#onethumbup

Campbelltown RSL houses a buffet - Star Buffet - which is a very spacious and welcoming dining area. Tommy H, LeeLoo, Kannibal and William went there on a Sunday night. It wasn’t too busy; in fact, it had a very early closing time that night at just before 9pm. 

One of the things we were told was that there’s a bottomless (free refill) cup of soft drink (including slushies) for $2.80! Awesome - a great way to complement the meal. But don’t forget to eat lots of food and try lots of dishes. It costs $26.80 for an adult but you get a $2 discount if you’re a club member.

After we were directed to our seat, we sat down and then took turns exploring the various cuisines the buffet had to offer.

A very spacious dining hall! There’s plenty of room for all of your plates!

A delicious and smooth chicken corn soup. It was a bit on the watery, rather than thick side, so your mileage may vary when it comes to the texture. It seemed rather appropriate for this setting though, as a thicker consistency would have filled the stomach a lot quicker. 

An assortment of fried delights - chicken nuggets, chips and squid! Be careful not to overload on these.

Chicken schnitzel, baked potatoes, pasta, and roast!

Chicken curry! Shame there was no plain rice in view - probably would have been a good supplementary dish.

Fish! There was a variety of fish dishes available. The pan fried salmon was particularly good!

An Asian roast section, including roast pork and char siu. This section was particularly popular. The roast pork was cooked to perfection with excellent crackling.

Asian Roast

Roast pork with crackling

Chocolate fountain

The obligatory chocolate fountain shot! Dip some crunchy amaretto biscuits and pineapples into this. One of many desserts to choose from. 

On the way to the cold section - where I particularly enjoyed a lot of the dishes, including the cold calamari salad - I eyed some dishes of smoked salmon. Delicious and delicate!

Some siu mai for those confused stomachs!

A number of desserts, including cupcakes, chocolate cakes and cheesecakes. Unfortunately, the desserts section was rather lacklustre. The cakes were either overly sweet, or stale. The chocolate cream was too overpowering with a strong sense of artificiality in its flavour. A bit disappointing; probably rather recommend the fresh fruit section (though that in itself was also a bit meagre, with only watermelon and rockmelon).

Chocolate mousse

It was too tempting to go back for one more bowl of the excellent Hokkien noodles after the unremarkable dessert section. It would be a good idea to scoop all the way down to the bottom to reach the unburnt bits, but this was definitely the highlight of my night. A humble, yet very true and fantastic dish.

Obligatory soft serve

Kannibal had the ingenious idea of adding frozen Coke to her vanilla soft serve to create a “spider” and LeeLoo opted for the usual chocolate syrup and sprinkles.

Sesame rice cake - actually was rather tasty and chewy

A cappuccino (which was instant and didn’t really taste like a cappuccino) was a good way to finish the night.

Overall:

Star Buffet at Campbelltown offers a spacious and comfortable dining area with a great range of options for food. Some were far better than others. In particular, the top three dishes included the Hokkien noodles, pan fried salmon and the roast. There was a sushi train present as well, with a nice selection of some of the staples of basic sushi, including salmon, egg and kombu.

The dessert section was sadly a little lacklustre though. It would have been nice to have more fruit as well, so the tail end of the buffet was a bit disappointing. Hopefully if their dessert section could be improved, then the offering would be much better.

Still, if you’re in the area, it would be a good place to dine. It’s reasonably priced for what you get, and would be a fine choice - especially if you’re not sure what you want to eat!

Korean Fried Chicken, or rather, KFC, has become a huge trend in Sydney lately with new KFC joints popping up everywhere and now, Hurstville has joined the KFC gang.

It’s conveniently located above Golden Tiger Bar just outside the main Hurstville bus stop. Chicken Maru is actually a popular franchise back in Korea similar to the likes of Hot Star in Taiwan which moved to Sydney just last year.

Golden Tiger Bar is actually a newly-opened pub and it is rather odd seeing a Korean restaurant above a pub but many restaurants work in this manner, the most well-known example being Holy Basil located within Shark Hotel in the city.

