Hogs Breath Cafe, Port Macquarie

So I went to Port Macquarie like a month ago and Hogs Breath seems to be the best place to have dinner there.. We went there on a Saturday night and boy the queue was crazy.. Can't imagine what happen if they open Hurricane's Grill here ;p But it didn't take that long before we got our seat.

There are Hogs Breath in Sydney too but it didn't appeal that much to me when compare to other steak places, so this was a good chance for me to try this place out. Mr.Wjt said that it's pretty good.

To start with, Mr.US decided to order the Finger Food combo for entrée which consists of the classic potato skins, vegetble spring roolls, crumbed chicken tenders, and salt pepper calamari. Served with sweet chilli sauce and honey mustard. The portion was pretty generous that it nicely fills our tummy a bit before the mains. I personally loveeee the spring rolls and the calamari :)

Finger Food Combo $22.95

Bebski and Mr.Us ordered the Blackened Prime Rib - the steak was seasoned with Hogsbreath's blackened seasoning, a light cajun flavour. It was good and the flavour did penetrate in the meat nicely.

In Hogs breath, they have 3 different sizes of the meat; The traditional cut, the Lite cut and the Mega cut for an extra $7. Bebski did ordered the Mega cut and he had a hard time finishing it off, it's literally so huge!

Mr.Wjt got the Byron Bay Chilli Prime Rib - the sauce made up of Chilli and Coconut, and it got the 2007 world champion chilli sauce with heat rating 7/10. The sauce was hands down delish! no wonder they received the award.. But the heat is not 7/10, prolly just 5? hehe. But its hot enough to make Mr.Wjt sweat a bit ;p

Byron Bay Chilli Prime Rib $31.95

And for me.. My total weakness is mushroom! I ordered the Garlic Mushroom Prime rib with Baked potato and veggies :) The steak was topped with garlic butter and generous portion of mushroom that was enough to put a smile on my face. I loveee shrooms! The steak was tender and flavourful! Can't imagine I haven't try this place out any sooner..

Lite cut Garlic mushroom prime rib $27.95

Unfortunately we didn't have any more place for dessert.. But I will definitely be back to Hogs breath for any steak cravings in the future!

Cafe Randwick, Randwick

Cafe Randwick is located just next to the Ritz Cinema in Randwick The Spot. I went to this area many times but never realized that there's actually a cafe next to the cinema ;p Until recently when there was a voucher deal for $20 worth $40. Made a booking on a Sunday night at 6PM.

The cafe is actually not very big but it's quite spacey from table to table. They put a huge mirror at the end of the dining area to make it look bigger, nice touch :) There were only 3 waitress in the place and none of them were very friendly unfortunately may be because we were dining with a voucher? ;p

I know the voucher is only worth $40 but I can't help it but ordering the Mussels pot. The mussels was cooked well in a rich tomato and white wine sauce with olives and basil in it.

Mussel Pot $14.90

Bebski ordered the 300g Rump steak which was served with smooth mashed potatoes and steam veggies and covered with Jus. I must say, it was scrumptious! The beef was tender and juicy, the Jus was outstandingly flavourful!! And the price is not that bad either for a 300g steak. I usually don't like rump, but this one is an exception ~~

Rump Steak $18.90

I ordered the Spaghetti with King Prawns cooked in garlic oil, chilli and rocket. They were generous with the amount of prawns in it but unfortunately the flavour didn't delivers. I am looking for that garlicky spicy kick but there was none. The spaghetti was bland :( I'm glad Bebski decided to share both foods ^^

Well, it was a good experience dining in here. Not sure if I will be back but oh well worth a try :)

The Meat & Wine Co, Darling Harbour

It was my 5th Year Anniversary on 8th April and Bebski made a reservation in Meat & Wine Co for our dinner :) It was a Tuesday night so I was expecting a quite and relaxing dinner with him. Arrived in Darling Harbour around 7:35PM, Our bookings is not until 8PM, but we figure that they might have an empty table for us already. Went there, the waitress told us that we should come back in half an hour as per our booking time. It was a full house even on a Tuesday night.

So I thought, well, fair enough we made the bookings at 8 and they do have two seating time, at 6:30PM & 8PM. So we went around Harbour side shopping center and at ard 7.54, we were back to ask for a table and the waitress again told us that we still have 6mins to wait! I was so hungry that it pisses me off. They shudve prepared a table 15mins in advanced ;(

8:15PM, the waitress apologized and said that the table is not ready yet. Apparently the customer who were seating in our table hasn't ask for the check yet T.T Complain aside, we finally seated and we were so hungry that it took us 2mins to decide what we want.

