That is one big tuna wing!!!
Free Passes to the Taste of Sydney: March 14 & 15 (Lots of Passes to giveaway)
1
neil on 25/02/2013 - 21:39 tasteofsydney.com.au (19 clicks)
0 entrants, 0 wins
Last edited 05/03/2013 - 01:25
0 entrants, 0 wins
Last edited 05/03/2013 - 01:25
Dates
Closing Date
31/12/2013
Prizes
Description
passes
No. of Prizes
1
Total Prize Pool
$40.00
Entry Requirements
Open To
Australia-wide
Entry Limit
Entry Methods
Website
Prerequisites
n/a
The contest is now closed
We have a bunch of free tickets to the Taste of Sydney which is happening at Centennial Park from March 14-17. These tickets go for $25 (plus booking fees). The Taste of Sydney is a festival where you can sample food from some of Sydney's best restaurants at a fraction of the price of what you would pay in a restaurant. Additionally, there are master classes, live entertainment, as well as food and beverage samples.
I was lucky enough to go to the Taste of Melbourne in November and it was great. I got lots of free wine, cocktails, beer, various snacks, olive oil. You could probably just be satisfied with the samples but it is well worth trying some of the dishes Sydney restaurants are serving. Note that you will need to buy crowns to buy food and drinks but at least you won't have to pay an entrance fee.
Some of my pics: Lemon cake - Chris from Masterchef - Duck Burger
How to win these tickets?
Simple. Australia is one of the most costliest places to eat out in the world. It also has some of the best food in the world. Simply tell us your story of a quality meal that you received for a good price. Perhaps it was from a group buy /voucher deal, a combination of Entertainment Book vouchers /Best Restaurants of the Australia Card, or simply you thought your meal was good value. Let's avoid the fast food chains (HJ's/KFC/etc.) Your chances of winning a ticket will increase if you add a picture to your entry. The picture must be yours and not copied from elsewhere.
Here's my recent story. I bought a Groupon for the Swiss Club in Melbourne. With a lot of these voucher deals, you never know what you are going to get. I was thoroughly surprised to get a booking for a Friday night with no troubles at all. The food and service was great. We had a fantastic fondue, rösti, and some sausages as well as a nice Swiss beer. Why a Swiss meal? I was recently in Switzerland and it reminded me of some of the great meals I had there. Sitting on top of the Matterhorn looking out in the horizon, eating a Rosti.
Lunch at 3883 meters. Sausage and rosti. — at Kleines Matterhorn.
So post your story below.
Fine Print: Contest starts 25/2 at time of posting and ends March 5 12:01 AM EST. The tickets can be used for either Thursday Evening, Friday Day, or Friday Evening sessions. The tickets are in a paper format so OzBargain will need to physically mail them to you. We will email you for your mailing address and number of tickets. The tickets will be limited to 2 per winner but depending on the number of entries, this may be extended. We plan to send all of the tickets out on March 5.
P.S. This is the Taste of Sydney which is a different event from The Good Food & Wine Festival.
P.S.S. For those who don't wish to participate in the contest or wish to go on Sat/Sunday, use the code FOODIE to get 2 tickets for $40. (Save $10)
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They say there's no such thing as a free lunch - well for me there was! This was thanks to the Lunch on Lawson's deal posted a few years ago.
Myself and 3 or 4 workmates spent the week touring the Sydney CBD scouting out our free sandwiches. On two occasions we even scored a free loaf of bread as well!
So I recently moved to Sydney and upon my arrival I was given some gift vouchers to a small pub just outside of Bathurst in NSW. Since my parents live there I thought why not!? I mayswell go and try out this pub. I was thinking ah small, country pub probally not going to be too good, but to my surpise the pub called the O'connell was packed with about 50 or so people. I had the tasiest Chicken Parmigiana. Now to some that may just be your average meal but when you've been living overseas for 7 months and you come back to taste a succulent, juicy piece of chicken topped with the finest of ham and secret herbal sauce..it really made me feel like I was home. Now I crave that meal on a weekly basis.
I unfortunately don't have a picture but I reccomend this small country pub to anyone..a hidden secret by far.2408 O'Connell Rd, O'connell NSW 2795
(02) 6337 5745
:)
Last year I bought a group voucher deal (I seen it on oz bargain http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/49991) for Foveaux in Surry hills, it was 2 courses for $60 for 2 people.
