Yumei Japanese Restaurant, Chinatown

My sister bought a voucher for Yumei (Capitol Square, 9/730-742 George St, Haymarket) so we all decided to try this place out considering how close it is to Central Station. My sister's been here before but sadly, it seems like the quality of the food has gone down from what she said. The food was reasonably priced but sadly, I have to agree with her that the food wasn't very good at all.

Karaage and Ebi Curry ($16)

This was very undermining as the whole dish was rather salty and the curry was especially gluggy and the corn didn't make it any better. The karaage was rather tender though and the tempura was okay but I was really looking forward to the curry which disappointed me.

Soft Shell Crab Salad ($14)

This was an all right dish if I recall correctly lol. Considering that even if it was relatively salty, there's salad to make up for that lol! 

Teriyaki Wagyu Beef? ($14.30)

Beef was really dry and seemed quite overcooked, wasn't a fan of the sauce either, quite watery and nothing special.

Chahan ($13.50) 

Rice was quite soggy and very sweet as well, not the biggest fan of sweet rice so that was really weird and unexpected, didn't enjoy it.

Grilled Sushi Party ($14.50) 

These were all right! Not super fresh but it wasn't bad, the rice was a bit hard though.

Volcano Roll ($14.70)

Cheese wasn't melted completely and was cold and chewy making the sushi rather meh. This was quite sweet too lol.

Yaki Udon ($13.50)

I really didn't like this. The amount of bonito flakes was way too overwhelming alongside the mayonnaise. It's the takoyaki sauce but udon version so it was really weird. The udon was rather hard as well so I didn't like this at all.

Overall, I feel like the sauces of the dishes always leaned to the sweet side and so even though some of the food was cooked nicely, the sauces didn't make the dish and vice versa for others. Hence, it was a pretty disappointing dinner and I don't think I'd go back again/

The Sparrow's Mill, CBD

A few weeks ago, my friend and I went to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum since there was a Groupon for it. It was really informative and had lots of information and things to see, I think you can easily spend the whole day there just reading everything lol, definitely quite an overload of info but it was interesting. It spoke about contemporary Jewish influences and culture on the ground floor and the next two floors greatly revolved around the Holocaust. It was a very quiet place so I'd recommend it if you're interested in the Holocaust.

Anywho, we decided to have a feast beforehand LOL and we were craving Korean so I suggested The Sparrow's Mill (120/116 Liverpool St, Sydney). It's really close to World Square so I think I might go there more often.. The table was quite small for the food we ordered though, it was quite a feat fitting everything below on to the small tables and not knocking anything down when we were eating lol. Otherwise, food came in like 15 minutes yay!

Incredible Gangjung (H $18) 

cinnamon base and soy sauce with sweet and crispy skin

I didn't realise this was a sweet fried chicken until it came hahaha! I don't even like cinnamon LOL. But for someone whose not a fan of cinnamon, it was all right. It definitely smells strongly of cinnamon though so that was a bit of a turn off. However, the cinnamon and soy sauce combination was quite nice, it was mostly sweet but it didn't feel weird as a sweet fried chicken. The meat wasn't dry as I thought it might be and it was quite crispy. My friend really enjoyed this as a lover of cinnamon hahaha. The rice cakes were so soft and chewy, I liked it~

Beef Soft Tofu Soup ($15)

Soup is my favourite at Korean restaurants, especially when it's Winter and it just warms you right up! It looks like it might be spicy but this wasn't really that spicy at all, maybe a tad bit to enhance the taste but not too much that I couldn't drink it. I mean, we nearly drank the whole thing hahaa! Note that this does have A LOT of beansprouts though, not kidding. I'd say it was mostly comprised of bean sprouts with bits of meat. egg and shallot. I got a good dose of veggies and warmth from this, I really liked it~~

Seafood Pancake ($15)

I was so impressed with the pancake!! It was crispy but also soft and it was so generous with the seafood! Every piece my friend and I ate had a prawn or octopus and they weren't tiny pieces either! There also isn't a crazy amount of shallot like other places do so it had a great balance of everything. The pancake itself was soft and didn't have an overwhelming amount of dough (yay!) so everything complemented well. I usually eat seafood pancake whenever I go eat Korean food and I'd have to say, this pancake might be my favourite, totally recommended!

Side Dishes

I'm not the biggest fan of the side dishes though~ I really like that potato that's sweet that other restaurants have but it was okay. Kimchi was kinda spicy so I had it with some rice hahaha.

Overall, I really enjoyed the food and would definitely come back for more! I wanna try the other chicken and soups whilst having another helping of the pancake hahaha. The only issue I have would be the small table and sides but that's fine~