♡ Kimmie Bites | Food blog, Sydney Australia ♡: Haymarket

Ajisai Japanese Restaurant, Haymarket

Between all the food courts available in the vicinity of Chinatown, Sussex Centre food court has always been the one I frequent the least. There used to be this store that sold the most amazing plum sauce chicken up there but ever since it closed down, this place has been a stranger to me. So to my surprise, upon finding myself up here again there was an overwhelming amount of new food to choose from. For example - Sparrows Mill, pho, Thai food, sizzling hot plates, bbq meat, hot pot soup, etc!

Looking very flashy with their food models and colourful signs offering rice bowls, udon, curry and gyoza, three rounds around the food court still had me back at to Ajisai Japanese Restaurant.

Ajisai is as cheap and cheerful as can be and I'm further overwhelmed by how many great deals they have for meal sets, upsizes and gyoza. In fact this might actually be the cheapest place to get lots of gyoza in Sydney. But are they good? We will get to that.

After floating around the store front for a good couple of minutes deciding what to order (which doesn't seem to be a problem anyway as there was no one at the front and they seem to be quite understaffed), I stepped in view of the kitchen front where one of the girls noticed me and came out to take my order. I went for Meal Set D which offers a little bit of everything besides the udon.

Meal Set D: Mini Wagyu Beef with Rice, Mini Chicken Katsu Curry, 5pc Gyoza set and miso soup $11.90

It took around 5-10 minutes for my tray to come out which is pretty long wait but I guess I took a bit of pity because there was only 1 other person I saw in the kitchen.

Nonetheless I was really excited to sit down and start eating!

Gyoza, 5pc

Probably the part of the meal that I was most looking forward to here! I think that these gyoza were really decent. The filling was pork and cabbage. Not amazing, and possibly even from a frozen package but still really satisfying and because they are really affordable on their own I wouldn't hesitate to come back and try them again. Also extra points because they weren't dripping in oil!

Mini Wagyu Beef with Rice

How can we be sure what is wagyu anymore when they could just give you really fatty pieces and claim it to be that? If someone knows the answer to that question please let me know! But even with that thought in my mind, this rice bowl was still delicious with the tender and peppery-soy slices of fatty beef and caramelised onions over a warm bowl of rice. Really simple and comforting food.

Mini Chicken Katsu Curry

I loved the generous handful of shredded cabbage with mayonnaise on top of my curry bowl. The curry itself was good and without fault. Same type of Japanese curry you can expect from the likes of Oiden to be honest. And I always enjoy some good crunchy red tsukemono pickles. But what really made this bowl a winner in my eyes was the chicken katsu. Best chicken katsu I've ever had! The coating is crunchy and stays that way even when I left this bowl last on my hit list, and the chicken itself is so tender and juicy! I even liked this so much that I bought a regular sized bowl for my sister as takeaway when I finished.

Miso Soup

Finally, miso soup to tie all that food together. Even if this wasn't included in the set meal I might've ordered it anyway for only $1. No faults here and even happy to find a good amount of tofu, seaweed and green onions floating around. Yum!

Really happy and satisfied with the food at Ajisai! I was't expecting much but this definitely was delicious. Recommending it to you for your Japanese food fix, or if you want to eat a lot of gyoza dumplings for really cheap in Sydney!

TL;DR:

Price: Affordable

Quality: Good

Service: Understaffed, can be quite slow

Ambience: Food court

Ajisai Japanese Restaurant

Sussex Centre Food Court

17 Goulburn St,

Haymarket NSW 2000

Open 7 days a week

10:30AM - 9PM

2 comments

, by Kim

cafe food

Boon Cafe at Jarern Chai Asian Grocer, Sydney

Located along Pitt Street right by the area of Haymarket that is considered "Thai town" is Jarern Chai Asian Grocer's Boon Cafe. Every other time I've walked past this place I literally had no idea that it was THE "Boon Cafe" that my sister keeps mentioning I should go to. I honestly thought it was just a coffee stop within a Thai grocer. Which pretty much sums it up except they also serve a large menu full of delicious Thai cuisine!

