Mr B’s, or more specifically the Japanese & Thai restaurant Iima located on the same premises, is a venue that’s only come up on my radar recently; a last minute invite for dinner out with friends, and friends of friends. It is something of a curiousity, or perhaps an oddity.

Encompassed within the two levels of this establishment (ground floor and overlooking mezzanine) that use to be the premises of the old Mandarin Club, are a Thai restaurant, Japanese restaurant & a western bar/lounge (with its own menu). It’s an East-meets-East-meets-West sort of affair. However, each component remains true to itself and distinct from each other (for the most part), rarely falling into the culinarily dubious territory of fusion cuisine.

This philosophy follows through to the kitchen at Iima, as there are two distinct crews working independently on the Japanese & Thai dishes. So too, is the Mr B’s bar portion of this establishment.

Before we move onto the food, there is something to be said for these magnificent, tall-backed leather arm chairs located on the mezzanine lounge area of Mr B’s. These seats are absolutely awesome! You can’t help but feel a sense of power, or at the very least a commanding presence, whilst your seated in these leather thrones. As with any seat of power, eyes fall upon you with a covetous gaze. Vultures, patiently circling, biding their time until they can swoop down and claim these seats as their own.

Iima, however, is more of a humble affair with its basic restaurant tables and seats.

For those of you that know me, or have followed my blog for some time, you should know that there are a number of benchmark dishes that I use as a rough guide to the quality of the food served at any given restaurant. In the case of Thai food, the benchmark dish is, for better or worse, the Pad Thai, for reasons that I’ve stated in a previous post.

This Pad Thai is very much along the lines of what you can expect to find at Chat Thai, from its degree of authenticity, to its flavour & quality. This should come as no surprise to those that know that the person who had built Chat Thai to the hallmark that it is today was the same person behind Iima, namely Amy Chanta.

The dish was sufficiently sauced so that rice noodles weren’t dry or clumping together like they often tend to with lesser quality Pad Thai’s I’ve had at other restaurants in the past. In this particular case, the Pad Thai was slightly better than what I’ve previously enjoyed at Chat Thai.

The Salmon Aburi Sushi is better than what I’ve experienced at a lot of specialised sushi restaurants. The salmon was fresh. The blowtorch char of outer surface lent a wonderful smokey flavour and aroma to the dish. The sweet sauce, along with a drizzle of creamy mayo, served to complement the dish without overpowering any of its components.

Iima Cocktail Sashimi is essentially a salad of mixed salmon and tuna sashimi, served with a ponzu dressing. As with the previous sushi, the sashimi was delightfully fresh.

A mixed assortment of tempura was certainly up there with some of the better ones I’ve had. Superbly crispy on the outside without either overcooking the battered contents, or ending up tasting overly greasy.

Kareage, deep fried marinated chicken with a delightfully crispy coating, as with the tempura, was one of the better ones I’ve had. The chicken was moist and quite flavourful having been marinated in a soy-based marinade, which permeates throughout the meat. It seems to be a step that a lot of places either skip or under do. The only downside to this dish was that it could have done with a little more mayo.

The Som Dtum Tempura is where we start to enter into fusion territory. Think of a regular som dtum salad for a moment. The searing heat of the chili, the salty fishiness of nam pla, sourness of lime, the textures of dried shrimp and roasted peanuts, and so forth. It’s all there. Except that the green papaya is deep fried in a tempura batter, and the dish is served warm.

It seems so wrong in principle, in the same way that deep fried pizza seems likewise so very, very wrong. Yet, somehow the dish works. The crispy and slightly chewy texture of the deep fried papaya works so well with the rest of the salad. The warmed of the green papaya tempura intensifies the flavours & aromas of the dish that you simply cannot replicate with a standard som tum. As wrong it may have seemed in principle, and as apprehensive as I was when I was trying out this dish, it’s something that I will certainly be coming back for.

Maybe I should give that deep fried pizza thing a go sometime…

We cap off the evening with some dessert. There isn’t much in the way of a dessert menu at Iima beyond pancakes. If however, you a partial to pancakes, there’s a lot of options for you to choose from.

In my case, I went with the pandan pancakes served with pandan sauce and a side of coconut ice cream. As pancakes go, it was quite nice. The coconut ice cream wasn’t too bad either. Can’t quite say the same for the pandan sauce though, as I wasn’t a huge fan of it. Not that it tasted bad as such. Just wasn’t into the mouth feel of it. Felt like those cheap, gelatinous sauces that are meant to imitate a creamy flavour/texture but without the cream. Maybe it’s just me but I’m very particular about that sort of thing.

Overall, the experience at Iima and bar/lounge areas of Mr B’s was a fantastic one, with the food being quite good and the prices quite reasonable (around $12 a dish). It also opens quite late, with operating hours from 11am to 2am daily. With the popularity of establishments like Chat Thai or Mamak, I dare say that in time (if it isn’t already now), Iima will be a destination of choice for late night diners, or those that are just sick of waiting in hour long queues, seated in cramped quarters without the ability to reserve seats in advance. Yes, Iima takes reservations. Not that we really needed it at the time we went, as there was sufficient seating to be had.

What Iima lacks in its depth of dishes when compared to Chat Thai, it more than makes up for with an equivalent level of quality, its breadth of dishes, very reasonable price point, access to a bar &, in my mind most importantly, it’s very unlikely that you’ll need to wait around to be seated. If you do, there is a bar, and a lounge area on the mezzanine, to loiter around until a seat is made available. Even then, I doubt you’ll be waiting long.

