Devon by night, Surry Hills

In July, Devon Cafe launched "Devon by night" on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.  Anyone who has been to Devon Cafe for breakfast or lunch will not be disappointed - Devon by night is equally creative, delicious and fun! 

Like with their breakfast and lunch menu, Devon by night has an Asian twist to it.  There is a casual but cosy vibe as you walk into the cafe.  

C and our friend ordered some Japanese rice beer.  The beer is sweet and much lighter (but just as flavoursome) as ordinary full strength beer.  But beware...the bottles come in 500mL servings so you may want to share one between two so you have stomach space for the food! 

First up was the pork buns!  Who can go past pork belly, especially after we were informed by the waitress that this pork belly has been cooked 3 ways.  And we were not disappointed!  The pork belly is melt in your mouth tender and has just the right amount of sweetness.  In our opinion, this definitely beats the pork bun at Ippudo! 

Pork Buns - Hakka style Malaysian pork belly

As we mentioned in our last post, C has a serious weakness for fried chicken so it was impossible for us to go past the Korean style fried chicken wings on the menu.  The fried wings came with a side of go-chu-jang (a Korean sweet and spicy sauce) and peanut sauce which was the perfect moreish accompaniment.  The wings did not feel too heavy and was still nicely moist inside.  

KJI Fried Chicken - Korean style chicken wings, go-chu-jang and peanut sauce

Next came the lobster roll that many past visitors of Devon by night have been raving about.  It may have been because we had just tasted the strong flavours of the fried chicken and pork belly bun but comparable, this lobster roll felt like it lacked flavour and an intensity of the sweetness of the lobster that we were expected when we saw the glistening chunks of lobster sitting on the roll.  The kewpie mayonnaise was tasty but we felt like it overpowered the subtle sweetness of the lobster.  

Devon's Lobster Roll

And then came the....PIG EARS! The pig ears were chewy which contrasted against the crispy katsu batter.  However, this dish lacked a bit of flavour even with the mustard and fresh shredded cabbage. 

Then came the beef short ribs.  They may look a bit charred but don't be fooled, these ribs were so good! There is a real punch of chilli and the meat has a good balance of fat to make you keep picking at it for more. Definitely recommend ordering this when you visit.

Aunty Yulia's Short Ribs - beef short ribs slow cooked

Finally came K's favourite dish. The chinese egg custard with shitake mushrooms, Chinese you tiao (a fried breakstick) and last but not least black truffle.  And lots of it too. This is such an interesting twist of the humble steamed egg dish.  The egg is silky smooth and the intensity of the mushrooms combined with the truffles really makes you keep wanting to go back for more.  K could've eaten this whole dish herself! 

Chinese egg custard

Just when you thought we couldn't stuff any more food into us, there's always room for dessert!  C + K like desserts that aren't too sweet so when we read that a dessert is Asia inspired, we usually take comfort that it will be just the right amount of sweetness.  This one we ordered is a coconut jelly with guava sorbet, sago and freeze dried pineapple.  Amazing!  The sorbet has a strong guava flavour and the acidity balances out with the sweetness of the palm sugar and sago.  It is not too sweet so you can still taste the coconut jelly. Afterwards, we wished we had ordered one each rather than sharing it amongst the four of us!  

Coconut jelly, guava sorbet, freeze dried pinapples

We're not sure whether Devon by Night is here to stay or whether it is only going to continue for a short time but we'd definitely recommend that you try it out!  We did not book when we went but turned up just as it opened for service so had no trouble finding a table even though it was a Friday night.  We did see other tables which had bookings though so it may be worth booking ahead so you don't miss out!