The food was simply amazing e.g. http://instagram.com/p/PwYcZTrJE2/ http://instagram.com/p/PwXgEErJEf/
So when, I seen it came back up on Living social I bought another one, but this time for the degustation.
I decided to email my friends about the deal, as a few of them are foodies, and 3 bought the same deal, which thanks to living social means I get my deal for free.So now I have a degustation meal at a Chef's hatted restaurant free.
When I go on a bike ride to Parramatta there is a nice thai restaurant me and my mates go to. It's called Gourmet Thai Spice. I can't speak for their non-lunch menu, however they have lunch specials and they taste amazing, servings are very generous and comes with a can of soft drink. All for $10. I tried their Pad thai and I have to say out of all the pad thais I have tried this one ranks in the top few. Their other dishes such as their green curry fried rice is amazing as well even though its not part of the lunch special its only a bit dearer, but well worth it.
Unfortunately no picture.. didn't think to take one since I live close and have it every so often xP
http://www.spicegourmetthai.com.au/This is the story of how I ate at Tetsuya's for free.
When I was just a teenager (well, 19) I worked as a cook in a restaurant. I worked my way up the ranks and ended up running service 2-3 nights a week. I felt great and I loved cooking with a deep passion. Though I was at a crossroads, do I follow my love for cooking (and deal with the long, antisocial hours) or do I go to uni? So, I decided to spend some time in the best restaurant kitchens I could.
I managed to blag my way into Tetsuya's kitchen for a day. The head chef had a rule, no-one in the kitchen was allowed to eat the menu food. Staff meals ONLY. Luckily most of the staff did not really like the head chef and disobeying his instructions was more like a sport. As the orders piled into the kitchen and waiters filed in and I was mostly obscured from the head chefs view. Dish by dish the chefs would hand me every course the customers dined on, though obviously I had to eat it out of the chef's view, so I either ducked into the walk in freezer or into the rubbish area. I ate the entire menu, from the fantastic amuse bouche of chilled corn soup to the signature confit ocean trout through to the incredible range of dessert petit fors, all whilst hiding in the back of the kitchen! It is still the most memorable meal of my life and the food was absolutely incredible!
The story is about Signature Grill in Rozelle, NSW 2039, a fantastic restaurant of grilled ribs.
I bought a Groupon voucher of all-you-can-eat port ribs for two people for $39, with a $10 off due to referring another friend. Thus, we spent totally $29 for this wonderful experience!
We made a booking with the voucher a week before, and went there on time. The waitress was very friendly and helpful, as opposed to some 'slow' reviews on Urbanspoon (the overall rate is pretty good though). We each can order one plate of ribs (2 racks) with sides (chips or mashed potato) at a time, and the last order can be ribs without sides. Every time either of us almost finished we can order a new plate. When it comes to the quality and taste of food, I would say perfect! The taste was so unforgettable that we went there again and again even without a voucher after this meal. In addition, the mashed potato was great as well, though we all intended to fill our stomachs up with ribs rather than sides! However, it was NOT at all regretful to try the mashed potato as a side.
Now we are loyal customers and would pay $25 each for the all-you-can-eat port ribs meal. There are also steaks, lamb ribs, etc. on the normal menu, which are also amazing. Unfortunately we did not take any picture, but maybe we can take some during our next visit. You may find out their signature grill picture here: http://www.urbanspoon.com/rph/70/1627563/1182100/sydney-sign….
Whilst quality is a question, I had a great 3 course meal for 2 for $49 a while back from Ouffer, in the time when group buying deals were still new! (Probably the first group buying deal I bought and it was definitely of value.)
Where at? Why Hog's Breath Cafe.
It was possible to choose any 2 entrees, 2 of their steak meals as a main and for dessert we had a fondue for 2. An epic monstrosity to give all indigestion!
It also came with a $20 voucher towards the next visit!Actually, it was amazing. The entrees were huge and good, the steaks were perfect and the dessert..
Oh, that dessert! Afterwards, I never wanted to eat ice cream again!
Very decent didn't come close especially with the epic dessert taller than the spoon:
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/6415/75119907.jpgWe have been to many places on vouchers which were great value and sublime food. Unfortunately those vouchers are no longer available.
So every few weeks a group of us go to New Dong Dong Noodle in Kingsford. Over time we have worked progressively through the menu and believe we have identified their best offerings (some of the usual Chinese meals are better elsewhere).
