u/DoorDiKKK

Parami in Darlinghurst has recently become extremely popular due to its muffins, and I must say that they live up to the hype. They are soft and gooey, and both the innovative and more classic muffin flavours are divine. You must ask the staff to heat up the muffins as well before you eat.

I have also given their onigiri a try, and they are very solid. We can tell that they use fresh ingredients for the filling, and you can even see them make the onigiri in the back.

However, a new addition to the menu is one that I feel I have to mention. The recent addition of various types of soup has recently caught my attention in the cold weather, and after trying it, I do not regret it. Ordering a warm muffin and a soup on a cold morning is so comforting, and an experience that I would recommend to anyone.

In commemoration of King Clarence recently changing up their lunch set to the ramen, I thought I would give my opinion on their old lunch set, which was the fried chicken.

The restaurant is run by the Bentley group, with the head chef being Khanh Nguyen, who has recently opened two new venues under the same group.

As you can tell by the opening sentence, I really, really liked this lunch set. The fried chicken for me was cooked absolutely perfectly. The restaurant uses a nice thick cut of chicken, and the batter was fried to the perfect level of crispiness. The batter was also extremely flavorful, with a dashi buttermilk sauce underneath, which added the needed depth and creaminess.

It also came with a small sashimi platter. Personally, I thought the fish was cut a little thin, but their choice of sashimi was extremely fresh and well curated.

They also had a tamago kake gohan with dashi rice. The dashi made the rice have that beautiful depth of flavour, with the egg yolk adding that rich creaminess that levelled this dish up. The bamboo shoots also added that little crunch, an amazing textural contrast.

Finally, was the miso soup where they used the Parmesan rinds from their sister restaurant. This made this it have an extremely rich umami flavour, making it different from any other miso soup that I have had.

Overall, for under $50, this set meal was really great value. It's not cheap, but the quality of food is definitely worth the money. This set is also great value compared to the rest of the dishes in the restaurant in my opinion, which I definitely need to try one day.

Soupless ramen is a dish that is slowly getting more and more popular in Sydney. When I heard that there were two popular soupless ramen spots just a short walk from each other in the Haymarket area, I thought that I would give them both a try and see what the hype is about.

The first is Kajiken Abura Soba. This restaurant is popular for being featured in the Michelin Guide in California. Due to this, you can often see that this restaurant attracts long lines during peak hours. This meant that when I visited on a weekday night, I had to wait in line for around 15 minutes for two people. When I was seated, I opted for the second most popular item on the menu: the Meatlovers Abura Soba. When it arrived, the first thing I noticed was how amazing the texture of the noodles was. I could see that they made it in-house, which was obviously a good sign. I also really liked how there were condiments available to add to adjust the flavor to your liking. The meat, however, was a little disappointing. It almost felt like they had cooked it the day before, and it didn't really taste that fresh.

I also gave the nearby IIKO
Mazesoba a try. This restaurant was a lot less busy when I went, presumably because there is no Michelin hype. In this restaurant, you could also add your flavour, which, again, is just such a great touch. Here, I ordered the Zenbu Mazesoba to try and get a direct comparison to the dish I had at Kajiken. When my bowl arrived, I honestly thought the texture of the noodles in Kajiken was just a touch better, but at this point it might just be down to personal preference. However, I thought the meat was so much fresher, and I enjoyed it a lot more. Though I enjoyed my bowl at IIKO Mazesoba more, my friend actually preferred the bowl at Kajiken.

Overall, both restaurants were amazing, and in the end I wouldn't really recommend that you visit one over the other. It will only come down to personal preference as to what looks good on the menu and, of course, if you are willing to wait in line.

Edit: Wow truly thank you all for the recs!! This will keep me busy for a while !

Canelés are my favourite dessert of all tome, which therefore means that I have been on a quest to find the best cannele in Sydney. So far, I have tried five different ones, and I will go over my thoughts on each in this post.

1. Kiki Dessert in Ultimo. Out of all the ones I've tried, this has been my favourite so far. It perfectly nails the crispy exterior and the moist, pillowy interior, and definitely has the best texture out of any canelé in Sydney. The size is also perfect, not too big, unlike some other ones that I will mention later. The only downside for me is that I wish there were more flavours, as I feel the flavour they have now is a little basic.
2. The whiskey canelé from AP Bakery. In my opinion, this one had the best taste but a not so great texture. My theory is that because AP bakes their pastries offsite, by the time the canelé had reached me, it had lost most of its crispiness. I really enjoy the whiskey taste, however, so if AP's canelé had the texture of Kiki's canelé, it would be nearly perfect.
3. The canelé from Moon and Back in Rosebery. This one, I'd say, was the most disappointing, since I really love the drinks there. From the photo attached, you can see that the inside was quite undercooked and collapsed a bit, leaving an air pocket at the top. The outside was crispy, but it wasn't as crispy as I like. The taste was quite average too and didn't really have anything that set it apart from the others.
4. The canelé from Sonoma Bakery. For me, this one was okay. The outside was crispy, but I wished it had a little more of the crunch and caramelization. The inside was cooked very well, but I also thought the canele was a little big for my liking and was a bit hard to eat.
5. The canelé from Flour and Stone. This one had the most unique taste, having a touch of citrus inside. I am not the biggest fan of the citrus taste, but that's just personal preference. In the end, the texture was really great on this one, having an amazing crunch. The texture was pretty much perfect on this one, on par with Kiki's, in my opinion.

Overall, Sydney has really good canelés, but I'm still on the quest to find one that rivals my favourites overseas. If you guys have any recommendations, please let me know.