So up the stairs LeeLoo and Gourmet Gumbo went.

They were greeted by the cute decor typical of most Korean restaurants these days. The restaurant was brightly lit which made for great food photography.

It definitely was rather quiet when we arrived but I guess it’s still early days for this restaurant.

Interestingly, Monday is known as “Chicken day” which means that the only dishes available are the chicken ones (i.e. no beef) and that’s because the chef has a day off on Monday. However, because of this, if you order a fried chicken dish, you can actually get free soft drink (sadly excludes Lemon Lime Bitters)!

Lemonade (complimentary)

Complimentary Korean cold starters with free refills!

Fried zucchini

Pickled Radish

Pickled Cucumber

Kimchi

Tofu

Soy Chicken with Chilli (half) $18.00

Gourmet Gumbo loved this dish immensely. The batter was cooked to perfection and the chicken was flavoursome and tender. LeeLoo thought it was bit too spicy for her liking, should have gone with the soy chicken without chilli.

Whole young chicken with healthy vegetables $20.00

Ever since LeeLoo had the Ginseng chicken dish as NaruOne, she craved the equivalent dish and this seemed pretty similar. The broth was delicious and full of flavour.

However, when LeeLoo cut apart the chicken, it looked rather pink inside and was not evenly cooked. Some parts were still quite cold whilst other aspects of the dish were burning hot. It was interesting having the rice incorporated into the chicken as a stuffing making it taste almost like glutinous sticky rice.

Bibimbap $15.00

Rice with seasoned vegetables and spicy pork in Hot Stone

Sadly, they didn’t have the seafood pancake that night which is one of our favourite Korean dishes. Instead, bibimbap was still pretty awesome.

Check out that egg porn

Best thing to do is just mix it all up!

Comes with a nice spicy sauce on the side if you want an extra kick, although it already is quite spicy.

Free tea!

At the end of the meal, the waitress came around offering free tea to all the patrons. Excellent service!

Overall:

Chicken Maru is a nice new Korean joint in Hurstville if you’re a fan of fried chicken and bibimbap. Try not to go on a Monday because a lot of items on the menu aren’t available and since the chef isn’t there, there isn’t a guarantee as to the standard of the dishes. Sadly, the chicken broth dish was cooked rather unevenly. Otherwise, the fried chicken was incredible. The service was fantastic with a lot of complimentary starter dishes, free soft drink and free tea!

After studying at Oliver Brown, they ventured inside Yunnan Two Sticks. They were surprised to find a new Yunnan Two Sticks located next door. Gourmet Gumbo was under the impression that Yunnan Two Sticks only existed along the busy George Street.

It was clear from the décor that this restaurant was under the management of the same owner. The bright yellow of the wallpaper and lights emitted a familiar glow and the menu showed identical items to the George St establishment. Only difference, this place was significantly larger!

Yunnan Signature Rice Noodle Soup  $11.80 

Gourmet Gumbo's friend chose the Signature Noodle Soup again, as she knew she would not be disappointed by its flavour and portion size. The waiting time was only around 10 minutes. The broth was filled to the brim of the pot, and steaming hot. The noodles and bean curd sizzled in the pot when she dunked them in the broth. Gourmet Gumbo's friend could not help salivating by the aroma rising from the bowl.

Mushroom Rice Noodle Soup $13.80

Gourmet Gumbo chose a similar menu item, but this time with the incorporation of mushrooms of all varieties: enoki mushrooms, button mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms. She would have liked to the mushrooms flavours to be more prominent in the broth, but felt this broth was identical to the original noodle soup dish. Perhaps soaking the mushrooms in the broth for a longer period of time would have brought out these flavours.

Gratuitous shot of a friend pouring the noodles in the sizzling hot pot

Yunnan Signature Fries $3.80

The fries were a little soggy but very flavourful. Gourmet Gumbo would have liked to taste more of a crunch, but the overpowering soy sauce rendered the fries soggy. 

Overall: