Rock Sugar – South Yarra

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset — Chicken and Prawn dumplings – with green onion and chilli relish

Located right on Malvern Road, sits a modern Thai restaurant named Rock Sugar. First time I heard about this was through, surprise surprise, Instagram as their fairy floss cocktails floods the square feed. With the wide range of innovative cocktails to choose from and the fun modern vibe it offers, Rock Sugar is the perfect place for a night out with your girls… or anyone really. The cocktail, Blue Bird, has a nice blend of sake and lychee flavours as well as a fun a popping pearls. How cute is the Boba cup?

I have always been a big fan of starters, most of the time they sound more interesting than the mains (to me specifically) and they look prettier. So this time round we chose a total of 4 starters.
I asked Ariel, who helped me organise this dinner, for some of her favourite dishes. With full confidence she suggested the chicken and prawn dumplings with special mention of the chilli relish and oh boy she was right. I love the mixture of proteins, prawns just add a nice depth of flavour to the chicken and the chilli relish was the perfect accompaniment to complete the dish.
The beef short rib, as expected, falls off the bone and the meat was ever so soft without having too much fat (i’m very picky with my meat and this was perfect). The pickles on top was a great garnish to cleanse the palate.
I didn’t get a close up photo of the spicy tuna tartare, but it’s somewhere in one of the photos down below. It was another great starter, but definitely a dish you can’t share. The tuna was cut in blocks and mixed with avocado and placed on a lime rice cracker. The taste was so refreshing, kind of reminds me of a ceviche but a bit more creamy due to the avocado. Having it placed on a cracker was just easier for me to pick it up and devour it in seconds while adding a different texture.
Lastly, the steamed buns. I canNOT NOT order a bao, i feel like no one can go wrong with an open bao sandwich. Rock Sugar offers 2 irresistible fillings: crispy pork belly and soft-shell crab. I really could not choose between the two and still can’t choose which one I like better after tasting it, so we got both. They are similar in concept, in that both proteins are crispy, the garnishes and sauce they have were refreshing to add great balance to the dish. The buns are super soft which again, adds contrast to the texture. I guess in the end it just comes down to which protein you like better, because both are full of flavours.

As we went all out with the starters, we chose only one main which was the red curry and a bowl of rice to soak up all the curry. The duck leg was cooked perfectly, it was slightly crispy on the outside but also soaked with the curry sauce. Like the short rib, the meat falls of the bone so we didn’t need to dig in using our hands (phew!). I usually never like pineapple with my savouries, but this time around it was a nice sweet and refreshing addition.