When I think of “teppanyaki”, I imagine a food experience, where you not only get to eat but also get to play with your food, whilst being entertained by the chef. Tem Ichi Teppanyaki at Parramatta definitely did deliver a food experience, but not quite the one I expected.
Filed under Japanese, Parramatta
Tucked away on the quieter side of Parramatta station sits Pondok, a new Indonesian restaurant that has only opened in the last couple of months. I first came here at a bloggers dinner with Miss Piggy, vegeTARAian and Muppy and it was so good I knew I had to come back to review it (thanks for introducing this place to me guys).
Filed under Indonesian, Parramatta
If you venture out from the central Parramatta precinct where the station and Westfield are located, you’ll discover the Adora café which stands out from the grey concrete office buildings as a sleekly decorated space dedicated to chocolate. It was a sunny day when we visited; bright rays of sunshine were streaming through the floor to ceiling glass windows onto customers who were sipping on their hot chocolates and indulging in sweet treats.
Filed under Dessert, Parramatta
It’s no surprise that we are massive fans of frozen yoghurt. It is a relatively healthy dessert option, delicious with various flavours and toppings and very affordable. Last week saw the opening of four new frozen yoghurt stores; Praus in Eastwood, Yogurberry in Eastwood, a new Moochi branch at Westfield Centrepoint as well Wowcow in Parramatta. Sydney is really going froyo crazy!
In due time we will visit all of them but this week we were delighted to attend the opening of Wowcow in Parramatta. To celebrate, they were giving away a small kid’s size Wowcow with one topping in exchange for a gold coin donation. This money would then go to Oxfam Australia, with every $180 raised buying a cow to support families in Third World countries. I think it is really great to know that businesses are looking out for the less fortunate and are promoting charitable initiatives throughout the community so that we become more aware of just how fortunate we are in Australia.
Located in the heart of Parramatta on the corner of Church and Phillip Streets, Wowcow sits amongst the trendy dining scene near Coco Cubano, Criniti’s and San Churros. On their opening day, Wowcow only offered two frozen yoghurt flavours (chocolate and vanilla) but still had their staple of 18 toppings – a great range of sweet and fruity flavours to enhance the yoghurt. I decided to try something different by opting for a chocolate yoghurt with coconut shavings. The chocolate is surprisingly creamy and rich in flavour – I can’t believe that this is actually yoghurt! The chocolate yoghurt which I am used to from supermarkets generally tastes quite bad, so this is a very pleasant surprise for me. The coconut shavings adds some texture but I think next time I will go for some Oreo cookies instead.
Yvn opted for the vanilla with mango pearls, a combination I chose last time and enjoyed so much that she had to give it a go. The vanilla is as creamy as it was last time I tried it, and the flavour rivals that of Noggi and Moochi. The mango pearls also release bursts of sweet mango juice and gave the yoghurt lovely fruity undertones towards the end.
Given that last week was Wowcow’s opening week, they had several special surprises for customers. This included non-stop samples of churros dipped in chocolate which were a warm cinnamon welcome to our yoghurt. They also had face painting for kids and a pen containing three cows wearing Wowcow visors – cute!
Source: Didier Cohen’s Facebook page
Later in the day, Didier Cohen even made a stopover. I guess even models eat yoghurt!
I’m glad that Wowcow has opened a new branch much closer to where I live and are cross promoting a charitable initiative in the process. I was very happy to support Wowcow with my gold coin donation and wish them the best of luck. If you visit, get the vanilla with mango pearls along with some churros – one of the best combinations!
P.S. A sign in-store stated a Burwood branch would be opening soon. Great news for all you who live in the Inner West 
Wowcow
279 Church St (cnr Church and Phillip St)
Parramatta 2124
Filed under Dessert, Parramatta
As the name would suggest, a small slice of Cuba has been transported onto Sydney soil to give us a taste of that unique island culture which has remained frozen in time since the 1950s. The name was familiar to us because we’d gone past the Taylor Square store many times on the bus up Oxford Street and we had always been curious about whether it was an authentic Cuban lounge or not.
