Cafe Ish, Surry Hills

Technically, dinner at Cafe Ish was during my third visit to this cozy, little premise. The first time involved a sumptuous brunch with friends, which I have already written about in a previous post. The second time took place a mere day before, where I popped in for a quick afternoon pick-me-up after hiking around Surry Hills all morning. On that particular visit, I ordered my all-time favourite caffeinated beverage: the affogato

The combination of the intense, deeply bitter long black espresso with a scoop of the smoothest, richest ice cream sends me into a state of euphoria every single time. The added crunch of macadamias in the Gundowring ice cream used in this particular case made the experience all the more enjoyable.

The very next day, I returned with my whole family to feast.

I think we made a sizeable dent in the menu :D

Bar plate, $15

In the interest of satisfying the humungous appetites in our family, and also for the sake of variety, we ordered the Bar plate. Clockwise from top left corner: Crocodile, lotus & nori fried sandwiches with curry salt, Edamame with garlic, chili, soy & ginger, and Fried potato and fetta mochi with Davidson plum sauce.

It was such a long time ago, and I didn't take tasting notes, but I remember that this was gone literally within a minute, and people were licking their lips all around, so I would say this got a BIG THUMBS UP from us.

Cucumber salad, $6

Nice and refreshing, but way too pricey in my honest opinion. This is something you'd get as a free side dish in a Chinese restaurant.

Yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls with tomato relish), $6

This was more like it!

Roast free range kurabuta (roasted rolled loin with black sesame dressing and macadamias), $8 

Loved this dish.

Skewer plate, $28

This had wagyu, crocodile tail, something called kakuni...oh my! The wagyu skewers were so good we later ordered another serve of just that.

Sashimi plate, $28



This was my sister's favourite dish. She absolutely loves sashimi of any kind. My grandmother buys huge fillets of raw salmon at least twice a month and serves them sashimi-style just so my sister can get her omega-3 fix :D

Organic beef ribs, $23

I wanted to lick the sauce from the bowl, it was so good. Actually, I think my brother did end up doing that, the naughty kid. The meat was so juicy and tender...salivating as I type this. But seriously, I wonder how hungry you'd have to be to do the 'All-You-Can-Eat' beef ribs thing Cafe Ish used to have on Wednesday nights. To get your money's worth (as opposed to just ordering this ala carte), each person would have to finish a bowl by themselves as the bare minimum. @_@" I'd probably need resuscitating afterwards.

Okonomiyaki, $16 

I love Asian-style savoury pancakes. This was a huge serve, thus justifying the equally hefty price tag.

Hiyashi noodles (cold ramen), $15

The soft-yoked egg was nice.

Yaki udon of kangaroo loin, $23

The kangaroo was cooked perfectly tender. Yum.

Karaage crab omelette, $24

Of course we had to order the star of the show. It's reputation precedes it, so I don't think I need to say more :D

I would have liked to try a dessert (or two, or three, or the platter), but we decided to wait till the next time we visit.

Thank you, Cafe Ish, for another memorable dining experience!