Bitter Sweets Buffet

So many of my old favourites in Tokyo are just the same as I remember them – Bitter Sweets Buffet is yet another. We went nice and early on a weekday for lunch and didn’t have to line up (I remember waiting 90 minutes to go in 2009). For a fixed price, you have 90 minutes of all you can eat at the buffet, and all of their food is delightfully tiny so you can try lots of different things. There was a Mediterranean Cruise theme to the buffet when we went, so I started out with a slice of the margherita pizza, some crumbed fish with tartare sauce and (my favourite), a mini burger! You order the burgers from the chef and add your own toppings (lettuce, pickles, tomato sauce, onion) at the salad bar. I tried the potato salad (yum – so creamy) but went back for more crumbed fish – that was definitely the savoury pick. After enjoying some green tea we moved to dessert – hello mini cakes! I tried the strawberry mousse cake, the strawberry scroll (so light and fluffy!), the chocolate berry cake (my pick of the sweets) and a couple of jellies. We were so full that we didn’t last the whole 90 minutes, but every mouthful was delicious.

Bitter Sweets Buffet, 8F Lumine Est, 3-chome, 38-1 Shinjuku, Japan              http://pscoop.jp/bsb/index.html

Lolo and Lola

Canberra is entirely to blame for my love of Filipino food – luckily, Lolo and Lola can help me feed the habit started by Kusina! The latest shipping container store to open at Westside, Lolo and Lola (formerly Waterhouse Bakery) offer fresh Filipino dishes and cakes with a menu that changes daily. I went on a Friday and ordered the Grilled Pork Tocino ($12) – cured sweet pork slices served with rice and a tomato salad – to takeaway. The portion size is fantastic – exactly the right amount of food for lunch, and I was impressed by the amount of pork in the serve. The meat was amazingly delicious – sweet as the menu says, but also very tender. The spring onion sprinkled on top helped to lift the flavour and I loved the way some of the sweet coating from the pork oozed onto the rice, which I’m sure was infused with garlic (yum). The tomato salad had wedges of fresh tomato, slices of red onion and cucumber  it was really refreshing to contrast the heavier pork and rice, but I’ll save this dish for weekends as the raw onion was strong and not ideal for going back to work! I’d very happily order this dish again and can’t wait to try more from the exciting menu!

Lolo and Lola, Westside Acton, 3 Barrine Drive, Acton ACT, no website

Avesta

Avesta has opened in the space previously occupied by Pheast, adding a meat/smokehouse and Kurdish flavour to the menu. We had a group of 12 booked for lunch, and were told to sit anywhere (no table prepared for us), so we gathered the outdoor tables and set up to enjoy the warm afternoon. Things here are still a bit new – staff are still getting to know the menu and the register system, but after a long ordering process, the food came out quite quickly. I ordered the Qaisy ($25.50), a Kurdish beef and apricot dish served with almond and raisin garnished rice. The portion was the perfect size for lunch and I really enjoyed the plentiful, tender pieces of beef. The apricots had leeched their flavour into the sauce, leaving their hydrated forms with little more than texture, but the sauce had a lovely depth of flavour (but no heat). The rice was perfectly cooked and I liked being able to dip my spoon of rice into the sauce, rather than having it all in one bowl. The almonds and raisins added great texture and I would have happily added more on top. The food was slightly pricey for what it is, but everyone enjoyed their meals.

Avesta, 2 Furneaux Street, Griffith ACT, http://www.avesta.net.au/

Burganomix

Adelaide is definitely going through a burger phase, and personally, I hope it’s here to stay. The latest addition to the burger scene is Burganomix, offering classic, fresh burgers the way I remember them from my childhood. I ordered the Nomix ($16), basically the burger with the lot – patty, mayo, beetroot, fried egg, tomato, lettuce, pineapple, pancetta, onion, pickles (seriously, as if the beetroot and pineapple wasn’t enough of my favourite things on burgers) and chutney. Phew. Served on a cradboard tray with a small handful of fries, the burger was huge – both hands required! This is what burgers used to be like, packed full of fresh ingredients to the point where it’s hard to eat without making a mess. The patty was thin, but nicely herbed, and somehow all the fillings went together. Ok, she’s not the most sophisticated dame at the ball, but damn that burger was delicious. And the fries were perfect – soft inside, crispy outside. Don’t forget to say hi to Jack, the friendly proprietor, who takes the time to chat to all his customers. Yep, everything here is good and old-fashioned, just the way I like it.

