District Dining, Surry Hills

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4 / 5 yums! 
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Where? 17 Randle Street, Surry Hills, NSW

Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills

The original. The best.

4.5 / 5 yums! 
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Where? 633 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, NSW
What? Under $10

Indo Rasa, Broadway

Ayam Bakar to rival 99.  A piece of Kingsford in Broadway.

Norfolk Hotel, Redfern

Smashing out $3 Tacos in the company of young hipsters.

That's Tuesday night at the Norfolk.

Beef brisket and pulled pork flavours let down by excessive cooking time reducing the meat to string, the fish & anchiote paste and chargrilled chicken, guac and chipotle make me much happier.

Baffi & Mo, Redfern

With a crowd milling around the shop front in the ever increasingly person friendly Redfern, you could have mistaken it for the launch of the iPhone 4. So be sure to bring your 3G or 3GS as an electronic companion while you wait for an opening at this quant café that can only accommodate a small Italian family. With seats at such a premium they’ve even had to scour nature strips for discards to furnish the alfresco dining on the footpath. So whilst you might be sitting on some hard rubbish, the stuff coming out of the open kitchen is anything but.

Get past the boring breakfast stuff at the top of the menu for sweet ricotta hotcakes with passionfruit, lemon curd and strawberries or porridge with strawberries, rhubarb and ginger compote. Then there’s the awesome sounding lunch of smoked salmon cakes, pea corn and haloumi fritters chicken pie or the trio mini burgers and gourmet sangers. But below is what we had:



Melted fetta gives nice creaminess to the scrambled eggs, pesto provides the weird green tinge that tastes better than it looks.



Potato hash stack is the naughty to the nice of the double smoked ham, avocado, tomato, asparagus, lemon dressed rocket and poached egg.



You want to dunk your head into the cast iron baking dish that carries a runny pool of sobrasada (Spanish cured snag with paprika and pepper), roasted capsicum, mozzarella, cherry tomatos and baked eggs if it wasn’t so hot.



Unusual name, but I definitely want some Mo. Look out Surry Hills.


4.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? 94 Redfern St, Redfern, NSW
What? Around $15

Ayam Goreng 99, Kingsford

They may have blinged the place up a little with a fresh coat of paint, some new plastic tumblers and laminated menus, but their recipe for amazing Indonesian grilled chicken hasn’t changed one bit. Good etiquette is well forgotten during the assault on the soy sweet yet spiced flavour on the well charred poultry. KFC it ain’t… it’s better. Finger and plate licking good.


4 / 5 yums!
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Where? 464 Anzac Parade, Kingsford, NSW
What? Under $10

Two Good Eggs, Surry Hills

A minimalist corner café in Surry Hills serving up the usual breakfast things for eating. Toby Estate coffee kick starts the brain, but all the lemon seems to have ended up in the juice of mint, pineapple and apple instead of the toothless Hollandaise. Sonoma bread is quality but not so the over poached organic eggs that were mediocre rather than good.


2 / 5 yums!
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Where? Shop 2, 148 Goulburn St, Surry Hills, NSW
What? Around $15

Wah Fung BBQ Restaurant

This plain, no frills, no fuss Asian eatery is a good night dinner option for the Redfern foodscape. The menu is a fairly standard Chinese menu including salt and pepper squid, sweet and sour pork, peking spare ribs etc etc but I had my eyes on were the roast meats glistening in the window. Unfortunately, it was disappointing but it could have been a victim of a slow Sunday night. Char siu not made from the finest cut, it was a little bit fatty, the roast pork meat fine but skin lacked crispy crunch. It’s pretty average stuff, but nothing a bit of stiff competition can’t fix.


2 / 5 yums!
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Where? 64 Regent St, Redfern, NSW
What? Around $10

Vini

Admittedly I was mortified at the thought of Vini growing up and expanding. It felt like a sell out, because I loved the shoebox intimacy of the space when it first opened, which allowed eavesdropping into conversations when yours got boring.

But just like Sally Fletcher, it’s retained the heart, integrity and sensual Italian enoteca I remember. Wine lovers won’t be disappointed with the interesting, largest pound for pound wine list scrawled on one blackboard, the essence of Italian cuisine clearly shines on the other.

Simple joys on crostini with toppings of roasted white fish, capers, lemon and parsley, buffalo mozzarella, eggplant and chilli but it’s the fresh fig, salami and ricotta balancing sweetness, heat and texture that’s the pick of the bunch. The only fault of the spaghetti with blue swimmer crab, chilli and cherry tomatoes is that it could have done with a bit more of the crustacean. Otherwise a clean, well executed pasta. Beautiful in season peppers and zucchini are roasted and form a bed for the chargrilled, well seasoned sirloin steak.

Must finish the meal with dolce, the pannacotta as it should be, creamy custardy yet slightly firm smothered in an espresso caramel and chopped almonds, of similar texture the vanilla semifreddo, light and creamy with fresh strawberries an upgraded twist on a classic.

Just like the coming of age of Kate Ritchie, Vini has allowed success get to its head and is essentially the same little girl we remember. Thank goodness for that.


4 / 5 yums!
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Where? 3/118 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, NSW
What? Entrees $10, Mains $25, Desserts $10

Uchi Lounge

A hidden gem where Surry Hills meets the city, Uchi Lounge is a converted two-storey terrace that houses a funky little sake bar downstairs that’s very easy to get stuck in and an organic Japanese bistro upstairs. It’s not decked out in a traditional way, more of a bohemic arty cool touch. Slightly opaque sails hang from the ceiling dividing the eating areas and clever dim lighting help create an interesting ambiance.

The menu also diverts slightly with a few tweaks to the normal Japanese. However, the mini degustation banquet of multiple sharing dishes doesn’t entirely showcase the repertoire, but you still get a good sense of the different things the kitchen is trying. Of course sushi features, though you’ll have to fight over the nigiri of salmon, kingfish, tuna and snapper. Kingfish sashimi with shallots, a drizzle of a rich soy tamari and pickled sweetness from umeboshi a refreshing dressing on the quality raw fish. Salmon tataki comes with a salty citrus combination of capers and ponzu, parmesan adds an extra dimension to the miso baked onto the buttery soft grilled eggplant. Refining a pub staple, medium rare steak is sliced and fanned, served with a small wasabi mash, a cool way remix of the tataki.

This hidden gem is fast becoming a veteran, so if you haven’t been, it’s well worth checking out, even just for the infused sakes. Just remember to come upstairs for dinner.


3 / 5 yums!
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Where? 15 Brisbane St, Surry Hills, NSW
What? Banquet $150 for 4

Tre Viet

Tre Viet is a commercialised Vietnamese joint that bravely battles against the numerous restaurants on King St. It’s punching well above its weight however.

There’s plenty of people dining, but that’s probably because they feel safer a modern refurbished environment than in a no frills shop. The food kind of reflects this, it’s all a bit sterile. Prawns are sliced on a bed of papaya is dressed with a light fish sauce, the prawn crackers do nothing to enhance the dish. Banh Xeo is stuffed with the usual bean shoots, pork and shrimp but the outside floury pancake was a tad over cooked. Fatty pork belly chunks and whole hard boiled egg are cooked in a soy mixture served in a stone pot the pick of the bunch, but that’s not saying much.

The Vietnamese food is fine if you haven’t been to Cabra, Bankstown or Flemington. If you’ve been, you’ll know where the real deal is at and it ain’t here.


1.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? 152 King Street Newtown, NSW
What? Dishes under $15