This was hands down my favorite place in Sydney and in all the places that I travelled to when I was in Australia. It’s located right on Coogee Bay Road, but it’s such a shame because if it was just better marketed and better designed internally, it could do so much better! For $38 (tip not necessary!), we had a six course meal, catapulting us into the realm of fine dining in an informal ambiance. Seriously, a steal.

The deal is part of their 6 year anniversary special menu. This is how it looks:

Ume-shu (Japanese plum wine) with garlic bread

Appetizer: Pumpkin Soup

Japanese platter: Sashimi, Raw Oyster, Tempura Shrimp

Entree: Choose either
Spaghetti with Squid Ink
Grilled grain fed lamb loin, walnut, gorgonzola and wild rocket

Main: Choose either
Paper bag seafood (salmon, prawn, mussel, potato, spinach)
Wagyu beef skwered

Dessert: Creme Brulee

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I don’t even know how to begin describing the food so I’ll just list my favorites. Actually, they were pretty much all on the same level. Well, I guess I’ll just explain each course.

Ume-shu (Japanese plum wine) with garlic bread

• The Ume-shu comes in a shot. Sweet and just slightly alocholic, its fantasmic. Unfortunately, you only get one piece of garlic bread, but hey- with so much food left, who needs more carbs?

Pumpkin Soup

• I hate soup, but this soup was bearable- maybe because it was cold. Angela ended up finishing most of mine though

Japanese platter: Sashimi, Raw Oyster, Tempura Shrimp

• This dish made me feel as if I were in top chef. It’s served on a long platter. The raw oyster! Oy! I’m afraid of that stuff, but this- man it was so good. I never knew that seaweed salad could do the trick.

Grilled grain fed lamb loin, walnut, gorgonzola and wild rocket

• Served on a bed of rocket salad. I’ve never had Gorgonzola with lamb and it was surprising how refreshing the combination is!

Paper bag seafood (salmon, prawn, mussel, potato, spinach)

• So if I absolutely had to choose, this would be my favorite. It comes in this pasty looking like shape in  parchment paper. The server cuts it open with scissors and steam starts floating out. It was such an unique dish and the flavors all delicately combined. I loved the Tasmanian salmon!

Wagyu beef skwered

• Tender juicy beef. Need I say more? But if you do get this, make sure you order it medium rare. It just literally melts in your mouth.

Creme Brulee

• It was a tiny creme brulee served with fresh berries and compote. Not too sweet- the perfect ending to the perfect meal.

The service in this place is great. I mean, I almost felt compelled to tip. They do offer a wine menu that complements this particular menu for only $20 more. They also offer BYO.

242 Coogee Bay Road
Coogee, Sydney, NSW 2034
Ph (02) 9665 4924

Dinnertime here starts around 6pm. It’s tough to find restaurants other than cafes open before 5pm and even tougher if they’re Italian. After our Thursday law class, Jenny and I wanted a BYO meal so we searched high and low on Coogee Bay Road for an Italian place. Only two were open- the first had a mediocre menu and the second looked more appetizing. So that’s how we picked Renato’s.

For the pricing of the menu, the place is a crummy. There is one long booth that runs along one end of the wall where 7 tables are squeezed in between. My problem was they tried to squeeze so much into the space that it was really difficult to get in and out.

Other than that, I was really satisfied with the food. I’d actually never had veal and had to ask the server what exactly it was. So veal is a baby cow and the meat is kept in the dark so it stays tender. The name of the dish was Veal Boscaiola. Boscaiola is just a cream and mushroom based sauce that’s found in Italian pasta. The veal was indeed tender, but it was the boscaiola that made the dish. This sauce had bacon in it.

Jenny ordered their rump steak, which was a bit dry and flavorless for it. The veal and the steak were the same price at $27 each and both come with tender baby potatoes and some steamed carrots and beans. I heard the pasta dishes are good and from what I saw, the portion sizes were huge.

We also brought the red wine we got from New Zealand. Jenny didn’t like it very much so we only finished like a third of it. The rest is still sitting in my closet.

I almost forgot! We  got dessert too. Their cakes are decent and served with either cream or ice cream. Obviously, get the ice cream, but be aware that their ice cream is a bit gritty and almost stale (can ice cream even go stale??) Anyway, the slice was overpriced at $8, but oh wells.

237 Coogee Bay Rd
Coogee, NSW 2034

One of the most surprising things I learned upon arriving in Sydney is that there really isn’t a standard “Australian Fare.” Due to the heavy Asian population, the cuisine here tends towards Asian flavors. It’s not uncommon to find streets lined with Thai and Indian restaurants with only a couple of Italian restaurants here and there. Aerina and I wanted something non-Asian, and after walking along the Spot in Randwick, we had to head down to Coogee Bay Rd. (once again).

