I believe a good pizza base
can win people’s hearts..

First stumbled upon this place by accident. I parked up the road from this joint and i was amazed at the amount of  people that were packed into this tiny restaurant. Since then i’ve been here twice. Waiters have Italian accents (i asked where they were from thinking they sounded Brazilian).

Their pizzas are not heart-attack material like dominos or pizza hut but are healthier (so i keep telling myself). Produce is fresh and contains simple ingredients. If your going with a group of males who love a lot of meat on their pizza (e.g. BBQ meat lovers) then this is probably not quite an option boys will be satisfied with. Pizza e Birra don’t have a lot of  super meaty options – keeping in mind this is a called fancy pizza.

Stand out was their tiramisu which I thought was bomb-ass licking good that the thought of it is making my mouth water.

Grilled scallop and prawn with pineapple chilli chutney
Simple and nice although i thought it was quite expensive. For two skewers (price was almost $20 from memory) I was thinking this would be something to go “WOW” about.

Prawn and scallop sizes were great, i guess i probably shouldn’t have had high expectations. Kinda left me thinking about never ordering an entree again and sticking to eating pizzas and pastas. If your impressing a girl, then by all means order entrees

Pizza’s

*Note: I didn’t get the chance to write down the names of the exact pizza dishes we ordered so i’ve based this on the ingredients of the pizza.

½ pork fennel sausage and other spinach
I love their pizza base! it doesn’t get soggy and its just soo light!

First ½ – Pork Fennel Sausage
I loved the pork fennel sausage i thought it was pretty tasty almost reminding me of similar flavours to bourke st bakeries pork and fennel sausage roll but not as prominent with the fennel. What got me was the look of the sausage, it looked more like mince rather than meat been pushed out of a sausage skin. Still thumbs up!

Second ½ – Spinach and Cheese
Nice simple plain definitely an option for vegetarians. I love vegetarian pizza so i was happy to eat more of this and trade my meaty pizza with the boys.

Prosciutto (Cant remember what this is called)
This was a different style of pizza, the shape of it was different and smaller. Prosciutto was fresh and delicious. Just cant go wrong with prosciutto!

Mushroom, Pork Sausage and basil
If your not too keen on mushrooms then you’d hate this pizza. Pizza is fairly mushroomy which can empower the other ingredients of the pizza. Still great and the boys loved it but it was probably because it contained meat . I was happy to pawn my piece off to them, mushroomy taste really did get the best of me even though I LOVE MUSHROOM.

Seafood Marinara
I love any pizza with seafood. Seafood pizza’s were very soft and tender and the taste was just as good as good marinara pasta.

Desert

Chocolate Tartlet
Chocolate tart was said to be good not fab. I had a spoon full and i thought it was a nice plain chocolate tart. Biscuit base was crumbly and perfect in colour.

Tiramisu
I swear to god this has to be one of the nicest restaurant tiramisu deserts ever purchased. I’ve had plenty in my time and this one is very different form them all. Its got to do with the fluffiness and the cloud like creamy texture the  mascapone has to offer. I didn’t find this alcoholic it tasted more like coffee. Definitely made my mouth moan and i could not stop thinking about it for a week!

Pizza E Birra
500 Crown St,
Surry Hills, 2010
P: (02) 9332 2510

= intimate | = dressy | = pricey | = booking required | = allow preparation

(B) turned 28 so I decided to take him somewhere nice. The best thing i / we love about milestones is celebrating important events with a nice glass of wine and one hell of an expensive dinner. I admit the price hurts but at the end of it I always appreciate what i’ve eaten, experience and the world culinary art . No doubt, if i could eat like this every day I would, but unfortunately my coach purse doesn’t expand with cash like that to support expensive eating tastes. *boo – if only money grew on trees*.

$300 later the food we had was absolutely FANTASTIC.  Definitely one of my favourites in fact its soo good it puts 1 chef hat restaurants to shame =| The standard, the quality and the fresh flavours combined was soo god damn good i was actually moaning with every bite!!!!! Move out Justin North, I think this is my new favourite.

If your wondering why the crappy photos, I took this using a digital camera, i couldnt  flash my food as I had customers sitting next to me left right and center and I didnt want to be selfish by annoying and ruin their dining experience.

Entreé

Nage of lobster claw, moreton bay bug, scampi, cucumber, peas, ginger and lime
French style dish presented with such generous proportion. Flavours were amazing and I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing a lobster claw! One of the reasons why i never choose lobster dishes is because i’m always disappointed that i can never see or taste lobster particles due to over empowerment but my god i was kicking myself I didn’t order this one and was jealous eyeing (B)’s dish that i even asked to swap hahaha!!!!

Grilled white scallops and calamari, leeks, belgian endive, green apple, hazelnut oil vinaigrette
Once again another fantastic portion. This was soo filling i wanted to pawn some off to (B) but i ended up eating it all. Scallops were huge and the flavours were SOO GOOD. The green apple, leek and hazelnut really did bring this dish to life as we know scallops can be quite plain.

