Bennelong

My partner's parents had a week-long trip to northern area, including Hunter Valley.  They have come back to Sydney to spend the weekend to meet up with their daughter who was leaving for Papua New Guinea to join her boyfriend.  Since her flight was in the morning, we had arranged a late lunch with them and their friends at this restaurant, Bennelong, located right in the Sydney Opera House.

A long-awaited blue sky brought many tourists to the landmark, and I could see so many people enjoying the scenery of beautiful harbour.  Somehow most of them were from China, and it reminded me of how Tokyo was, especially, Ginza.  (Ginza is a shopping spot - now filled with Chinese tourists.)

The restaurant was surrounded by panoramic view of Sydney Harbour, and it offered a spacious dinning area.  Even with this much space, the restaurant was one of the hard-to-book places, so I was so thrilled to enjoy the lunch there.  I am pregnant, so I cannot drink there, but they have such a posh bar right near the entrance, and I seriously want to go back there after serving my duty!

The food was beyond my expectation, and I loved them all.  I felt well-served and staffs were well-trained.  I definitely consider this place to be one of my favourite places in Sydney.  As it was organised as my early birthday lunch (great surprise!  I wasn't expecting this at all!,) we did not have to pay for the lunch...kind of feeling bad as the lunch 3 course was 150 AUD per person.  I thought it was a well-worth of quality, and I would love to go back to this restaurant again.

I would definitely dress somewhat nice for this place.  I felt okay wearing jeans, moccasin and jacket, but I don't mind wearing nice dress with heals to have intimate dinner or champagne in the bar.

By the way, during the lunch, his parents were talking about this restaurant in Hunter Valley.  Definitely going there during my next trip!  http://www.exprestaurant.com.au

For Bennelong, I have to give ★★★★★ for everything.

Nikuzo Japanese BBQ

My partner goes to this Japanese owned hair salon called Shinka in Sydney.  (They have shops in Tokyo, and he was a regular customer there as well.) His hairstylist had recommended this Japanese BBQ place near our place, so we'd wanted to try it for awhile.

The place does not have a website, but here is some information from tripadvisor.com.  The restaurant is called Nikuzo, and it is an authentic Japanese BBQ, 'Yakiniku' restaurant.

The restaurant opens at 5:30pm, but we could only book for 5:30pm or 8:30pm, so we went there at 8:30pm.

The food was just like what we had in Japan.  I recommend "special" grade instead of "regular" grade for meat.  We ended up ordering all in special grades.  At the end, we decided to order one more plate of meat, and they mistakenly gave us this regular grade, and we could tell right away that the grade was completely different.

I think I enjoyed the experience of Yakiniku, but what disappointed me was this person who served our table towards the end.  I have a feeling that he was the owner or restaurant manager, but he absolutely had no smile or friendly attitude; he acted like he was unhappy serving us.  Because of the experience, I am not sure I want to go back there again.

Regardless if you like do-it-yourself kind of environment, you will enjoy indoor BBQ experience. Please do not wear anything fancy as you need to wash your clothes as soon as you get home.

Food was great, but the place could be cleaner and more friendly.
I need to give this place ★★

The Dinning Room

My partner's parents are in town.  They helped me so much with upcoming baby shopping.  We went out to buy pretty much everything this weekend.  I am so blessed to have such a generous help, and I cannot thank them enough.  (They were all top of the line!)

Tonight, they took us out to The Dinning Room located in Park Hyatt Sydney.  What a beautiful place!  It is located right in between Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.  When you walk in, you are surrounded by fresh flower scent - they had sakura cherry blossom and white lily arrangements, so you can imagine how pleasing it was.

The restaurant was as posh as I'd expected.  The food and desert were great.  Again, I am not sure if it was a trend of Sydney restaurant, but I felt like we were underserved as we had to try to get waiter's attention a few times.  But I really liked the atmosphere and presentation.  People were well-dressed (than Q dinning,) and I could see this restaurant as a place for special occasion.  I felt okay in casual attire at Q dinning, but I like to dress up a bit for this place.

We had a great time over fabulous cuisine.

★★★★ for this place.

Q dining Restaurant Circular Quay

It has been almost two months since I have left Tokyo for Sydney.  I noticed that Sydney restaurant price was a bit more than what I used to pay in Tokyo.  I personally feel that Tokyo offers more variety and quality, but Sydney definitely offers breath-taking views and atmosphere.

