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Sydney Food

Brewtown Newtown: The Best Sydney Inner West Cafes

April 8, 2015 / Inner West, Newtown, Sydney, Sydney Food / 4 Comments

Newtown has long been a place where Sydney’s hip hangs out, but it’s really only been in the past few years that the area has seen an arrival of trendy eateries popping up. Newtown Brewtown is the epitome of the revival that’s happening in Newtown right now. It’s deliberately grungy-looking on the surface, but is actually a bit of an upscale eatery with a creative menu, and infamous Bronuts (Brewtown x cronuts).

We ordered freshly squeezed orange juice ($5) and a babyccino when we arrived to stem the hunger we’d worked up from biking over to the cafe. Note: Parking in Newtown is impossible. Where possible, get public transport.

Cheese had a pumpkin bread that was out of this world. Lots of crunchy seeds, a bit slab of some kind of maple butter. So more-ish.

Alec had the Wood Smoked Salmon (with curried Israeli couscous, poached egg, coriander, lime, $16.5). His report was that it was amazing, and unlike anything he’d ever been served for breakfast before.

My dish was the Poached Eggs on toast (with house relish, $10), and a side of avocado. The eggs were perfect, the avocado creamy and generous.

I love iced tea like nothing else, and was delighted to find Brewtown offered specially brewed iced teas. Today’s was Egyptian Rose ($6). So. So. Good.

The tables and interior in general is super tiny. No room for strollers or bulky bags, or for toys for kids to play with. We brought an activity book for Cheese and abandoned it for an iPhone when our food arrived and we needed the space.

A trip to Brewtown isn’t complete without a bronut. How beautiful do they look? We took one for the road because were were too full to eat it there.

Just a short walk away from Brewtown is Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, which has a large playground. Tables on weekends will incur a wait (ours was 30 minutes) due to how popular the cafe has become. My advice: put your name down and head down to the park for a short walk and play.

Highchairs: No.
Stroller storage: No.
Easy access: Yes.
Change tables: No.
Kids’ menu: No.

Brewtown Newtown
6-8 O’Connell Street,
Newtown NSW 2042
Phone: (02) 9519 2920
Prices: $$
Hours: Daily 8am-4pm
Get directions.

Swissotel: High Teas In Sydney

March 29, 2015 / CBD, Cheese, Sydney, Sydney Food / 0 comment

Ever on the hunt for Sydney’s best high tea, this time I tried the Swissotel’s buffet high tea. For $69 (Sat & Sun) or $59 (Mon-Fri), you get to eat your fill of finger sandwiches, scones, savoury delicacies and delightful desserts. It sounded like a great idea for this little piggy, so off I went with a dear friend to see how much sweet stuff I could eat.

I scored a Groupon voucher in advance which gave us the high tea experience at a 2-for-the-price-of-one deal. Seriously, a bargain. Keep your eyes peeled for more of these deals as they are run regularly.

I was a little unsure about how this high tea would measure up from the outset, as I didn’t have much luck with their customer service team. I emailed them to confirm our booking, and to make sure that they received my note that one of us was vegetarian, and the other gluten-intolerant. I received a curt reply that it wad been noted in the reservation request and that was it. I was unsure if this meant that they were able to cater for dietary requirements or not, so email back asking this. The reply was again curt and vague. The staff would show us what food was vegetarian or gluten-free. Um. Ok ….

So I have to say that when we arrived we were a little worried about what we would be eating. The staff in on the day were also a bit confusing. We were each given a plate of sandwiches that suited our dietary requirements. The gluten-free one had three selections, but my vegetarian one was only one type: six small summer vegetable sandwiches. It was way too much of one sandwich. A plus: because the sandwiches had been made and delivered they were super fresh.

On our arrival we were offered our choice of a special mocktail or cocktail of the day. I accepted the cocktail which sounded fruity, and then realised afterwards that I was supposed to have the option of a glass of sparkling, which I wasn’t offered by the waitstaff. Very confusing. I would have preferred he glass of sparkling, as even though the cocktail was delicious, it was about 70% crushed ice. It was also removed from the table half finished, when I went up to get my first plate from the buffet.

We asked about the savoury items on the buffet, and if they could show me which ones were vegetarian (there were no labels on any of the dishes), and I received a vague, “yes, there are vegetarian dishes”, but it was up to me to work it out for myself. Through guess work I discovered that there was in fact a vegetarian quiche.