For starter, both of our attention goes to the Pork Belly! We are pork lovers and "pork Crackling" is an inviting words for us hihihi

High Country Pork Belly $16

The pork belly is char grilled to perfection, it has that sweet caramelised note from the palm sugar and the crackling on top give a good finishing sensation in the mouth. The meat is so tender and juicy! Not very fond of the salad as raw sprout is not my favourite :) We finish the entree within 5minutes!

For mains, I ordered the 200g eye fillet as they said that that was the leanest cut they have. Im not a big fan of fat, crisy pork belly is an exception though ;P

200g Eye Fillet $34

The steak has a good char on it, very tasty and I asked for Medium and I got Medium ;) One thing missing is the salad. Don't know why but here, they only serve steak with one sides and its your choice to go for chips/mash/veggies/rice. I also got the mushroom sauce as my sides.

Bebski, a big eater as always got the 500g Wagyu Rump Steak. Couldn't believe he actually finished it off!

500g Wagyu Rump $48

Im not a fan of rump, so I guess it tasted okay for me :)

I was quite tempted by their side of sauteed mushroom. I was hesitating at first whether I should get it or not. But when my steak arrived and looking at how small it was, I ordered the mushroom straight away hehe..

Button Mushroom Sauteed with Onions

The mushroom has a good onion fragrance covering it. But I think they burnt the onion quite alot as I got that bitter burn note in some of the mushroom. I didn't finished it in the end.

It was a good night but not great. The service is not as usual. It was really hard to get the waiters attention and so we decided to get dessert elsewhere. But here are a pic of the dessert that we ordered in our previous visit

The Sweet Finale $29

It was a selection of mini version of their desserts; consisting of Chocolate & pistachio fondant, Honey & Cinnamon Creme Brulee, Berry pot cheese cake, milk tart and vanilla bean Ice Cream

Overall dining; The food is good, this time the service is a let down. I am a regular customer to this place but now, to come back here or not is a question mark to me ;)

For the real dessert that we got after dinner iss.... None other than our favourite ice cream place, Andersen's!!

Cheery Brandy & Hazelnut Rocher

Our favorite ice cream flavour has always been the Cherry Brandy. With the good punch of alcoholic note and a mashed cherry is an amazing combo! The hazelnut is alright for me. My other favourite would be the rum&raisin or the strawberry Cream :)

The Bended Elbow, Albury

After the working part done in Albury.. Now is happy free timeee :) Went back to the hotel to meet up with Bebski and went around the city for lunch. I had a list of restaurant to choose from but every one of them is Western and only one Japanese and when we looked into the menu and it wasn't really inviting for us. I asked Bebski what he feels like eating and suddenly he said "Steak"! Ok, The Bended Elbow it is!

The Bended Elbow is a British Ale House and served a good variety of foods. They are open for functions too: Birthdays, Engagement, Corporate Meeting, etc. They also has a rooftop bar and they transformed to a Club on Friday and Saturday night.

The Design was pretty unique and true to the British culture :)

It was really cozy inside and there were quite full when we arrived. But after waiting a bit, we finally got a table :) We look at the menu and we have to order in the bar and pay straight away. then we were given an alarm that beeps when the foods are done.

Tried the Pink Lady Apple Cider. Which tasted like GreenSand but less sweet. Can't really taste the apple notes too but Bebski really like it alot!

 I ordered 3 dishes and asked for water from the Bar Lady. She then asked me "3 glass of water?", Im like "No, two. Three Dishes is just because we like to eat". and she replied with a smile "There's really nothing wrong with that".

Pulled Pork Sliders 3 for $10

The pulled pork sliders come in a crusty crunchy mini buns and was served with asian slaw. The pulled pork is really dry that we need to put tomato sauce to help with the swallowing. But they are really well seasoned. I would really like to have some dressing in the slaw though..

400g Rib Eye $33

Bebski ordered the steak with mushroom sauce which cooked to perfection and has that char grilled flavour on it. The meat is tender as well.

Pork Belly with Apple sauce, chips and salad $23

The winner of the dishes! The pork belly. Bebski fell in love with the Pork Belly and he reckon that this is the best he's ever eaten :P 

I agree that the pork belly is really crunchy as they roast the pork belly and then deep fried to golden crunch. But, it was wayyy too salty for me. I think they put too much salt! But the apple sauce really helps to balance out those saltiness and overall it was a delicious meal!

Overall dining experienced was great. Highly recommend this place. No wonder it was pact with people even when we left.. ^^ 

http://thebendedelbow.com.au/