Ginger & Spice, Neutral Bay

"Although there is a great deal of controversy among scientists about the effects of ingested food on the brain, no one denies that you can change your cognition and mood by what you eat". (Arthur Winter)

Over the weekend, I get a visit from my favourite person in the world....My Sister!!!

I have been anticipating her visit for months and finally last Saturday she came from Melbourne, but just for one night. So I've been thinking where to bring her and her fiance for dinner. I gave her a few options and she picked Ginger & Spice at Neutral Bay. What a great choice!

Ginger & Spice has been one of my favourite restaurants in Sydney. It's a place where I would go back again and again, ordering the same dishes again and again.

This restaurant serves a truly authentic Singaporean cuisine and you won't believe how fast their service is, it's almost like magic, once you made your order, the next thing you know is the food is in front of you. I have to apologise that I totally forgot to note down the prices for the dishes but the price range for main is around $20-ish

Hainan Chicken rice is the house specialty, the chicken is silky and what really outstanding is the chicken breast is so soft and tender. I don't usually like chicken breast because it tends to be quite dry, but not the case here.

 Half Hainan Chicken

You can either order a plain steamed rice or chicken rice. We will never go pass the chicken rice here, it's full of chicken flavour/essence.

Chicken Rice

Ngoh Hiang (Pork Rolls) is made from minced pork and prawn filling wrapped in bean curd skin. It is crispy on the outside and juicy inside, There's a strong fragrant of the five spice powder and it comes with a sweet dark dipping sauce that is perfect for this dish. Their  Ngoh Hiang is easily the best in Sydney.

Ngoh Hiang

 Stir Fry Kangkung (Water Spinach)

Don't underestimate this simple looking dish. It's Deep Fried Squid with Kecap Manis (sweet soya sauce).  This squid is a bomb! It's so cripsy and the balance of the kecap manis, chilli and tamarind really add to the perfection on this dish.

Deep Fried Squid with Kecap Manis

The Singapore Hokkien Mee is divine! It's flavoursome, the gravy is so deep in flavour. It's almost like I'm eating noodle that made out of crab. I absolutely adore this noodle. But if you don't like seafood, then this  is definitely not for you. For seafood lover, this is a must try!

Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee

Finally, dessert...we order the Ice Cendol and Bubur Cha Cha to share. 

Ice cendol is a heavenly dessert with a mix of shaved ice with coconut milk, brown sugar, red beans and some stringy green strands that made from green bean and pandan leaves .

Bubur Cha cha is warm coconut milk served with sweet potato and taro pieces. 

Ice Cendol and Bubur Cha Cha

What great about this restaurant is the food and service are always consistent every time we come back. And one of their signature dishes is the fried oyster pancake, which is a popular dish in Singapore/Malaysia, but unfortunately they only serve this dish on weekdays. Booking is definitely essential on the weekends and one thing to note is this place only take cash.

Ginger & Spice

240 Military Rd
Neutral Bay NSW 2089

Ph: (02) 9908 2552

Kohya Yakiniku, Neutral Bay

"Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody". (Samuel Pepys )

Yakiniku refers to Japanese style BBQ. Run by the same company that run Suminoya (Martin Place) and Rengaya (North Sydney). Kohya Yakiniku BBQ restaurant is more casual and fractionally cheaper compared to the other two.

Their popular All-you-can-eat BBQ menu will fill you up for just $39.90. For 90 minutes, you can order and eat as much as you like and there are 57 dishes to choose from. 

For only 90 minutes to dine, we quickly place our order. From salad to chicken to beef harami, prawns, butter fish, butter mushroom, sardine, beef sashimi, and the main reason of our visit to Kohya, the wonderful OX tounge that is cut at the right thickness. Another must try is their Yukee, this raw tartar mix with egg yolk really put the flavours together that sweeten the marinated beef even better.

This is definitely our favourite place whenever we are craving for a good BBQ. If you enjoy All-you-can-eat style restaurants...then I'm sure Kohya will satisfy your needs. Booking is highly recommended, as this place is usually full of eager diners during dinner.

Make sure you leave some room for dessert. They offer fruits, vanilla soft serve ice cream and green tea ice cream to complete your dinner. Their green tea (matcha) ice cream is the best I've tried so far in Sydney. It's slightly bitter and less milky, just how I like my green tea ice cream to be. Remember this is All-you-can-eat including the dessert. One is never enough, so most of us ordered 2 scoops each.

