Yum cha @ Crystal Seafood Restaurant

I'm sure that like me, everyone reading this loves a good yum cha.

For those of you who've never had yum cha before, it's basically where ladies walk around the restaurant pushing trolleys of freshly made chinese food (like dumplings, noodles, chicken feet etc) and when you get a dish off them, they stamp your table's piece of paper which will then be used to calculate how much you've eaten and how much you have to pay!

I'm a real big fan of yum cha because it's yummy food, real quick and loads of variety without having to look at a menu! I've been to my fair share of yum cha places in Sydney but I have to say that the best yum cha in my memory is in Melbourne.....although I can't remember where it was nor what it was called because I was like 14 or something :(

Anyways, so I had a massive yum cha craving which had to be satisfied so I visited Crystal Seafood restaurant in Strathfield for yum cha.



It's located in Strathfield Plaza but the entrance is outside to the right of Oportos. You can park at Strathfield Plaza for free for 3 hours or get there by train!



So why this one? Well the location is quite central and I've been here a few times before and thought the food was decent.

We made a booking at 12 on a Saturday and when we got there the place was bustling with people!



So we got seated and the rest is history. We ate and ate and ate! (don't forget to ask for chilli sauce and soy sauce with chillis!) Here are some of the dishes we had:

















And last but not least, had to finish off with some egg tarts! They were actually fresh out of the kitchen so they were extra delicious :)



We ate a few other dishes like the preserved egg congee, pork buns and flat prawn rice noodles but forgot to take photos because I was so into eating hehehe :)

At the end, we ended up paying around $20-25 per person which is fairly normal for yum cha.

Will I come back? Probably - it's decent yum cha at a decent price at a central location. But to be honest I'm not really picky with my yum cha! When I'm at home I go to the ones closest to my house. When I'm in the city I usually go to Marigold or Chinatown because I've been to them before and it's decent.

So really, unless the yum cha place is really bad, my choice is more of a location based choice than a taste based one at the end of the day!

But, if you have an absolute favorite yum cha place - let me know!!

D xx

Dos Senoritas

Hola amigos :)

A lovely friend of mine wanted to catch up because it had been like 3 months since we last saw each other and we always have lots of random chit chat to catch up on :P

My friend was super nice and let me choose somewhere to eat - and I didn't really feel like going to the city so I did some research on urbanspoon (love this site to bits!). I had heard about El Loco in Surry Hills and always wanted to go eat some Mexican food so I thought 'hmmmmm I wonder if there's a El Loco equivalent in the suburbs somewhere....'

And after a little bit of digging around, I stumbled upon "Dos Señoritas"!

Dos Señoritas is a quaint little Mexican joint situated on Victoria Road in Gladesville. So really, every time I went on Victoria Rd to go to the city I had passed the restaurants many times.....just that I had never noticed it! Or maybe I was too focused on the road...



The exterior is quite noticeable with a typically "Mexican" sofa (such a cliche ha!) right in front of the restaurant.



The interior of the restaurant is very home-y but also decorated in such a lively way - bright colours, sombreros, maps of Mexico, tequila....





(spot the sombreros!)



I was pretty surprised that it was so empty (we went at 1pm on a Saturday) but apparently lunch isn't the peak hour - dinner is when the real fiesta starts for this place!  So I guess I was lucky to have a nice quiet restaurant (but unlucky to miss out on the party! hehe)

They give you a complimentary basket of corn chips and salsa when you arrive which is super yummy - the chips are nice and crunchy and the salsa is zesty and a little fiery at the same time! I knew I had to eat my mains but I couldn't keep my hands off them >_<



We also ordered two Mexican drinks: an Orchata, which is a tradtional sweet Mexican rice drink with cinnamon & vanilla and a Jamaica, a traditional sweet Mexican drink infused with hibiscus flowers!



They were quite exotic tasting... The rice drink had little pieces of rice inside it and I could definitely taste the cinnamon but I'm not sure whether it goes well with the food (too much "milky/cheesy-ness" for me). The hibiscus drink was slightly bland and was a bit more sour than I had expected....I think its more of an acquired taste thing - but I recommend you try it before you make any hasty judgements! Who knows...you might love it!

Then our mains arrived. We had ordered the tacos which was "Your Choice any 3 Tacos with Rice & Beans $25" (we had 2 prawn tacos and one chicken) and a burrito called "Supercheesygooeychimichanga" which was "Pork Chile Verde, jack and cheddar cheese stuffed into a flour tortilla deep fried topped with jalapeno cream cheese and jack cheddar cheese".  You can check out the full menu here.





The servings were quite massive! On top of the tacos / burrito, you also got rice, beans and salad!