My gluten-free dining companion fared better than I did. The staff very thoughtfully provided her with a special plate of gluten-free desserts, even though over half of the desserts on the buffet had no gluten in them. She received two little cakes and a pot of some kind of fruits. Again, we weren’t told what they were, so your guess is as good as ours. The cakes were really delicious, and the fruit proved to be nicely poached in a sweet juice.

It was just as well that the food was pretty solid after the pretty meh service we received. There wasn’t anything that particularly stood out as being amazing or innovative, but everything was decent quality, fresh, well-made.

I found a menu that listed the buffet dishes but couldn’t locate some items on the menu and vice versa, so I’m not exactly sure what everything was.

Savoury dishes: roasted chicken, cucumber, cream cheese on quinoa soy bread, slow roasted NSW Angus beef, semi dried tomato, rocket, pesto aioli, grilled summer vegetables on dark rye with lemon mayonnaise, Gold Coast prawns and corn salad on mini brioche, smoked salmon, cream cheese and wild rocket on sourdough, goat cheese and pine nut quiche, chicken and leak pies.

Sweet: roasted Forbes peach and pistachio tart, berry white mousse cake, stone fruit macarons, chocolate cherry with coconut (couldn’t find these), pistachio white chocolate slices (couldn’t find these), chocolate macadamia brownies, creme caramel, pavlova, salted caramel lamingtons (couldn’t find these), watermelon panna cotta with salted caramel (don’t think we saw this either), dark chocolate profiteroles filled with plum pastry cream.

We had several items that weren’t on the sweets menu: a creme brûlée, a mango pudding, a strawberry pudding and a chocolate mousse or pudding. The puddings were a disappointing substitution for the items that were missing from the menu.

Other food options include “freshly baked” scones with jam and double cream (the apricot jam was fantastic), and a variety of fruit ready to be dipped in the chocolate fountain.

The scones on the menu are listed as quinoa, but ours were chocolate chip. They had definitely been sitting there for a while as they were dense and hard.

My favourite food was the cheese and pine nut quiche (it was so delish – flaky, fresh, cheesy), the pavlova (something about the cream! it was the perfect ratio of cream, fruit and meringue) and the roasted Forbes peach and pistachio tart (the fruit was flavoursome, and it had the perfect shortbread crust).

The high tea also comes with your choice of T2 loose leaf tea or coffee. When we were about half way through our meal I had to get up and ask for our tea, as it was never offered. I ordered a berry tea that was really delicious. The service continued to be lax, however. Our water glasses were filled on arrival, and then not filled again until just before we left.

We had an extremely mixed time at the Swissotel high tea. The food was pretty good, but a long way from the best high tea’s I’ve had, and with the Groupon voucher it was a decent price. The service and communication was a let down.

Swissotel Sydney
68 Market Street,
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9238 8888
Prices: $$$
Hours: Sat & Sun, call for their seating times. Mon-Fri 2pm – 4pm. Reservations advised.
Get directions.

The Tea Cosy: Sydney’s Best Afternoon Tea Spots

March 5, 2015 / CBD, Sydney, Sydney Food, The Rocks / 4 Comments

In the heart of The Rocks lies one of your best bets for traditional scones in Sydney. The tiny and adorably named The Tea Cosy is an Irish-Australian family-run business, housed in a stunning 1870s heritage-listed building.

If you’re serious about scones and tea – and also love a fancy tea cosy – then this is an outing for you.

The Tea Cosy is small and very popular. Blink and you’ll miss the small sign the wall near the entrance to the Irish Shop (that they also own and run), letting you know that you have indeed reached scone nirvana. Walk through the narrow hallway to the back and find any table you can – or stand around and wait till someone leaves and then grab their table fast.

We had a short wait when we arrived on a rainy gloomy Saturday, but very happily found a little corner in which to squeeze. Our order overflowed from our little table.

Devonshire Tea (Scone Basket) $14 per person, includes your choice of drink (I chose chocolate and vanilla tea), scones and jam (I chose Raspberry), Babyccino, Ploughman’s Lunch ($15), Ribbon Sandwiches in curried egg and tomato ($9.50).

The Babyccino actually came with TWO marshmallows, both of which were nabbed before I could get a shot.

I shared the scones with Cheese, who insisted that hers was also topped with the amazing raspberry jam and cream. Alec loved the jam so much he bought a jar to take home. His ploughman’s platter was light and yet filling – as described, it is indeed the perfect traditional lunch (for those who like meat).

All of the scones at The Tea Cosy are made by hand from scratch, using an old fashioned family recipe. Their jams are Australian-made gourmet jams, and the cream is double thick.

