Zilver Restaurant

Sydney - After a busy day of meetings, Joe decided that I had a better choice for restaurant and gave me the honours for choosing tonight's dinner - Zilver Restaurant was my choice and it's a Chinese restaurant.   You can google it and the directions too..

http://www.zilver.com.au/
477 Pitt St,
Haymarket NSW 2000
(02) 9211 2232

The food is good and fresh, going by Australian standard not so pricey.    It worth going back again...

Habibi Restaurant

Sydney - Arrived into Sydney and was happy to be able to watch 3 movies.    Caught the taxi to Mariott Sydney - wow! so expensive - A$ 51 (and Aussie $ is hitting the roof @ 1.35 i.e. S$ 68.85) whilst my taxi fare from home to airport (about the same distance cost S$ 25).

Mariott Sydney is a nice business class Hotel located @ 36 College Street.  There are 2 Mariotts hotel in Sydney - the other is located at Circular Quay.  This Mariott @ College Street is just across Hyde Park. 

Met up with Joe and we went around town not sure what what we have in mind for dinner as most of the restaurants are closed, finally decided to hop into a Lebanese Restaurant; which coincidentally was also Joe last name - Habib - the restaurant is Habibi Restaurant, did not get any discount though!  This was my 1st time eating Lebanese food and not sure what I was infront of me - of all the dishes, the Garlic Chicken was most appealing to me.  It's an acquired taste....

http://www.habibirestaurant.com.au/

272 Cleveland St
Surry Hills
NSW 2010, Australia
(02) 9699 3200

Same day back on the plane..

Sydney - Yes, I am back on the plane again. Arrived @ 1am and slept at 3am. I was woken up by my youngest son @ 10am.

At 6pm, I called the taxi company to pick me up but did not arrive at all and the taxi company had to change to another taxi to pick me up to the airport. I was in a hurry but manage to get to the airport with time to catch a quick dinner at the lounge. The SQ premier lounge has improved on their spread of food for dinner - it is good and tasty now. Maybe someone did complaint to them about it.

This will be my first time on board the new Airbus A380 - the largest commercial aircraft in the world. It is very spacious and I had the economy upper deck and was seat right at the back. The seat next to me was vacant so ample room space for me.

I pre ordered seafood and it was served first otherwise I will always get it last or no choice left for me. The take off and landing was smooth but expected turbulence over Australia is very normal.

Eating Around Sydney

Food Courts

Many departmental stores have modern and international food courts with various choices of food - most popular I have seen are "Oporto", "MacDonalds", "Subway", Asian food and European food. The stall that served South East Asian foods are usually dishes with rice, noodles and laksa - most of the stall holders speak Cantonese - mostly likely Malaysian Chinese.






Laksa is a Singapore dish - an equivalent of it comes from Malaysia and they called it "Curry Mee". The taste is about the same but with some ingredients that make this a unique Singapore dish. The most famous in Singapore is Katong Laksa - during lunch times, queue lined up waiting to savour this dish and they come from all over Singapore. Hailed as Singapore one of Singapore's national dish.


For Asian food, the ones that I had tasted at food courts in Sydney did not taste good - like Laksa, Wan ton noodles or Char Sui (BBQ pork) noodles. Can you imagine paying A$10.50 (about S$13.65) for Char Sui noodles at a food court for lunch which you can get for S$3.00 in Singapore? The noodles had bits of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots (ahem...rarely seen in authentic char sui noodle) and the BBQ pork was not succulent. If they had open a stall in Singapore - they won't last a month. That is why Singapore is a food paradise - good and affordable food and lots of variety.

But I heard the food court in Sydney Chinatown is good - I will visit it the next time I am in Sydney.


I will stick to Australian type of good - like sandwiches, rolls, burgers, fish and chips the next time. The fish and chips I tried was good much better than the ones I had tasted anywhere in Asia.

Restaurants I tried:-

Beppi's Ristorante @ 21 Yurong Street, East Sydney - $$$ - Italian cuisine - this restaurant dates back to 1956 and the ambiance does bring back memories of old Italy that you watch in movies. They have very attentive and knowledgeable waiters that brings the raw vegetables and sea food to the table and explain professionally so that you can make a good choice of your dish. I can't speak Italian so that really helps explain some of the entree on the menu.

Nick's Seafood Restaurant @ Cockle Bay Wharf - $$$$ - Seafood - the food is very good and fresh - worth a visit if you are going to taste authentic char-grilled Australian seafood.

Sydney in the Fall

Sydney - G'day mate...It is a beautiful Autumn Sunday in Sydney - very cool at 20-24 degree Celsius. I took the taxi to the Hilton Sydney Hotel and that has always been my mode of transport in Australia - very expensive but I had no choice - and I think it is about 1 notch less expensive than taking a taxi in Tokyo within the whole Asia Pacific. About 45 minutes from Sydney airport to the City centre - it cost me A$37.30 (about S$48.49). The exhange rate to Singapore dollar is now S$ 1.30 to A$1.00. - it used to be 1:1, 3 years ago. About the same distance from my home to Singapore Changi airport cost me S$17.60. That is about 2.5 times - Wow!

Hotel: Hilton Sydney Hotel @ 488 George Street

Background: I have stayed here about 8 years ago - previously a tourist oriented hotel - quite old and run down.

My room

Hotel Review: Very modern renovated with 2 entrances from George Street and Pitt Street. The Lobby with high ceilings - staff very professional and the best part - I was upgraded to Executive Floor. Due to my early check-in, my room was not ready - so I had a good breakfast at the Executive Lounge on the 36th floor. The view from 36th floor was awesome especially on a clear sunny day. The only drawback I had during my stay is that my luggage took more than an 1hr to reach my room - upset cannot describe the mood I was in. Hilton Sydney apologized in a personal note with a bottle of wine - it was an unexpected gesture and this definitely put them in my good book. I will surely come back to his hotel again. The hotel decor uses a mix of mirrors, glass and lighting to make the room look very posh, cosy and comfortable.

In the evening, I went to Darling Harbour and watch the latest movie "300" at iMax theatre. "300" is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valour and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy. The screen at iMax theatre is huge, the 1st few minutes it took quite a while for me to get use to - after that the movie was fantastic but not recommend for kids especially all the blood and gore. The movie is rate M15+ but some idiots brought young children to watch - it is really not suitable.