Being in the hood of Pyrmont with friends to view the fireworks during new year's eve, where to for dinner was the question?
We wanted to choose something exotic for our friends to savour so, walking down Harris St towards Pyrmont Park we come to 1945 [this is our 2nd time we've been here so can recommend this place, first time was back in Jul 10 with friends C&J].
1945 is a restaurant specialising in a dutch east indies cuisine according to the menu they gave us. Upon entering there is always a fragrant spicy aroma emitting from the kitchen, which if you are in a state of hunger, makes you lusting for food quick!
For those of you that don't know what the Dutch East Indies, it was a dutch colony that is now modern Indonesia. In simple sense, if you have had cheap Indonesian food before in some of the "not so grand looking" restaurants around Sydney (especially around Kensington, Anzac Pde & inner city areas like Shalom bad service but tasty chicken) this restaurant here brings Indonesian food one knotch up. Fine food, fine dining, fine service and well plated food that tantalises your taste buds....for a slightly dearer price than the "non so grand looking indonesian restaurants" that you expect. I'm not Indonesian background, but have had my share of Indo food around town so know the fare that I am sampling tastes good enough to come pay a second time visit :)
The 1945 Restaurant revolves around the concept of "the Dutch Colonia feast, Rijsttafel (meaning rice table)" and the menu showcases various exotic spices of "true" Indonesian food even after the era of the country's independence in 1945.
Hence we can understand how the naming of the restaurant came about.
Here at 1945 the inspiration by Rijsttafel, the restaurant tries to replicate the era of fine indonesian cuisine, focused on serving small sized portions to savour the many distinct flavours, colours & textures of dishes in the one sitting. I do like sampling various food...great selection of dishes to share too, pricing of dishes range from $3-20.
Appetisers: range from $3-5 a plate, grilled pork or chicken sate skewers are priced at $3. Obviously you won't get a large amount of skewers but as a sampler plate, means you get to try other dishes like Indonesian fried tofu or deep fried pork neck marinated in wine for $5 also yummy.
Main dishes: are priced around $5-7 a plate, again don't expect huge servings, they are again sampler plates. For $5 you can get aromatic grilled chicken simmered in exotic blend of spices to seafood dishes like mussels in a fiery chilli sauce. Great if you can eat chilli or for other seafood, deep fried squid for $7 bucks.
Other meat dishes: from $6-7 a dish you can get what I consider an exotic choice for us (as we rarely cook oxtail), is grilled honey glazed oxtail with cashew nuts for $6 or oxtail soup at $7 or you should try out their delicious stewed pork belly in sweet star anise sauce too!
For those that are vegetarian: there are vege dishes ranging from $3-6 a dish like chilli sauce with eggplant to javanese fried beancurd or crunchy corn fritters.
We also opted to try out their
street food menus: these dishes are slightly larger, pricing for these range from $10-20.A typical Indo dish we usually opt for is of course "Nasi Goreng" [Fried rice served with fried egg, pickles & butternut crackers or you could opt for the fried rice with just tiger prawns and sator beans too!].
So many choices...what to pick?
As the saying goes, sharing is caring, so we had to opt for the set menu # 3, the grande cuisine that features a range of dishes all served at once on a lovely timber tray with banana leaves...like a mini degustation menu on the one platter.
Set Menu #3 has servings for 2 people. However, we came with 4 people in total for our dinner trek. We ordered this set menu to share between the four of us and ordered a range of other side dishes to share plus extra servings of rice [2 lovely couples make great company- to M&N, we really enjoyed the night].