The food was so good, I honestly couldn’t fault a thing. The staff were really lovely – it’s really obvious that this is a family-run business as the people who run the joint really care about their customers and ensuring that they have a great experience. They’re also really friendly and chatty, which is also a nice experience in itself.

A little stroll around The Tea Cosy reveals many, many, many tea cosies. These can be bought for very reasonable prices (I saw labels for around $25 – $35). As each looks handmade and unique, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Highchairs: Yes.
Stroller storage: Minimal – it’s a very small space.
Easy access: Small steps in, narrow corridors.
Change tables: No.
Kids’ menu: Yes.

The Tea Cosy
33 George Street,
The Rocks NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9247 4955
Prices: $$
Hours: Mon, Wed-Fri 10am-4pm, Tues closed, Sat & Sun 9:30am-5pm
Get Directions

Gelato Messina Gelato Appreciation Class

February 25, 2015 / Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, Sydney Food / 20 Comments

So if you know me, you know I’m obsessed with ice cream. In Australia, that means gelato. And the best gelato IMHO comes from Gelato Messina, a small business run by bunch of guys from Adelaide, creating authentic gelato and sorbet with a really fun twist.

For Valentine’s Day this year I booked Alec and I into one of Gelato Messina’s Gelato Appreciation Classes, run out of their new factory in Rosebery. I didn’t know what to expect, and just really hoped that I would be able to gorge myself on gelato.

After meeting Diego, Messina’s social media manager, at the Gelato Messina Darlinghurst store early in the morning, we then took a short bus ride to the new factory.

At the factory we were met by Alex, Messina’s charismatic operations manager, who ran the appreciation class as well as entertaining us with his fun stories of gelato wins and woes (note to everyone: Fosters-flavoured gelato is NOT a good idea).

The class took place in a room adjacent to where the gelato magic happens. Through glass walls we could see the machines that cranked out the gelato and sorbets, and the pastry chefs hard at work making, in this case, our innovative (and delicious) five-course dessert degustation. NOTE: The five course degustation will feature in a follow up blog post.

Between the five courses, Alex, who’s been making gelato for 16 years, gave us a fascinating lesson on how to make a basic gelato and sorbet from scratch, and let us taste the products before and after freezing. A great deal of the lesson was spent talking about the produce, which is one major area that sets Messina apart from a lot of other ice cream and gelato stores. The Messina team take their gelato very seriously (even though if, judging from Alex, they’re pretty irreverent, fun guys), and every single ingredient is sourced from the best possible place to ensure the highest quality of gelato and sorbet possible.

If you’ve ever eaten a scoop of Messina’s gelato, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The flavours are like an explosion in the mouth of pure deliciousness – and it all comes back to using the best possible ingredients.

For example, for their pistachio gelato, Messina imports pistachios from Sicily at $500 a pail. Their frozen berries are shipped in from South America (where they are washed and snap frozen so when defrosted are fresher than using actual fresh berries). The lady finger biscuits used in the tiramisu gelato are shipped from Italy. Their hazelnuts are also from Italy – sourced from from Nutella company. When they can’t source their premium ingredients they take the flavour off the menu.

Another reason the Messina creations taste so amazing is that every single batch is created from scratch, rather than them using a generic base and just adding a different flavour. This accounts for each ingredient in the recipe having it’s own fat, protein and sugar content that needs to be accounted for.

During the sorbet-making, we learned about the differences between gelato and ice cream. Namely that gelato has less air in it, making it more dense to eat and letting the flavour linger on the palette longer. Another difference is the fat content: Ice cream is 35% fat while gelato has 10-15% fat content.

After the gelato and sorbet demonstrations, French pastry chef Flo came out to show us how to make the famous Messina Dr Evil Mushroom Cake. We hear that in the old factory, it was so small that pastry chefs worked around the clock in 24 hours shifts, 7 days a week, to produce everything needed. Yikes. With more space in the new facility, the pastry chefs are sure to be greatful that they now have something resembling normal hours.

The pastry chefs are crucial to Messina, as they make all of the delicious bit and pieces you find in their gelato, such as brownies and cheesecake. These ingredients are all made from scratch in the factory, and are specially formulated to not freeze when mixed with gelato so when you bite into your scoop their not frozen hard, they’re gooey and chewy.

The mushroom cake was Messina’s first gelato cake, and was name after Austin Powers – just one of their creations named after pop culture. The cakes are produced in batches of 100 by hand, and then shipped to stores or customers. They use a special kind of gelato in the cakes that stays frozen longer, enabling the cakes to be glazed as well as transported without melting.

