Archive for the ‘Randwick’ Category
V Rating: VVV On a recent Friday night, Andy, our visiting friend, Adam, and I were driving aimlessly between my work and the Eastern Suburbs in Sydney as I tried to think of a new Italian restaurant to try. Sensing that we were literally on the road to nowhere, Andy announced that he was taking us to one of his old haunts: Isabella’s in Randwick.
Isabella’s is a friendly, warm, characterful restaurant. It has the offbeat charm of a local, student-friendly restaurant (if not the prices). The walls are brightly painted, with large mirrors and low-hanging lights. Although the restaurant is in a single room, the area is broken up by sidings and high arrangements of flowers, so you feel like you’re eating in more intimate surrounds. There are even a few tables on the sidewalk outside, overlooking Alison Road and a park. Isabella’s offers six vegetarian starters and six vegetarian pasta dishes. I was impressed that the vegetarian dishes weren’t the standard ‘napolitana’ and ‘mushroom risotto’ options, and looked like some thought had gone into making them. Adam tried the verdura, a vegetable pasta with feta served in either a creamy tomato or basil sauce.
I had the creamy sundried tomato pesto sauce.
Andy tried the arrabiata, a tomato sauce with roasted eggplant and capsicum, chili and garlic. Unlike most of the Isabella dishes, this came without cheese or cream, so seemed suitable for vegans.
Our dishes were large and filling, if not exciting. I love broccoli so was very happy to find a pasta where it was the feature ingredient. I’m not a fan of cream sauces, but mine was light and moderated by the tomato base. I can’t review the seafood side of Isabella’s as none of our party eat creatures of the deep. However, it did occur to me that Isabella’s might be a good choice of venue for seafood-loving families stuck with a rogue vegetarian, given the menu caters well for both. Another bonus feature is that Isabella’s is BYO, and is right next door to a bottle shop with a great range of wines from Australia and overseas. I was really taken with Isabella’s friendly ambiance and left of centre charm. It felt like the kind of place you turn gratefully to on a weeknight or lazy Sunday evening, when you want a pleasant, homely, no strings attached experience.
V Rating: VVV The business card for Java Cafe carries the slogan ‘excellent Indonesian cuisine.’ Could not have said it better myself. Java is my favourite Indonesian restaurant in Sydney. The food is authentic, the waiting staff are lovely, the atmosphere is thriving and the atmosphere screams relaxed cafeteria. It’s also easy to find on busy Avoca street - just look for the bright yellow sign and the shop window with a giant palm tree. The good news for vegetarians is that there are 13 vegetable dishes. Our table ordered gado gado, semur terong (fried battered eggplant in a sweet soya sauce) and sayur lodeh. The vegetables in the gado gado were fresh contrasted well with the thick, sweet peanut sauce. One of my favourite things about Java is that they serve great tempeh. Although we didn’t order it this time around, I’d recommend the fried tofu and tempeh dish. Java is not a glamourous eating experience. If that’s your thing, try Jimbaran further down the road. However, it can’t be beaten for great value, authentic Indonesian food. The only catch is that a lot of people in Sydney are in on the secret, so make sure you book a table to avoid a half an hour wait.
V Rating: VVV Last Thursday I went to a degustation dinner at French restaurant, Balzac. I was nervous about the vegetarian fare. Most French restaurants struggle to produce a single vegetarian dish. How would Balzac go thinking up five of them? French, fine dining restaurant Balzac is an anomaly on Belmore road, more notable for its squashed, communal and mainly Asian eateries. The sense of disjuncture is symbolised by Balzac’s cheerfully awkward position on a thin peninsular of land jutting out between two bustling roads, where it perches like the Tardis having landed some place it oughtn’t. Entering the restaurant is like stepping through a door into a different dimension. Exposed sandstone walls, soft lighting and white tablecloths transport you to a romantic, semi-rural restaurant in the Loire Valley in France. Urban Randwick, not so much. But back to the food. I had no idea what dishes to expect because there were no vegetarian options written on the menu. Once the waiting staff heard that I was vegetarian they were very attentive and made sure that dishes met my dietary preferences. For example, I was told that the first dish was quail’s eggs and asked if that was OK. I said yes, a little apprehensively. Technically I eat eggs. Just not a lot, or by themselves, and not generally from quails. I was secretly relieved when the waiter reappeared with onions fried in spices and mixed with finely shredded brussel sprouts. For the next dish I was expecting gnocchi. What actually came out were four fried truffled quail eggs with celeriac and asparagus. I didn’t immediately realise this, however, and had a Julia Roberts moment when I first tried to pick up an egg and had it roll into my lap, then tried to poke it quickly and had the yolk splash up into my face. Hence the old saying, I guess.
