Ayam Goreng 99 & Sushi Choo

Yesterday was a day of eating, shopping, and completing chores - pretty much the three most satisfying activities in my life.

I finally got to visit Ayam Goreng 99 after reading about it on food blogs and having it on Nugen and my 'hit list' of places to go (he's a simple man that loves anything with batter and deep fried).

Ayam is famous for its chicken and so we ordered the three types: grilled, fried, and Javanese style. Under my (correct) advice we ordered the grilled and fried versions in the thigh but Nugen wanted to try something different and ordered the Javanese version in the breast. The breast turned out to be the worst of the three because it was so dry. The deep fried piece was good but no match against the charcoal grilled version. While you'd think that the charred piece would be dry and carcinogenic-tasting, it was in fact very juicy and flavoursome. We ordered some coconut rice to serve with our meat but it must have been a bad time of day for the restaurant because the rice was very dry and chewy rather than moist.

Chicken

My thirstiness was not helped by the traditional sugary Indo drinks that we ordered - the sweetness of the palm sugar and coconut milk just made me crave the H2O even more. Note to self: stop ordering sweet Asian drinks.

Es Teler and Es Cendol

Ah well, for $17 per person one can't really complain. Plus, the place has received great reviews in the past so we probably just caught them on an off day (though I never really think that that's a good enough excuse).

Next up we had a free dinner at Sushi Choo (thanks to the perks of interning at Time Out). We were greeted by an AWESOME (and quite good looking) waiter named James and then given a detailed run-down of the dishes that we would be tasting for the night. The Crowded House Sauvignon Blanc 2009 that I started off with was perfectly refreshing for the humid day that had just passed.

Before the meal started I browsed the sushi train options and was surprised at the miniature size of the sushi. After tasting a few of the nigiri it was clear that the fish wasn't exactly top quality and the sizes are definitely not worth the money (though maybe for $20 all-you-can-eat from 6pm-7pm it's good value). The special tasting menu for the night started off with a tuna and avocado salad with white truffle oil. The salad was the highlight of the night because it had Japanese style crunchy cereal balls that gave texture and the citrus flavour with the oil was a great balance. While I thought it was a tad too salty (I always have this problem it seems), Nugen loved it. Following the salad we had Japanese style seafood pasta and prawn tempura 'harumaki'. The pasta was good before the fishy aftertaste kicked in and the harumaki was just prawn tempura in rice paper rolls and simply highlighted the fact that the dish should be left to the Vietnamese. Luckily the chefs were able to save themselves (from my totally amateur and negative criticism) with the prawns in kataifi - juicy prawns encased in a crisp pastry sprinkled with sea salt and dried seaweed.

Shit photo of prawn in kataifi

So to sum up: go to Ayam Goreng 99 for the charcoal grilled chicken (don't order the breast) and go to Sushi Choo for the tuna and avocado salad and prawn in kataifi.

Ayam Goreng 99
464 Anzac Parade
Kensington 2032
9697 0300


Sushi Choo
320 George St 
Sydney 2000
9240 3000