After the mushroom cake was completed, it was sliced up for us to eat.

When there was no more gelato to be had, we were bused back to the Darlinghurst store to try every flavour they make before the store opened to the public.

We were sent home with a litre of our choice of gelato as well as the Gelato Messina Cookbook (and a bit of a tummy ache for some of us who ate way too much gelato!).

Gelato Messina Dessert Degustation

February 25, 2015 / Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, Sydney Food / 0 comment

I recently was fortunate enough to book in to do a gelato appreciation glass at Gelato Messina (ALL THE INFO HERE). Part of the class was the amazing dessert degustation, which I thought deserved it’s own blog post.

Knights Of Macedonia
Blood plum sorbet
Compressed peaches
Peach Meringue
Apricot Puree
Mirabelle Plum Jelly
Vanilla Mascarpone cream

Bleating To The Beet
Beetroot & raspberry cream
Compressed golden beetroot
Chocolate sable
Goats cheese gelato

Phücing Good Times
Kaffir lime sorbet
Kaffir lime marshmallow
Cashew crunch
Freeze dried lychee & pineapple
Coconut cream
Pineapple curd

Mad-Hatter Medicine
Apple puree
White Chocolate Gelato
Fennel Pollen

Jersey Boy
Jersey milk gelato
Blueberry compote
Tuille
Violet powder

Honestly there is nothing I can say about this degustation that the pictures don’t say for me. It was absolutely amazing. Delicious, innovative and fun. An absolute must-do if you have the opportunity.

Gelato Messina

Vaucluse House: Sydney’s Best High Teas

February 18, 2015 / Cheese, Sydney, Sydney Food, Vaucluse / 14 Comments

Sydney is full of gorgeous historic places, such as Vaucluse House and Vaucluse House Tearooms. Tucked away in the suburb of Vaucluse, this little oasis of quiet is a gorgeous spot for an outing to escape the hustle and bustle of the city around it.

The Vaucluse House Tearooms overlooks the beautiful and sprawling Vaucluse House gardens, and is the location we chose recently to celebrate my dad’s birthday.

Vaucluse House is surrounded by 10 hectares of stunning gardens stretching down to Sydney Harbour. The sandstone mansion was built in the 1830s and was the home of William Charles Wentworth and his family. The Tearooms were added later in the 1930s in art deco style.

Reservations are for parties over six, or for the high tea menu only. Otherwise, be prepared to wait for a table.

My parents and Cheese ordered off the a la carte menu. Their dishes: Cheese Burger (beetroot, tomato, pickles on brioche with chips, $24), Tearooms Panko Crumbed Market Fish, (with fat chips, $28) Kids’ Cheese & Tomato Toastie ($8). My parents were both very happy with their dishes – fresh ingredients and well cooked.

Alec and I ordered the Colonial High Tea ($49pp including Glass of Australian Sparkling Wine, Selection of Premium Teas from Chamellia & Coffee from The Little Marionette).

Tearooms’ Scones with Berry Jam & Clotted Cream. I actually found the scones to be the only let down of the tea. They were hard and dry – obviously not freshly made to order.

Savoury selection: Cauliflower & Truffle Tart with Samphire & Parmesan Crisp, Smoked Salmon on Brioche with Lemon Crème & Caviar, Chicken & Tarragon Pillows, Mediterranean Vegetable Sandwiches, and an Heirloom Tomato Tart. We enjoyed the savoury selection, but would have liked to see some more traditional sandwiches here, like egg salad or cucumber.

Sweet selection: Apple Snow, Chocolate & Earl Grey Macarons, Strawberry Éclairs with Vanilla Crème, Brioche Doughnuts with Lemon & Lavender Sugar, Caramelised Pineapple & Orange Curd Custard Tarts. The highlight was the donuts. They were really delicious.

For dessert, both of my parents ordered the Vanilla Sponge (with buttermilk curd, strawberries & mint with garden chard, $14), which they both said was really lovely.

After lunch we took a stroll around the gardens. We checked out the vegetable garden and farm animals at the back of the property, as well as the stables (which are all free to visit). The produce from the gardens is featured on the Tearoom’s menu, so you can literally see your lunch growing before you.

The farm animals are a huge hit with kids visiting the property. They’re housed in huge enclosures and live a pretty pleasant life, from what we could see. The gardens and Vaucluse House are alone a reason to visit.

