Caliniere Cafe - World Square, Sydney

Been going to Caliniere Cafe a lot lately (usually just for coffee) - might as well do a food review now. So, Caliniere Cafe is one of the three establishments by Vbar (and all three are located in World Square) - the other two being Caliniere Restaurant which offers fine French dining, and Vbar itself, which is a bar. I've been to Caliniere (the restaurant) a couple of times, and I love their food - and their restaurant concept. I thought it's very chic. But anyway, we're talking about the cafe now, I'll do the restaurant review some other time.

Classic Burger

-> Where do I start. I'm very excited about this dish. And surprised, too. I'm a big fan of wholesome, simple food (although I do indulge in pretentious food every now and then, heh heh) - and this one is a pretty good example of it. Delicious, aromatic and juicy beef patty with a definite aroma of nutmeg and perhaps a dash of thyme. It's very moist and tender. The burger is complemented with a nutty and robust aged (I believe) Cheddar which is just delightful. The only disappointment is the fries, which are too flimsy and not crisp enough. Otherwise, this is a wonderful, very appetizing dish.

Rating: 8/10

Sizzler - Kogarah, Sydney

First of all, 4 words: what was I thinking.

Look, I haven't been to Sizzler for a Looo-ooong time (last time I went there was when Sizzler was still up-and-running in Jakarta's Pondok Indah Mall - twelve years ago. It was my birthday party with some of my friends). Then, Sizzler was THE place in Jakarta for great all-American salad bar, thick hormone-infused tenderloins, and fluffy waffles and pies with saccharine-sweet syrup just like dear Aunt Jemima made 'em.

Look, back then, Sizzler was awesome. I used to go there with my family at least twice a month. My dad hated it - said it was crappy, and back then, I couldn't understand why. I mean how could a place that lets you self-serve your own sundaes with UNLIMITED amount of M&M's topping possibly be crappy??

Fast forward 12 years later - Sydney, Australia.
Had a BRILLIANT idea to revive a family tradition by going to Sizzler. When I asked my brother if he wants to get a bit of nostalgia by re-visiting the very place that we used to look forward to visiting as children, all he said was "Sizzler? is that thing still around?"

Granted, my insensitive brother is not one of the most sentimental person around when it comes to nostalgia. However, he did agree to the proposal. Sydney has a couple of Sizzler restaurants, and the closest one from the city (where I live) is at Kogarah. This place is like the middle of nowhere. Local Sydneysiders may have heard of the area before, but for us expats, Kogarah sounds like it may as well be near Timbuktu.

So anyway, we went there, walked 20 minutes from the train station, and finally discovered a very American-looking restaurant. Seriously, this Sizzler outlet looks like it's been hand-picked from Anywhere, USA and dropped right at a Sydney suburb.

Mega Bacon Cheeseburger
-> Cold buns. Beef: dry as a bone. VERY salty bacons (hello, high blood pressure and clogged arteries!). Totally inexcusable. I mean, it's HACKED FLESH for goodness sakes, how on EARTH is it even possible to make a DRY burger???

Rating: 2/10

Continuing the story...
As we entered the restaurant, I felt uneasy straight away. For a start, it's filled with obese people constantly hovering around the salad bar. They don't even look like Australians. They REALLY looked like Americans, with their oversized novelty tees, loud sweaters, and trucker caps. And oh, don't forget their equally obese children gobbling up some chocolate sundaes with mountainous amount of M&M's topping.

Look, I'm not saying that I'm skinny, but these people really ARE big. Seriously big. And they don't eat their food, they INHALE their food with wondrous speed. My brother and I got full just by looking at their mounds of food. They're really serious eaters. I turned to my brother, and asked him, "My goodness, did we look like these people when we used to go to Sizzler all the time back home??"
My brother answered, "No - don't be silly. We used napkins when we slurp our spaghetti and eat our sundaes. But I kind of understand why dad hated this place now..."

Oh, dad...bless his heart, it must've been tough on him.

Mini Seafood Platter
-> It's cold, sad, and DRY. The only redeeming part is that I liked the bite-sized calamari. Australians tend to serve those hugeee slices of calamari rings that's just damn hard to eat. Don't you hate oversized calamari rings? I mean, it's not like you can BITE through calamari rings - it's way too chewy and you can't bite it off against the grain.

Rating: 3/10

BTW, the salad bar was HORRIBLE.
Processed chicken, soggy pastas, artificial blue cheese dressing, watery ice cream, bland pumpkin soup. HUGE Croutons the sizes of TEXAS (yeah, like those big people would be stupid enough to fill up on BREAD). And the pièce de résistance...the NASI GORENG SALAD. Sweet Jesus, I can't even imagine how WRONG that is - on so many levels.

...and oh - they put RAISINS on the nasi goreng salad.

