Chophouse Steakhouse, Sydney & News

Chophouse

25 Bligh Street

Sydney

1300 246 748

http://www.chophouse.com.au/

Happy weekend everyone! This post is a bit delayed (oops). Its been hard to find time to blog but here we go! Other interesting news:

Adriano Zumbo has just opened the newest addition to the Zumbo chain at The Star. http://www.star.com.au/dine/the-chefs/adriano-zumbo.html

Also every foodie is awaiting the opening of David Chang's Momofuku seiobo at the Star. Seems like there is no chef that money cant buy. http://www.momofuku.com/restaurants/seiobo/

The restaurant Bilson's has closed down after a financing rescue package fell through. Devastating news.

And Jamie Oliver's hotly anticipated Jamie's Italian http://www.jamieoliver.com/au/italian/home opens 24 October. Bookings are available for groups of 6 or more.

I will also be attending the eat.drink.blog blogger's conference on the 5th of November! http://eatdrinkblog.org/ There is a photo comp for anyone who is interested :)

Now back to Chophouse..

We arrived on Saturday evening and were seated at one of the booths. The restaurant is quite large and looks very spacious as the walls of the restaurant are lined with mirrors. Every table is given some complimentary bread to start with.

We ordered a pinot and a merlot. I ordered the Joseph Drouhin Laforet Pinot Noir ($12.50) which was light bodied and clean.

To start we were served some Pork Scratching, served with smoked salt, vinegar and chilli, compliments of the house. These were so naughty but so good!

Crisp Pork Belly & Sea Scallop, Chinese cabbage, coriander, pea shoots & soy vinaigrette chopped salad ($22)

I never thought that I would go to a steakhouse and rave about the salad. I mean the steak was great but.. in terms of salads, this salad is like the king of all salads. Seriously guys, you have to order this. Fricking damn awesome. The pork belly was actually crispy! None of that fatty stuff. And the scallops were huge, plump and fresh. Also the serving size was huge! Sooooooo good!

We both ordered the F1 Wagyu Striploin MB4+, harissa & jus 300g ($49.9) which was the smallest 'proper' steak on the menu but still really big. I really struggled to finish mine. Maybe it was because of the giant salad and cauliflower gratin we also ordered.. Must learn not to overorder!

The steak was divine and so tasty. We ordered medium and medium rare and we got exactly that.

Didnt really understand what the lemon was for though. Do you guys put lemon on your steaks? I've never been served lemon on the side before.. was slightly confused.

On the side we shared the cauliflower gratin ($8). Cauliflower+cheese, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and baked. I call this 'comfort food' because its just so warming and hearty. I really liked this :) Would also definitely recommend this as a side dish order.

On the Saturday night we went there was also a band playing. The girl sung an acoustic version of Damien Rice/U2's I still haven't found what I'm looking for which is one of my all time favourite songs! Best night ever.

The Good: Fantastic steaks, the pork belly salad (MUST ORDER), nice atmosphere

The Bad: This area of the CBD can be a bit of a ghost town on weekends.

Chophouse Meat Masterclass, Sydney

Chophouse

25 Bligh Street Sydney

1300 246 748

http://www.chophouse.com.au/

Bookings Recommended

I have a confession to make. I like steak. Okay, thats a bit of an understatement. I love steak. If I'm eating out at a restaurant, there is a one in two chance I'll order steak.

Why you ask? Well one reason is because eating steak makes me happy (steak does to me what chocolate does to normal people).. but to be honest the real reason is because I cannot cook a decent steak to save my life. Until now.

I was luckily enough to get tickets to Chophouse's Meat Masterclass which was fun, entertaining and educational. Thanks to Chophouse for the tickets :)

On arrival we were greeted by Eric Tan, Head Chef and Stu, Sous Chef of the Chophouse Restaurant. Eric was an amazing host and his passion for food really showed. Everytime he explained or showed us how to do something about food, his eyes would light up. He was also extremely welcoming and even made us coffee while we were waiting for the last few bloggers. :)

First up we were given a short overview about the suppliers of the best steaks, different types of cuts, the difference between those cuts and different cooking methods. Remember when I said Eric & Stu were amazing hosts? Haha they even demonstrated where the different cuts of steak are from.

Eric then introduced us to the tomahawk, a massive full rib steak on the bone. I think this one weighed 1.2kilograms.

