Dec - Jan

Kostas Takeaway (Rockdale)
The ⭐Fish Burger was perfectly balanced, it would be challenging to find a better one. The Tuna Melt was good, but too pickle heavy, making it hard to appreciate the cheese.

Sweet Belem (Petersham)
A gift from my brother, I’m sorry for slandering you... I tried it cold first, then warm (for a comprehensive review 🤓). They were crispy even after 2 days in the fridge, which is insane?

My favourite was the ⭐Original Portuguese Egg Tart. The spices made it very moreish & Christmas appropriate (think nutmeg) but all of them were good.

Pantry Story (Stanmore)
Never thought kimchi & bread would go together so well but the ⭐Kimchi Cheese Focaccia was genuinely a mind altering experience. The Miso Mushroom Focaccia was eh, imo mushrooms aren’t good on focaccia texturally.

The Charsiu Pie was good but heavy on the butter & sugar. It’s basically a large version of BBQ pork pastries from yumcha but with higher quality pork. I would have liked a crispier, flakier crust on the Beef Rendang Pie.

The dessert pastries had me in shock at how sweet they were…

The Black Sesame Cheesecake Kouign Amann was good but had too much going on for me. I would have liked the Pandan Bun in a different form, as 75% of bites were overwhelmed by the sugar granule coating + bread, which I felt neutral about compared to the filling.

Similarly I found the Pandan Mochi Cookie far too sweet. The Matcha Mochi Brownie was slightly more balanced with the bitterness to offset it.

Khao Man Kai (CBD)
Saw this spot on reels a few times but the food looked so different from the photos 🤡🚩 Very underwhelming, basic meals you could make at home. It wasn’t expensive but the portions were small, like I actually cleaned off my rice lol. 🤦‍♀️

Even if influencers aren’t visiting upon payment or invitation, they still have the incentive to make their content + gallery look good. Also, positive food reviews will have more virality than negative, because people want to share things that look good to try with friends & family, the post will be promoted more etc.

Could go over which food-finding methods I find reliable at some point lol.

Westwood (Newtown)
I enjoyed the pillowy, thin base that wasn’t greasy or heavy. I haven't tried a ton of pizzas but it's up there for me. The ⭐Honey Garlic is my pick, but it could have used some spice (note: add-on chilli is available). The Spanner Crab, & Nduja Salami pizzas were also very good. The ⭐Grilled Greens were done to perfection.

Amazon Acai (CBD, Kogarah)
I'm a simple person... I just want acai that's sauce generous. Biscoff is my go-to. Their ‘small’ is a medium, ‘medium’ is a large, etc so be warned. My main feedback is that I wish they had more fruit options.

Uncle Tetsu’s (CBD)
So their ⭐Cheese Tarts are like crack to me. I find Souffle Cheesecakes a bit samey in general & prefer a denser cake. I'd been wanting to try the craquelin choux for ages as I've had one from an independent Japanese baker that lives in my head rent free.

Sadly the 🚩Choux is not it. Despite being made fresh daily, the texture was stale (sells from 12 - 6pm, I had it around 2pm). I believe they piped the cream on the spot but store the shells refrigerated. Further, these are needlessly huge so the shell to cream ratio is off.

The Brothers (CBD)
It was a lot worse than I remembered. I had liked the Tiramisu flavour, but the seasonal Mango Sticky Rice Pancake🚩🚩 was unforgiving & revealed to me actual flavour of the pancakes 😃.

Our mate, who ate first, said they were very eggy. I had thought to myself, I like eggs, it might be an exaggeration. No, they were actually super eggy in a way that made them gross…. 🤡 I don’t know what caused that specific flavour, like was it just the combination of too many egg yolks + sugar, or did they use powdered eggs… 🤢