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.


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!


Ambience: Food court

Vanessa and I decide to sit 'indoors' as it was very quiet and we had so much choice of seating. The indoor decor is very pretty painting up an oriental and sophisticated vibe. The lights on the ceiling are caged in open baskets as the lighting is quite minimal and dim. There is some art on the walls and shelfs of interesting tea pots and cups.

Also each table is set out with real ceramic cups, sauce dishes and plates. They're quite heavy as well!

Gözleme: a traditional savory Turkish flatbread and pastry dish, made of hand-rolled leaves of yufka dough that are lightly brushed with butter and eggs, filled with various toppings, sealed, and cooked over a griddle.

There's one of these types of eateries in every food court: Chinese food. You know the drill guys; you can pick a dish off the menu board, or grab a plate of rice or noodles with your choice of toppings. Whenever I go to eat with my parents in the food court after some shopping they will always head to the Chinese food stall because that is what we are most familiar with. It seems like the safe option.

After some shopping with my mom at Lidcombe Shopping Centre, we decided to share a quick and small between the two of us. Not being as open to the other options, that's how I can say we ended up at MEE Noodle House.

It is a very popular eatery in this food court and there was never a quiet moment. My mom and I decide to go for something different in this familiar sort of choice rather than choosing the usual sweet and sour pork, black bean beef, or mongolian lamb etc. They actually have an interesting variety of choices in the bain marie with not only Chinese options, but also Thai and Malaysian! This is the same with their menu board and I recall also seeing pho so I guess we could say they also have Vietnamese options.

I have to mention it was SO difficult to get the attention of the staff working there. I must've said "Excuse me" several times after patiently waiting for them to serve other people. They really don't seem to pay attention to who has been waiting and even served people who got there after me.



I read a different review saying that MEE's a la carte menu is better than their bain marie or takeaway options. Which makes me wish we ordered something off there because this meal wasn't exactly the best. Yes we did make quite an unconventional choice but because it was in such a popular location, it could've been done a lot better. I wouldn't give this place an entire pass just yet because I hope I can come back and try their noodle soups or something next time. 

Anyway I hope this review had been informative for you! Until next time :) xx



TL;DR:
Price: Standard
Quality: Not great flavours/textures
Service: Rushed
Ambience: Busy in the bustling food court

Today's post features an absolute taco mania! So before we start has anyone heard Jennifer Lopez's song that goes like "Taco taco burrito burrito"? 😂

Anyway back to todays post. This was my first time visiting Barangaroo since it opened so I was really excited. You can get there by taking a train to Wynyard station and then taking a nice stroll through some really pretty almost futuristic looking tunnels that will lead you straight to Barangaroo. I wanted to take some OOTD photos for Instagram in these tunnels but there was actually another couple doing the same so I felt a little bit embarrassed.

Out in the open there are a heap of towers but also directories available so finding your way to the Canteen tower is quite easy. The whole Barangaroo area looks really nice and modern. The canteen is also pretty and clean with lots of food choices available. Seating seems to the be biggest issue here as it was SO crowdy with all the people who worked in the surrounding buildings and I didn't feel like there were enough seats for the amount of eateries.