NOV - DEC + 2025 WRAPPED

Ellu Cafe (Darlinghurst)

The ⭐Coconut Matcha was umami yet refreshing. The savoury food was underwhelming, we had the 🚩Crab Pasta & the 🚩Okonomiyaki. The pasta was essentially spicy tomato spaghetti & there was almost no depth, aromatics or seafood flavour 🥴 The Okonomiyaki was very acidic, like they used pickled cabbage. I know Ellu is Korean-run so I wonder if they approached it like a kimchi pancake, but used white kimchi & egg. Personally was not a fan.

Acai Junky (Bankstown)

I was stunned at the texture, this has to be the smoothest ⭐Acai in Sydney. We immediately compared it to being the Rivareno of Acai lol. Unfortunately the flavour was not as strong but 🥺 still a very respectable rendition. They have branches in Kingsgrove + Haberfield but I've heard the quality varies.

Sushi Mori (CBD)

Trying to revisit Kanazawa memories at a 400% mark-up 🥲 

My favourite was the thick fatty cut of ⭐Ootoro (fatty tuna) & the ⭐Hokkaido Scallop. I love scallop in aburi sushi but in Australia, I don’t reach for it’s plain form. This was insanely fresh, soft & sweet, I can’t believe I considered not having any.

The little soba on the side of the Unagi Teishoku was actually so flavourful & delicious. The quality of the 🚩Eel, however, left much to be desired, being rubbery & with too many bones 😐🙅‍♂️

Geprek (Burwood) 

It's been a few visits; the ⭐Satay Geprek was amazing, & we actually preferred it over the signature Sambal which was a bit too salty & overpowering. The Salted Egg was weak in flavour. I will note that the most recent visit wasn’t as good (the customer service especially 😶).

The Eight (CBD) 

Long overdue visit, I was pleasantly surprised by how much better the service is than other Sydney Yum Cha I've been to lol. Favourites were the ⭐Peanut Hoisin Cheung Fun that were slightly charred & had the perfect sauce, the ⭐Zhaliang, which were closest to what I've had in China yet (actually retaining the texture of the youtiao) & the flavourful ⭐Mango Sago. Instead of a blend they seemingly used straight mango juice as the solvent which honestly worked.

ICG Sparrow's Mill (CBD)

We enjoyed the ⭐Rice balls last time & wanted to come back. They were perfect again. The ⭐Rose Tteokbokki & ⭐Seafood Pancake were also good. The pancake especially was nice & crisp. Their Fried Chicken is a bit weaker, as most of the pieces are too tendon/bone heavy.

Gia Dinh (Marrickville)

Potentially the best ⭐Banh Xeo in Sydney. It was huge, crispy & a little bit on the thicker side so it had more bite & flavour. The Pork Chop Broken Rice was fine, the soup really pulled it together. The Crispy Chicken was also fine & not the best I’ve had.

Purple Parrot (Greenacre, multiple)

I enjoyed this a lot. The ⭐Acai itself has good flavour & texture, even moreso the ⭐Coconut which was extra smooth & creamy. The other fruit flavours ('cherry blossom', dragonfruit) were on the icier side. Their granola is too hard but you can ask for it to be excluded lol.

Knotted 🚩 (Burwood)

We tried the Earl grey & Matcha. Again, we thought it was worse than Krispy Kreme.

The dough was seemingly not seasoned. They were clean & airy, but upon chewing became gummy & claggy, like ultra processed white sandwich bread. Without the taste or texture of being fried, the donuts become too adjacent to bread rolls.

Oh My Yo (CBD)

The texture was good but the flavours & toppings weren't it.

The 🚩Black Sesame was not very sesame-like & weirdly bitter (I poured the most of it too…) & the 🚩Strawberry Yuzu very sour. I don't do sour without sweetness but some may like it. The Chocolate Hazelnut was the most enjoyable for me. The Matcha was okay if a bit weak. The toppings were dry. Personally I wouldn't come back here.