Right after watching Cirque du Soleil's Kooza with my favourite 언니, Anna we literally began wandering the streets of Surry Hills for some dinner. We had a first choice but upon arriving there it was so crowded so back to the CBD we went. I mentioned I had seen this place on Instagram and that was good enough for both of us to scuttle in. I didn't even know Boon Cafe had a dinner service!

The outside of the Cafe & Grocer

The grocery section is full of amazing goodies!! I really enjoyed looking through it because there are so many different things (specifically, Thai food) that I have never seen before and that I can't get in my local Asian grocer. These include sweets at the counter, and packaged meals in the cold display fridge. I spotted some duck with sticky rice, yuuuumm!!!

The cafe section is located to the left of the entrance so Jarern Chai is split into two. We feel so lucky that we were able to get a nice table by the window because it began filling up after we sat down!

The decor is very cosy and adorable. There's a lot of quirky things such as the bike on the wall and the interesting display above the counter.

Cutie!

Service is friendly and fast. We're first served the table water and I have to mention that the bottle is so gorgeous. We're then handed a menu and this is when we discover that they have such an extensive menu. Overwhelmed with choice!! The kitchen is busy cooking a bunch of dishes and the smell is so amazing. As this is in a grocer, we take comfort in knowing that all our dishes are going to have very very fresh ingredients.

The menu has A LOT of pictures and they are all very pretty and mouth-watering. We were almost tempted to order one of everything, except prior to Kooza we both had already eaten lunch. So maybe we were hungry but it was all in our heads? 😂

In the end we decided to share a simple pad thai because we believe it will be a great way to test how good the food is, and a green papaya salad because that is a favourite! Also likely to be our healthy intake of the day hehe.

As for drinks OOOOOKAAAY MUCH EXCITEMENT HERE...

This pink drink has stolen my heart.

Nearly ordered tea but so glad I changed my mind.

I really think about this all the time.

Nohm Chompoo (Pink Cold Milk) $4.50

I'mmmm sooooo in loooove with this. Not sure if I'm late to the trend or anything but I saw the words "pink milk" on the menu as soon as I was about to order an iced tea and immediately changed my mind. Best decision ever. Nohm Chompoo is an iced milk drink mixed with a red syrup to get the pink colour. I was under the impression it would taste like strawberries but to my surprise it tastes more like candy or caramels and it's very sweet but so delicious. Can't wait to come back and order this again!

Entree: Mhu Phing $3 each

This is a sweet pork skewer served with a sauce that tastes like vinegar and fish sauce. The pork reminds me of Vietnamese nem nuong but much more flattened out and grilled. It's very tasty and these make an awesome start to your meal!

Only thing was as soon as Anna and I grabbed out skewers, one of the waitresses came around and cleared the plate without even asking. I had barely had enough of the sauce and didn't even touch the salad leaves yet so I was very sad.

Som Dtum in Dtum Thai (Spicy green papaya salad w/ peanuts and dried shrimp) $12

This is the most basic som dtum off the menu. We're so pleased with the generous mountain-sized portion and it smells so aromatic with its fish sauce, lime and chillies. In terms of taste, the green papaya is most definitely well picked being fresh, sweet and crunchy. No off-putting bitterness. There are also peanuts, raw green beans and cherry tomatoes which are a welcome addition to the freshness party. I don't even like cherry tomatoes but I really enjoyed them in this salad as they soaked up the delicious sauce. The sauce itself isn't actually too chilli or salty and is more on the sweet side. Nonetheless it's a really good som dtum and we happily ate everything off this plate. Down to the last peanut!

Padt Thai $13

Also the most basic noodles of the menu. Just simple thin rice noodles with bean sprouts, garlic, chives, tamarind & palm sugar sauce. Very beautifully presented, almost a work of art! But the portion was very small because we are slow eaters and we went through this quite quickly. The taste is fantastic though and I'd even go as far to say that it's completely on point. There are bean sprouts mixed in with the noodles, and fresh bean sprouts on top. I really wish there was more noodles though!

😍 😍 😍

Finishing our dinner we were both SO pleased with ourselves.

Good dinner place choice, good dinner plate choice.

Not wanting to leave just yet we also opted to grab some dessert off the menu. Our first choice was the pandan custard on toast but they had run out of toast for the day so we went with the croissant. All the dessert options on the menu are so yummy sounding and accompanied by amazing pictures. They have other options like condensed milk with sugar/milo which reminds me so much of my childhood.