It was my first time seeing a fried burrito - and I was sooooo excited to see how much yummy-ness would have been packed inside - and it was sure fully of yummy goodness!



The pulled pork balanced out the cheese really well and the sides also complimented the cheesiness to give you a good balance of flavours so that you didn't get sick of the cheesiness!

This was also my first time seeing prawns in a taco - I always thought a taco had minced meat! I guess I've been living under a rock and not exposed to true Mexican food! It was super delicious - the firm but juicy texture of the prawns went really well with the crunchy taco shell.



I'm not sure if the guy that served us was also the chef but I really felt like I was in Mexico because he kept using Spanish words like "chica" and "si si" to us hehe. He was super friendly.

Anyways, we were sooooo full at the end of the meal.... we left like a third of the burrito and most of the sides because we just couldn't finish it all! I had planned to go check out Cavalicious patisserie which was just down the road but couldn't because we were just so stuffed! :)

It ended up being $30 per person which is a little expensive for lunch but I so reckon 3 people could have shared what we had because of the very generous servings!

Hmmmm so, how "authentic" was it? Well, since I'm not Mexican nor been to Mexico I can't really comment on the authenticity of the food but it was sure different to the usual tacos and burritos they sell at kebab joints / Guzman y Gomez / Mad Mex! All I can say is that I found it really yummy - I would've finished all of the food it I could fit it in :P

So, would I go back to Dos Señoritas? Well they did serve really delicious, hearty food and I only ended up trying 2 things on the massive menu....which leaves me a gazillion other things to try out especially the Mac Daddy Burro (cos it has a cool name haha ). I also want to try out their margaritas and CHURROS!!!

D xx

p.s. you must eat the tacos with your hands! It's just yummier that way :)

Buffet breakfast @ The Glass Brasserie, Hilton Sydney

Hello dearies :)

So for part 1 of my birthday celebrations, I went to the Glass Brasserie at the Hilton, Sydney to get myself some buffet breakfast! I had been there once before with my friends and I liked it so much I decided to go back!

To get to the Glass Brasserie, you can take the lifts on the outside of the Hilton on George St (the ones that also go to Zeta Bar and Marble Bar) or if those lifts aren't working (usually the case on weekend mornings) you need to go through the revolving doors on George St, go up the escalators to your left, turn right and right again :)

The decor of Glass Brasserie is so great, it's probably one of the reasons why I enjoy going there - high ceilings, cute circular booths, ambient lighting, shelves of wine and an open kitchen!





I have been to a few buffet breakfasts in my lifetime and I have to say this one is one of the best I've been to so far. You get your selection of hot food, including bacon, mushrooms, sausages, tomatoes, eggs and even potato fritters!



Then you have your cold cuts, cheese and salads - I love the salmon, spanish onion and boccocini cheese together, it's super yummy! And then you have your healthy shots of carrot, wheatgrass and beetroot (you can't see them in the pic though....*sob*).



Then you get your oats, congee, fried rice and dimsims! Very random for a breakfast to be honest...
And then the fruits, and the fresh squeezed juices! I loved the wheatgrass and mango juice (as you can see that they've run out of them *wink*).





Then you get a selection of different yogurts and also Yakult!!  And next to the yoghurt, you have your selection of cereals and juices :)





But that's not all, on the other side next to the entrance you have a selection of bread and pastries...which come with actual honeycombs of honey which you can scrape off yourself and eat! How cute is that :)





And lastly, you can also order food from the kitchen. You can order omelettes, eggs different ways (including eggs benedict!) pancakes and waffles :) yum yum.  To do this you need to go to where the hot food ends and the cold foods start - there's a form there which you can fill out. A waitress is usually there to help you fill the forms out.





And obviously coffee and tea is a given, which you need to order with the waiters.  Usually the waiters are quite attentive and they clean your table, take away your dishes and replace your cutlery before you know it...although the second time I went they weren't so good with replacing the cutlery....

Some more photos of the things we ate...







Overall it's such as great place for breakfast because you have such a wide range of foods to choose from and they all taste pretty yummy! :) Breakfast officially finishes at 11am but we were there until like 12pm chatting away and drinking our coffee! So if you're looking for a somewhere nice to go to celebrate your birthday, or a special occasion and you want something different from the usual lunches and dinners - I highly recommend you try out the buffet breakfast here! :D (The degustation here is also pretty devine....<3)

The buffet breakfast is $42 per person and goes from 7am - 11am.  Bookings are recommended and you can book online through their website (www.glassbrasserie.com.au). The Glass Brasserie is situated in the Hilton Hotel, 488 George St Sydney.  Closest station is Town Hall.

Would I go there again? Not any time soon (I've been twice in the space of like 3 weeks)....but definitely will go again in the future :)

D.