's Day. After making the trek to Darling Harbour, we were starving and decided to get a quick bite and thus avoid the Aquarium's probably overpriced food. Being in Darling Harbour and with a limited budget, I thought we were going to end up munching on a couple of macarons from the Lindt cafe down the road, or perhaps we'd step it up a notch and share some bruschetta or garlic bread at one of the area's swanky restaurants. So, imagine our surprise when we glanced "Beef burger $9.90" on Pontoon Bar's wall-cross-menu board.

Pontoon bar is quite family friendly, meals are also incredibly cheap, there's tonnes of outdoor seating and being in Darling Harbour, of course there's water views. I observed one couple seated at the restaurant's edge, sipping wine, and god did the visual look picturesque.

The decor itself is nothing special, with your typical bar stools and long tables, and the odd booth seating. Pontoon has some originality, though. There's a tall aqua sliding door, the paved floor and the (nighttime) d-floor.

And there's the staff. At Pontoon Bar, you cannot look in any one direction and avoid glimpsing a Red Bull red shirt. The staff are everywhere, but still, on this occasion, none seem to want to be there. It is, after all, the day after New Year's Eve.

Orders need to be placed at the counter. We pay for two beef burgers, one with salad instead of chips. They arrive roughly ten minutes later, and, in all honesty, I don't really want to eat either one.

The salad on the beef burger ($9.90) is a joke. Dried lettuce leaves, grated carrot, a couple of tomato slices and some onion. All plonked on the bun. The open burger is a great concept, but not when your meal looks like this. The melted cheese looks like the mess one finds stuck to the bottom of the sink after washing up. The beef patty is horrendously dry. And no sauce. Sure, the restaurant has a gazillion bottles of tomato, mustard and BBQ sauce on a trolley nearby, but you think they could go to a little effort and ask what sauce their patrons would like on their burger.

My salad is a joke. Put in front of me, it appears I have received red and green capsicum. Nothing else. After digging a bit deeper, I find two lettuce leaves and half a tomato.

Sure, Pontoon is cheap, but the most naive, amateur cook could whip up something twice as good, for half the price.

Illinois Hotel, Five Dock

I should say straight up that the Illinois doubles as a stripper joint. But don't go getting all Chinese whispers, we were there for the food after I'd heard smashing reviews.

I must also apologise for the lack of photos. I did take some, but the place being what it is - the dimly lit rooms with flashing neon lights - made for images unworthy of a single glance.

It's a shame because the food here was good, and cheap (there's that word again). I ordered the chicken parmi, which is turning out to be a real favourite of mine. It set me back $12 and came with the option of mash and veggies; a real score for myself who hasn't consumed chips in four years. Every element of the dish was scrumptious: the chicken tender, the mash smooth and creamy, and the vegetables (although probably simply steamed or boiled) were there in abundance. Nath ordered the steak sandwich with chips, that I believe was also $12, and enjoyed it.

But I must reiterate, only head here if you're not turned off by the poor lighting and loud pop music. There's also the odd girl walking around in her underwear, and I'm sorry fellas, but the action goes on in a separate room, with its very own entry fee.

Ashfield Hotel, 204 Liverpool Road, Ashfield

Summer Hill Hotel, 1 Lackey Street, Summer Hill

Pontoon Bar, Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Park, The Promenade North; 201 Sussex Street, Sydney

Illinois Hotel, 15 Parramatta Road, Five Dock

Barmuda, Newtown

Barmuda is (so far) my favourite cafe in Newtown. I have now been there twice, and both visits have seen me consume great food and coffee in a warm, friendly atmosphere.

We wandered to the cafe on a Sunday morning. It was busy and we were seated in a room upstairs that I hadn't noticed before. 

The decor at Barmuda is wonderful, with rustic old floorboards, big blackboard menus and tightly-packed yet cosy furnishings.

I ordered the chargrilled polenta with pan-fried haloumi, spinach, chargrilled zucchini and chilli napoli. The presentation was exquisite, the bold greens, yellows and reds contrasted excellently, making the dish extremely pleasing to the eye. The meal is everything it promises to be on the menu. I do, however, think that the polenta gets a bit boring after a while and could do with more seasoning.

