Sea Bay Handmade Noodles Parramatta, Max Brenner and Date Night

        Every weekend that approaches it's usually the same conversation for Ryan and I "What are we doing this weekend babe?". And to think we've been together for almost 10 years now, that's probably the reason why our weekends have become almost the same routine week in and week out. Once in a while we go out on a "date" just to get out of the house and spend some quality time with each other away from the TV. So this Friday night we decide that we would go see a movie (free movie tickets from work = score!). We also need to eat so our date ends up being dinner and a movie (yes cliche I know). Parramatta also seems to be our "date" venue a lot of the time though we're yet to find a great place to eat at.

        Ryan thinks that I should decide where we are eating, but I know that he will always end up having some kind of influence because he is so picky. As we drive through Church Street Parramatta heading into Westfields I see a sign saying "Sea Bay Handmade Noodle Restuarant". I recognised the sign but only now after research realise that it was because I read a review of the Burwood "Sea Bay" in Good Living. I also find out there is also a Sea Bay in the city, I wonder if they have any affiliation with each other? So we go and buy our movie tickets early and then head down stairs and I mention Sea Bay to Ryan and he agrees to give it a go - I think the words handmade noodles got him. So we walk into the restuarant, the place looks fairly new. There is a newspaper clipping in the window but I don't get a chance to have a closer look. There's only a few tables of diners but it quickly fills up once we're settled down. It seems that everywhere we go, if the place seems "quiet" when we arrive, it always seems to fill up straight after we arrive.

        Supposedly not too hungry, Ryan thinks we should order two "entrees" and a "main" each. Ryan chooses the Spicey Lamb Skewers and I wanted dumplings so he suggests Steamed Dumplings to start. For "main" he chooses the Fried Handmade Noodles with Beef and I go for the Soup Dumplings with Handmade Noodles. We're told that there will be a delay for the lamb skewers and dumplings, we're cool with that. So the first of the noodle dishes comes out. It's the fried noodles with beef - the plate is HUGE. Our dinner conversation goes along the lines of this... Me: "So, what do you think babe?" and then Ryan starts disecting the dish and critiquing it. He is a huge food critic when it comes to food though he will happily down everything I cook =D. We both agree that the texture of the handmade noodles is definately something special, flavour wise though the dish is lacking something. Take away the handmade noodles and it's really just an ordinary stir fry, okay to eat but nothing fantastic.

Welcome to our hotel?

        We're almost through the fried noodles then out comes this HUGE bowl. This dish has alot more flavour compared to the fried noodles, a little too much though after a while. There is a huge punch of pepper in the soup which really spoils the whole eating experience after a while. Now I don't know if these are the true "soup dumplings" that I've read about but there was not really any soup in them, the filling was moist though indicating that there is some liquid in them. The dumpling wrappers were a little too thick for my liking though, almost tasting a little like raw dough, perhaps a little undercooked even. Ryan agreed. I really liked the filling though but Ryan thought it was just "okay". I found that when I finally got to the last soup dumpling the heat of the soup had cooked it a little more and it didn't taste as raw.

        While we're eating the noodles out comes our two steamers full of dumplings. Whoops, we didn't think to ask how many were in a serving - there's 12! As soon as I saw the dumplings and felt my tummy filling up from the noodles I knew that we were definately going to be taking away some food. We have one or two dumplings, they look the same but are definately better than the soup dumplings, perhaps because they were more cooked. It was pretty much the same filling.

        We could smell the spices wafting up from the lamb skewers. They were pretty good, Ryan favoured these out of all the dishes. The cubes of lamb were tender and the spices were well balanced. We can't finish them though so stick them into a take away container with the steamed dumplings. We both agreed that this restaurant wasn't a stand out and apart from the handmade noodles there was not alot that would make us want to come back again, there's still other places to try out in Parramatta.

        We end up finishing dinner super early and had a whole lot of time to kill before the movie. With both of us wanting something a little sweet to try and balance out the pepper from dinner we thought we would try our luck at Max Brenners, the line isn't too long at all and we're able to score a table to sit down at. The line grew out to the door by the time Ryan had finished ordering and sat down.

        Ryan only wanted a drink but I felt like something sweet in addition to a drink so we both decided to share the exploding shot. Melted chocolate with white chocolate drops and popping candy, and a few gumy bears on the side. This brang back so many childhood memories! I felt like a big kid! Ryan mixed the pop rocks into the chocolate, every spoonful of chocolate became an explosion in our mouths. I would just suck the chocolate off the rocks and then listen to and feel the popping explosion in my mouth. It was awesome!

        Ryan had the White Shake (Lychee and Coconut) and I had the Whipped Chocolate Frappe (Dark Chocolate). My first time having the whipped frappe, it was interesting, the dark chocolate was a little too strong for my liking though. Couldn't finish out drinks because by now we were absolutely stuffed.

        We still had time on our hands before the movie so headed to Border's. I found myself in my favourite section =).

        Date Night was an absolute cracker of a movie. As I hadn't really seen the trailer for it and only hearing that "it's really good" I really didn't know what to expect. The movie choice was actually Ryan's and he had seen the trailer. I was actually thinking it was probably a "romantic comedy" - in a way it is but it's more comedy than romance. Glad we watched it though, it was a great end to our night out. Laughs galore, plenty of cringeful scenes where we would be laughing and covering our eyes because we couldn't bare to watch it. It was a fun movie to watch, I'd give it a 7/10. So after the movie we drive back to Ryan's and watch Kitchen Nightmares on Ryan's HDTV. I loooove his HDTV, especially when we watch anything food related =D.