Pandan custard on croissant $6

A warm and large croissant that is both buttery and flakey, cut in half and spread with a generous amount of pandan custard? Yes please! Got to admit we were kind of sceptical when we had to change our order to a croissant and we were kind of worried when we saw how much custard there was on it, but all those doubts went away with our first cut and bite into the croissants. The pandan custard is so light, creamy and fragrant. It is not overly sweet and we LOVE that! Can't recommend this enough if you like dessert but you don't like that super sugary feel.

There was this hilarious moment when the waiter was serving us and he was like "OH! SPIDERMAN!" while looking past me and out the window... but all I heard was "SPIDER" so I jumped and began furiously inspecting the window for a spider. Turns out there was just a Spiderman cosplayer walking by 😂

All in all, Anna and I had the BEST experience at Boon Cafe and we feel like we also made some excellent choices with our meal. It's probably the best thing in the world to share a delicious meal with somebody you love. Thank so much to Boon Cafe for absolutely topping our night!

I highly recommend this place and have also heard it is great for coffee, and catching up with your friends for lunch. Have you guys been here? Share your experience with me if so, I'd love to know! xx

TL;DR:
Price: Decent
Quality: Fresh food with great flavours
Service: Friendly
Ambience: Busy feel but the cafe side is cosy and cute

Boon Cafe
1/425 Pitt St,
Haymarket NSW 2000

Open 7 days a week

7AM - Midnight

1 comments

, by Kim

brunch

Zilver, Haymarket

As the long weekend and USYD mid-semester break comes to a close, I barely managed to complete all the tasks and catch up's with my friends that I had planned. In fact on this particular Friday, I ended up having three outings to catch up with different friends. A successful, expensive and productive day yet still not enough. Anyhow that means I ate out three times and I have two more exciting food reviews (and an additional post about my Cirque du Soleil experience) to post!!

First up is Zilver. Freshly renovated and looking bright and beautiful, Zilver is reportedly one of the top Yumcha places in Sydney. The last time I visited this place, it didn't elude as much sophistication as it does now. It used to be all about the black, red and gold decor but now it's completely light, bright and white. I really enjoy it because it's much more pretty and ideal for photos. My photos are still amateur though so forgive me as I try to improve haha!

I caught up with a group of friends who I studied Chinese with at Uni and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately Hayley, James and Cherie weren't able to make it, but still good to catch up with the others. Half of us don't study Chinese anymore, myself included so it really makes me feel like we're all missing out. Last time we went to Zilver together, I barely had anything to eat because the group started without me 😭

Fun throwback photo:

Me looking and feeling like a kid on Christmas with the only thing left to grab off the trolleys; Mango Pancakes.

TODAY I made sure I was early and on time. I ended up being a few minutes past 11am yet still earlier than everyone else, with the exception of Edward. Now I know how bad it feels to wait for someone when you are hungry. But we persevered… and waited!

Funny thing was my sister and her boyfriend were also at Zilver this morning since they had a voucher that was about to expire. Or they are following me 😱

How gorgeous is this!

We waited around and Anna was the first to show, so us three went in first. Behold the new and beautiful Zilver.

These chairs are a work of art!

We are seated promptly as a waiter brings us some menu's, tea and chilli sauce.

The menu's are pretty but we don't really need them because we are here for the yumcha! I suspect these were bought out only to pipe our interests in choosing Zilver as a lunch or dinner option.

The restaurant is absolutely bustling but not crowded on this Friday morning. I'm pleasantly surprised at the great variety of Yumcha carts are being pushed around the restaurant. Usually it can be extremely hard to find the cart with the dishes you like on it, but here they will travel by you very often. Chinese broccoli is usually a hard dish to find as well.. you end up having to order it and it'll arrive at the end of your meal. Here, I must've seen it promptly come out of the kitchen various times.

The service is generally friendly and helpful, but there is always a sense of guilt when you turn alway a Yumcha lady because you don't want any of the dishes on her cart. Some of them will seem quite annoyed but I wouldn't take this as rudeness, just slight disappointment.

