Western

The Messy ‘Nicoise’ Salad ($21.50) came with smashed potatoes and salmon, hard boiled egg, romaine, red onion, long beans, dill and caper sauce, toasted buckwheat and sour cream. I’m not a salad person so I only tried the potato and salmon - I’m pleasantly surprised that the smashed potato is crisp on the outside and the salmon is not overcooked. The dressing is light and nice.

Laksa Olio ($11.50) features spaghetti, prawns, cherry tomato and edamame in a laksa sauce that is surprisingly flavourful and spicy (but nothing too fiery).

Aglio Olio ($10.50) comes with spaghetti, chicken baby spinach, cherry tomato and mushroom sautéed in garlicky oil. This is pretty decent Aglio Olio - simple and tasty.

Miso Butter ($11.50) comes with spaghetti, chicken, mushroom and cherry tomato tossed in an addictive miso butter sauce. This is pretty special and delicious!

I had an amazing dinner at Cenzo, an Australian and Italian restaurant and bar. We opted for the Chef’s Table Experience ($88 per pax) which consists of 7 curated dishes for sharing:

✨Tigelle
Pistachio and parma ham served on a fluffy bread. This is nutty, savoury and sweet.

✨Spanner Crab Salad
The crabmeat, picked cucumber and apples make a tangy and refreshing appetiser.

✨Seared Scallop
The plump scallops are seared to perfection and they go really well with the charred cauliflower and crispy ham.

✨Iberico Pork Belly
The braised pork belly is very soft and the tangy salad helps to balance out the savouriness. This is meant to be eaten as a wrap - reminds me of Peking duck!

✨ Casarecce Zozzona
The scroll-like pasta is chewy and thoroughly coated in the creamy tomato sauce. The guanciale (salt cured pork) and cheese add much flavour to the pasta - love it!

✨ Australian Grass Fed Rib Eye
This is the star of the night! The medium rare steak is juicy and flavourful and it goes so well with the burnt onion sauce. The piping hot beef fat potato is crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and packed with flavour. The portion is really generous too😍 So satisfying!

✨ Drew’s Tiramisu
The coffee, mascarpone and chocolate complement one another perfectly - glad that this is not too sweet!

What a night - the food and service are wonderful, and the portion is generous. Worth every penny!

The sandwiches at Folk Yard are as impressive as their pizzas. I ordered Pesto & Mozzarella ($15) and it is soooo good. The pistachio pesto is rich, nutty and savoury. It is served on a slice of toasted sourdough with thick mozzarella slices and juicy roasted tomatoes. An absolute flavour bomb - 5/5⭐️!

Visited Ma Maison for their Weekday Lunch Set and the Hamburg Steak Lunch ($17.80) comes with soup, mini salad, hamburg steak, choice of rice or bread, and a drink of your choice (or ice cream). As usual, their hamburg steak was juicy and delicious and it goes well with the rice and sunny side up. Can’t get enough of this!

We also ordered Fideos Negro ($32), which was pasta cooked in squid ink with clams, tiger prawns and garlicky aioli. The seafood was fresh and the squid ink sauce was full of umami. However, for some reason, the pasta was broken into short pieces - not sure if that was intentional but I would have preferred the noodles to remain long. Nonetheless, this was still very tasty.

We tried a total of 6 tapas and they were all sooo good:
▪️CANGREJO - Warm crumpet with spanner crab, saffron emulsion and finger lime ($9)
▪️PEZ REAL - Cold-smoked kingfish with pine nut sorbet and gazpacho ($12)
▪️CROQUETA - Creamy leek and lobster croquette with piquillo pepper ($9)
▪️ABALÓN - Slow-cooked abalone, finished over charcoal, Iberico pork lardo, butter emulsion ($16)
▪️PULPO - Spanish octopus cooked over coals with pork sobrasada sauce and potato ($16)
▪️PINCHO - Angus beef skirt, aged 150 days, grilled over charcoal on a skewer, onion and sherry sauce ($20)

Each tapas was an explosion of flavours and textures, and the execution was flawless. The crab tart was creamy and delicious, the grilled abalone was succulent and buttery, and the Angus beef skirt was so soft it almost melted in one’s mouth. Glad that I was sharing these with just 1 other person as I would not want to share these with a 3rd person😂

Lastly, we ordered Lamb Shank Kritharoto ($50.80) which is a sharing platter consisting of lamb shank and orzo pasta. The tender lamb shank is pretty gamy at first but I got used to it after a while. This is also my first time trying orzo pasta, which is a short-cut pasta shaped like a grain of rice. The pasta absorbs the flavour of the lamb completely and it is rich, tasty and deceptively filling. Although it is quite salty, the saltiness does help to counter the gaminess. Would recommend this if you are a lamb lover!

We also had Htapodaki ($27.80) which is charcoal grilled octopus that has been marinated and sous-vide for 4 hours, and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and oregano. The octopus is a little chewy but still very fragrant and tasty.

I love that there are so many eggplant dishes to choose from😍! We had Imam Baildi ($18.80) which are mini eggplants cooked in a rich tomato sauce. The eggplants are topped with crumbled feta and a drizzle of garlic & parsley olive oil. The eggplant is soft, flavourful and absolutely delicious. Eggcellent🍆!