Rasa Delights, Eastwood

A lot of these food trips were done before my sister left for Japan since she wanted to eat at all these places haha so forgive me for constantly mentioning her even though she's been in Japan for a while now loll. This time, it's a Malaysian restaurant called Rasa Delights (Shop 115, 80 Rowe Street, Eastwood). My sister was craving hainan chicken before she left and so she said we should come here. We got here pretty late around 8pm but it was still quite bustling. Luckily we got a table straight away and was served very quickly. Service was quick and prompt and attentive.

Veggies with Oyster sauce (Free!)

So nice of them to worry about our daily veggies intake! Hahaha, I love getting free veggies. These were very simply boiled in water and then taken out to dip with oyster sauce. A standard but nice dish.

Teh Tarik (Malaysian style Milk Tea) $3.50 for cold

This is $3 for a hot version but I really wanted a cold drink on the side so I opted for this one. I love the cup! It was also very milky and not too sweet. Most importantly, the taste was very smooth, I liked it, but it did have a bit too much ice and thus diluted the taste quite a bit after a while.

Bak Kut Teh (Large $18.80)

I always thought Bak Kut Teh was literally tea but apparently it's meat cooked in broth with no tea involved at all haha! It's great for drinking or dipping with foods. I drank a bit and I felt so warm and full. It has this nice sweet saltiness to it that is great with rice or alone as well. Meat and mushrooms were also brewed very well in the broth and thus absorbed all of the taste of the broth and was very soft to eat. The meat practically rolled off the bone, yuum~

Malaysian Curry Beef Brisket (Medium $13.80)

I was a bit excited for this one and I have to say, the tender pieces were sooo good! Strong curry flavour that is a bit spicy but nevertheless, really delicious. However, there were pieces that were really tough to chew that I nearly choked on lmao so that was a turn off.

Boneless Hainan Chicken (Half) ($18.80)

We really wanted a whole chicken but they only had half left so we just got the rest. When my sister told me the hainan chicken here was good, I really didn't expect it to be so smooth and tender! Way smoother than my skin lmao. It comes with the three usual sauces to dip with making it a very delicate but great dish.

Overall, I would recommend this place if you're looking for some nice Bak Kut Teh to warm you and your companions up and if you're really craving some hainan chicken as well because those two dishes are definitely recommended! It's a small shop but it's fast and efficient. I think I'd like to go again when I have some cravings for these dishes ahaha.

Friendship Oriental Seafood Restaurant, Beverley Hills

Initially, we were planning to go to Iron Chef in Cabramatta but my dad didn't recommend it and we have tried it before so we thought we'd go somewhere new called Friendship Oriental Seafood Restaurant (477 King Georges Road, Beverley Hills). When we entered, there was definitely enough space for the 7 of us at dinner and although I can't remember the exact prices, most of the dishes were decently priced at around $20-25 each dish excluding the crab and duck. The food did take a while to come but that was okay because we get free soup!

Oh, nearly forgot! I totally recommend you to bring someone who can read Chinese if you come here because the Chinese and English menus are really different lol! I looked at the English menu with my sister and we thought there were so less dishes here to eat.. Then we asked our mum for the Chinese menu and whoaa! Everything was there loll. Although there were some dishes in the English menu that weren't in the Chinese menu loll, so weird. But yeah, the real stuff is in the Chinese menu so read that one for sure!

Complimentary Soup of the Day (Free!)

It's pork bone soup! My mum makes this a lot at home so I really liked it and had two bowls! Very refreshing and sweet. Good start to the meal! Main deal is of course the soup and not the meat :P

Roast Duck (2 eats)

I think this was supposed to be around $40 or something but there was a special that day so was only $28. It comes with peking duck and then they serve the rest of the duck on a plate for you to eat. Obviously, I forgot to take a photo until I took a bite haha but the duck was nice and tender but the pancakes were a bit floury. Otherwise, nice.

Roast Duck (2 eats)

When we got the rest of the duck, sadly it was rather dry and not as meaty as you would expect. Wasn't very impressed.

King Prawns with Snow Peas

It's hard to get this one wrong! Haha, this one was nice, a very plain but satisfying dish. Definitely great for washing out the strong tastes of the other dishes. King prawns were also very good and snow peas weren't overcooked, which was great!

Beef Brisket Claypot

This one was a bit undermining since it seemed to contain more beef tendons than beef brisket which I like. Flavour was quite simple and not very dense, which was good. It did taste like it had been submerged in the sauce for a while so that was yum!

Crab with Vermicelli

I'm not the biggest fan of crab but I love this dish! It soaks up all the crab sauce and is so flavoursome and springy. I love these noodles with crab!

