Tim's Surf 'N' Turf in Darwin NT

Recently spent 5 days in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia for the 2012 SkyCity Triple Crown V8 Supercars Championships at the Hidden Valley Racing Circuit. Daily dinner was catered by Tim's Surf 'N' Turf Restaurant on Litchfield Street, next to the Chinese Temple Museum.

  

The restaurant took up the ground level, with living quarters on the floor above. There is an indoor seating area, and also an outdoor dining area. Cozy and homely.

Tim, the owner, is very friendly and a good magician too. He entertained us with some of his tricks, like stuffing a mobile phone into a deflating balloon.

  

Everyday we had different entrees which included garlic and cheese baked breads, gourmet vegetarian spring rolls, Turkish bread, salt & pepper squid, calamari rings and even chicken satay. The food was tasty and appetizing, and we tended to eat too much, so much so that we could not finish our main courses.

For the main course, I had the Chicken Parmigiana for lunch on Thursday and the Lamb Shank for dinner on Thursday. Then for Friday dinner, I had the Grilled Barramundi, Saturday dinner I had the Surf "n" Bird. Sunday after the race, I had the Rump Steak for dinner. There was a slight mix up and although I ordered the steak medium rare, I ended up with a steak medium well. And finally on Monday night just before we left for home, I had the Crocodile Schnitzel, and also the Pavlova for dessert. Just couldn't resist it.

 Chicken Parmigiana

(crumbed chicken layered with napoli sauce and melted cheese)

 Lamb Shank

(lamb shank served on a bed of herbal mashed potatoes)

The servings were huge, especially the chicken dishes. The Chicken Parmigiana was very good as it was well coated with cheese, which I love. However, I could only finish about half the chicken.  I did better with the Lamb Shank, which was really tender and the meat just seems to melt in the mouth. 

 Grilled Local Barramundi

(local Barramundi Fish grilled in garlic butter)

 Surf "n" Bird

(chicken schnitzel served with a creamy garlic and sweet chilli sauce and 6 prawns on top)

The Grilled Barramundi was alittle tough and the meat a tad too dry. If it had been served with a cream sauce, it would have been better. Once again the chicken schnitzel in Surf "n" Bird was huge. The crumbed chicken was well fried and rather crispy, and the garlic and sweet chilli sauce was excellent. I found the prawns somewhat small, but the overall combination made the dish very palatable. Too bad I could not finish the chicken once again.

 1/2 Serve Rump Steak

(400-500 gms Quality Guaranteed)

 Crocodile Schnitzel

(crumbed crocodile tail)

A few of my groupmates were complaining that the rump steak was overcooked and burnt, however, I found it grilled just right. Although I really would have liked my steak done medium rare, the serving I had was well grilled, with nice crosshatch grill marks, and still tender inside. The mushroom sauce was light and did not overwhelm the natural taste of the beef.

The Crocodile Schnitzel was an eye opener for me. It was the first time that I am tasting crocodile meat, and I found it to be tough white meat with a slight fishy taste, like eating a mix of chicken and squid. I found it very dry and felt that it would have been better with a mild sauce. In the end, I decided to dip the meat in sweet chilli sauce. That helped.

Pavlova

(meringue-based dessert named after Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova)

I was tempted by the dessert menu and had to choose between the mud cake and the pavlova. But being in Australia, I just had to have the Pavlova. It was very good and the raspberry sauce gave the sweet meringue a slight sourish taste as balance. The portion was just right and left me wanting for more.

All in all, I must thank Tim and his sister Tracy for making our mealtimes so enjoyable and for the excellent service and great food. And especially thank you for the Pavlova which was on the house. Tim had refused to take payment for it.
   

Dragon Phoenix

Recently went for brunch with the family. Originally we intended to have lunch at Shin Yeh, but when we got there at 11:30am on a Sunday, it was still not open. So we ended up at Dragon Phoenix Restaurant on the 6th level of Liang Court instead.

We were seated quickly even though we did not have a reservation. We ordered and the food came relatively quickly and all at one go. In future, we will order in stages, so that the food will remain hot while we eat.

香滑皮蛋粥

海蜇拌汾蹄

即拉叉燒腸粉

炭燒腩仔肉

The Jellyfish and Pork Knuckles dish was quite unusual, topped with a special garlic and shallot sauce, but the Roasted Pork Belly was too thickly sliced and not as crispy as expected. The rest of the dim sum were quite ordinary, not that they were no good, just nothing special to rave about. 

香煎羅卜糕

糯米雞

豉椒鳳爪

芋茸蔥油酥

鮮蝦腐皮卷

叉燒包

I was alittle disappointed with their Char Siew Bao. Although the filling was still tasty, I felt that the bao was too think and dry, not as fluffy as it used to be. The Banana Prawn Roll were quite bad. So thin you could hardly taste the banana, let alone the prawn. Also, until today I am still wondering how the dish came with two-and-a-half rolls. Where did the extra half roll come from? or Was a half roll missing?

香蕉蝦筒

水晶鮮蝦餃

上海小籠包

鮮蝦香茜粉果

上素水晶包

魚子燒賣

The Deep Fried Custard Buns are really nice. Not oily at all, and the soft bun wrapped in crispy skin was a delight to bite into. My son commented that the Mini Egg Tarts were nothing compared with the ones we had in Macau. But they were quite good already considering Singapore standards. Really cannot complain. The sesame coated Deep Fried Dumpling with Custard was also quite good. 

炸奶王包

芝麻奶皇薯棗

迷你蛋撻

All in all, it was quite a pleasant brunch. The food was above average and we got a 50% discount on the dim sum. Must be some sort of promotion that we were not aware of.