Also the prices for Yumcha dishes are never explicitly stated on a menu or anything. Rather you will have a sheet on your table and every time you grab a dish off a cart, the lady will stamp your sheet in a category where the dish fits into. I think they go by sizes as well as whether it is a speciality dish or not. But don't trust my word, I can't read or understand Cantonese. Mostly you should just try to ignore all the costs adding up on your sheet and of course, enjoy your Yumcha 😌

Pork Dim Sim with Prawn

Also known Siu Mai/Shumai, these dumplings are your very classic representation of dim sum. They are very delicious and I can't fault them here. The carrots topped on these open-top dumplings are so finely diced that I actually thought it was fish roe. Fancy!

Chinese Broccoli in Oyster Sauce

I can't go to any Yumcha WITHOUT ordering these greens. I could eat them for every meal. My favourite vegetable to be honest 😍 They are very briefly boiled/steamed so that they still retain a nice crunch. These stems are also very fresh. The oyster sauce here is served in a watery consistency yet it still is very salty and flavourful. Just what I like!! Although I do love when the oyster sauce is served thick because a lot of places literally water it down but because there is so much flavour left in Zilver's sauce, I very much enjoyed it.

Steamed Prawn & Spinach Dumplings

We actually didn't want this because we were waiting for the cart with prawn har gao dumplings, but the lady kept insisting that this was what we were looking for so we succumbed and got it. It's decent but not as satisfying as a prawn-only dumpling.

Hong Kong Egg Tarts

Served warm, these are bomb! The outer pastry crust is perfectly flakey and buttery. If you look closely you can see all the layers in that crust. The egg custard is very silky and sweet. Love this dessert!

Steamed Chicken Feet in Black Bean Sauce

I 100% understand if you think eating chicken feet is gross because I was just like you once upon a time. However once you get past all the gross feelings you have about eating chicken feet and just give it a try, you might actually end up really liking it! Edward really likes it so he ordered two 😂 But definitely this is also a must-order at Yumcha for me as well. The skin around the chicken feet is steamed until it becomes very soft and tender. It soaks up the delicious sauce.

FYI you eat this by taking it into your bowl and biting right into the chicken feet. The bones/joints of the feet come off really easily because of how it has been steamed. Then you eat around the bone you have bitten off. This bone then goes onto the plate underneath your bowl. Hope you learned something new HAHA

Steamed Prawn Dumplings

Also known as HAR GAO. The other very traditional dim sum. It is very delicious by itself or dipped into a soy or chilli sauce. Most people critique the dumpling by talking about how thick the skin is. Apparently a thicker skin is not all that impressive or ideal. The skin here is a little on the thick side as you can see by how the dumpling is not that translucent. However I don't mind it at all because it holds the contents well and doesn't rip apart when held with chopsticks or is stuck with the dumpling next to it. We got two baskets of this!

Hi Edward!

Look at all this food we ordered and yet the other two friends in the group still aren't here yet HAHAHA

Okay they actually arrived shortly after I took this photo. It was good to see Nancy again and meet a new friend of Edward and Anna who's name is Queenie.

We didn't actually order many more dishes after they arrived:

Steamed Beef Dim Sim Ball

This looked interesting! The texture of the meatballs was soft and springy. They are served on a bed of tofu skin. I found these alright but it might've been better with the sauce served on the side which I neglected to make use of until I noticed it at the very end.

Stir Fried Noodles with Soya Sauce

Didn't order this but my sister on the other table received this as a part of her voucher and she didn't like it so she gave it to us. It's very basic chow mein, with the noodles having a very dry almost rubbery mouthfeel and seasoned with onions and soy sauce. I liked it but I wouldn't order this at Yumcha just because it is so simple of a dish.

FRIEEEEENNNNDSSS

I was really satisfied with this Yumcha experience and very happy as it was a great place to share a meal and catch up with my friends. We all paid around $19 each so the total bill for 10 dishes (remember, chow mein not included, and we also ordered a mango pudding which isn't pictured) was $95. Kind of expensive in all honesty. But at least everyone somehow ended up feeling full and we even had takeaway for some noodles, broccoli, chicken feet, a dumpling, and a meat ball. Which was given to me hahaha so lucky, thank you friends!