Deep Fried Tofu w/ mushroom claypot

The tofu pot is a standard I love and this one didn't really disappoint either, the tofu was great soaking up the sauce along with the mushroom and tofu skin. Definitely a great veggies dish! This one is usually safe to order at any restaurant haha.

Crab with yi mein

I was super looking forward to this one but was left so disappointed! The noodles weren't cooked thoroughly eughh, still uncooked :( so it was a bit hard sigh. Otherwise, crab was nice but hard to eat as usual haha.

Peking Pork Spare Ribs w/ Fried Milk

My sister was really curious about fried milk and she loves peking ribs so we ordered this. The fried milk was surprisingly nice with a little crispy outside and smooth milky tofu and custard sort of texture inside that tasted pretty much like milk. Fascinating but not sure if I like it hahaha. As for the ribs, they were good! Tender and the pieces weren't oversized like some restaurants, it's a bit more on the soggy side though which was a bit of a minus.

Overall, it was a nice family dinner with everyone (except my dad!) but it's not somewhere I'd probably go back to considering it's quite out of the way for me and the dishes weren't exceptionally done well. I guess, we'll go back to the hunt for a better Chinese restaurant!

Mr Stonebowl/石锅先生, Burwood (UPDATED REVIEW)

My brother asked me about this place the other day and since he asked me about it, my sister became curious and wanted to go since we've been losing favourite places in Burwood to eat at. This isn't part of this post but I definitely DO NOT recommend Canton Noodle House in Burwood anymore because of their below average service and when I had Japanese Tofu there last time it tasted super sour and expired, which was definitely not acceptable. So yeah, I used to really like that place but I think they changed their management and staff. It has also become rather quiet at dinner times, for a very apparent reason. But yeah, tofu is inexpensive and to cook and to give your customers tofu gone bad is pretty ridiculous. My sister told them that the tofu tasted off and they replaced it but it still turned out bad like the previous one so yeahhh, no.

Anyway, back to the main deal, Mr Stonebowl at 185c Burwood Road (previous review), I've talked about this place before but since I had different dishes this time, I thought I might as well do an updated review! As always, super busy though, think I got there around 7:30pm and I had to wait until 8:10pm for a seat for 4 people. It was a cold night as well zzzz.

Pork Rib with Mushroom Soup/虫草花原味炖肉排 ($4.80)

It was really really cold so I wanted this soup again! Sadly, it does taste a bit different from memories, like it still tastes good but I feel like they added MSG to it in comparison to when I tried it a year ago. Maybe those signs I saw saying they're recruiting chefs and stuff has something to do with it..lol But yeah, still tastes quite authentic and great for the winter time but it does taste like there's MSG now,

Deep Fried Chicken Fillet with Dried Chilli/歌乐山辣子鸡 ($15.80)

Woo! My sister and her boyfriend loved this dish the most but I really didn't like the after taste of the chilli chicken in my mouth. It's probably the type of chilli they used that I'm not very familiar with so I didn't especially like it but they loved it. It was quite spicy as well but I do admit, it did taste pretty nice and tender.

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings/香煎锅贴 9pcs ($8.80)

These dumplings were soo good! Super recommended! The skin, the meat inside, it was literally perfect. Wasn't too chewy and tasted really soft and crunchy at the same time. Really enjoyed it.

Singapore Style Barramundi/星洲石锅鱼($18.80)

Since every single table we saw while waiting for a table was eating this, we decided to order it as well. It was pretty nice and not very spicy, but it was a bit hard to get the fish meat off at times because it was stuck to the fish bones. Overall, pretty good, when you could pick up the meat, it was very soft and the sauce was more of a sweet and sour taste.

Marinated Tender Chicken/魔鬼嫩滑鸡 ($7.80)

I tried this again! My dinner mates didn't like it very much but I still like it. But I guess it didn't match well with the rest of the dishes since it's better eaten as an entree before all the food comes and not with all the food at once. I really enjoyed it as an entree. It still has that funky light and tangy taste which is really creamy. The chicken was also as tender as ever.

Xiao Long Bao/灌汤小笼包 9 pcs ($9.80)

Xiao Long Bao ($8.80)

Yuum! This was pretty nice as well, not as perfect as the other dumplings but it was still very meaty and juicy which I loveee. It's not crazy good but definitely good for satisfying the craving!