We were then given a run through of how the steaks are prepared and cooked. The entire process is quite meticulous, from carefully apportioning and weighing each steak to testing the temperature of each steak before resting.

The Chophouse Restaurant was one of the first steakhouses in Sydney to use a broiler (the Chophouse's one is affectionately named George) to cook its steaks. Using a broiler means less cooking time and also the steaks are more likely to be consistently cooked. But exactly how many people own a broiler? I mean they cost $65k! So because of that, we learned the different methods of cooking steak and how you can even cook a perfect steak in your own home.

D & I getting ready to get our hands dirty

We learned how to cook steak on a pan, on a chargrill and got an idea of how to cook steak with a broiler.

George, the mean steak cooking machine

To be honest.. with all this cooking I was starting to get hungry! I think everyone else felt the same way too. Imagine ten hungry food bloggers descending on ten perfectly cooked steaks and one pork chop..

The steak cooked in the broiler definitely won over the others. It was so much more juicy and also it was consistently cooked on the inside and nicely seared on the outside. All the steaks were delicious though! It just goes to show that you can cook the perfect steak with any equipment, as long as you control the temperature properly.

We were then spoiled even further with a take home carepack from the Chophouse restaurant, each with a steak for us to cook at home, some instructions and a block of delicious honeycomb chocolate (which I have since demolished).

Thank you so much to the team from Chophouse. I had such a wonderful time.. So much that I made a reservation for dinner that night hehe.. but that is another blog post :)

And just to finish this post, I would like to share with you 8 steps to cook the perfect steak, courtesy of the Chophouse. We tried this at home on Monday and believe it or not, I think I can finally cook steak properly :)

The trick was to use an oven.

Hurricanes Bar & Grill, Darling Harbour

Hurricanes Bar & Grill and Sunday Night Easy Listening

Harbourside Shopping Centre

http://hurricanesgrill.com.au/

02 9211 2210

Bookings strongly recommended

Its that time of the week again- Sunday! Do you guys also have a love/hate relationship with Sunday? Its usually the most relaxing day of the week (sleep in after a big Saturday night out, brunch and do nothing all day) but its also the last day of the week and means Monday is around the corner :(

Sunday is also easy listening time! This week its all about One Republic- Good life. This song keeps me sane. I've been trying to read these damned Auditing standards but every single sentence goes on for like five lines and use fifty commas.. Gargh! Its taken all my control to refrain from throwing the Handbook out the window.

You know what? I'm going to do two songs this week since I don't have work tomorrow (muahaha). Neyo because he is such a boss.

So back to Hurricanes.. I'm sure everyone already knows that Hurricanes is one of the most popular restaurants in Sydney and does the best ribs (apparently) in Sydney. I must be really unlucky because that night my ribs were sh!t. On a positive note, the ribs are usually really good. These were too dry (sigh). Epic fail.

Half rack pork ribs, $29.90

Oh I forgot the obligatory photo of the restaurant..

New York Strip Steak, 350gms $33.00

Sigh. Perfectly cooked steak that wasn't mine. No fair.

Okay.. so for the past year I've been having an ongoing argument with a friend about whether or not the Pyrmont Bridge opens up.

Apparently, from an engineering perspective, its not physically possible for the bridge to open up because there's a monorail along the bridge. Well well well.. I prove you wrong! I have photo evidence that the bridge does open. In fact, it swings open.

For once I am actually right. Woo!

Hope you guys had a good week :)

The Good: Good ribs (usually), good location, must-try factor, fireworks on Saturdays, free mentos with your bill (yay!)

The Bad: Can be overrated, too many tourists, may need to wait for up to 2 hours if you don't book, 10% surcharge on Sundays, tables are too small, too dark to take decent photos, all the waitresses/waiters seem to be on holiday visas, dodgy toilets, too crowded and also quite impossible to eat ribs elegantly

Helm Bar, Sydney

Helm Bar and Bistro

Aquarium Wharf, Cockle Bay

9290 1571

http://helmbar.com.au/

Caught up with a few mates over lunch at Helm Bar and Bistro. Since the group was mostly guys, steak was the obvious option. Helm Bar does a $10 Tuesday steak promo so we went to check it out.

Sauces

I found that the steaks were either a hit or a miss. Some of us got really good cuts that were tender and juicy while other people got cuts that were fatty or where large parts were inedible. Each steak was served with a generous size of french fries and some salad leaves.

Since lunch coincided with my birthday... wooo macaroons :) Thanks :) you're all too awesome.