If you are in the city looking for some Yumcha I actually will recommend Zilver to you because overall I thought it was great. Zilver also has a sister restaurant called The Eight (upstairs at Market City) which I really, really loved but I haven't been there in a while so I will have to revisit it and give you guys a review on that.

When the next post about my next foodie adventure on this same day is available, you can click on this link to view it: « Los Vida, Barangaroo »

Thank you for reading! xx

TL;DR:

Price: Bit expensive

Quality: Fresh

Service: Good

Ambience: Loving the new light & bright interiors, very sophisticated and pretty

Zilver

477 Pitt St,

Haymarket NSW 2000

No comments

, by Kim

boyFRAN

Kin Senn, Sydney

(( THROWBACK THURSDAY = throwback food review ))

Kin Senn is one of the Thai food restaurants along the 'Thaitown' side of Pitt Street. Francis and I came here after we were turned away by one of the other nearby *unnamed* and apparently popular Thai restaurants just because we hadn't made a booking. I didn't see the problem because the voucher we came with clearly said "No bookings required" and the restaurant was pretty much half empty after the rush of lunch hour… but no scenes were made and I just ended up getting a voucher refund. ANYWAY Kin Senn is MUCH MUCH MUCH nicer. They were soooo genuinely friendly and welcomed us into their restaurant and made us feel so much better.

The counter at front is adorned with all sorts of delicious sweet treats, adorable cakes and some refreshing looking drinks in the background. I regret not picking up some to try because I've read their bakery items are delicious, but just I remember I was really broke this day. Student life 😭

Also just a reminder that the restaurant might look different now as to what it does in my pictures. I haven't been back in a while!

The interiors are SO beautiful and lovely and they also make you feel so comfortable. It reminds me of an almost rustic and very cute treehouse. There are nice little booths or normal tables to sit at. What astounds me is just how neat and clean everything is. Even the condiments on the table look like they get regularly wiped down.

It's a particularly hot day when we visited so I really adored those metal cups that keep your table water cold.

Being the broke students we are, we don't bother opening the (beautiful) menu and feast our eyes straight onto the "Lunch special" section. It's $9.90 for an entree of a spring roll, a main, and soft drink which is suuuuch a good deal!!!

Food didn't take too long to come out at all. We got Coca Cola's for the drinks, nothing special there but extremely good for the noodle fest to ensue!

Tfw when you are tired, stressed, and hungry.

KEEEENNNN

Entree: Spring Roll - usually 4pc for $6.90

- I'm a little disappointed to hear spring rolls is all we get can get for entrees since I am not particularly fond of them

- The spring roll is Thai style as it is filled with glass noodles and vegetables, and served with sweet chilli sauce

- It actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I'm happy it wasn't oily at all!!

Main: Pad See Ew w/ Beef $10.90

- This is my go-to dish at all Thai restaurants. I like to use this as a test to see whether I like the place or not, but also admittedly it's one of those dishes that I just tend to stick to and order all the time

- Kin Senn's pad see ew isn't bad at all

- The vegetables are extremely fresh tasting

- The beef isn't dry and also actually tastes like meat (some places soak their meat in a solution that makes it go tender and almost rubbery)

- Could've used more sweet soy sauce and wok breath

- Buuuut, I was mostly disappointed because my dish was served luke warm. At first it was fine, I wasn't burning my tongue and could eat quickly. But half way through the meal was already cold and it made me wonder if it was really freshly made or just simply not hot enough

Main: Pad Thai w/ Chicken $10.90

- Francis' dish was much better! Super tasty and hot, steam was coming out every time he lifted his noodles on the fork

- The pad thai noodles used are extremely thin but soak up so much flavour

- We both really appreciated how majority of the bean sprouts were served on the side!! Some places mix it all in and try to give the impression that there is a tonne of noodles when really 70% of it is bean sprouts, but not here!

Overall this place left me with a good impression. Even though my meal was the disappointing part, every thing else was a thumbs up and very enjoyable. I really want to come back to this place and try their desserts, drinks and maybe some other mains!

TL;DR:

Price: Mostly under $15, also awesome lunch deals!

Quality: Quite fresh

Service: Very friendly and welcoming

Ambience: Clean, cute and rustic treehouse vibes

Kin Senn

421 Pitt St,

Sydney NSW 2000

No comments

, by Kim

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