My favourite dish was the sauté of potato gnocchi with roast jerusalem artichokes, portobello mushrooms and reggiano. The gnocchi was soft, and the large, carefully placed slices of mushroom added a hearty flavour. At this point in the dinner we were treated to a passionate speech about the recent RU486 debate in the Federal Parliament. It was inspiring to hear how women from different parties had joined together to convince the Government to allow a rare conscience vote on the issue, and then persuaded the Parliament to pass amending legislation placing the decision to approve RU486 in the hands of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), rather than the Minister for Health. It was sobering, however, to hear that the situation arose because a number of fortunate coincidences, and that the fate of related issues, like the push to ensure transparent advertising in pregnancy counselling, was bleaker. After this food for though we returned to food for stomachs. The waiters served small glasses of ice cream, but thoughtfully offered to bring me a different dish because they assumed that I didn’t eat gelatine. Instead, I got dark cherries in sweet syrup with lemon sorbet. Lovely. For dessert, I had the chocolate fondant with thick chocolate sauce. This was a beautiful, rich pudding perfect for a cold winter’s night. I’m not sure that a vegetarian happening by Balzac would have such an easy time, because like most French restaurants the regular Balzac menu is squarely focussed on meat. However, my degustation experience at Balzac was great. The service was impressive and friendly, the company was stimulating, and the food was carefully prepared and conceived.
V Rating: VV Jimbaran sits serenely on Avoca Street in Randwick, a world away from the squashed and noisy Indonesian cafes on nearby Anzac Parade.
I assume that the restaurant is named for Jimbaran Bay in Bali, tragic site of bombings in October 2005, and whose upmarket restaurants were popular with Western tourists. Last Sunday, L. and I were led away from this romantic front area (perhaps they knew that even with plastic covers I wasn’t to be trusted) and into the large, covered back courtyard.
We eyed off the vegetable curry (lodeh), but opted for the fried egg noodles with vegetables and Morning Glory stir-fried with a preserved soya bean sauce. The noodles were huge and beautifully presented on a banana leaf. There were not a lot of vegetables in amongst the noodles, but it was certainly a filling dish. I was keen to try the morning glory and it reminds me of being in Asia. I don’t remember morning glory from Indonesia but ate a lot of it in Laos (not an overly veggie friendly place). It’s not a dish you see a lot in Australia - perhaps because it’s less euphemistically known as river weed, which makes it hard to move on a menu.
I ummed and ahhed about giving Jimbaran a VVV - the food is well-priced, the atmosphere is lovely and the menu has a good range of traditional Indonesian and vegetarian dishes, although other friends tell me that Jimbaran is famous for its seafood dishes. My only hesitation was that the vegetarian food I tried was pleasant but not particularly flavoursome. Disappointingly, Jimbaran doesn’t make use of tempeh or tofu, which are common in Indonesian, and half of the vegetarian dishes were variations on noodle or fried rice. The rating is provisional - I’d like to go again and try the lodeh, fried eggplant, and cap cay which might make better vegetarian choices than the options.
V Rating: VVV Mandala Nepalese is part of the Randwick’s quieter restaurant district on Avoca street. It emanates warmth with bright red walls and friendly and attentive service. Mandala is a veggie friendly restaurant. There are five veggie entrees, and you can sample four of your choice in a tasting plate (a guilt free way to indulge your inner glutton). There are only three veggie mains (mostly curries) which are a moderate size. However, there are six vegetable ’side dishes’ which appeared to be the same size and value as a main (only cheaper). I wish I could do more justice to the delicious food (say, by describing it). However, we went to Mandala to celebrate our friends recent engagement and neither my notes nor my memory extend beyond my first glass of champagne. Unfortunately for this review I had finished it by the time the entree arrived. I can recommend the pumpking side dish and the main with black eyed beans. I really enjoyed Mandala and would happily go back. It is a great choice if you want to eat with non-vegetarians because it easily accommodates a range of food preferences. |
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