try 43 new restaurants

The Summer House Cafe
2605 Washington Ave
Erie, PA 16508-1345
(814) 452-2500

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
with Mom and Mommom

936 Burke St, Zetland NSW
Origin Night – had to give it a go, it’s right around the corner from my place and I have not fallen in love with a local pub as yet. I think it may take a little time to fall in love with it, perhaps I will try again when the renovations are complete. Half is charming, and the other half is SKANK (including patrons). My chicken burger was great for pub food, pretty satisfied. Liam had a beef pie that looked impressive. I really like it when bistro’s do pub food really well instead of having an extensive, fancy menu with a billion dishes that they simply can’t pull off.

74 Stanley St East Sydney NSW
It absolutely had to be done, I go to the sushi place across the road pretty regularly and have always seen Bill & Toni’s. Everyone knows Bill & Toni’s … it has this hype for fast, hearty, cheap food. We were seeing a play afterwards and had to be hasty so it sounded perfect.
I really wanted to love it for the people and the charm .. with papa cooking big batches of napolitana sauce out the back .. cute, right? I really didn’t want to be horrified and what came out on my plate so I just took a big swig of wine and dealt with it. I can understand why it was a Sydney institution back in it’s day, it’s very cute and the gelato is insanely good.

281 King Street Newtown NSW
Sunday night dinner – Liam and I ventured out in the rain to see Japanese Jazz singer Yuki Kumagai. I’m so glad that we did! We had a look at the eatability ratings which weren’t great .. but I’ve known for a while not to trust those.
Great atmosphere, service was fantastic. For a cafe – the food was fantastic! It was down to earth, homey hearty food. I will definately go back … and most ceratinly on a Sat or Sun night to see Yuki.

(1)Rock Creek Pizza (2)Zupas (3)Simply Thai (4)Chipotle

its not often that i eat burmese food outside of burma superstar, the ubiquitous cult hole in the wall joint here in the inner richmond where i live. but last week i noticed a new burmese place opened where eva’s hawaiian cafe’ once was called pagan. i was immediately interested and wanted to see if pagan cut the mustard compared to burma superstar down the road.

the space was completely redone: new hard wood floors, hand painted and detailed walls, even brand new ceiling tiles. there were a lot of little decorative touches, like the table tops and the walls from the moulding down matched the trim on the burmese tapestry wall hangings. the drinking glasses are shaped like bamboo spears. all around pretty nice aesthetically, they didn’t cross that fine line into kitsch which can easily happen when designing around an asian theme. but like all asian places, i wonder if it will stay as clean and nice looking as it does now after some time goes by.

the menu is burmese/thai fusion, although i hate the word “fusion” because so often it means pretentiously described dishes on ugly modern funny-shaped plates that are more than often over priced in a douchey/sceney atmosphere. so, i’ll say that pagan is burmese with thai touches here and there, but overall the experience is pretty home-cooked tasting. the menu itself is medium to large in size, with at least 5 items in each category and a large selection of burmese salads, great for me because i’ve never found a burmese salad i didn’t like.

i ordered the pork and pumpkin curry and my husband the traditional lamb burmese curry. my pork and pumpkin stew was excellent possessing a light spicy flavor that mellowed out into savory notes after a few chews. the lamb curry was good, although my husband found it bland. i thought it could use more heat, but the flavors were good and the lamb was tender. it said it was cooked with onion, tomatoes, and potatoes but neither tomatoes nor onions did we find in our dish which was a bit puzzling. i’d order both again, and my husband would order my dish again but not his. the couple next to us had a fantastic looking noodle dish that looked to be flavored with either saffron or caraway oil judging by the color which is what i think we’ll order next time. my thai iced tea was just a hair watery but my husband’s thai coffee was nice and strong.

the only issue was the service was a little slow and out of tune but hopefully this issue will improve over time. since we both had the afternoon off, we had no problem taking our time and waiting for the food and check, but i did see a couple tables full of impatient looking patrons making the “writing in the air/check please!” motion well after they finished their plates.

overall: A- or a B+, but i don’t think burma superstar has anything to worry about.
service: C, they could be more organized and/or engaging.

Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern
244 Highland Park Blvd.
Wilkes Barre, PA 18702
570-606-2250
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
with Mom
on the Catskills roadtrip

98 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, NSW
After the swans game today we went to Raquels which is a spanish restaurant with a very traditional feel. We ordered over 5 plates of tapas and were therefore treated with a free jug of mediocre sangria but the pork belly was delicious. The churros were gorgeous but needs a thicker dipping sauce .. and coffee to compliment it that does not taste like dirt.
I was otherwise satisfied, but not blown out of the water – a little overpriced.
6.5/10

96 Kepos St, East Redfern NSW
I’ve admired this restaurant from afar for a very long time now .. so was very excited when my boyfriend was looking for a place to take me for dinner yesterday—and we managed to score a booking here!
The ambience is intimate and romantic which if I wasn’t crazily in love may have been confused for stuffy and sardine-ish. The staff were attentive without being intrusive (which is harder than it looks in a restaurant of that size ..) and the food was both well presented and thought out.
7.75/10

179 Enmore Rd Enmore NSW
Last Sunday we went to the Factory Theatre in Marrickville, so popped in here for dinner before the show.
The front half of the shop is fitted out like a kebab shop / cafe, but you are pleasantly suprised when you walk further out back. You pay for the casual atmosphere through attentiveness of the staff .. which was dissappointing because they were lovely.
The food was great for the price that was very reasonable.
I wasn’t very impressed with the turkish coffee and baklava which is suprising because I love the lebanese / greek equivalent.