By all means, I'm not judging American cuisine here - but I can't help but be reminded of how BAD American junk food can be. No wonder Sizzler has been ridiculed everywhere. It's one of the many faces of obese America.

Now that's one less family tradition that won't make its way to MY family in the future.

I just hope my kids would appreciate going to Sushi Tei or Tonkichi because that's where I'm taking my kids for 'fun weekend brunch with daddy' in the future (mmm...gourmet...).

Man, they're going to have a SUCKY childhood, aren't they...

*come on son, eat your wakame salad with yuzu dressing!*
*No, dad, I want chocolate sundaes with M&M's!!!*

Dock's - SoHo, Hong Kong

(Mine) Chicken Steak Lorri-Beth, with American Cheese, served with Potatoes and Sour Cream

-> Heavenly. Calorie-packed, fattening, and totally sinful. What a bliss.

(Gary's) Grilled Angus Beef with Bacon and Three Cheeses

-> Even more sinful, I guess. You know, the idea of mixing three cheeses really sounds exciting, but I wonder if you can tell what cheeses are in the mixture since the three different cheeses combined results in a taste of, well, cheese.
I don't see any point in melting three cheeses together.

Note:

A quick lunch with Gary before proceeding to The Landmark for some serious shopping.
I love burgers. It doesn't have to be wagyu burger or something (honestly, when it comes to hacked, pulverized meat, it doesn't really matter the quality of the meat. Or maybe it's just me). Anyway, it is impressive how everything is imported in this restaurant - from the Angus beef right to the tiniest gherkins.

MOS Burger - Singapore

i miss mos burger...

ice milk teateriyaki beef burger

ok... first photo looks like sadako poured the milk... i swear thats not me...

Hard Rock Cafe - Plaza Indonesia eX, Jakarta

Solo lunch. Big appetite.
After that organic food 'experience', my junk food craving came to haunt me again. So I decided to make love, not war - at Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta in e'X and get meself some ol' burger and coke.



-> The most generous ration of coke in town. Felt like bottomless.

Legendary 10 oz Burger

-> (Description from the menu) Famous the world over: ten ounces of fresh certified Angus Beef, topped with seasoned bacon, two slices of cheddar cheese, and a crisp fried onion ring.

A little erratum: It should be beef bacon since Indonesian HRC serve halal food only.
What can I say? This burger is too huge, even for someone with big appetite. The beef is good, succulent, and should be ordered medium-well for that extra moisture. To be honest, 10 ounces (that's close to 300 grams for you metric folks) is a tad too much for me. I ended up leaving one of the patties uneaten.

Anyhoot, the only downside of dining alone in Jakarta's HRC is that you have to deal with those super-friendly, super-amiable, corny wisecracking waiter dudes - alone. Indonesians are weird in the sense that someone having lunch alone is a rarity, especially on weekends. In other countries, I eat lunch all by myself all the time. But in Indonesia, when you do that, people will ask "where's your date? where's your friend? are you all alone?"

Just bring the food and shut up, will ya.

Hotshots - Pondok Indah Mall II, Jakarta

Yay! Glorified Filipino junk food!

In the Philippines, where this chain of restaurants originate, Hotshots restaurants are butt-ugly. But the Indonesian Trianda group (the same group that franchised Cinnzeo in Indonesia) bought the Indonesian franchise and decided to re-concept the restaurant from common junk food joint to adorable fancy 50s American diner ambiance. Of course, they tried their best to conceal the fact that it's actually a filipino chain, because they wouldn't want people to think that this is just another Jolibee. But they sure can't fool us well-traveled folks.

And oh, the burgers are pretty good. The small southeast-asian portion means perfect choice if you're not feeling super hungry.


-> I would rank this decor as somewhere between Burger King and Billy Bombers (in Singapore)

Crispy Burger Melt with Curly Fries

-> The most expensive, therefore the most delicious item on the menu. That's the Indonesian philosophy. *sarcasm*

Mos Burger - Plaza Singapura, Singapore

Mmm....Japanesey...






Ankake Chicken Burger
-> New menu! Yummy!



Iced Lemon Tea

Meat Wine & Co.

Andri's Dinner.

Mixed Bread


Grilled Chicken Breast.

Classic Burger.

Prawns and Steak Skewers.

Sauvignon Blanc.

Fiji Still.


p.s. happy birthday ! <3

Two Good Eggs - Surry Hills, Sydney

Quick lunch. Cla had to rush back to uni afterwards. But when it's getting late, she said "whatever".



Chai Latte



San Pel



Apple Pot Roasted Chicken
-> We couldn't decide what those long-ish vegetables are.



Hand-beaten beef burger with shaved beetroot
-> the bread's a tad dry, as well as the potatoes, and the rockets doesn't seem to go with the whole ensemble. And oh, the shaved beetroots? an un-inspired twist to good ol' Aussie tradition. way to go (I'm being sarcastic). So this is basically a glorified Aussie burger.