Chris Singh is an Editor-At-Large at the AU review, loves writing about travel and hospitality, and is partial to a perfectly textured octopus. You can reach him on Instagram: @chrisdsingh.
Cables on a pair of earphones in 2021? Surely you jest. While the trend keeps moving towards truly wireless and Bluetooth for high-end earbuds, Sennheiser clearly want to cover all bases. They’ve already got some of the best truly wireless lifestyle earbuds on the market with the CX 400BT (which I have 4.5 stars in…
Tomorrow, Friday 28th May, is one of the greatest days in Australia. In case you didn’t know already, the date marks National Burger Day and you better believe some of the country’s best flippers are celebrating in their own special ways. Grill’d isn’t about to be left behind. As the country’s best known healthy burger…
There’s something about beautifully styled boutique hotels that can immediately shift guests from stress to rest in a way larger hotels can’t. Want proof? Just walk into the humble lobby of QT Bondi and feel the day’s worries melt like fine butter on a hot summer’s day. That goes double now that the boutique has…
The Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 just may be the most reliable of its kind right now. It’s blazingly fast, beautifully designed, and shows of just how powerful and important having a mesh system can be when building a more modern, smarter home. Although having one would depend on your needs. A home of modest size…
Walk into any supermarket now and I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find the ready-to-heat meal section. If any part of your local has seen more variety in the past year, it’s this sector. Yes, microwaveable meals have been around forever, but a recent swell in interest, and a wider push towards portion control, is…
Until the end of May (so you only have a week), Sydneysiders will have access to a different kind of luxury spa treatment at The Darling Spa. How different? Well, one of the The Darling Spa’s signature treatments, the 90-minute Li’tya Mala Mayi, has been elevated with a multisensory approach in collaboration with Aussie musician…
In an ideal world, knocking back the greatest apertivo known to humankind, the humble and dependable negroni, would be an everyday, forever kind of thing. For a fortunate few, it is, but most barely have enough time to sit down and revisit the handsome cocktail on the regular. That should change, and the eternally playful…
When you think of Korean food in Sydney you either conjure images of wagyu sizzling on a built-in grill, or obscenely crispy fried chicken dripping with a tangy house-made sauce. Illa Kim and Daero Lee have been redefining that image for years at their Surry Hills restaurant, Soul Dining, often bringing in influences from other…
There are few days as important as World Whisky Day. Seriously. Arguably the most beloved spirit in the world, with an almost endless variety showing of the world’s great terroirs and building distilleries of considerable acclaim, whisky has captured and held the palates of discerning drinks all across the globe. The Balvenie has been a…
When we posted about an exclusive new gin created by Four Pillars and QT Hotels – the Ordered Chaos Gin – in February, even we were surprised at just how much demand came flowing through. Traffic was good that day, and the next, and the next, and the next. Needless to say, something about a…
I don’t know what JBL did but their speakers lately have been hitting more home runs than the brand usually does. And with this current winning streak, of course the reliable, bass-obsessed brand is going to lift their game for their Xtreme series of wireless Bluetooth speakers. As such, the JBL Xtreme 3 is one…
The gentle tune of minimalism sweeps through Sydney’s Little National Hotel. Opened in September of last year, the latest from Canberra-dominating Doma Group is a conscious push against the often irresistible excesses of big-city hospitality. Not just that, the hotel’s soft, soulful accommodation is an obvious embrace of Japanese-influenced, less-is-more philosophy, gently sketched onto Sydney’s…
The De’Longhi PrimaDonna Soul is a very expensive fully automatic coffee machine, but it continues the brand’s very solid reputation of putting out class-leading devices designed for hard-to-please coffee enthusiasts. Experimentation sits at the heart of the enormous $2,799 machine, which requires quite a bit of counter space and is perhaps a bit too large…
As budget phones begin to adopt more attractive value propositions, Nokia are in a nice position to maintain its reliable reputation, but are they doing enough with the Nokia 5.4? Though Apple is now playing heavily in the mid-range, and wallet-friendly Android options are solid from the likes of Samsung, Google, and Oppo, Nokia still…
KitKat have released a 2-flavour “Dark Down Under” collection that is, in our opinion, some of their finest work to date. The Australian flavours focus on Tasmania and South Australia, creating two distinct ingredients from two of the country’s most abundant produce regions. KitKat Dark Tasmanian Mint makes use to refreshing mint chocolate using oil…
Inspiring Journeys, the luxury arm of renowned tour operators AAT Kings, is planning on heading down to next month’s Dark Mofo in absolute style with a four-day excursion. Designed to dive in deep to Hobart’s famously controversial winter arts festival, the immersive luxury tour has been carefully curated to pair the highly anticipated event with…
Australia may have plenty of kitschy, human-made ‘big’ things, but no amount of overblown bananas or prawns could match the country’s epic landscape. With full respect to our beloved behemothic icons, “thinking bigger” is the crux of Tourism Australia’s next phase in their ongoing “Holiday Here This Year” campaign, and it couldn’t be more inspiring….
