Malaysian Restaurants (Sydney)

I love Malaysian food – earthy curries, flaky roti, chewy noodles, rich coconut milk, great ways with seafood, chicken and beef … and that’s before we even start talking about pork trotters, durian and other things not quite to my taste, but which my husband, Franz, adores! It’s the original multi-cultural cooking, with its blend […]

Top 5 Private Dining Rooms (PDRs)

Some of my best times have been sharing a meal with friends tucked away in a private dining room in one of my favourite restaurants. There’s something special about gathering in a space away from everyone else, you can laugh a little louder, eat and drink with more abandon, and carry on almost as you […]

Top 5 Date Night Ideas

Remember when you first started dating your partner? Going out of your way to think of special things to do together that would surprise and delight the other? I used to think ‘date night’ was a great idea for couples busy with kids, who needed to set time aside for each other – and so […]

Top 5 Gueridon in Sydney

I like a bit of theatre with my food – and it doesn’t get much more theatrical than gueridon, the art of finishing and plating dishes tableside! Crêpes Suzette and steak Diane come immediately to mind, but there are many other possibilities as these restaurants show. I’m pleased to see a bit of a gueridon […]

Top 5 Lunch with a View

I’ve been accused of featuring the eastern suburbs too heavily, but I can’t help it if there’s a concentration of great eats (and drinks) in that part of town. So I’m delighted to be celebrating something that the northside (my home turf) has in abundance – great eats with great views! Time to enjoy a […]

Top 5 Fast Food

I love language almost as much as I love food and I enjoy combining the two, discovering what the original meaning of food words tells us about the history of that food. Lately I’ve had cause to think about two terms often used synonymously: ‘Fast Food’ and ‘Junk Food’. For the word geeks out there, […]

Japanese Restaurants (Sydney)

In the past 20 years or so, Japanese food in Australia has moved from exotic to mainstream, with sushi bars in every food court turning out healthy fast food. But beyond sushi, there are also excellent restaurants offering the full range of Japanese cuisine – from casual izakaya-style (the Japanese equivalent of Aussie pubs), via […]

Top 5 Food Films

I love food, I love cinema, I love being in a place with a great vibe … so how special is it when all of these are rolled into one experience!? Enter Golden Age Cinema and Bar, a wonderful use of historic Paramount House – that elegantly curved, late art-deco building that wraps around the […]

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