Burganomix, 2/1 Colley Terrace, Glenelg SA, http://www.burganomix.com.au/

Sammy’s Kitchen

I haven’t been to Sammy’s Kitchen in such a long time, so I was excited when we organised a work lunch there. On arrival, you notice the lovely plates with Japanese words for fruit and vegetables on them – I had persimmon on mine. We went for the $26.50 per person banquet option, starting with spring rolls and prawn toast. Guys, this is one of the biggest prawn toasts I’ve ever had, and it was amazing – entirely covered in sesame seeds and with heaps of lovely prawn meat inside, I’d come back just for this. But then we had the shantung chicken, and it got even better. Oh hello crispy skin and tender meat and unctuous sauce – get in my belly! Also a dish to come back for. Repeatedly. The beef rendang again had very tender meat and wasn’t overly spicy, and the sizzling prawns in XO sauce disappeared quickly – delicious! We were all getting very full by the time the bean curd and vegetables came out, but again this was a winner, with everyone making just that bit more stomach space to fit it in. The banquet was amazing and great value for the price.

Sammy’s Kitchen, 9 Bunda Street, Civic ACT http://www.sammyskitchen.com.au/

Il Portico

I always like visiting people’s favourite places – it usually means they’ve scoped out the menu, which is exactly what my friend had done at Il Portico. He recommended the Boscaolia pasta (available at lunch and dinner, $20), with porcini mushrooms, Italian bacon and a creamy truffle oil sauce. I picked the Proscuitto pizza ($21), with rocket, proscuitto, parmesan and olive oil. Always trust the local. Both dishes arrived together a short interval after we’d ordered. The pasta dish was utterly divine and definitely my favourite. Silky smooth pasta (although not house-made), utterly perfect, salty Italian bacon and seriously the creamiest, loveliest pasta sauce I’ve had in a long time. The truffle oil would have had something to do with that, but I also loved the way that the mushrooms were cooked without shrivelling up or drying out – yum. The pizza was delicious too, with plenty of paper-thin slices of proscuitto, generous amounts of rocket and parmesan, and a not-too-cheesy-or-tomatoey base. The base itself was fairly thin, and had a nice amount of crisp to it. The service was attentive and friendly – this is a lovely spot just back from the Foreshore for a quiet, quality meal.

Il Portico, 71 Giles Street, Kingston ACT,

Ona on the Lawns

So… I may or may not have ordered the burger. Again. To start, I ordered a green apple, pineapple, lime and mint juice ($7.50), which came out in a large glass – the pineapple wasn’t too sharp and the lime was just a light hint, although I couldn’t really taste the mint. I couldn’t go past the buttermilk chicken burger ($20), and I was wowed by the piled-high stack that came out with fries on a board. The fries were amazing, with some sort of magical seasoning (mmm) and a herbed aioli that was just perfect. I wasn’t sure how to eat the burger, so I ended up pulling it apart – there was a whole lot of cabbage ‘slaw packed into the bun, with a tonne of runaway peas sandwiched into the upper half of the bread. Given the board was so full, I found it quite hard to eat, but everything was super tasty – I loved the mayonnaise spiked with sprigs of dill, and the chicken was beautifully tender inside the crisp buttermilk shell. It was hard to get a sense of the flavours all together, but I did enjoy the more unusual ingredient mix, and would highly recommend the fries.

Ona on the Lawns, Shop 4, Palmerston Lane, Manuka ACT, onacoffee.com.au/