Balcon By Tapavino

Balcon By Tapavino is the kind of place where you’d happily spend a lazy Friday afternoon. Order some share plates, a glass of wine and graze your way into the weekend.  The outdoor terrace area at the back of the restaurant conduces this relaxing, laid-back feeling, while the warmly-lit dining areas inside are cosy. Run…

Yayoi, The Galeries

Yayoi is not just another Japanese restaurant. Yayoi is a restaurant specialising in Teishoku – a Japanese set meal that consists of a number of smaller dishes, often served on a tray with steamed rice and miso soup. The restaurant sits on the upper level of The Galeries, with large windows framed by timber beams…

Lunching at Caffe Dante, Sydney CBD

Hands up if you have been out and about shopping, and suddenly realise you’re starving and it’s way past lunchtime? You find yourself getting hangry while wandering around to find somewhere to stop, then resort to an underwhelming eatery that was most convenient because, really, you just needed to satisfy your stomach. It’s a situation…

Washoku Lovers | Menya Mappen, Oiden + Dera-uma

Mappen, Dera-uma and Oiden are three sister eateries well known among those with a hankering for cheap Japanese food. They’re prime examples of the fact that one can eat well on the cheap, without compromising quality or size. If you are of the belief that it’s hard to find a delicious, satisfying hot meal for under…

Tea Time! | The Tea Room QVB

Going to high tea always makes me feel somewhat glamorous. It’s not every day you get to go to a hotel or decorated tea room to eat delicate cakes off tiered stands and sip tea from fine china. As a child I’d always marvel at the finesse of the beautiful petit fours and rejoice at…

Delisse Market Cafe, Sydney CBD

French marketplaces are scenes of wonder and awe for many food lovers. There’s an abundance of fresh produce and luscious baked goods everywhere you look, and a lively atmosphere of hustle and bustle unlike no other. In my opinion, it’s market food that I most look forward to when visiting any market. Delisse is a…

Lotus Restaurant & Dumpling Bar, The Galeries

Few word combinations can conjure as much joy as the marriage of dumpling and bar. And when a restaurant has both in its name, you can rest assured that they take their dumplings very seriously.  Lotus Dumpling Bar is the second spin-off of the popular Walsh Bay restaurant of the same name. It occupies a…

Dera-Uma, Sydney CBD

The term ‘comfort food’ means different things to different people. Some might immediately think of a steaming stew or an oozy, melted cheese toastie. For me, comfort food almost always involves rice. Growing up in Sydney and coming from an Asian background, my childhood was full of a sort of hybrid cuisine. Vegetable stir-fries would…

Menya Mappen, Sydney CBD

There is nothing quite like the sound of slurping noodles, or men (めん) in Japanese, at a meal time. There is no food group that is quite like the humble noodle. Whether eaten in a hot soup, served cold with a delicious dipping sauce, or fragrantly stir fried, noodles are a carbohydrate that I will…