Touch and go Japanese – Mizuya

Sometimes you just want to go to a restaurant and be totally left alone. Sometimes you just want to eat in peace, with no distractions and no annoyances. You don’t want to hear what offers are on, how exceptional the wine is, how you have the best seat in the house and how ‘you just made a very good choice maaaam’.

Sometimes, you just want the food and that’s that.

At these times, a plasma touch screen displaying the entire menu, which sits at the end of your table, is perfect.

Never underestimate how good it is to be able to simply touch an image of a dish that catches your attention and have it come over to your table in five minutes. And while you’re at it, never underestimate how your eyes will automatically become too big for your belly.

This may seem like a rather cold service but in fact, it’s efficiency to the extreme. You sit down, flick through the digital menu, order some drinks (by tapping on your poison of choice, of course) and then spend the rest of the time browsing through images of food and arguing with the person sat opposite you. It’s playful, it’s useful and it’s perfect for those who love to over-order and experience as many little dishes as possible.

There are a variety of extremely popular Japanese choices, such as the hot pots, which are brought to your table with clouds of steam following behind, not to mention some of the more unusual meats such as crocodile and ox tongue (apparently very popular). The way it works is to think of it as ‘Japanese tapas'. As if you are there to have a bit of fun with your food and to experiment a little. Order a few dishes, share them, see how you feel, then order more.

This is a great place to come with a small group of friends and feast yourself silly.

Click here to see more: Mizuya, George street

Chocolate naan - Aki's Indian

There’s something about high tea which doesn’t really appeal to glutton and nuts. Whichever way you stack four tiny sandwiches on a plate, it still looks like there’s less food than an average five year old would eat for lunch. Adding a few mini-desserts and a scone doesn’t really help either. Ok, so the champagne does, but that’s usually forgotten as soon as you see the bill…

Safe to say, high tea is often an overrated affair best saved for those with more money than culinary taste.

However, and we say this with real sincerity… when we discovered that Aki’s on the banks of Wooloomooloo, had an Indian afternoon tea on offer, we pretty much ran there – especially after hearing about the star of the show: the chocolate naan.

As far as culture goes, we’re not overly convinced that along the dense Indian side-streets of Mumbai etc, you’ll be offered a stack of porcelain plates with mini onion bhajis and samosas… but here in Sydney, it certainly makes for an interesting twist.

The chocolate naan (which let’s face it, was the sole reason we were forgetting our aversion to high tea) is a tiny and thin, rolled-up naan bread, smeared with runny chocolate sauce and strawberries. Think of a crepe or a pancake and you’ve basically hit the nail on the head - so sweet - so, so sweet. Wasn't quite what we were expecting – although, we weren’t really quite sure what to expect from Indian afternoon tea to be honest. It was delicious though – like a tiny mouthful of runny chocolate and pancake mix.

However, like most things on offer at afternoon tea, it was tiny. Breathe in too heavily and you might inhale it through your nostril. So miniature in fact, than when you ate it, you felt less satisfied and more frustrated that there was no more left to eat. This is also a testament to how good it tasted, and like every top chef will tell you… the key to a great restaurant, is to leave the diner wanting more. Which we certainly do… make the chocolate naan a fullsize dessert and we’ll be running down again!

For those who are curious about the other Indian afternoon tea tid-bits on offer… the rest included:

Upma with Papdi Crispies: Semolina cooked with green peas, curry leaves, ginger and green chilies topped with crisp savories

Vada Pav: Cocktail buns sandwiched with besan battered potato dumplings

Prawn 65: Famous Chennai staple of shrimps dusted in spiced rice flour

Kathi Roll: Shredded chicken tikka in wholemeal roti with spiced onions, coriander, mint and pomegranate dust

Paneer Chutney Sandwiches: The Indian take on sandwiches - Cottage cheese, tomato and chutney

Caramelised Saffron Infused Basmati Rice

Custard Petit Fours

Chocolate Naan

Click to visit Aki's Indian