Universal, Darlinghurst, NSW

When honeyhype came to visit me in Sydney, I made sure I took her to some of the better restaurants Sydney had so offer. We had already made a booking at Hurricanes at Darling Harbour for dinner, but last minute changes left us without a booking and it was my job to find a replacement. I searched on Urbanspoon and came across Universal, which seemed appealing as it had really high ratings, but I had my reservations as I have found that these ratings aren’t always accurate. After doing a bit of research on the restaurant, I found out it was in fact owned by Christine Manfield, who had appeared on Season 2 of Master Chef. I had found another Master Chef-made famous restaurant! Luckily it was a week day and they managed to squeeze us in, even with our last minute booking.    

The décor was minimalistic yet elegance. The lighting was dimmed throughout the restaurant, giving a really lovely ambience and a rather relaxing, yet classy feel.

As we took our seats the waiter ran us through the menu, and explained the concept behind Christine’s dishes. They portions are quite small and the purpose was so we could order a few dishes to share between the two of us. He suggested we order four dishes to share, but we only ordered three, just to make sure we had enough room for dessert. 

Seeing scallops one of my favourite foods, I couldn’t go past the seared scallops on the menu. The seared scallops were cooked just the way I liked my scallops – golden brown colour on the outside with a soft and melting texture on the inside. The scallops were sweet and extremely fresh. I also loved how there were so many textures in this dish- the crispiness of the roasted lotus root, crunch from the tempura, finished off with the samphire and wasabi avocado which gave the dish a distinctive taste.  This was such an enjoyable little dish!

Seared sea scallop, asparagus tempura, lotus root, samphire and wasabi avocado 

The scallops were quickly devoured and soon came our pork belly dish. I picked this dish as I was curious about how they would make consommé from kimchi! But it turned out to be a very wise choice as the consommé tasted so clean and crisp with a hit of spiciness. The pork belly was so tender too, which was great. The pork belly was only lightly marinated but the consommé made up the savouriness which made it just right. The two balls next to the pork were in fact oysters wrapped in wombok to look like two dumplings.  

Fragrant pork and kimchi consommé,  oyster and chive dumplings, soy braised pork belly 

My eyes lit up when I saw ‘truffle’ on the menu, as it’s also another ingredient which I really enjoy. The presentation was not as nice as the previous two dishes, but the taste was just as good. The fish was firm and fresh (without the fishy taste!).   

Coorong yellow eye, black truffle potato galette, caramelised foie gras and spinach  

Dessert time! There were 6 desserts to choose from and they all sounded so delicious, that we had difficulty deciding on just one! We narrowed it down to three desserts, but the waiter gave us a hand and suggested two of the more popular ones to us. My goodness were we blown away!

First up, madame pompadour, which contained white peach curd, peach and rosé jelly, peach macarons, fromage blanc sherbet, fairy floss. We couldn’t help but stare at the dish in awe for a few seconds before we excitedly dug into this. The flavours were absolutely amazing. Peaches, roses, tangy sherbet, light, fluffy fairy floss, not to mention tiny peach flavoured macarons! This was such a complicated dessert and it was executed so very well. What a mind blowing dessert to say the least.

Madame pompadour - white peach curd, peach and rosé jelly, peach macarons, fromage blanc sherbet, fairy floss

  I’m not usually a fan of heavy caramel desserts as they can sometimes get too rich which is off putting. This dessert has definitely changed my mind about caramel/honeycomb for good. I think this is Christine’s interpretation of the Golden Gaytime ice-cream and she has done a really good job at capturing all the flavours from the ice-block Aussies have grown up with. The honeycomb ice-cream was sweet but not sickly, and I also loved the caramel parfait which was surrounded by a crunchy salted hazelnut caramel cylindrical shell.

    Gaytime goes nuts  - honeycomb ice cream, caramel parfait, chocolate crunch, salted hazelnut caramel

Just to prove how good the desserts were, we managed to eat both desserts and liked the plates clean (figure of speech!). They were probably the most amazing desserts I have had (excluding Vue De Monde).

Universal turned out to be a wonderful dining experience for both honeyhype and I. I would definitely recommend Universal to my friends who are visiting Sydney, or even locals who haven’t had the chance to try it! I look forward to visiting Universal again to try out the rest of their menu, not to mention the desserts!

