Kuon Tempura, Darling Square - Sydney

Join us as we journey through Chef Hidezo Fukada's 22 course tempura omakase menu at his new tempura restaurant, Kuon Tempura. More on my Youtube channel, link below:

Bistrot 916, Potts Point, Sydney

You do not have to leave Sydney and go to France to have delicious French cuisine. We have a great selection of French restaurants in our city. This includes one of my favourites, Hubert. Speaking of Hubert, their ex-head chef Dan Pepperell has opened a new restaurant in Potts Point called Bistrot 916. Yep, it’s the same dude that created all those dishes we fell in love with when Hubert first opened. 

Bistrot 916 is named after the fact that it’s a Bistro and that the phone number of the restaurant starts with 916. It’s located in the heart of Potts Point right where Lotus and The Fish Shop by Merivale used to be. The space has a moody contemporary Parisian vibe. It’s a casual restaurant but in the higher end of the spectrum and food prices are quite decent for its category. I went to visit the restaurant a few weeks ago with one of my best homies, Chocolatesuze.

 

We started with the lamb’s brains with smoked eel mayo ($18). This sounded daunting at first as I’m not a brain kinda guy but if it’s chef Dan’s creation, then it has to be good right? As expected, it was so amazing. So the brain was cooked like a croquette where the inside was fluffy (I honestly can’t think of a better description haha) with a golden-crisped coating. The smoked eel mayonnaise was thick and bursting with umami! Hack: leave some mayo aside if you order any dishes with chips/fries.

 

Then came out the Tuna tartare & beef fat fried potato ($26). This was probably my favourite dish during our visit. There was so much umami from both the tuna and potatoes. The potato was soft inside and loved the crispy caramelised bits on the outer layer.

 

The duck frites ($44) was delicious. The skin was slightly crisped, and the meat was juicy. The meat didn’t taste gamey, but it could also be due to the sauce that if came with, which masked it. The chips were crisped and perfectly seasoned.

 

I do prefer the steak frites ($56) to the duck though. The well-seasoned steak was cooked medium rare and was also packed with umami especially around caramelised bits. I would have preferred a thicket cut steak but nonetheless, this was delicious.

 

We were quite full so we didn’t end up trying any dessert. I would definitely come back to have the tuna tartarte with beef fat fried potato and lamb brain with smoked eel mayo. The lobster frites sounds good too!

 

Bistrot 916

22 Challis Avenue

Potts Point NSW

Website: https://www.bistrot916.com/

 

Jung Sung Contemporary Korean, Chippendale, Sydney

Hey fam, I hope you are all doing well. I apologise for yet again another long hiatus. As usual, life gets in the way and I am still trying to break through the YouTube realm (oh, if you haven’t subscribed and hit that notification bell yet, please do so here). I also can’t believe that the blog has been around for over 10 years now and I feel like the blog still hasn’t reached its full potential just yet. Time surely does fly. I’m hoping that in 2021, I can do both writing for the blog and pumping out YouTube videos. It will be a challenge, but you know what they say: “No pain, no gain”. 

Anyway, my first review this year will be on a high-end Korean restaurant that has just recently opened in the Kensington Street Dining Precinct. The restaurant is called Jung Sung. It’s close by to famed restaurants like Koi and Automata. It sits near the top floor of building 2-10 Kensington Street. The space reminds of a bit of the famous Michelin restaurants in Seoul: Jungsik and Kwonsooksoo. The fittings and décor are indeed very contemporary and so is the food. Most of the dishes are pretty much contemporary interpretations of classic Korean dishes or Chef Insup Kim original creations. There are French dishes too with a Korean twist. I’m sure you get what I mean. We opted for the $70 course menu, which consists of 6 courses. The kitchen has also sent us some complimentary extras (which I will mention later on).

Complimentary scallops dish

The Red Snapper Hwe includes raw snapper, white soy crystal, perilla extract, seaweed, and karkalla. The dish was lightly dressed and flavoured to just bring out the freshness of the red snapper. This reminds of Hawaiian poke.

The kitchen has sent us a dish similar to bibimbap with 3 types of grains, which also includes quinoa. This was both beautiful and delicious and the addition of sesame oil takes the flavours to another level with added sweetness and nutty notes. This dish also had notes of umami.

I’ve had a lot of overcooked crustacean in my life and their Moreton Bay Bug is not one of them. These were perfectly cooked and seasoned well. The meat was soy marinated and poached in butter. The creamy gochujang aioili compliments the moreton bay bug well with its cream sweet chilli and light garlic notes.

The catch of the day I believe was also a Red Snapper but was cooked with sweet soy, prepared with glazed anchovy and served with black garlic and potato puree. The fish was cooked perfectly but I would have preferred more popping of flavours from the dish. I did like the potato too.

The Berkshire pork was amazing. It had beautiful crisped blistered crackling and flavoursome fatty tender meat. It also came with brussel sprout, peach & berry’s creek puree, macadamia and grilled lettuce. Nutty and sweet flavours always go well with pork.

For the MB 9+ Wagyu and short rib, I only have 2 amazing words to describe it:  “Buttery Goodness”.

At first, I thought the Sweet Corn was a savoury dish but in actual fact, it’s a dessert! It’s sweet corn custard that almost has the texture of ice cream. The soy sauce caramelised pistachio goes amazingly with the frozen custard. I honestly loved it.

At this point, I was super full. But I still crushed the cherry chocolate dessert, which had milk chocolate mousse, cherry sorbet and coconut meringue.

I enjoyed my visit at Jung Sung. Whenever I miss the Michelin restaurants of Seoul, I now have Jung Sung that I can go to here in Sydney. The food was great and so was the service. I would go back again.

Jung Sung Contemporary Korean Restaurant

A6/2-10 Kensington Street

Chippendale NSW 2008

Ph: 0400 991 011

Website: https://www.jungsung.com.au/