Overall, I think if you're looking for a restaurant with densely flavoured dishes, this would be a great pick since everything is packed with flavour and the dishes come really fast as well! A possible negative would be that most of the service staff mainly speak in Mandarin/Taiwanese and so might not understand anything outside of which dishes you want and table water etc, the simple stuff that is required in all restaurants. I guess it's better to have someone that understands it but not necessary. Overall, it's a good place but I'm not fond of the crazy lines it can have so it's not really a restaurant I'd ever be rushing to get to.

Rocksia Hotel Bistro, Arncliffe

My sister will be leaving to teach English in Japan under the JET Program very soon, so she's been wanting to go to the food places she has had fond memories of before leaving. Rocksia was one of them because she went there once before with her colleagues when she still worked at Hurstville and she said their portions were really generous and it tasted good and off we went! 

Located at 299 Princes Hwy, Arncliffe, Rocksia Bistro had plenty of seating for lunch on a weekend with relatively quick service. It has a nice lively atmosphere perfect for a relaxing lunch with a friend or the whole family with your kids. However, contrary to my sister's memories of long ago, it seems that the food has become rather disappointing.

Ribs w/ chicken wings drenched in BBQ sauce + chips and salad

My sister's boyfriend ordered this and although the sauce was pretty nice, the ribs and the chicken wings were simply too dry. The chicken wings were the better part of the deal since they weren't as dry as the ribs but still wasn't up to par for being succulent at all. As for the ribs, they were extremely boney lacking greatly in the meat area and also extremely dry to the point of being crunchy dry. My sister was really sad about this one since she said these used to be really good and a great value for money.

BBQ Chicken Pizza ($18)

Mexican Spiced Chicken, Streaky Bacon, Green Capsicum, Mozzarella, House BBQ Sauce

Pizza was quite average in taste, I liked it but the crust was quite burnt as you can see which made it have a really strong burnt taste so I just skipped the burnt crust. Pizza was also surprisingly smaller than I thought considering the price. Not very family friendly in that area!

Lamb Shanks in Red Wine and Rosemary

The only complaint my sister had with this one was the smaller portion but I guess it's relatively decent if she didn't have expectations of the old. Sauce is not one I'm fond of since it's quite sour but my sister said that's how it should taste like so I guess the sauce is still as good! I'm just not a fan of it haha. I don't like sour food very much. Oh, on another note, the chips are good! Fresh, crunchy and soft on the inside and they're pretty big! Thumbs up!

Overall, restaurants can really change in a few years and I guess this was one that didn't keep up to the good reviews my sister had of it once before. It's not a very convenient place for me to get to as well so very unlikely I'd come back but I do think this place is better enjoyed for the atmosphere of a nice break and soothing relaxation time with the kids or just a casual lunch or dinner. Just don't order the ribs loll.

Kanzo. Parramatta

Long time no see everyone! Been MIA for a while because of an erratic skin condition affecting my face. I thought I'd be able to enjoy my holidays after the uni semester finished but then this happened in the period of my exams and was just ughhh. It's probably the weather and eczema acting up again sigh. But anyway! I've been slowly recovering after a few visits to the doctor and hopefully it goes away completely!

I was able to grab a quick lunch at Parramatta with my friend the other day and wasn't sure what to eat so I thought I'd Google some stuff and came across this Japanese restaurant called Kanzo (Shop 6, 55-67 George Street) so we decided to try it out! No line at all but it is a pretty small shop so you might have to wait for seats depending on the situation but it has a pretty quick turnover rate since this isn't exactly the most comfortable place to sit with how cramped the space is. It's okay once you sit down though. But yeah, I'd recommend this place for a quick lunch but not somewhere you'd want to exactly sit in for hours on end.

Takoyaki 5 pcs ($4)

Takoyaki!! I haven't eaten this in so long! Was super excited to eat this! But sadly, it only had a tiny piece of octopus in each ball so it was a bit disappointing. But overall, it tasted okay, a bit on the smaller side though, the photo makes them look so big hahahaha, it's a lie.

Free Side Salad

Typical salad that comes along with a meal! I didn't try it because I generally don't like these salads.

Teriyaki Chicken Udon ($11)

For the main meal! Sorry for that random ray of light on it lmao, but this was pretty nice. The teriyaki chicken was really tender and nicely flavoured and the udon noodles were nice and chewy. It also has enoki mushrooms in the soup and I absolutelyy love those! And the addition of a slice of fish cake is always good. The soup was also very densely packed with the seawood flavour soup that is alike many udon soups. Very light but very flavoursome, I really enjoyed it and would definitely eat this again.

Overall, I think this is a great place to grab a quick lunch or two with a friend considering how cheap and quick it is in how efficiently they come with the food after you order but it can be a rather cramped place due to its size but I think it's worth a try if you want something cheap, quick and delicious!