It’s a lovely warm afternoon when we make the trip to Coco Cubano Parramatta, which is perfect weather for some cocktails and tapas with our fellow food bloggers who have been invited by the lovely Chocolate Suze. Our many questions about the concept of Coco Cubano were answered by Tony, the owner who isn’t Cuban himself but loves the culture and has done a fantastic job at recreating the breezy atmosphere you would expect of a Cuban lounge. He’s put personal touches into the décor with framed photos of his family, mixed in with colour photographs he took on a trip to Cuba and his attentive staff also wear cute khaki uniforms with a badge denoting their chosen mood for the day.
You can tell that plenty of attention was also given to the menu, which covers a broad spectrum of Caribbean themed tapas, wraps, coffee, chocolate, alcohol and even cigars, reflecting the things that Cuba is most famous for. We’re spoilt for choice but start off with some white sangria with oranges and lemons. It was very refreshing and more of a winner in my books than the red sangria we tried later, which was stronger.
Red sangria, $28 jug (same price for white sangria)
Eventually we finally settle on what tapas to share between us – starting with the fried calamari, which was lightly crumbed, sprinkled with chilli salt and moreish when dipped in the roasted garlic sauce.
Fried calamari, chilli salt and garlic sauce, $12.9
Then there’s the grilled haloumi for the fans of this pungent and intensely flavoured cheese, paired with charred peppers, capers and herbs.
Grilled haloumi, $10.9
We’re fairly impressed with their grilled chorizo as well which is bursting with flavour. Continuing the love for their chorizo, we also like the Cuban tortilla, which consists of fried egg with chorizo, queso, rocket and tomato relish and it is neatly cut up into halves for us to share. Their serrano ham with queso melt was also decent, with lovely thin ham encased by melted cheese.
Grilled chorizo with warmed olives, $9.9
Cuban tortilla, $11.9
Serrano Ham melt, $14.9
Their take on the patatas bravas leaves out the garlic mayo we’re used to having with it but the spicy tomato salsa with the fried potato wedges is still quite delicious.
Patatas bravas, $9.9
Thankfully a couple of bowls of shoestring fries sprinkled with paprika salt come out next. These are accompanied with garlic mayo (which we use later for the potato wedges as well). It is irresistible to nibble on since I prefer thin fries to chunky cut ones and I find myself heaping the garlic mayo on my handfuls of chips.
Fries with paprika salt, $7.9
There’s also cute mini beef burger sliders with grilled cheese and onion jam which we find hard to split as they are already bite sized. We manage to cut them in half in the end and they’re quite flavoursome in the little nibble we manage to grab.
Beef sliders, $9.9
We wrap up with some desserts, sampling some of the chocolate which Cuba is apparently known for. There’s the melted chocolate dip with strawberries and marshmallows as well as chocolate being drizzled on crunchy waffles and vanilla icecream and melted chocolate used as a sauce for the churros with strawberries.
Strawberries and marshmallows with melted chocolate pot, $7.90
Revolution waffles with strawberries, chocolate and icecream $13.90
Choc cinnamon Churros with chocolate and strawberries, $13.90
It’s heavenly chocolate overload, and I had also ordered myself an affogato to accompany the dessert so I got another hit of chocolate with all the melted chocolate which coated the cocktail glass which my affogato was served in. It was a huge serving of vanilla icecream drizzled over espresso coffee, with the ice cream eventually freezing the chocolate coated on the glass and turning it more into an iced mocha – something a bit different from the other affogatos I’ve had elsewhere.
Affogato, $6.50
Before we knew it, we had ended up spending a few hours lazing about in Coco Cubano and noticed that quite a few other tables of diners did the same – Tony says that the owners enjoy seeing people spend the day in the restaurant on their laptops (taking advantage of the free wi-fi of course) because they want to create a comfortable lounge experience that encourages people to stay. We’ve been won over by the passionate owners of Coco Cubano and we will definitely be back to try out other parts of their menu we missed out on – like the rum cocktails and their limited availability of single origin chocolate.
Excuse Me Waiter dined as guests of Coco Cubano
Coco Cubano
302 Church St
Parramatta, NSW 2150
Tel: 0450 956 382
Filed under Cafe, Cuban, Parramatta
Excuse Me Waiter is a documented food adventure run by two hungry Gen Y food fanatics DK & Yvn. We can often be found roaming Sydney in search of interesting foods from food courts to high-end restaurants.
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