We didn’t enter Vaucluse House, but we enjoyed walking around the gardens immensely. The whole property is so peaceful and quiet that it’s hard to remember that not far away is the bustle of Sydney traffic.

We really enjoyed our experience at Vaucluse House, and will be back once more when we need to take a time out from Sydney and visit the calmer days of yesteryear.

Highchairs: Yes.
Stroller storage: Yes.
Easy access: Yes.
Change tables: Yes.
Kids’ menu: Yes.

Vaucluse House Tea Room
Wentworth Road,
Vaucluse NSW 2030
Phone: (02) 9388 8188
Prices: $$$
Hours: Wed–Fri 10am–4.30pm, Sat & Sun 8am–4.30pm
Get Directions
Bookings essential for high tea.

Fifth Wedding Anniversary at Aria and Quay Grand Pullman, Sydney

February 12, 2015 / CBD, Circular Quay, Sydney, Sydney Food / 2 Comments

Ahhh I love wedding anniversaries. This year, Alec and I celebrated number five, which seemed pretty significant for some reason. Half a decade has slipped by so quickly, and our lives have changed so very much in this time that it feels like another life time ago that Alec and I said our vows.

For our 5th anniversary, Alec booked us a night at the Pullman Quay Grand in Circular Quay for a “staycation”, and organised my parents to watch Cheese for the night. He arranged a suite with a harbour view – perfect for us to play tourist for the night.

When we opened the door what did we see but a complimentary bottle of champagne and a really sweet note from the staff wishing us a happy anniversary. Little touches like this really add to hotel stays to turn them into a special, memorable experience.

Our view was spectacular. We popped the champers and enjoyed our pre-dinner wine while admiring the view.

It wasn’t long before we were due for our dinner date. I’d booked us a table at ARIA, a restaurant right on the tip of Circular Quay, with a killer view of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

ARIA is an award-winning, hatted restaurant owned by chef Matt Moran and restaurateur, Peter Sullivan.

We went in with high expectations for our meal, and were happily very satisfied with our dining experience.

For our dining, we chose the tasting menus. The regular for Alec, and vegetarian for me ($175pp). A vegetarian amuse bouche was brought out for each of us – sadly we ate them before I could photograph them. Next was miche bread and two butters: regular and seaweed.

The vegetarian tasting menu

Green asparagus with burrata, black olive and nasturtium.

Celeriac and carrot salad with smoked egg yolk and buckwheat.

Slow roasted bello rosso tomatoes with lemon verbena and olive oil.

Raviolo of potato and shallot with sage burnt butter.

Salt baked golden beetroots with watercress and charred artichokes.

Creamy mashed potatoes.

Slow cooked Cornucopia egg with broccoli, macadamia nuts and black truffle.

Regular tasting menu

Saikou salmon with apple cucumber, lemon and ear grey.

Southern calamari with Iberico Jamon, dashi custard and shiitake mushroom tea.

Pressed Jurasic quail and foie gras with pickled cherries and green almonds.

John Dory with white beans, piquillo peppers, and sweet garlic.

Kurabuta pork belly with sweetcorn and palm sugar dressing.

Lamb loin with sweetbread sausage, peas and charred globe artichokes.

Granita and mango palate cleanser.

Blueberry pressed pineapple with coconut sorbet and summer herbs.

Selection of house made petit fours.

Our meal at ARIA was really incredibly good. I loved that they had a special vegetarian menu all ready to show me (most restaurants either don’t offer a vegetarian tasting menu or just whip up something when needed). This showed me that they actually care that vegetarians dining in their restaurant have an equally wonderful time as the omnivores.

Alec and I both thoroughly enjoyed each dish. The stand out for me was the slow roasted bello rosso tomatoes with lemon verbena and olive oil. The flavour from the tomatoes and lemon was just exquisite. Alec’s only let down dish was the John Dory with white beans, piquillo peppers, and sweet garlic, which he said was a bit bland with undercooked beans.

My only personal disappointment was the dessert. While the blueberry pressed pineapple with coconut sorbet and summer herbs was very nice and refreshing, I really like desserts that are a bit more innovative to make a meal end on a really high and memorable note. The petit fours were extremely tasty however, which was a good way to end the meal.

After dinner we strolled down to the Quay to just take in the beautiful evening and enjoy each other’s company. We had a really wonderful anniversary, and appreciated some much-needed time to spend together.

