Din Tai Fung Sydney

One word: Overrated. When our orders arrived, although the food was warm, the plates that they were served on were not. Ahem... mistake one.

Mistake 2: When you are known around the world for one thing, please ensure that there is consistency in quality. The so-called 'best dumplings in the world' were not so great, in my opinion. I have had better.

The noodles were also not up to par. The texture was not quite right and even after a few minutes, the noodles became cold and started to clump together.

At least the dessert was a consolation.

Din Tai Fung
World Square, Level 1 Shop 11.04, 644 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9264 6010
Lunch hours 
11:30am to 2:30pm (weekdays)
11:00am to 3:00pm (weekends)
Dinner hours 
5:30pm to 9:00pm (Monday to Wednesday)
5:00pm to 10:00pm (Thursday and Friday)
5:00pm to 10:00pm (Saturday)
5:00pm to 9:00pm (Sunday)

Ippudo Sydney

Ippudo? Hm, the name rang a bell but I could not place a finger on it. Hm... ah, it was when I walked past it on Valentine's Day with VK. Alright, so what's the hype about, long queue and all?

Michael informed, "Tai Jie, you MUST have their pork bun!" and so I did.

Ippudo pork bun ($4), a plateful of orgasmic sinfulness! Pricey but oh so awesome!

Hot stone unagi rice ($10) for the non-ramen person in me. Did not really like the texture of the rice. Advice: stick to what they are famous for.

The Akamaru Shinaji ($16) is Ippudo's original tonkatsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil served with thin noodles, pork belly, black mushroom and shallots.

The Shiromaru Motoaji ($15) is Ippudo's original tonkatsu broth served with thin noodles, pork loin, cabbage, black mushrooms and shallots.

We were there at 6:00pm and there was already a queue. When we left, the queue was three times the length of when we were shown our table. Two words: Go early.



Ippudo Sydney
Westfield Sydney, Level 5 Shop 5021, 188 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Tel: +61 2 8078 7020; E-mail: info@ippudo.com.au
Monday and Tuesday 11:00am to 10:00pm
Wednesday to Saturday 11:00am to 11:00pm
Sunday 11:00am to 9:00pm
*Reservations not accepted

MakMak Macarons

I first heard of MakMak through a Facebook forum of Malaysians in Australia. I am not a macaron person but the colourful box of little round cuteness caught my attention because the person who shared that photo made a passing mention of the owner being Malaysian.

Malaysian? I did a Google search. Yes, I love Google. So I typed in MakMak Macarons and out came 2k plus results. Hm... I slowly read through the reviews and felt ever so proud that this 'little' brand of highly recommended macarons was started by a Malaysian chap from PJ.

It took me a few months before I paid a visit to their then pop up now permanent shop in Newtown. They are nearer the St. Peters side of Newtown, so I would recommend getting off at St. Peters Station if one is taking the train.

Carlos Heng is the brains behind the business. I found out during our little chat that he studied at BBBS and I instantly made connections to a few of my own friends. Turned out that we have quite a few mutual friends!

These babies are all handmade, hand-piped and 100% gluten-free.

The little mini sweet dessert burgers are made fresh daily in the premises, which means that flavours vary depending on the day. How can you not like this colourful display?

Each macaron is priced at $3. Box of 5 is $15, box of 10 is $27 and a box of 12 is $32. A macaron with a cup of iced tea is $5 but iced tea on its own is $3.50.

As I went in Autumn, they were running a Botanicals theme that was inspired by herbs, flowers and other plants.

I did not know how to choose. So, I ended up taking one of each flavour. Incidentally, there were 12 flavours. Just right.

The 12 flavours we had were:

• Peppermint and Belgian dark chocolate (Speckled green)
• Green tea latte (Dark green with white heart) - this was quite refreshing
• Salted caramel (Ivory)
• Peppermint and Black tea (Pale green) - this was our favourite!
• Rhubarb and Rose (Red/Pink) - thumbs up for this one!
• Peanut butter and Belgian milk chocolate (Blue)
• Passionfruit, Orange and Lemon myrtle (Yellow/Orange) - we liked this one, too!
• Strawberry, Vincotto and Pink peppercorn (Red with designs) - least liked of the lot
• Smoked vanilla and Pecan praline (Brown with designs)
• Apricot and Elderflower (Orange with designs)
• Pistachio (Khaki green)
• Bounty (Brown/White) - too coconuty for us

On some of the macarons, there are unique designs to make them all the more enticing!

Sun, sea, beach, tea, MakMak and good company - best weekend combination ever!

MakMak Macarons

601 King Street, Newtown, NSW 2042, Australia

Tel: +61 2 8095 0045

Tuesday to Friday 11:00am to 7:00pm

Saturday 11:00am to 6:00pm

PappaRich Chatswood

The first PappaRich outlet was established in KL back in 2005. Today, they have over 70 outlets in Malaysia and in other countries, such as Singapore and more recently, Australia. When we first received word of them opening in Melbourne, we thought, "Yea, about time." Fast forward to 2 months ago, they opened their first one here in Sydney, in the very Asian suburb of Chatswood.

Normally, us typical KLites would associate PappaRich with the phrase "upscale mamak". It is like from high school or college mamak hangouts we graduate to uni and career world cafe hangouts. The food they provide is the common food fare available in hawker centres around the country but at a high price and in an air-conditioned and free wi-fi environment. Most of the time, we only order drinks, especially the traditional Hainanese coffee and tea, that goes down well with the traditional Hainanese bread with kaya and butter.

With all the hype, we decided to wait for a bit to avoid the long queues. But hype or not hype, we figured that they are like Mamak, where the queues are forever long. The only way to beat the crowd would be to get there really early.