AP Bakery is one of, if not the most well-known bakeries in all of Sydney. They have several locations around the city, each one serving their iconic pastry lineup. Each location also has their own unique twist, and surprisingly some them I would personally avoid. My favourite location, however, is the Bread and Wine location in Darlinghurst. It is set in a cosy sandstone cottage, with AP's own modern touch on the inside. In my opinion, the service is also a step above the rest.

This is the only location where they serve all three meals, including dinner, but for now I have only been there for brunch. Out of all the menu items I've tried, my favourite would be the drowned eggs. It includes soft scrambled eggs in a comforting chicken broth, served alongside a heavily buttered baguette. In my opinion, all the butter gets a bit fatty, so I like to order it without any butter, and it sucks up the soup way better too. The scrambled eggs are done exactly how I like, and inside the chicken broth, it makes for a perfect pairing. They also include some chopped spring onion inside, which adds a nice texture and flavour contrast to the dish.

I also have given the mackerel sando a try, and this was also amazing. The mackerel was slightly salty, but when paired with the sweet shoku pan and the green zhug, it resulted in a well-rounded sandwich.

The anchovies on toast, I feel, had a similar flavour profile consisting of something a bit similar to Eggs Benedict. Just like the mackerel sandwich, the anchovies on toast dish has the green zhug. It also contains tahini and Cantabrian anchovies, which provided a nice salty contrast, again making this dish so well-balanced.

Overall, this is such a great place to get a nice brunch and also to try some of AP's seasonal pastries. I really hope to try the dinner service one day, heard some good things about it!

Ormeggio at The Spit is an iconic Sydney establishment, opening all the way back in 2009 and serving fine Italian cuisine with a beautiful waterfront view. After learning they were doing a winter special menu at half price, I knew this was the perfect time to pay them a visit.

We started with the Prosciutto di Parma fritters with spicy mayonnaise and fresh mixed herbs. This was a great starting bite. It was surprisingly light, not heavy and oily at all. It was crispy with an incredibly deep flavour, and the spicy mayonnaise provided a nice and needed kick.

Next came the Sonoma sourdough with sun-dried tomato butter. The bread was good as expected from Sonoma, and the butter was great too, but nothing ground-breaking.

This was then followed by my add-on, the chargrilled Fremantle octopus in piadina flatbread. This is a must-order; the octopus was perfectly cooked and seasoned. Paired with the stracciatella, turnip tops and chilli, it was amazingly balanced. I wish the bread was a bit larger, but this seemed intentional, as we were provided with wet towels.

Then we had the trofie pasta with yamba king prawn. It was topped with a San Marzano tomato ragu, stracciatella, lamon pangrattato and fresh basil leaves, where we were instructed to mix them up together. Tasting each component on their own was a nice touch, but honestly, mixing them together only resulted in a great-tasting ragu pasta and left a little to be desired creatively. I also prefer my pasta a little firmer, but this is just my personal opinion.

Next was the main, the O’Connor braised beef cheek. It was finished with a Domori Tuscan dark chocolate, sweet and sour braised radicchio, Jerusalem artichoke puree and crumbs. This was surprisingly good, especially considering Ormeggio was a seafood-focused restaurant in the past. The beef cheek was tender and comforting, with the sauce being a perfect accompaniment to the rich cheek. The crumbs on top also provided as a needed texture contrast. This was paired with a mixed leaf salad with lemon dressing.

Finally was dessert: the buffalo yoghurt gelato, amarena cherry, caramelised brioche croutons and aged balsamic vinegar. The yoghurt wasn’t too sweet and was actually quite tart. The caramelised brioche croutons mixed in, however, were bursts of sweetness and butteriness, making each bite so enjoyable.

Overall, there is good reason that Ormeggio at The Spit is such a long-standing and awarded restaurant here in Sydney. The food, though not absolutely perfect, was amazing overall, and of course the view is one that any guest can not ignore.

I came to Kiln to try their special lobster claypot rice for Broadsheet’s Dine Out week. As a fan of seafood bisque flavours, I knew I had to give it a go.

Kiln was already on my list for a while, especially after seeing chef Isobel Whelan-Little leading Kiln’s menu a few months ago. She impressively worked in 1 Michelin-star Brat in London before moving to LP’s Quality Meats. Her skill is undeniable, meaning this was a place I was looking to go for a while.

We started with the scallop, crème fraîche, and burnt citrus. It was a fresh start, with the sweetness of the scallop, acidity from the citrus and creamy richness from the crème fraîche balancing each other out perfectly.

We followed with the iconic parker roll paired with the steamed pippies. It was an absolutely amazing choice to pair together. The parker roll is one of their signatures for a reason: buttery and incredibly soft. Apologies to the smoked butter though since the sambal that came with the steamed pippes were perfection. They were a tad salty, meaning you needed a carb to balance things out, which was what the roll was for. The pippies with the shell were also a great vessel to hold the sambal.

Then came the lobster claypot rice paired with the marinated eggplant, yoghurt and soft herbs. The lobster was just a punch of lobster, probably the most concentrated bisque I have ever had (none of the watery stuff). The truffle made absolutely no difference in the flavour, which was the downside. The bisque was too good. The eggplant was the underdog, though. Slightly crispy, smoky and creamy all together, ended up being one of my favourite dishes of the night.

Dessert was the almond nougat parfait, also surprisingly good. The nougat was light, sweet and nutty, sitting atop the salty and sweet burnt honey caramel. Combined with the crunch of the almonds on top, it was great.

Overall, the vibe and service were amazing too, alongside the food; it was great chatting to the waiters. Obviously being on top of the Ace Hotel, the view was great; also with the modern restaurant design and open kitchen, I really loved the vibe.