Iima @ Mr B’s Hotel
390-396 Pitt St, Sydney (corner of Pitt St & Goulburn St)
Ph: 02 8080 7777
11am to 2am daily

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Ever wondered what late night dining options there are around Sydney? I’m not talking just your Friday/Saturday nights. That’s pretty easy. I’m talking about the middle of the week, when say you’ve had to stay back real late at the office and you’re looking for something other than the ubiquitous 24 hrs McDonalds on your way home. Perhaps you have a hankering for late night pancakes and you can’t be stuffed making them. Perhaps, like with the food bloggers from Here Comes the Food and vue de cuisinier and myself, you just feel the urge to go out and grab a late night meal with friends, just because we can :)

This isn’t the first time I’ve been out on a late night food run. Previously runs have included hotdogs and pies at Harry’s Cafe de Wheels in Wooloomooloo with Lex and Richard, which was capped of with a slice of Adriano Zumbo’s limited edition Chocolate Mousse Cake, as seen on Masterchef Australia. More recently an outing with Yas to Kasumi for monjayaki (review by Grab Your Fork), which unfortunately wasn’t available at the time that we arrived (not available after 10:30pm, if you’re wondering). This time around, we started off in Surry Hills at a Lebanese restaurant/take away joint called Fatima’s (SMH review here).

I drive past this place to and from work everyday. Every time I’ve driven past this place, even after a really late night at the office, they always seen to be open. I’ve been here a couple of times before but I thought I’d bring the guys along to check out this place.

Ok, you might be thinking to yourself “Lebanese food. Kebab. Dodgy”. It’s not so at this place, or at least that’s how I see it. It’s not the best I’ve ever had but at the hours they’re open (2am daily from what I was told my the guy behind the counter) and the prices they charge, I find they’re a far better option than the other kebab joints in the area.

For instance, almost everything is made fresh to order. Take for instance this freshly grilled lamb shish kebab roll with hommus, tabuleh, chili sauce and garlic sauce. The lamb’s not the best tasting that I’ve ever had but for $6.50 it’s pretty good.

Take the falafel too. These aren’t the premade, reheated in the microwave, soggy and rubbery falafels you’ll often find in a falafel roll. No! These babies are fried to order, giving these delightful balls of chickpeas, sesame seeds, parsley, garlic and other spices a superbly crunchy exterior with a soft, aromatic interior. Probably a little too much garlic for some but I love garlic so it sits fine with me. At 80 cents a pop, this is something I get at least a few of each time I come to this place, regardless of what I end up buying.

The baklava here is likewise nice. Crispy exterior complementing the texture and flavour of the nutty interior. The butter syrup has just the right balance, giving a nice buttery sweetness without going overboard, like most baklava I have to date. I’d not made note of the exact price at the time but they’re around $1 a piece.

If you’re wondering about the weird lighting and crumpled bags, it’s because we ate the food at a nearby bus stop as they were only serving take away at the time we were there (around 12am).

As with most food outings involving a group of food bloggers, going to a single restaurant and then calling it a night is almost unheard of. So we kick on to Pancakes on the Rocks for dessert.

Yes, Pancakes. I know what you might be thinking. I imagine it would be something along the lines of what you would think if I’d suggested that we go to City Extra. Well, you see, it’s been somewhere in the ballpark of 15 years since I last went there. Figuring this and that there weren’t really any other dessert options that came to mind during our weekday evening outing (it was 1am by this stage), we figured why the hell not.

We started off with drinks; (clockwise, from the top left) Lime Ice Cream Soda $3.25, Caramel Swiss Shake $3.95, Marshmallow Cocoa $3.25.

Short Stack $6.95 – served with maple syrup and vanilla ice cream.

The Ultimate $12.95 – crepe filled with cream cheese & sultanas, served with a raspberry coulis, strawberry and vanilla ice cream. I had a bit of this. It wasn’t too bad. Filling might be a bit rich for someone not into cream cheese but I didn’t have an issue with it.

Hot N’ Troppo $10.95 – stack of two buttermilk pancakes served with grilled bananas, walnuts, cream, chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce. Maybe it was just me. Maybe it was a bad night or something but these were far from the best pancakes I’ve ever had. Very, very far. The pancakes were dry and tasted unpleasant. It kind of makes me wonder whether the reason I’ve not been back in the past 15 years was because I had the same experience the last time. Can’t for the life of me recall.

The rest of the dish was alright though. Enjoyed eating the grilled bananas with the walnuts and chocolate ice cream.

Ahh, thanks but I think I’ll pass.

I’m sure that there will be more late night food runs to be experienced.If you’re interested in joining in, keep an eye out for a call for a late night supper on Twitter. If you’re not already following me, you can do so at my twitter profile. Otherwise, feel free to organise one of your own :)

Do you know of any good places that opens until late (say, past midnight)? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

One final note, you may have noticed that it’s been a while since my last post. Apologies for that. A lot has been going on again in my personal/work life so posts may be somewhat infrequent. Hopefully I’ll be back to a regular posting schedule sometime in the near future.

Fatima’s
294-296 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills
Mon-Sat: 9am to 2am
Sun: 9:30am to 2am

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Pancakes on the Rocks
4 Hickson Rd, The Rocks
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week.

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