We found that you need 4 people - 5 or 6 is better and whilst the chefs rotate, these dishes invariably hit the spot.
The Salt and Pepper Squid is excellent as is the Shan Tong Chicken. We love the Rice Noodles with Shredded Duck and Gravy and the fluffy Scrambled Eggs and Prawns (chilli and soy over) is sensational. If you like curry then we can recommend the Curry Chicken Hot Pot. The place is BYO with no corkage and the above 5 dishes will cost about $60 or $12 per head for a group of 5. So take a nice bottle of wine or 2 and eat like a mandarin for a few dollars.
The missus and I where able to combined the Entertainment Book gold card ($50 off) and the 20% off Best Restaurants of the Australia Card @ Sails on Lavendar Bay.
Beautiful Harbour Bridge views, great tasting degustation (the banana and peanut butter parfait - blew my mind) fancy but relaxed ambience and great service.
The even gave us SECONDS for the complimentary bread. WINNING.
I recently went to The Cove restaurant in Drummoyne using a Living Social voucher, which gave us 2 entrees, 2 mains and a bottle of wine for $59! The food was just beautiful with very big servings and the views overlooking the water were just lovely as it was a warm night when we went all the large windows were open.
All in all it was a lovely dinner with wonderful views - and at a great price!
I guess my story counts as I've now gotten into cooking thanks to OzBargain deals, and we all know that eating out is more expensive than cooking yourself! "Simply tell us your story of a quality meal that you received for a good price."
After wanting to get into cooking for a long time, I needed an excuse to go out and get some hardware to start.
Then came the Amex Connect deals http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/65328.
Wow, a KitchenAid stand mixer for a steal! What a great way to get into it!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151027267710458&l=f…I've since made countless cakes, breads, macarons, and biscuits. These were awesome:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151129993365458&l=d…Add to that it's ability to knead doughs… Cheaper than Dominos deals!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151221347655458&l=a…I've also made some awesome pasta thanks to http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/90964. Result:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151275920490458&l=1…So thank you OzBargain for starting my food journey; though as a result of being into food now I find myself forking out top dollar to eat out with my wife at Sydney and Melbourne's nicer establishments.
[Sydney comment]
I've had some incredible dining experiences using coupons such as a 10 course Italian degustation menu at Alio in Surry Hills for $29, and twice at Izakaya Arigato in Chatswood ($29 for $64 worth of food, and dinner for 2 for $49 - 2 Starters, Sushi or Sashimi, 2 Mains, 2 Desserts plus a bottle of Hakushika Sake). Fantastic food at top rated restaurants at very discounted prices.
However, the quality of the food deals has declined markedly over the last year. They are mainly start ups trying to publicise their recent opening or more established businesses trying to drive volume and pushing the quality of their fare down market to match their reduced revenue (they have to split the revenue with the coupon business).
In September last year I bought a coupon directly from one of the restaurants - all you can eat Japanese for $65. I figured that my partner and I could try a bit of everything on their menu and come back in future if it was good. The old reviews were good but there were emerging poor reviews regarding slow service and so on due to coupon business. I took a gamble and went for it. However, by time I made a reservation recently the quality of the reviews had sunk to 1's and 2's. People who bought the all you can eat sushi got mainly rice in their rolls. Thank goodness they recently closed and refunded my money.
So I went to Masuya in O'Connell Street instead - a restaurant I've always enjoyed, whether for dinner or lunch, including at the sister restaurants. I paid 33% more ($87 for a sashimi platter and seafood hotpot). The seafood was incredibly fresh and very high quality, and there was far more than two people could eat. We took away the leftovers, such as crab and salmon.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1209/img0080un.jpg
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/576/img0082rc.jpg
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8744/img0083gw.jpgI've found with fine dining that it's easy to end up being penny wise but pound foolish. Things to avoid include:
All you can eat situations. I've done a few of these with mates, and it's tempting to try to get your money's worth. All you do is end up very full, but unsatisfied.
Ones that come with a free bottle of wine. Unless your partner drinks a bit, it's hard for one person to finish off a bottle of wine and still enjoy/remember the meal.
Newly opened businesses.
Average reviews.
