Swinging Bowl, Adelaide City Centre

Hello readers! 

It's winter break and I'm in Adelaide! Arrived yesterday and will be here for seven days to visit a couple of friends (Ismah and Kay!). I went for a solo city tour earlier today and stopped by this Malaysian restaurant  for lunch. It is easier to locate if you have familiarized yourself with the city grid system. From North Terrace (where it is dotted with places of attraction such as the SA Art Gallery, the state library, etc.), look for Myer shopping center nearby the War Memorial and enter a small lane named Stephen Place. Look out for the restaurant's red signage.  

It was pretty daunting at first looking at the wide variety of dishes but the staff was very helpful to explain how to order and even recommended their top-selling one for me to have. Basically, they charge you depending on how many dishes you take. So all you have to do is choose what type of rice you want (they have white rice, steamed coconut rice and briyani during my visit) and what you want to have it with. 

Swinging Bowl features weekly specials with different specialized dishes from Monday to Friday. Since today is Friday, they have creamy chicken and black pepper lamb included in the menu. Other dishes offered everyday include fried chicken, egg sambal, beef rendang, fish sambal, mixed veges, etc. 

I had white rice with fried chicken and asked for 2 gravies: the butter chicken gravy and the sweet chili chicken gravy. Oh nyums. With student discount, my meal is about AUD5. 

The owner of this restaurant is a Malay Malaysian who also frequents the kitchen. He was wearing a jersey with 'Mangkuk' printed on it as his name. Mangkuk is a Malay translation of Bowl. And if you are a Malaysian, you would know what Swinging Bowl literally means ;) That's pretty cheeky..and creative haha. I learned later from my friend that Malaysian students here call this place just as 'SB'. 

Overall, the food here is fresh, tasty and value for money. Highly recommended!

Opening times: 
Mon-Fri: 11.30am - 7.00pm
Sat: 11.30am - 5.00pm

  

Update Dec 2015: A friend's recent visit to Adelaide confirms that this place has closed permanently.

Bismillah Indian Cuisine, Surry Hills

Hello readers! I'm still in the final exam period and was done with one paper yesterday. Sharmila and I thought we both need to treat ourselves so to Surry Hills we went for lunch! Managed to find this shop after 25 mins of walking through the cold and wet weather. If you are from the Central tunnel, walk towards Surry Hills and keep going straight through Devonshire Street. Turn right at Crown Street and walk all the way down towards Cleveland Street. You will find the restaurant on your right. 

The food is ordered by set but a la carte is also available. We ordered mutton biryani (AUD12)  and an extra dish of chicken tikka masala (AUD8). Sharmila asked for another plate of mutton curry (without the meat) to go with the rice. I find the rice quite dry on its own but with the extra gravy that we have, it was nice and full of flavour (enough and not too overpowering).  

Few customers eat in, while mostly take-out. Only one guy manning the counter since there's not much crowd. Probably because it was a rainy Sunday. A lady came in and had a set of white rice with vege curry priced at AUD7.50 which is quite sensible I guess for a restaurant in this location. 

Overall, I would say that if you really want to eat biryani rice in Sydney, try Lakemba Street. I'm gonna do another post on that soon! Enjoy the pictures!

The restaurant is located at Crown Street

Variety of dishes to choose from (these pictures remind me of Mamak restaurants in Malaysia :D)

 

Our order, Mutton Biryani, Chicken Tikka Masala, and mutton curry gravy

N/B: The cashier did not charge us for the mutton gravy (without meat), so that was nice haha