Spanish Terrazas, Sydney CBD

Garden salad

A friend from high school is having her hen's night at this restaurant in the heart of the Spanish Quarter. I have been here about a couple of times or more previously and have raved on how awesome the paella really is. Seriously in my opinion, this place has the best paella in Sydney! However we all got a set menu of tapas so there will be no paella action tonight. I remember trying a couple of these dishes a while before, and they were pretty good as well so hopefully this time, it's still just as good.

Complimentary bread

I am guessing because this was booked in advance, the food was delivered very quickly. In fact, every single tapas dish came out all at once. It was pretty overwhelming trying to decide which dish to have first. We were also given a side of bread roll, green salad and 2 jugs of sangria.

Garlic mushrooms

I really enjoyed the garlicky taste that the mushrooms offer. It did have a slight spicy kick which is not overbearing for the chilli-noob.

Can't remember the name of this dish...maybe Russian salad or potato salad?

First time trying this dish. Was ok to try but nothing significant compared to the other dishes.

Potatoes aioli

This was heavily covered with a special creamy aioli sauce. Several people on my end of the table said that it tasted a bit cheesy too but I could not detect this. The potatoes were fairly crispy to our liking and is one of the stand out dishes.

Fried Calamari

While it looked like your usual fried calimari from the local shops, it was still very crispy and crunchy throughout our meal - even when we were all too full to finish it off. Best eaten with a dose of lemon.

Garlic Prawns

This was possibly the favourite tapas dish of the night. I remember veryone was raving about this all night. It was presented to us sizzling hot in garlic oil and parsley in a terra cotta dish. Made good use of the bread to clean up the plate. Yummm!

BBQ Spanish Chorizo

When there's Spanish tapas, there's gotta be chorizos. Another dish I enjoyed mainly for the chargilled texture and its tangy flavour.

Albondigas (Meatballs)

Again made good use of the bread for the thick sauce. By this point, everyone was stuffed and struggling to try and polish everything off. But OMG, the meat is seriously juicy that I ignored how full I was getting and tried to stomach as much as I can from this dish. It was deliciously good stuff.

The other end of the table also got a platter with olives, artichokes and the like, I did not manage to get the name for this and cannot find a simlarily matched combo plate on the website. But it did look very delicious.

While we were eating, there was a Spanish band playing some nice tunes. Several diners got up and go crazy on the dance floor. Even a couple of staff members joined in for the fun! Meanwhile, we were finishing up our sangria and getting tequila shots for the bride to be. A night of fun, entertainment and so much food. While the prices are more expensive compared to the other Spanish restaurants in the area, some of the food they deliver here are pretty brilliant in quality and taste. I still wish we had the chance to try the paella though as they did a really good job with the crust in the past...even though if it's very pricey compared to other restaurants.

SHOTS EVERYBODY!

Spanish Terrazas
541 Kent Street Sydney NSW 2000
Contact no: (02) 9283 3046
http://www.spanishterrazas.com.au/

Que Huong, Cabramatta

A nice get together with a few friends in the local area on a rainy Saturday afternoon. We arranged to catch up in Cabramatta which is perfect as the dining options are incredible. Eventually my friend mentioned to meet at Que Huong Restaurant which is located in a hidden alleyway - despite the address stating that it's located on John Street. So it may be a bit hard to find if you don't know your way around the area. This is also right across from Cafe Nho which has gotten a bit of recognition in SBS Feasts magazine a few months ago.

The interior design may not look fancy but it is the basic layout that makes you feel like you're at home with your relatives in Vietnam. While many of Cabramatta's restaurants prides themselves on Pho and other noodle-based dishes, Que Huong's signature dish is banh xeo (or Vietnamese pancake). It is interesting that their menu also includes non-Vietnamese dishes like fish and chips and chicken and chips!

While most of us had banh xeo, one of my friends went with banh uot which consists of wide rice noodles, Vietnamese pork sausage, salad and prawn fried in batter . This dish looked very delicious to try especially with the batter that looked like a mini-banh xeo. My friend definitely enjoyed it.

Banh uot

Now for the dish we've all been waiting for. Interestingly, Que Huong Restaurant also serves banh xeo dac biet (special) so some of us ordered this version. However when we got our meals, the normal version and the special version looked very similar and couldn't find any difference. We did find a few chicken pieces in the special banh xeo version but otherwise, it was not a huge difference.

Banh xeo

The batter was very crispy, thin and slightly oily which was fine for us. The fillings were so fresh with the amount of bean sprouts, prawns, onions, pork belly and spirong onions. It is amazing that despite its think and crispy batter and the dense amount of fillings, it still manages not to break apart. We made good use of the complimentary salad by wrapping pieces of banh xeo with a bit of lettuce and mint and dipping it with nuon cham, which is the best way to eat this dish.

Yummm!

Great place to check out some of the more unique and very authentic dishes that stand out on this restaurant's menu that may be overloooked in other Vietnamese restaurants. And a great introduction to banh xeo if you haven't got the chance to try this dish yet!

Anyone for salad?

Que Huong Restaurant

Shop 16, 70 John Street, Cabramatta 2166
Contact no: (02) 9723 9916