One friend orders the potato stack crispy potato cakes with scrambled eggs, roasted tomatos, (ham), rocket and tomato relish ($15). Her request to replace the eggplant with ham is given the okay, but she is charged extra. I should note that overall our waitress was quite pleasant and very quick to take our orders, unlike my last visit. My friend thoroughly enjoys stack and is in awe of the crispy and damn tasty potato cakes.

The other two diners (boys of course!) opt for the Planet Newtown [free range eggs with bacon, sausage, balsamic and rosemary mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and toast ($16.50)], one of Barmuda's specialities. Both are overly pleased and neither, despite being "growing teenage boys", are able to finish their meal. The sausages and marinated mushrooms get a special mention.

Both times I visited this swanky cafe on Australia Street, a splendid time was had with delicious, creative food and good company - in my fellow diners, but also in the general atmosphere of the restaurant and the waitstaff. The only downer was trying to split the bill - and I should warn you that there is a ten per cent surcharge on Sundays.

Barmuda, 283 Australia Street, Newtown (opposite the police station)

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant, Ashfield

Spending most of my upbringing in Port Macquarie has meant that I know absolutely nothing about Asian cuisines. Sure, there are several Chinese restaurants in Port, a couple of Japanese and a lot of Thai places, but apart from the latter, we never really ate at any of them. And, if we did, knowing nothing about such cuisines meant that we would order the same dishes, all the time. Sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, green curry, fried rice, chow mein et cetera et cetera.

Now I live in Ashfield and am faced with the exact opposite. The main street, Liverpool Road, is bursting with Asian restaurants and, apart from the odd pub, not much else. I had tended to stay away from these restaurants, knowing nothing of what they had on offer. That was until I uncovered this little gem.

I was roped in by the crowds that queue outside for a table, and have now visited the local haunt on two occasions. One of those times we became the queue that I had passed so often. We were given a number and directed to stand outside the restaurant until said number was called. This took around 20 minutes and would've dampened my perspective of the restaurant had the food not been so good.

First, I must say that you don't go here for amazing decor or service. The decor is boring as hell. Plain white walls, equally dull tables and unappealing black metal chairs. Several televisions are suspended from the walls, a bit odd in my opinion - you visit New Shanghai to socialise. The only hint of fancy is the glass wall that separates front of house from the kitchen staff, who quickly, yet oh so smoothly, put together dumplings.

The service is the same as the decor: boring, dull and uninspiring. The restaurant cares more about its turnover (and perhaps it should considering the queues) than intimate service. As a result the service is all about speed. This should be looked on positively as orders are taken quickly, and our meals shortly follow.

The dishes we ordered on both occasions are all very nice and tremendously cheap. Anything with pork appeals to me, and the oddity of "rice cakes" meant the stir fried Chinese rice cake with shredded pork and vegetables ($9.80) was a dish I just had to try. Mind you, I also chose it because it was either that or noodles. I have not yet mastered the art of chopsticks so attempting the latter would have been disastrous. The rice cakes are very very hard to describe. They have little flavour themselves but act as an excellent sponge for the sauce. The pork is extremely tasty and there's actually a lot of it. The vegetables are a bit more sparse. All in all the dish is bursting with flavour and filling. I would order it again.

We try the steamed mini pork buns ($6.80) and pork and chives dumplings. Both are excellent. Eatability tells me that New Shanghai is known for its dumplings, and there's no questioning why. The serving sizes are generous and the ratio of dough to meat is spot on. I see that many people in the restaurant are ordering the fried dumpling varieties. I'm tempted but have to refrain given it's almost Christmas and I need to prepare my waistline.

Nathan orders the combination fried rice with beef, chicken and king prawns ($8.80) and spring rolls. He devours the rice, but not before dousing it in soy sauce. He praises New Shanghai for the large amount of meat in the rice and is clearly satisfied with the spring rolls as they're gone in a matter of minutes.

New Shanghai is an excellent Chinese restaurant, perhaps the best in Ashfield. This is certainly saying something considering the locale is basically a second Asia.

While living in the area I will probably continue to go back until I have tried most of the dishes, namely the xiao long bao which appears quite popular.

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant, 273 Liverpool Road, Ashfield