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/95365
Recent free Grill'd burger at Macquarie Shopping Centre. Grill'd makes great burgers, a slight step up from what a cafe may offer. Tasted great and was even better knowing that it was free! You might say the lines we're long but at 2-2:30pm lines were considerably short (compared to other's comments) and were about 10 minutes wait. I guess there was a massive line because 12-1pm would be many people's lunchtime. Customer turnaround was fast and food still tasted great even after pumping out so many. Burger bun was nice, crisp and crunchy with a soft innard. Patty was juicy and beefy. Vege's were fresh and crunchy.
The Almighty - free!!!!!
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8224/dozbupload.jpgWe chose to shell out 4.50 for some herbed chips and wow they were good. Crisp and not too thick. Seasoned well with herbs and salt. Although not the cheapest, it was a great thing to have with the free burgers.
Chips - $4.50 regular
http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/5853/ozbchips.jpgLets hope Grill'd Macquarie keeps up the quality because I would shell out the full price for a burger like that.
When stepping into Costa Dol Sol Restaurant, Petersham, I am transported back to Portugal. This quaint Portuguese restaurant serves great home-style food in a friendly family atmosphere, just as if you were really in Portugal.
I recently dined at Costa Dol Sol Restaurant using a group voucher deal, but have also been there many times with Entertainment Book vouchers, but I would be very happy to pay the full price as the menu is very reasonably priced. The food is delicious, it's BYO and fully licensed and the service is excellent. As you arrive you are given complementary olives and bread. Then menu has a great variety of dishes, all authentic Portuguese meals from entree to deserts. Your leave the restaurant with a full belly and money left in your pocket.
If you have already visited Portugal you will understand how authentic this restaurant is, if you haven't been to Portugal and would like to get a taste of Portugal then this is the place for you!
http://imageshack.us/a/img18/3581/20130302193257.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img12/1929/20130302190906.jpgMy girlfriend and I had an awesome Valentines Day lunch at Est. in Sydney. It was a really awesome fine dining experience at one of the best restaurants in Sydney, they've been awarded three chefs hat for almost 8 years in a row.
The food was amazing, my favourite though was the entree (Moreton bay bug, wombok, coconut, ginger, chilli, kaffir lime, coriander) which is simply a melting pot of flavours and tastes.
Photo here: http://www.theckdiary.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/DSC0223…The service was equally amazing, with very attentive service and waiters who went out of their way to help you. They offered to split the entree (one dish) into two plates so we didn't need to share, and they also made a new table for us closer to the window when we asked if it was possible, no hesitations.
The BEST part of this story though is the bill came to only about $120 for TWO, this is probably the best value 3 chefs hat in Australia. Quay or Tetsuyas charge over $200 PER person for their menus.
How did I do it? The March into Merivale special menu offers $55 for two courses per person up until the end of March (+ $20 for wine). We also got $13 credit for the Merivale Amex Deal.We're also regular food bloggers so you can read the rest here with photos :)
http://www.theckdiary.net/2013/02/est-cbd/I recently drove Highway 1 up the west coast of California & Oregon with my girlfriend. We stopped in San Francisco on my birthday & went to The Buena Vista Cafe (supposedly the place that introduced Irish coffee to San Francisco). They have lots of huge tables & a great policy of sitting different groups at each table to stimulate conversation.
This happened when we started talking to 3 Americans & ended up spening nearly 2 hours there. When it came to settling up we asked the waitress for our bill & she told us it had been taken care of…… They'd paid for everything, drinks, food & even the tip.
We were so grateful & had a tear in our eyes. We offered to pay the tip & they so 'no, just promise us in 20 years time you'll do the same to another couple like you'.
Really kicked my birthday off to a great start.
A small gesture in the grand scheme of things but a massive gesture of humanity.I've sent a PM (private message) to each of the winners. For the newbies, there should be an envelope on the top right of your screen.
Guess I'll kick it off!
Through OB, I found out about Agendacity.com which offered 30% off the bill at various restaurants. Seemed too good to be true as some of the restaurants were quite upmarket. I gave it a shot anyway and booked the Ocean Room at Circular Quay back in June last year.
Food turned out to be amazing with very unique presentations (sashimi shots served in a bowl of ice which had multicolour LEDs), but the highlight of the night was the tuna wing.
http://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/11493/15238/wp_000034.j…
Hopefully from the pic you can see the sheer size of the tuna wing! If you can't quite make it out, it was broader than my shoulders!
Would have gladly paid full price for it and the 30% off the bill at the end was just icing on the cake (that we couldn't eat on account of so much tuna…)