In all honesty, the food is exactly like what we have back home. The biggest difference is that instead of in Malaysian Ringgit, they charge in Australian Dollar.

The seafood curry laksa ($12.90) is a bowl of noodles in spicy coconut curry gravy with mussels, prawns, eggplants, tofu puffs, beancurd skin, fish cake and bean sprouts. Perfect for the current cold weather.

Pappa Wat Tan Hor ($12.90) is basically a plate of wok-fried flat noodles with egg gravy. Their portion is slightly smaller than Albee's portion and a dollar more expensive but I suppose the ambience makes up for it.

A different version of it is the Crispy Egg Noodle, which is egg noodle instead of flat noodles.

Without realising that they had a vegetarian menu, I gamely tried a Nasi Lemak with Vegetarian Curry Mutton. Tastes like normal nasi lemak. Would have preferred the sambal to be more spicy, though and oh, definitely a smaller portion of rice. Too much rice!

The Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken came with three pieces of chicken but like my plate of nasi lemak, the egg must have been cut open for some time.

Normally in KL, the usual drink would be Michael Jackson, which is a mixture of soya bean juice with grass jelly (named after MJ's famous hit, Black and White). We ordered the Barley Grass Jelly instead. Interesting...

We were wondering if the Milo they use for their Milo Dinosaur is Malaysian Milo or Aussie Milo (yes, the IS a difference). We could not tell, perhaps due to how much Milo powder there is!

Personally, I find the food at Petaling Street in the city better and more affordable. And not worth the queue time. However, they do have good service and a kids' play room for families with children.



PappaRich Chatswood
1/63A Archer Street, Chatswood NSW 2067, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9411 3207; E-mail: info@papparich.net.au
Sunday to Thursday 11:00am to 9:00pm
Friday & Saturday 11:00am to 10:00pm
Walk-in only, no bookings

ZenQ Desserts 仙Q甜品

I think this is like a world-wide fad, just like how Gangnam Style was - a dessert fad. I suppose if there is demand, there will be supply.

Similar to Meet Fresh, ZenQ Desserts serves Taiwanese dessert.

We tried a few varieties. The red bean soup with ZenQ signature Q balls and pearl ($6.20) was mash of a few ingredients. All I could taste was red bean in my mouth.

I preferred the mixed pudding with jelly cake and crystal jelly ($6.40).

In addition to their sweet soups and shaved iced, I suppose their crowd puller would be their toasts. We tried their banana chocolate honey toast ($16.20).

Even though there were two of us, this was pretty heavy for afternoon tea. Too much bread, I reckon but I enjoyed pulling them out one by one. We also tried forest berries danish honey toast ($16.80). This was not too bad in taste.

However, for the same price, I would rather grab a full meal with rice and what not.

Unfortunately for them, they are a case of been there done that for me. Service was below average with tables not cleared (they were better at the Macquarie branch) and with staff who came across as unsure. Perhaps more training before they get left alone to man the branch?

ZenQ Desserts 仙Q甜品
Shop 223 (enter from Victoria Avenue), Chatswood Westfield, Anderson Street, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9411 6882

Shop 408B, Level 4, Macquarie Shopping Centre, Corner Herring and Waterloo Road, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9889 8823

Open daily from 11:00am till late

Sinma Laksa House

As Kingsford is a stone's throw away from the airport, we decided to head to Sinma for some dinner. Hm, more like supper but a heavy supper.

Seafood laksa was so-so

So excited to see char kuey kak. Had good wok hei, too.

This plate of Hokkien noodles was too much for one person really...

Rojak to share, so-so as well

Service was quick, maybe because we were the only ones there and it was nearly closing time. Situated in an area with a large population of university students from UNSW, pretty sure they attract the Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean students.



Sinma Laksa House
391 Anzac Parade, Kingsford, NSW 2032, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9313 7663
Open daily for lunch and dinner

Restoran Tim Kee 添记（老地方）板面

Founded as a small stall in Bukit Bintang in 1988, Tim Kee Pan Mee drew large crowds due to their authentic pan mee. As their popularity grew, they relocated to a shop opposite the origin stall. Today, and much to my delight, they are located in my childhood neighbourhood of Taman Universiti Indah in Seri Kembangan. 

I remember when I was back home for a break two years ago, Mum and Dad went, "Let's go for pan mee. Do you know there is a new shop here in Taman U?" Oh? Curiosity aroused, I took the keys to the car and headed to the row of shops adjacent to the mamak shop we normally have brekkie at.

Dad and I love their original dry pan mee with minced pork and mushrooms, which is served with a bowl of sweet leaf soup. The chicken bone and dried anchovies soup, boiled for hours, is flavoursome. Occasionally, I order their traditional soup pan mee.

They have other varieties of pan mee, including tomyum, seafood tomyum and herbal. Their menu is not restricted to just pan mee, there are other types of noodles and dishes, too, but they are more famous for their pan mee.

Oh, the variety of chilli... made my friends in Sydney so envious when I shared this photo with them :P

If you work in nearby areas such as Equine, Pinggiran Putra, Puncak Jalil, or even Cyberjaya, do head over for a quick lunch. For Seri Serdang, Balakong and Taman Sungei Besi folks, unless you are pretty confident you will not be caught in traffic, I would think Taman U is a little far for you.

RM10 comfortably covers a bowl of noodles plus one drink, with some spare change. Not bad for a cosy, comfortable and clean environment with quick and friendly service.

Restoran Tim Kee
A-G-15 Jalan Indah 2/10, Taman Universiti Indah, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Tel: +60 3 8938 9851
Open 8:00am to 6:00pm daily