As lockdown continues, you might be stuck for inspiration about where to eat. Don’t worry – we have some ideas (it’s our job, after all). We’re boarding the dumpling train, eating sashimi from a master, eating fantastically smoky meats and more. Here’s where we’re getting our takeaway kicks this week.
Yan Restaurant, Wolli Creek
If you live close to Bayside smokehouse Yan Restaurant, you’re in luck. Co-owners Narada Kudinar and chef Raymond Lim are still cooking your favourite smoked lamb ribs with eggplant and chimichurri; smoked pork cutlets in a sticky soy glaze; and smoked prawns with ginger-lime dipping sauce. They’re stoking the flames for orders from Wednesday to Sunday, and you can choose anything from the restaurant’s usual dine-in menu – or select from $20 takeaway meals served with olive rice. There’s Sichuan fried tofu with crushed peanut sauce or smoked katsu chicken in barbeque sauce with cracked pepper mayo, plus a range of sides such as pickled cabbage, green beans in tomato XO sauce or handmade steamed bao. If you’d rather outsource the thinking, there are combination meals from $46 to $85, which range from mains and sides for two to a family pack for four.
Order online or call (02) 9599 8712 for pick-up from G03/19 Arncliffe Street, Wolli Creek. Delivery is available via Uber Eats within five kilometres of the restaurant, from 5.30pm to last orders at 8.30pm, Wednesday to Sunday.
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SIGN UPSimulation Senpai, Haymarket
If you’ve been living on a diet of carbs and carbs with cheese, you might like to balance that with an artful sashimi or chirashi box from Chase Kojima’s Simulation Senpai. I say artful because, man, they are pretty. Check out the $55 Hosekibako Sashimi pack – a beautiful (and symmetrically layered) array of raw seafood selected by Kojima and arranged with precision. “It’s the treasure box from the sea,” Kojima says. “I personally hand-pick fresh fish and seafood of the day in one box with lots of my secret garnishes and sauces.” There are also boxes with more specific seafood selections, such as salmon and tuna. All come with pickled ginger, premium wasabi and soy sauce. We also have our eye on the miso-baked Glacier 51 toothfish option, served over rice, crab meat and pops of salmon roe. If you want to go a little fancy, you can add a side of uni (sea urchin) for $20, or a $15 hunk (five grams) of black truffle. If you’re unfamiliar with Simulation Senpai, Kojima (Sokyo executive chef and Chuuka head chef) opened what he calls the “fast fine-dining” eatery a couple months ago in The Exchange building at Darling Square.
Order here or at the shop for pick-up Tuesday to Sunday 11.30am–2.30pm and 5pm–8.30pm.
Russo & Russo, Enmore
Russo & Russo’s crisped-up brussels sprouts with macadamia and chilli have converted many a sprouts-cynic in their time – and now you can tear through a takeaway box of them at home. The old-world-inspired Enmore diner is packing up its thoughtful renderings of classic Italian dishes for at-home consumption (sadly you’ll have to supply your own lacy curtains and candles in wine bottles). To start, it’s hard to beat those brussels sprouts, or the burrata tanged-up with pickled raddichio, fennel and currants. There are several pastas for mains. Our picks? The saltbush spaghetti with pork sausage and ’nduja, and the saffron casarecce with a brisket ragu. And the sturdy tiramisu is a winner for dessert. To complete the experience, it’s hard to go past a bottle of house-made limoncello to sip post-meal. One half-litre bottle will see you through a few return visits.
Russo & Russo’s takeaway menu is available for pick up from 158 Enmore Road, Enmore, from 5.30pm–9pm Tuesday to Sunday. Call (02) 8068 5202, or order delivery through Deliveroo or Uber Eats.
The Oxford Tavern, Petersham
Boy oh boy do we miss the pub. We can’t recreate the buzz of a beer garden at home, but we can get pub grub delivered from some of our faves. Enter The Oxford Tavern, which is firing up its famous smoker, Black Betty, and sending meals, beer and cocktails hither and thither around the inner west. Get plates of barbeque meats – think brisket, pulled pork, Texas-style hot links (sausage) and chicken – with cornbread and pickles, as well as buffalo hot wings, burgers (including its OG beef burg and Nashville fried chicken number) and a dastardly mac’n’cheese topped with crushed-up Twisties. Or embrace the Aussie pub meal with chicken or eggplant schnitties, rump steak and eggplant parmies. It’s also doing craft beer on tap, loads of tinnies, easy-to-transport cocktails, shots and a host of natty wines.
Order here for delivery or pick-up from 1 New Canterbury Road, Petersham, from 12pm daily.
Yang’s Dumpling Restaurant, Burwood
Shanghainese dumpling joint Yang’s Dumpling is making sure you can still get on the xiaolongbao and guotie (pot-sticker dumplings) at home, by delivering to nearby suburbs. The menu is wonderfully extensive. There are delicate, spicy pork wontons drenched in red-chilli oil with a silky peanut sauce; its signature sheng jian bao (a doughy pork dumpling filled with steaming soup); and xiaolongbao. And break away from the dumpling portion of the menu with a spring-onion pancake, a cold tofu dish with pork floss and preserved egg, or pork-dumpling soup. Glorious.
Order from Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Menulog. Pick up from 1 Deane Street, Burwood, also available. Daily from 10am till late.