Translated as “a thousand Lire” (the former Italian currency), Mille Lire is an Italian pizzeria that’s open only for dinner. They serve oven baked pizza as well as a variety of pastas and steak. Aerina wasn’t too hungry so she ordered an appetizer- a Greek salad. The salad, at $7, was huge and came in one of those large wooden bowls. Fortunately for me, she’s not a big Feta fan, and I was able to eat all her cheese.

I asked the waitress whether I should order pasta or pizza. She enthusiastically recommended the pizza so I ordered the Hawaiian, your standard pineapple and ham pizza. While it was indeed delicious, I don’t think it beat out Arthur’s, nor was it worth the $18 price tag. Unfortunately, that’s just about the average pizza fare and a “large” is at best a medium by American sizes.

It was, however, a great place for BYO. We stopped at the liquor store where I found a McWilliams Chardonnay. I loved McWilliam’s Rose (the one I got from Hunter Valley) and being only $6, it was a lovely glass of white wine to enjoy with our meal. I’m not sure if Chardonnay is meant for pizza, but it worked for me. I’ve found the McWilliams’ wines tend to be more sweet and fruity.

The atmosphere was great and the server was extremely polite. If it’s a nice night, I’d highly suggest sitting outside.

252 Coogee Bay Road
Coogee, NSW

One fine Saturday morning, I woke up to a call from Jenny, asking me if I wanted to join her and Angela for breakfast. Obviously, the answer was a yes. We had planned on checking out some of the cafes on Coogee Bay Road and never seemed to have gotten a chance until now. By 10am, the street was hopping. It was nearly impossible to find a cafe that wasn’t almost fully occupied. We stopped at the first place we saw with an empty table and that turned out to be Tropicana.

Brunches in Sydney are a bit more expensive than I had expected. Your traditional pancakes, french toast, eggs benedict, and the rest will usually go anywhere from $12 to $25. Everything at Tropicana was priced  around there. Angela ordered the French Toast (after seeing the waitress serve it to a guy outside) and Jenny opted for the breakfast roll with bacon and egg. I, on the other hand, wanted something small but sweet. Hello chocolate belgium waffle a la mode!

Angela and Jenny ended up getting there food before me. I waited and waited. I think they forgot my order. I finally got my waffle almost 15 minutes later, when Angela had nearly finished her plate. As Fern would say, “not impressed!” Nevertheless, when the waffle came, it was indeed a true Belgian waffle. Drizzled in chocolate syrup and decked with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it was almost worth the wait. However, I was deeply disappointed in the ice cream. It was as if the ice cream had freezer burn as it was gritty. I was surprised that it was only $5.50. You’d pay around the same in Brussles, but in Euros and without the ice cream.

Angela also ordered a chocolate milkshake, which was chocolatey, but not as thick as I would have liked it. Overall, the place was decent, but I’d rather check out the other cafes down the road next time.

The thing about fish and chips that gets me is- WHY IS IT SO DAMN HARD TO FIND A PLACE THAT SELLS GOOD FISH AND CHIPS?! After living in London for a semester, I was deeply disappointed by the lack of quality fish and chips. Maybe I didn’t pay enough money, but I came back thinking to myself that the fish and chips place in Greenwich in NYC was better than those in London.

Even when fish and chips tasted good in London, they always left me with this sinking feeling in my stomach. They left this greasy and heavy after-effect, where I felt as if I never wanted to eat again, after feeling totally grossed out by the amount of junk I had put into my body. But Chish n Fips? Finally a good meal of fish and chips.

Perhaps it’s the ambiance that elevates this plate of fish and chips. After spending an entire morning at Coogee Beach, Angela, Jenny and I were ravished. We went to the Chish n Fips stand, bought our $9.00 fish and chips (+.$30 for tartar sauce!) and laid in the sand, marveling the ocean while we munched on our meal. The fried fish was light and delicate, just pefect. Even the chips were cooked to perfection- crunchy on the outside yet soft on the inside. 30 minutes later, we were all back in the water, feeling light yet full.

The only complaint I have about this place is that ketchup is an additional $.30 per tiny package. I’m probably just spoiled by free condiments back in America, but it really gets me that I can’t have my chips here without free ketchup!

Anyway, I actually came back here a couple of days later. I found that on Monday, when they were much less busy than that Saturday I had first gone, I got a bigger fish fillet. Maybe it was a blip on the portion radar, but I was quite a happy bunny.

Jetstar has their own travel magainze that they provide to everyone flying on their airplane. In this month’s edition, they asked several Australian chefs to pick out their favorite cheap eats. We were glad to see that Chish n Fips made the list!