Spicey I Am

Spice I Am
296-300 Victoria St
Darlinghurst


I have been craving for Thai food for the past few weeks, so finally got my fix.  A lot of Thai places in the city are packed, and since I have very little patience, I don't like places where you can't reserve a table. 
So, since this is one of the few reservation friendly Thai places, and I guess relatively close to the city, we headed out to Spice I Am. 


I've tried the Surry Hill's Spice I Am before, and definitely liked the atmosphere there a lot more.  This Darlinghurst place is nice, renovated, and you know the extra you are paying is to pay off their renovation and rent. 

However, either way, judging on the food itself, it definitely is good Thai food.  But, given the number of Thai places now open in Chinatown area, I don't think there are any different or anything out of the ordinary. 

We were lucky enough to be able to use the Entertainment Book voucher, other than that, it definitely isn't worth the value for money. 


Our dinner for 2, before discount was $110.  


Here are some pics of our food.. 

Deep fried sun dried pork strips with chilli dipping sauce

Crispy pork belly with Spice I Am chilli jam

Warm black sticky rice with coconut custard and pandan ice cream

My Rating: 7/10 

Good Thai food, overly expensive, but good service and atmosphere. 

xoxo.. Mich

Random eats

Here are some eats from various places, where, on my bad behalf, I didn't take enough photos for each to deserve their own post.  So, here's a collation of all of them. 


1. Macarons from La Belle Miette
La Belle Miette
30 Hardware Lane, 
Melbourne

From this box of 13 macaroons, I shared this with Viv, who happened to be in Melbourne for work.  Ohhh.. I can't thank her enough. I must say, I have never eaten this many macarons in my lifetime.  They were made perfectly.  And given that they were one day old, you couldn't taste any "oldness" in them.  


The best, Ohh, the BEST out of this box happened to be the last one we ate.  We were lucky enough to have one each.  It was hazelnut.  Not only was this made with intense hazelnut flavour, but it also had a little crunch of wafer within the filling.  Tasted exactly like a Ferrero Rocher.


Next time in Melbourne, need to remind myself to head here! 


2. Stitch Bar
61 York Street, 
Sydney


The  basement of an office building has been converted to a cute little underground bar.  It seems very secretive and mysterious.  Didn't take too many photos as it was just too dark.  But, as recommended by Time Out, we came here for the hot dog selection.  They try and succeed (to some extent)to be creative with their new and revitalised hot dog menu.  

My cocktail: nice and yum

But as you can see, extremely dark at the bar, and had the most uncomfortable seating. They use chests of drawers as tables, so your legs can't fit under, like normal table.  So you're legs are squished to the side, and with the cramped space, you're not exactly comfy. 

Mack ducky dog with curly fries $19

Duck, orange and pistachio sausage with foie gras de canard and truffle sauce

I'm usually not a fan of foie gras, but given that it was the most distinct and creative hot dog on the menu, I thought I would give it a try.  

It was .. ok.  Nothing special, slightly weird.  It was not exactly appealing, and I don't think it can be blamed on the fact that I rarely eat these ingredients, but yeh. 

I did think the curly fries would win the meal.  Except, they came out barely luke warm.  Definitely not fresh and definitely disappointing.  

My rating: 5/10

3. Omerta

235 Victoria St, 

Darlinghurst

I came here because of a voucher offering $59 for 5 course degustation. Given that it was a one-hatted restaurant, I thought it would be a good buy.  

You would always hope, that if someone offers a voucher to their restaurant, it is a marketing tool, to then promote their restaurant for you to return to pay full price.  It was a good degustation, but once again, nothing to tell home about. 

Starting bread: Nice, soft and warm, great!

Cured scallops with peas and celery: Picture isn't the best quality, but the scallops weren't that great.  It was mediocre.

Gnocchi with beef ragu: This was good, cleared the plate absolutely clean. 

Braised beef with polenta: This dish tasted remarkably similar to the dish above.  This is what I meant by the fact that a restaurant would showcase their finest dishes for their vouchers. I know they offer the vouchers at a discount, hence, would offer cheaper dishes to reflect the cheaper prices.  But, you would think, it is used as advertising, hence dishes to want to entice you to come back again.  This was cooked well, the meat was soft, and the polenta was cooked in a way that I have never tasted before.  But, the only downfall was just because it tasted so similar to the dish before, therefore didn't do justice in their "advertising".