Flying Fish, Pyrmont, NSW

Since it was the last night of our stay in Sydney, honeyhype & I decided to have something nicer to end our trip, before travelling to Melbourne on our food hunting journey. We chose Flying Fish, because alas, it is owned by Peter Kuruvita who was a guest chef on Master Chef - Season 2 (can you tell I'm obsessed much?). 
Since Flying Fish is famous for its seafood, we decided on the seafood tasting menu so we could try more varieties. This was a wise decision indeed.

A nice little entree to start our meal - king prawns with a avocado mayo. Juicy prawns, full of flavour, the mayo was light and had a hint of avocado taste in it. Different, but it worked.  

King prawn with avocado mayo

Our first main arrived promptly shortly after- seared yellow fin tuna. I was salivating even when I first saw this on the menu!  The tuna had a vibrant, red colour, which looked and tasted very fresh. There was an interesting mix of flavours in this dish; citrus from the red grapefruit, crispy pork crackle, tender pieces of tuna, all of which were layered on top of a juicy, soft piece of pork belly. The pepper caramel gave the dish a nice finishing touch as the tanginess from the grapefruit was balanced by the sweetness of the caramel.

 Seared yellow fin tuna with ruby red grapefruit, sweet crackling pork and black pepper caramel

Our next dish was Seafood tapas. This dish was really enjoyable, as it had a small portion of four different tastes of the ocean. All three types of fish (trout, himarashi kingfish, and smoked bonito) had characteristic of fresh sashimi: sweet, creamy flesh and a pleasant texture. But I enjoyed the cuttlefish noodles the most. The cuttlefish just melts in your mouth, and the mayonnaise dressing gave it a nice twist.

Seafood tapas

Our seafood tapas was followed by another fish - confit of petuna ocean trout with pea and black sesame mousse, puffed quinoa and tangerine oil. This was a rather refreshing dish, as the tangerine oil gave the fish a mild citrus scent, but there was also a tanginess to it - I later found out what gave the ocean trout roe a bit of a tangy flavour when eating was the addition of finger limes used in the dish. I later found a few small bones though - so please be careful when you eat this!

Confit of Petuna ocean trout with pea & black sesame mousse, puffed quinoa & tangerine oil 

Next up was a prawn ravioli with poached scampi. This was one of my favourites for the night. Fresh sweet prawns hidden inside this giant ravioli which was delicious when eaten together with the broccolini and tomato. The pasta was also cooked very well - pastry was thin and al dente, just the way I liked. I wish there was more than one ravioli on my plate though! 

Prawn ravioli, poached scampi with tomato & broccolini

There's not many types of fish which I like, because I'm always scared of the unpleasant fish smell and taste. But our next dish - pan fried John Dory with king prawns, really changed my mind. The fish had a nice crispy skin and the meat was firm with no fishy taste at all. The dish also came with some house made hand-cut chips and a fresh salad with vinaigrette - kind of like fish and chips, except with lots of vegetables which made this a very healthy dish! :) 

John Dory – pan fried john dory with king prawn, young autumn vegetables, yuzu and seaweed butter

We also ordered several mocktails throughout the night as we wanted something non-alcoholic. They were all delicious, but if I had to choose, my favourite was Penny Lane - fresh strawberries and lime with a touch of sugar poured long with cranberry juice. Fabulous. 

Penny Lane

Royal Counsel - A stunning blend of pear, lychee and mint all finished with a taste of apple and lime juices. 

Sultry Miss - A delicate taste of apple juice, lychee and Dilmah natural ceylon ginger tea with a touch of lime. Gorgeous.

 Dinner was wrapped up with dessert – petit fours, as well as individual tasting plates, which consisted of coconut marshmallows, passionfruit souffle, carrot cake, and a guava sorbet with spun sugar. I felt dessert was lacking a bit of creativity, but the flavours were nice and again, I loved the idea of having a tasting plate with different things to try.

Individual tasting plate

Petit fours and tea

Overall we had a great dining experience at Flying Fish. It is obvious why people enjoy dining here so much, as the food is of a high quality, staff are helpful, not to mention amazing views of the Sydney Harbour. The only thing to note is that I would love to see Flying Fish give their tasting menu some more variety and include other seafood such as shell fish as part of the menu. 

 

(Credit to honeyhype for helping with the photos!)

Vue de monde, Melbourne, VIC

Vue de monde is owned by the renowned Shannon Bennett - another amazing chef who I only learned of after religiously following last season's Master Chef. I wish I had visited Vue de monde earlier, because I can honestly say it was the most amazing culinary experience that I've had on my food adventures to date.