Some recent dining out experiences

In an effort to clear my desk of a few bits of notes from places I've eaten that I'd like to write about, here's a few from the last week or so:

Alphabet St, Cronulla

A while ago I came across a list of recommended Sydney Thai Street Food places.
We were there for lunch on a Saturday, but it was still reasonably quiet. I imagine this is something that helped the manager to be quite visible, jovial and friendly with all the customers. When we got there, we were the third table, and 2 other tables arrived while we were eating. The staff were quite attentive, without being intrusive.

My partner ordered the chicken salad, which came out looking like a long green sailboat, with it's 2 green sails standing upright. It must have been tasty, as she devoured all of it.
I ordered the Soft Shell Crab and Coconut Rice. It was a really nice dish with 3 halves of crabs in the mixture. I ate about 2/3 of the dish and half the rice and got to enjoy it again the next day, where it re-heated quite well and still tasted good.

All images are missing as I may have failed at taking photos and haven't found suitable images in my brief search. Guess I'll have to go back again (such a pity)

All up the meal was $56 (including a glass of coke), so not cheap food, but it was certainly good.

[Website}(http://alphabetst.com.au/)
Menu

360 Italian, Sans Souci

This place also seems to be called Ristorante Italiano & Wood fired Pizza Bar, but that's a bit of a mouthful so we'll stick with 360 Italian. My partner and I visited for a Saturday night dinner and found it to be quite a nice and quiet location, but certainly a much better feel than when we'd previously been to "Big John's" that is just up the road. This was also most certainly a bit more up-market to that place, so the bill turned out to be a bit higher too. Worth it though.

I started off with a serve of their Bruschetta ($9), and we shared their Herb Pizza ($15). The bruschetta was wonderful and fresh, and stacked nicely with small tomato pieces, while the herb pizza reminded me of good Italian pizza from my trip to Italy. Sure it wasn't as good, but it was a very good base with a nice amount of herb and mozzarella.

^{That spilled off bit of tomato? I did that when I re-positioned the plate for the photo}

^{cheesy goodness on a fluffy base}

Main course time and Catherine had the Chicken Boscaiola ($32), and I had the Tortellini Boscaiola ($24). Her dish was similar to a 'meat and veg' plate, with some chicken that had a nice sauce on it accompanied by some vegetables, all presented nicely.

Even though my dish contained basically the same sauce, the veal filled parcels of pasta made what seemed like less food into something way more filling. I only got through half of the dish, and some of that was a push. Tasted great, and we were both very satisfied with the much better Italian restaurant that we'd found. And I had more leftovers for me to enjoy the next day. Sadly the sauce didn't reheat as well as it could have, and turned into a buttery clear sauce and a thick creamy sauce. Still worked and tasted fine, but wasn't the same. The tortellini itself was great reheated though, and I'm never one to waste food.

^{Totally worth it. Still not sure what the possibly sweet potato shavings actually were}

Website
Menu

Mary's, CBD

In a change of pace, we're off to a burger joint that I found through The Urban List's article on 50 meals you should have eaten if you live in Sydney (which seems to be unavailable on their website now). I've eaten here before, and quite enjoyed their Cheeseburger, though it was far too early for that so I was trying their Breakfast Burger ($13) today. Sausage patty, Trashcan bacon, Hash brown, Maple Syrup, Cheese, and HP sauce on a brioche bun. delicious, and shockingly not a messy as I expected it would be.

Menu

Sushi Rio, CBD

And finally, a regular place for me. Before I go gaming on Thursdays, I'll sometimes head to this sushi train location in Westfield CBD. After 4 pm, and until 9 pm, all plates (asides from sashimi) are just $3. I tend to have 2-3 plates of nigiri style, and maybe 1 plate of mini sushi rolls (6 pieces), and maybe 1 plate of inari (If they have it going around that day, which they often don't). This week I actually ordered a serve of Chicken Kaarage, which was also only $3, and was very good. 3 pieces of tender chicken with a nice crust.

Zomato Page - They don't have their own website that I could find, but this has all the information anyway.