Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Menya Noodle Bar


Right; I love ramen. As in I have been to Japan twice mainly just to eat Ramen. When the weather in Australia turns cold I can’t help but get a little excited; it is ramen season!
I have been a loyal customer of Ramen Kan (Bondi and China Town http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/70/751830/restaurant/Sydney/Chinatown/Ramen-Kan-Haymarket) even since I stumbled across it on the way to a Prodigy concert in 2005. The train of thought went: concert, lots of dancing, need energy, ooooh carbs, mmmmm ramen. But tonight I feel like a change. The internet informs me that Menya Noodle Bar in China Town does a good noodle soup.  
The Socialite joins me in trying to find Menya. According to my phone it is just around the corner from the UTS library, but we loop around the block once without spotting it. Finally we realise it is on the ground floor of a tall, skinny complex full of restaurants. We push past all the hawkers for the scattering of Chinese restaurants surrounding Menya and gawk at the large menu of the wall for a while. All the different Ramen, noodles and rice dishes look and sound divine. I am tempted by the ramen with extra pork (ton-toro ramen) but I finally settle for teriyaki beef soba noodles. The socialite goes for the Ramen with Karage chicken (Tori kara-age ramen).
We find ourselves a spot at the long communal table running down the centre of the restaurant and watch the staff chat with two police officers. Looks like something ‘went down’ during the day. So dinner and show, brilliant. When the noodle soups arrive they are everything we want. The stocks are rich and meaty and all meat is cooked to perfection. Needless to say both are soon devoured. Looks like I now have two Ramen restaurants in which to practice my proper Japanese noodle slurping etiquette  

http://menya.com.au/

Sunday, 8 April 2012

Montpellier Public House

29th February 2012

Ever since Balzac in Randwick morphed into the more relaxed, approachable Montpellier Public House I have been desperate to go. I even work in Randwick. However, as always happens when you live right near something you keep putting it off thinking that you will always have time to go. Of course I never managed to do so. So how to force me to actually plant my bum on a seat in Montpellier? Ooooooh voucher! Eleven dishes for two people for $69? I’m in!

Mum and Dad join Cueball and I on a hideously rainy night, the kind where you want to watch Chocolat and make pained noises every time the do something with chocolate. The Façade of Montpellier has changed very little since it was built in 1859, being a heritage listed building that once held ‘The Star and Garter Inn’ and subsequently a school for girls (Hmmmmm). Most recently the venue was Restaurant Balzac (yes, go ahead have a laugh), a modern French/British fine-diner headed by Matt Kemp. Kemp closed Balzac early 2011, recognising the shifting mood in Sydney’s dining scene towards more relaxed, affordable offerings and re-opened as Montpellier mid 2011. Montpellier is touted as a ‘gastro-pub’ with a weekly Sunday roast. There is even a supper menu from 10pm-11:30pm for late-night snackers.

The downstairs dining room is a casual wood and sandstone affair, with big windows taking up most of the wall space. Upstairs is a bit more fine-dining, with mood lighting and tables snuggled into cosy nooks. The voucher menu we are offered provides us with a six-dish tasting plate, a choice of main dish each, and a selection of four small desserts as well as a complimentary bottle of sparkling wine per couple. The entrees consist of pea and ham soup, fresh oyster with red wine shallot vinegar, red cabbage salad, escargot, onion tart with goat feta and crumbed lambs brains with tartare. The pea and ham soup is among the best I have tasted and the onion tart is caramelised goodness. I have never tried lambs brain before, and these beautifully golden little nuggets are the perfect introduction. The golden crust gives way to a creamy-textured rich flesh that is cut through with the astringent citrus in the tartare. They are worth trying!

For main I opt for a parmesan-crusted leather-jacket with ratatouille. The fish comes whole, and I’m sorry but people who say they ‘don’t like their food looking at them’ need to go to Bunnings to purchase a spine. Keeping meat on the bone retains flavour and moisture, and this yellow jacket is beautiful. The crust is salty, the meat sweet and the ratatouille flavoursome. Cueball opts for the pumpkin and mushroom risotto which despite being a bit on the small side for a main is delightfully al-dente and packs a flavour-punch. The only disappointing main is the lamb cassoulet. While the look of the dish has all the right things; the clay pot, the toasted breadcrumbs, it is quite sweet and after several mouthfuls tastes a bit like Heinz baked-beans. Shame man.

It takes the waitress quite a while to clear our main plates, she seems more pre-occupied with clearing and resetting the empty tables in the restaurant. It being 9:30 pm on a Wednesday we are one of the few tables left, so she isn’t exactly run off her feet. Only after catching her eye do we succeed in having the plates removed. Dessert is another selection of smalls; peach sorbet, panna cotta, Eton mess, and roasted figs in Amaretto syrup with vanilla ice-cream. The panna cotta has a perfect just-set texture, the Eton mess (a meringue, cream and strawberry smash) is summer in a glass. The figs are rich and sweet with the ice-cream cutting through all the sugar. The peach is interesting as it is a flavour I’m not used to; delicious none-the-less.

The re-invented restaurant certainly has the right food and atmosphere marketed as a nice local place to go any night of the week for good food and drink. I know I’ll be back, though I can’t cheat with a voucher next time can I? There is just so much more on the menu I want to try!

Footnote: The parentals recently re-visited Montpellier, who graciously allowed them to use a voucher a couple of days out of date. They said the service was impeccable and the food was even better than the first time; with no cassoulet in sight. Sounds like we were there on a rare night where mistakes happened.