Mains

Crisp skin mulloway fillet, grilled prawn, cauliflower puree, pine nut – celery – parsley relish, romesco salsa
Definitely one the best fish i’ve enjoyed!! The fillet was huge i was struggling by the end of this meal. The prawn was soo fresh and the flavours were unbelievable and the fine detail was spot on!!  I LOVE MY MAIN SO SO SO MUCH!!!!

Grilled rangers valley black angus beef fillet, miso – tasmanian wasabi butter, barrel potatoes, young leeks
Such a blokey choice! Looked extremely small in comparison to my main even (B) was a bit disappointed. When he ate half of his beef he was actually full (looks are deceiving) !! Meat was soft and tender, perfect colour in the middle, flavours were really great!

Recently went to Rock pool bar & grill where (B) ordered a $60 steak, I asked him how this compares and he said this one was much better!!! *whoa!* big call and I admit it this was really good!

Desert

Valrhona chocolate fondant, cherries, chocolate meringue and toasted sesame ice cream
I’m not one to order the chocolate deserts as I always like to try something different. This time I thought id choose chocolate and my god it would make any chocolate lover extremely happy. Chocolate meringue was delicious that i ate all of them first. It didnt feel like I was eating meringue as it somewhat had a biscuit texture. Cherries were soo big, juicy and sweet as for sesame icecream… anything that has sesame in it wins me over!

Toasted almond milk mousse, fresh figs, sorbet of fresh tasmanian black currants
Figs are every where at the moment its the trend for this summer as most restaurants have fig everything. Almond milk mousse was orgasmic!!! Personally I think it was better than the Valrhona chocolate desert!!

Petit Fours

Its always a bonus when petit fours are served. By this point i felt the need to unzip my dress as I was seriously that full!!!! I cant remember the last time my stomach had an overdose…

Est chocolate, berry-like friand , cocoa dusted walnut, sugar coated jelly, 80% dark chocolate, mini caramel tart

Coffee for two
When you order desert, it always washes down well with a cup of coffee!!!

Would I come here again? Hell yea!! This isnt the last time they’ll be seeing my face again!

Est. Restaurant
Level 1, 252 George St,
Sydney, NSW 2000
P: (02) 9240 3000

sushi trains..

either you love ‘em or hate ‘em.. I love ‘em

There seems to be a fair majority who dislike sushi trains. Thank heavens i’m a lover of them because at the end of the meal i’m not feeling one bit guilty. As boring sushi may sound, it’s healthy to eat, quick to chew, and provides a variety of dishes that cater for indecisive people like myself.

Sushi Rio is not a westernised sushi train where you’ll find a load of chicken schnitzel sushi’s, tuna and mayo, goyzas, calimari rings and spring rolls. Instead it has a lot of sashimi (raw goods) that is particularly catered for seafood lovers and those who are ‘game’ enough to try anything out of their comfort zone.

I thought i’d be a bit cheeky and title these photos in Japanese so apologies if it is written incorrectly. I started learning japanese since the age of 9 (it was compulsory during school) and learn’t this throughout senior school. I had the itch to recap my memories of the language and was shocked that I remembered how to read, write and also how much i had forgotten as well. So sorry if its totally wrong !

I’m aware “this is another sushi train post” so I’m gonna start off with other dishes ordered off the train and out from the kitchen.!

its not all about sushi..

I don’t know why you would go to a sushi train if you didn’t want to eat sushi.. I guess it does happen and there are people who like to have fried goods with their sushi. nom nom nom ^_^

Tempura prawn with almond flakes
Interesting light texture, almond flakes gave a nice crunchy nutty taste. I know there are a lot of people who love tempura prawns so if you love them.. I suggest you give these a crack.

I’m going to admit, I’ve never been one to order tempura prawns because i’m not a fan of them. I always feel the batter empowers the prawn. Its like having a chunk of crunchy fried dough leaving you unsatisfied cos the hint of prawn is nowhere to be found.

Tako Karaage (fried octopus)
Great! the  tentacles were not thick and chewy. Extremely crunchy and if you like salt and pepper squid, this is the closest you could get at a sushi train.

Nothing is worse than hoeing into thick tentacles that feel like your chewing on a rubber gumboot (e.g. yum cha offers thick-ass fried octopus tentacles extremely chewy makes your mouth tired ).

Takoyaki (Octopus dumplings)
I’ve eaten a heaps of these dumplings at various japanese restaurants and these match up just as good. Soft in the middle with bits of octopus in them. I’ve never had a bad takoyaki before so this is definitely a safe option.

Soft Shell Crab
What can I say? all soft shell crabs taste the same. Some crunchier than others, some oilier and some over fried. These were fine. I’ve never been wow-ed by soft shell crab cos i’ve eaten way too much of these in the past but yea these were good! Not too oily and definitely crunchy!!! and that’s how I like it!

Scallop and Melted cheese with rice
I’ve had this previous at Yumei which I also didn’t really fancy. There’s something about rice and melted cheese that doesn’t work well with each other.

I came here to eat sushi and sushi I ate..

Everyone knows what sushi looks like so i’m not going to bother posting the usual’s. Overall sushi was quite nice.. fresh and not over grilled to the point of dryness. Quality was pretty good no doubt i’d swing by this place again if i had another sushi train craving.

Salmon and grilled scallops

Eel lovin’

Mackerel

Light grilled scallops