Pre dessert: Lemon / Lime sorbet: Just way to cold in Sydney to eat

Chocolate fondant with a toasted marshmallow on top: This could have been so much better than it was, if only it was served warm. The toasted marshmallow was previously heated, but by the time it was served, it was cold.  The googey-ness of the marshmallow just tasted a little sickening and definitely not as nice as you imagine when you eat them in front of a fireplace.  The chocolate fondant was made well, except, it was not warm. 

The googey insides

My rating: 6.5/10

The dishes were cooked well, however, not fantastic.  This could be because we used a voucher, hence, cheaper prices offers cheaper dishes.  But, it was not good enough to entice me to come back for more, at full price. 

This is a one-hatted restaurant, could say that other places were a lot better than this. 

xoxo.. Mich

Porteno Take 2

Porteno
358 Cleveland St, 
Surry Hills


This is my second visit, and I can say for sure, that this is one of my favouritest restaurants.  I may say this quite often, given that I do love to eat a lot of different type of foods. But, I can say for sure, that this is my favourite Argentinean restaurant! 


The meat is so good.. just so good, everything just melts in your mouth good. 

The good looking pigs getting roasted!

Picture of the pigs again

The suckling pigs all pretty for me to eat

Poor little pigs, to make them feel any better, they tasted absolutely beautiful

Ohh .. Porteno, you do not know how much I love you.  I will be back once again.  
Too bad I didn't take a photo of the desserts we ate.  
We had the South Amerian Pavlova, which was a normal Pavlova with some peanut butter layer.  Ohhh.. so good!


My rating: 9.75/10
The only reason why I would take 0.25, is that it takes effort to get a booking.  You can only book with 5+ people, and then if you have more than 7 you are required to have the banquet menu.  
We had 5, and total cost came just under $200, which is fantastic value.  And my stomach was stuffed! 


xoxo... mich

Ms G's

So.. since it has been a good while since I've last updated, I have definitely still been eating. 


Here it goes


1. Ms G's 
155 Victoria Street, 
Potts Point


This is the newest Merivale restaurant, and I've been quite excited to try this place out as one of the chefs is Dan Hong, who is the brother of a high school friend of mine.  It is a funky Asian place, with cool cocktails that are packaged up like an Easy Way kind of shop. 


But, overall, I thought it was slightly overrated. The food was cooked quite well, not as overly creative as I imagined, but there was a load of shallots, corriander placed on ALL the dishes.  Not sure whether it is a way to "fill up" the plate, but sometimes it was just a little overboard. 


Service was good, given that we were such a large group. But, the felt a little too cool to help you out.  I guess the typical Merivale good looking hire that are more likely hired to be attractive rather than any waitering experience.  But, by no means that they were bad, just lack of friendliness.  


Here are some pics.  My rating would be 6.5/10

My cocktail: Forgot what it was, but it was so sour, but it did have Aeroplane Jelly

Mini Banh Mi: Very cute, tasted OK

The standout dish: Ms G's Corn on a cob, with parmesan and lime

Buddha's Delight: Here is when the corriandar comes piling up

Fried Chicken with Mayo: Not too much to it.

Egg Noodles with braised duck

Must have forgotten to take a photo of braised beef, but it had "woo see", little parcels of taro noodles.  It may look cute, and creative to foreigners, except these are like $1/packet in Asian groceries, and we use this all the time in hotpot.  So, I'm not judging, but, its a very cheap ingredient, which they would have used these packets, so it doesn't reflect all too well on their "creativeness" 

Splice: Mix of pineapple slushie with coconut and lychee jellies with an ice cream. 

Chocolate rice bubble slice with toasted marshmallows with a scoop of a good flavoured ice cream.  Too bad I can't remember the flavour. 

On an aside...

What I made: Opera Cake 

This is the first time that A has ever eaten anything that is coffee flavoured and liked it.  It tasted fantastic.  Coffee cream was nice and light, except presentation can definitely be improved a little.  

Happy Eating .. 
xoxo Mich