It has been many years since I have updated my blog; many things have happened to me.  Now I am pregnant living with my partner here in Sydney.

Today we are celebrating his best friend's birthday at Q dining Restaurant Circular Quay located in Pullman Hotels and Resorts right in front of this beautiful view of Circular Quay.

When you walk in, the first thing you notice is this spectacular view of the bay.  The setting is cozy and intimate; you can wear jeans and nice crisp t-shirt or shirt and be okay.

Have you been to restaurants with big fat vocabularies on the menus and you wonder what you are ordering?  I kind of had the experience at this place, especially, the chef chose to create everything somewhat in Japanese (but I saw Kimchi with Pork, so Korean, too) and French fusion.  The food looked and tasted good, but the restaurant was definitely understaffed.  I would not recommend this place for super hungry group as it would drive them crazy.  When the waitress came to me and asked me how I was doing (after charcuterie and bread - oh, yes, the fig bread and olive bread were very good,) I ended up telling her I was hungry as I felt like I was waiting for the food forever.

We may go back to the place again as we get a huge discount using Accor Advantage Plus, but I need to give ★★★ for now.

Fonda de la Madrugada

Last night four girls got together at Mexican joint in Harajyuku. The food was great as usual, and Mexican singers were singing, ‘El amor, amor, amor~~~.’ The trios made me wonder where my love was.

Anyways, our endless chat about love and relationship went on and on, and I realized that I had pretty difficult standard for men. I certainly like a successful man, but I also like this particular profile of man who is relatively short and chubby. I named a few celebrities’ name I liked, and girls were pretty grossed out. After all, life is fair because of a person like me.

The dinner was nice and sweet, and it reminded me that I still had great friends around me although I had no man in my life.

★★★
Fonda de la Madrugada
www.fonda-m.com

Hamadaya

I haven’t had a chance to update my blog. I went to several places, so I will update it as soon as possible!

Last night I went to this traditional Japanese restaurant with my very close friend. How traditional? Sometimes they invite Geisha over to the location to entertain executives. The restaurant looks like a traditional Japanese tea house, and our server actually told us that the place used to be Okiya for Geisha a while back (Okiya was a house where Geisha and Maiko lived…)

We were first lead to a waiting area where you could see a traditional Japanese garden. I felt like I was at onsen or ryotei in Kyoto. Then our server came to let us know that our room was ready. Our room also had Japanese garden although it was located on the second floor.

Since they often have foreigner guests, they provides English menu along with Japanese menu. You can also request your favorite food prior to your visit.

If you like to ride on a time machine to go back to old Japan and enjoy a good food, this is where you should be. Of course, you need to pay for the trip, and it is not that reasonable. Our bill was right below 80,000 yen, so fasten your seatbelt and get ready.

It is located in Nihonbashi.
http://www.hamadaya.info/

However, they have another one in Roppongi. They said it was more casual, but I would call it more ‘modern.’
http://www.hamadaya-midtown.com/

I had an amazing experience...so my rating is ★★★★★ for sure.

Kusa no Ie

There was ‘Hanryu Bumu’ in Japan…is it still around? Do you still see so many young and old ladies going after Korean actors and actresses? Well, it seems like Tokyo has more Korean restaurants today. I often go to Shin Okubo and Akasaka to have my mini Korean nights to enjoy the hot and spicy dishes.

Well, my friend and I wanted to try this Tofu Soup place in Azabu Jyuban (this place http://r.gnavi.co.jp/e586000/ )…but this place was closed till 5:30pm! But we were super hungry, and we could NOT wait…plus this was our 3rd failed try to visit this restaurant that we decided NOT to even try to eat at this restaurant anymore.

…so we were just walking down the street just to find a restaurant…and we ended up pressing an elevator’s button to go up to this Korean restaurant hoping that they would have decent dishes to satisfy us (you know how picky I am…)

OMG!!!! This Korean restaurant was so different from other restaurants I’d tried. I would describe it as ‘high-end’ or ‘classy’…just like me (alright, I am kidding…doh!)

Everything tasted so classy and good that I must say this place is probably one of the best Korean restaurants I’ve visited in Tokyo.

I strongly recommend you to try their Chijimi with Seafood, then you will know what I am talking about…oh, don’t forget to order Nenmyong cold noodle after the meal.

★★★★

Kusa no Ie
http://www.kusanoie.jp/