The recent boom that’s taken premixed drinks sector to the next level hasn’t just had the benefit of making your giving those bottle shop shelves some much needed colour. It’s added a much needed diversity and variety to go far beyond that standard rum & coke you used to to rely so heavily on at…
With Mother’s Day coming up, the inevitable choice anxiety is starting to settle in. “Mother’s Day Gift Guide” is frantically being searched on Google in the hopes that dependable publishers will sort through the product bog and serve up some curated suggestions. We aren’t sitting this one out at the AU review. Here’s our annual…
Manly Pavilion holds a special place in the Northern Beaches. There are of course many time-tested institutions in the area, but few can boast the same sparkling, impressively serene location of this venue. Perched on the water’s edge, in a restored heritage building, it’s rightfully a top choice for long-lunches, evening cocktails, and more relaxed…
Luxury staycations are hot enough right now, but what if you’re five-star room came fully-equipped with one of the world’s highest performing large format digital cameras. We’re talking a 102 Megapixel beast worth almost $10,000, ready and willing to help you capture everything from those direct Sydney Opera House and harbour views, to strolls along…
Freshwater’s recently refreshed Harbord Hotel has been drawing praise from beyond the Northern Beaches thanks to a swift, smart update. The legendary hotel, a Northern Beaches fortress of frothies, good food, and – quite honestly – the best spicy margs in Sydney right now, is now gearing up for their first big event. That would…
Now that domestic tourism is pumping, operator AAT Kings has once again teamed up with the #EmptyEsky movement and various regional tourism businesses. Why? Well it’s the return of the popular Bushfire Relief Giveback experiences – short and insightful tours aimed at directing support to communities that were directly impacted by 2020’s devastating bushfires (and…
Bose’s flagship QuietComfort Earbuds are understandably some of the most impressive and highly sought in-ear music headphones on the market. But at $400, they are also a demanding investment. Look down lower on the price scale and you’ll find the newer Bose Sport Earbuds, which are obviously designed more towards the fitness/running crowd, but sound…
JBL have taken their reliable headphone prowess into the gaming world with the Quantum line-up, and we’ve got the slick JBL Quantum 200 Gaming Headphones to give away to one lucky winner who wants to experience this. With a flip-up mic, these headphones and 50mm drivers, these offer far more than the sub-$100 price point…
Inconsistent battery performance and some design flaws lead to Bose discontinuing their first iteration of the Bose Sleepbuds a few years ago. Which was disappointing. It’s an incredible concept – having some buds designed and in complete dedication to getting quality sleep, as opposed to music -playing in-ear phones that also threw in a bunch…
JBL’s recent focus on gaming is long-overdue and so very, very welcome. The brand has been at, or at least near, the very top when it comes to professional-quality headphones, with an obvious love to big, meatier sounds that still retain plenty of detail. That’s replicated over on the Quantum series, which tackles just about…
Plans have been announced for Australia’s first ever Fairmont hotel, adding more than just a touch of luxury on the fringes of both the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. The $300 million Fairmont Port Douglas will be the first new-build hotel from Accor’s legendary Fairmont brand, which is inextricably tied to the railroad…
PappaRich has finally bought back their monstrously popular Nasi Lemak burger, which is now on the menu across their Australian stores for a limited time only. A crowd-favourite every time it has been popped back onto the menu, the burger is available from until 30th May – that’s a good amount of time you have…
An indoor camera that is able to rotate and tilt for a full 360-degree view is of unquestionable value when it comes to smart home tech. Lucky, then, that the ever-reliable D-Link launched one towards the end of last year as part of a small addition to their already solid line-up of smart security tech….
