Jimmy Liks, Potts Point
Two trusted independent sources, a third overheard and verified – Jimmy Lik’s is very good. Must try. Hmmm… Longrain or Jimmy Liks? Both are kinda modern asian with a twist, both are actually quite a bit more expensive than traditional Asian food! OK, Jimmy Liks it is. It’s in Pott’s Point, on a very quiet street. Issue number one. Parking – or lack thereof. We circled the Cross, Potts Point, everywhere is only 1 hour parking! And on both sides of the street – diligent parking inspectors, so no sneaky overtime parking! The paid carparks were a bit too far. Lucky – 20 minutes circling later, some parking outside the school. We found the restaurant, heaters blazing outside, two entrances – one to the bar, and one to the restaurant. In the restaurant, communal dining is the go. Which is great for groups, but slightly awkward for the two of us. Their method is to seat couples side by side on the long communal table, NOT opposite. Which lead me to say to the (very hot stranger in front of me): “Despite the fact that I would love to gaze into your eyes all night, I don’t know you, so would you mind if we swapped?”. Hot guy agreed, and we swapped. Oh dear. All the staff found this highly confusing, as all night, we got each others’ food served to us wrongly! And pity, hot guy’s hot girlfriend came along eventually too. D’oh! hehehe. Anyway, awkward seating aside… the food was quite good. We tried the corn fritters. (Have you noticed I have a thing for corn fritters?). I expected breakfast style pancakes, but instead, 6 round puffs slightly bigger than golf balls. They stick together with their batter, and are served with an assortment of vietnamese herbs, and a home made sweet chilli sauce.
We also opted for a sticky crispy skin duck with tamarind and orange ($33). Viet style duck a l’orange I guess? It was very sweet and sticky, and yummy, but bits of it were a bit too deep fried till they became like duck jerky! But the garnishes were so beautiful and fresh, and the sauce very fragrant.
Regrettably, we thought we knew better than the waiter. He (wisely) recommended that we opt for something different than our caramelised beef rib, as all our dishes were sweet. He was right! It would have been good to order something with a different element (salty for example), as the flavours were quite similiar. Not so generous this one, but lip smackingly delicious all the same.
There is in fact a very good value set banquet menu, which is very popular to groups, it seems like group thing is something they do very well. The staff are extremely nice and friendly and knowledgeable (Apart from not being able to cope with a quick seat swap!). If you live in the area walking distance, or don’t mind catching the train, it’s quite a nice little funky place to try. If you drive – maybe give it a miss, unless you are blessed with parking luck or can eat in an hour!