REQUEST_DENIED using valid key and sample query from documentation

Question

All my requests are denied. My troubleshooting has reached the point of running the sample query from the Places API documentation, like so:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/textsearch/xml?query=restaurants+in+Sydney&sensor=true&key=mykey

...with 'mykey' replaced by my recently-generated browser key from API console. Referers for my simple API access key is set to * to allow all. API console shows no known issues with my Places API use, which is turned on.

Answer 1

I should have left 'referers' blank, instead of *