Ms G's is the latest restaurant offering from the Merivale Group - the force behind a number of Sydney's trendy places to be (like Ivy, Ash Street Cellar and Lotus).
The restaurant offers a modern twist on Asian food and the decor is as fun and funky as the menu. Ms G's spans a five storied terrace building in Potts Point and each floor is filled with quirky decorations like rope hanging from the roof, mental buckets as basins in the loos, mis-matched crockery straight out of the 70s, neon signs and buckets hanging from the roof. On your way downstairs to visit the loos you can even have a squizz at all of the action happening the small, but open kitchen.
Obviously word has gotten around about Ms G's as they serve about 300 diners every single night of the week and this particular Saturday night is no exception. We (The Boy, Niecy Poo, Big Brother and myself) arrive at around 7.00pm and the place is totally full. There's a massive crowd killing time in the bar waiting for their tables.
The bar is a fun place to tread water whilst we wait for our table - and I'm happy that we're not lined up on the street outside waiting like you have to do at a lot of restaurants in Sydney these days. The bar staff are constantly under the pump serving a mixture of cocktails, beers and sake, but I think it's safe to say that most of the ladies are here to try one of their fun "Packaged" cocktails. These are like an EasyWay bubble-tea, but with alcohol. After two of these I feel just a little happy!
After 90 minutes in the bar Big Brother has "had enough" and decides to leave, but not without a word to the hostesses downstairs about the long wait (eek, don't upset them or we'll never get a table). Seems that we've be overlooked (ok, they forgot about us) and the hostess comes upstairs to apologise, tells us a table will be ready in 15 minutes and best of all FREE DESSERTS FOR ALL! Now isn't that worth waiting for? It's enough to make Big Brother stay on for dinner.
When we are finally shown to our table I'm sad to say that the lighting was so dark that my photos haven't really turned out all that well so I'm not going to use them here (but you can check out some other blogs that have had more success with their photos at this website). All that really means is that The Boy and I have to go back during lunch time to take some more photos and try some more dishes. For research purposes of course.
To begin we ordered a few starters:
- Mini Bánh Mì (aka Vietnamese Bread Rolls) that come with either crisp pork belly or chicken katsu. These are $6.00 each.
- Plate O’ Ms G’s Pickles ($9.00) which is a plate of various pickled vegetables such as tomato, chilli, kim chi and carrot. A lovely and refreshing dish
- Sydney Rock Oysters ($3.50 each) which comes with a lemongrass vinaigrette and a lime wedge.
For mains we ordered:
- Grilled Ocuptus Salad ($14.00) with coriander and Cassava crackers.
- Vietnamese Steak Tartare ($18.00) that comes with a googy egg yolk on top and is served with prawn crackers.
- Fried Baby Chicken served with a Kimchi Mayonnaise (half $15 whole $25).
- Braised Pork Belly “Hue Style” ($24.00). This dish is served with konnyaku noodles that are tied into a cute little bow and comes in a beautifully clear lemongrass and chilli broth.
- Stir fried cultivated mushrooms ($18.00) cooked in brown butter and served with garlic stalks.
None of us had ever had Steak Tartare before and the long wait for our table and subsequent and alcohol had made us feel brave to try something new and way out of our comfort zone. I generally like my meat well done...really really well done, so eating raw mince marinated in spices and wine/spirits is a big culinary step for me. I'm glad I tried it as it was a really beautiful dish...the taste of the herbs, spices and marinade was amazingly zesty and the texture of the meat was very tender. From the first bite I wasn't thinking "I'm eating raw mince" I was thinking "holy yummo"!
For desserts were ordered...everything on the menu! All the desserts are $12.00 and are big enough to share between two people without feeling like you've been jipped.
- “Stoner’s Delight” which is a surprisingly neatly presented dish of banana ice cream, chocolate/rice bubble/pretzel slice, peanut brittle chunks with a passionfruit flavoured marshmallow. I thought this dish would be more messy looking, after all since when are stoner's neat and tidy?
- Pandan Chiffon Cake with diced strawberries, coconut sorbet and tapioca (I think) was the most traditional type of Asian dessert. I quite liked it, but Big Brother wasn't a huge fan not having had Asian style desserts before.
- “SPLICE” which is a pine-lime granita that comes with a lychee sorbet and whipped cream and is beautifully presented in a big round tumbler.
- “Jam Doughnut” which is terribly sinful cinnamon doughnut ice cream topped with a sweet raspberry jelly.
That said, we all loved the "SPLICE", it was a lovely and fresh tasting dessert and not as sweet and "naughty" as the others we tried.
As well as the great food we enjoyed at Ms G's, I was totally impressed by the super friendly and efficient service we received (even despite our table request being inadvertently over looked - stuff like that happens now and again, so no point getting upset about it, right)? For a restaurant that must be constantly frantic from the minute they open to the minute they close all the staff we encountered were friendly despite how busy they were.
Miss G's is at 155 Victoria Street, Potts Point. There is a no bookings policy, so get there early otherwise take a seat at the bar, enjoy a drink or three, and wait for a table.