Koh-Ya Yakiniku Japanese BBQ Restaurant
Shop 1, 9-17 Young St
Neutral Bay, Sydney
 Ph:(02) 9904 5036

Totoya, Neutral Bay

Yakitori is a popular Japanese dish, sort of a Japanese chicken kebab.  Marinated chicken pieces, and sometimes chicken livers and vegetables are threaded on bamboo skewers and grilled.  The word is from 'yaki' meaning grill, or cook, and 'tori' meaning bird or fowl.

After spending the whole afternoon in Hunter Valley, we headed back to Sydney for dinner. We wanted something light, so my friend suggested Japanese at Neutral Bay. Being home to one of Sydney's biggest Japanese Communities, Neutal Bay has large selections of Japanese restaurant along the road. My friend suggested Totoya.

Totoya is a casual dining place with reasonable price.  There were 9 of us yesterday and it only cost us $16 each.  Staffs might not be very fluent in english, but all the dishes were good with no real complaints. What get me excited is their good selection of Yakitori. My husband and I have fallen in love with Yakitori ever since our trip to Japan 2 years ago.

 The Yakitori is very good, especially Chicken Breast Fillet with chilli cod roe & the beef and shallot rolls.

 Chicken Breast Fillet with chilli cod roe $2.40 (each) & Beef and Shallots Roll $3.50 (each)

Pork Rib with Garlic and Miso sauce $3.00 (each)

Chicken Skin $1.80 (each)

Beef Tounge $1.80 (each)

The Fried rice makes a good complement with the meat dishes, it has a pleasant burnt aroma in it, but be asured that the fried rice was cooked very well. We enjoyed it very much.

Fried Rice with Pickles serves 4 people $16.00 

They have a smaller serving for 2 people $9.00

The taste of butter and garlic is  very prominent for the Scotch Fillet Steak in a good way for me as I love garlic. The Chicken Karaage is crispy and served well with the teriyaki sauce.

Scotch Fillet Steak $18.00

Chicken Karaage with Teriyaki Sauce $8.00

We had Eggplant and pork in chilli sauce. The sauce of this dish is like the chinese sweet and sour sauce, definitely need to have this with rice, as the sauce is too tasty to have on its own.

Eggplant with Pork and Chilli Sauce $11.00

Some of my friends had the sukiyaki to share, as you can see the serving is very generous. The Sukiyaki is another reason for me to come back.

Totoya

166 Military Road,
Neutral Bay, NSW, 2089
(Off street inside an arcade. Above Jones the Grocer) 

Ph: (02) 9908 7045

Katsura Japanese Restaurant, Neutral Bay

 

 “I eat merely to put food out of my mind.” (N.F. Simpson)

Katsura Japanese restaurant located at Neutral Bay. There are two sections in this restaurant, on the left side is for Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ) and the right side is for ala carte. Before we even reach the top of the stairs, we were greeted by the waitress already. One thing I found with Japanese restaurant is, the people is always very friendly and polite.

The restaurant is quite spacious and is perfect if you want to have a quite place for chit chatting over dinner. The food is not exquisite, but overall the food was good. The size of the food is pretty small, but it has been priced very fairly. I don't mind small serving as long as it's priced fairly, so I could actually order and try more varieties.

  

Softshell crab karaage $12.50

The softshell crab is suprisingly good, is crunchy and generous serving

 

 Kusiyaki skewed beef and chicken grilled in special teriyaki sauce $13.00

Volcano Roll $7.00

 

Unagi Roll $9.00

(Top) Prawn Tempura $17

(Bottom) Grilled Prawn with Wasabi Cream Sauce $20.00

The wasabi cream is not overly creamy with a hint of wasabi.

Seafood Yakiudon $15.00

Seafood Butter Yako $13.00

This is my favourite dish of the night, is served on a sizzling plate, although is abit oily but the taste is really there with a slight burned smell.

One of my dessert lover friend suggested that we go to Yakiniku Kohya restaurant (just across the road) for their lovely greentea  ice cream. So far, I like the green tea ice cream at Yakiniku Kohya restaurant the most. The green tea flavour is strong with slightly green tea bittery taste in it. 

The served the green tea ice cream with corn flakes at the bottom and top with vanilla soft serve and red bean paste. 

The corn flakes taste surprisingly well with green tea ice cream. 

 What a great way to end the dinner! 

Katsura Japanese Restaurant

11/129-133 Military Road

Neutral Bay

(02) 9904 5755