ARIA
1 Macquarie Street,
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9252 2555
Prices: $$$$
Hours: Mon-Fri 12pm-2:30pm, 5:30pm-10:30pm, Sat 5pm-10:45pm, Sun 5:30pm-9:45pm.
Get Directions

Pullman Quay Grand
61 Macquarie Street,
New South Wales 2000
(02) 9256 4000
Get Directions

Brewristas: Kid-Friendly Cafes, Glebe, Sydney

February 11, 2015 / Glebe, Inner West, Sydney, Sydney Food / 0 comment

If you love your caffeine hit, take yourself to Brewristas for some speciality coffee and really delicious food to boot. The new cafe specialises in coffee (duh), and their 12-hour cold drip coffee blends are perfect for the steamy Sydney summer. With names like Cold Brew, Brewmondae and Brewtea, all 3 are produced and bottled in-house, and give a massive buzz, so be warned!

Honestly, I don’t like coffee, but Alec does, which is why we ended up at Brewristas for brunch one Saturday. With an ex-Bills Darlinghurst chef at the helm in the kitchen, I was expecting the food to be pretty darn good (which it was).

The cafe has three distinct dining areas, with lots of space to move – even enough for large strollers to maneuver without hitting other diners, which has made the cafe a popular spot for local mother’s groups.

We were seated on the roomy patio out back, which is also where the giant chalkboard and swing are, so the perfect spot for families.

Cheese and I shared a Nutella Frappe ($7). It usually comes with coffee, but they staff will make one without it if asked. It was light and cold and just enough Nutella to fulfill my craving without getting sickly sweet.

We ordered Cheese a serve of Toasted Sourdough with Vegemite ($5).

My dish was the Toasted Sourdough ($5) with Poached Eggs ($4), Avocado ($2) and Roasted Tomato ($2). It was a really good size and also price and I was left feeling satisfied but not over-full. Very flavoursome food, and well poached eggs.

Alec ordered Porky Pig’s Hotteok ($15), the cafe’s take on the bacon and egg roll. In this version, the “bread” is two toasted honey jam-stuffed pancakes, (typically a Korean snack that’s sold on the sidewalk in winter), with spicy guacamole and mango habanero mayo.

The staff at Brewristas are very attentive, knowledgable and friendly. They’re used to accommodating mother’s groups, so are very kid-friendly too. This little cafe is already buzzing despite being only a few months old. With a combination of simple and innovative dishes, and, of course, coffee coffee coffee, it’s on it’s way to becoming a very popular hangout.

Highchairs: Yes.
Stroller storage: Yes.
Easy access: Yes.
Change tables: No.
Kids’ menu: No.

Brewristas
73 Glebe Point Road,
Glebe NSW 2037
Prices: $$
Hours: Mon-Thur 1pm-9pm, Fri 1pm-11:30pm, Sat 10am-12am, Sun 10am-9pm
Get Directions

Three Blue Ducks: Kid-Friendly Cafes, Bronte

February 4, 2015 / Bronte, Sydney, Sydney Food / 2 Comments

Three Blue Ducks is a tiny restaurant up the hill from Bronte Beach. Even though it’s away from the main crowd of sun seekers, be prepared for a wait as this popular eatery is always busy.

The focus at Three Blue Ducks is local produce. A lot of their fresh ingredients come straight from their on-site garden (more on that later). Where possible, they use organic, Fairtrade, biodynamic and locally sourced products.

The Three Blue Ducks team also works with the local community to promote sustainable food practices by supporting initiatives such as Grow it Local, and setting up footpath herb gardens for all to share. All of the restaurant’s organic waste is collected and composted by locals, and local community gardens, which, in turn, grows food for local families. They also have a rooftop solar power system for use in the kitchen and dining areas and all cleaning chemicals are eco-friendly, non-toxic and biodegradable, and they use biodegradable takeaway containers.

We met at Three Blue Ducks with friends for a week day lunch when it was easier to get a table. The wait staff were very friendly, and happily found is a great table where we could all fit comfortably by the window.

Our group ordered: Raw Salad of Spinach, Beetroot, Fennel, Red Cabbage, Pomegranate, Parsley, Goats Cheese with Bird Seed Mix and Chardonnay Vinegar ($22), special of the day: Fish Cakes, Steak Sandwich with red pepper mayo, tomato, onion marmalade and rocket ($18), kids’ milk shake and friand.

My salad was huge and full of nutritious things. It was fresh, light and crunchy. Absolutely delicious.

Follow the alley down past the bathrooms to find a little garden area that kids can explore.

Watch out for bees!

The garden is full of herbs and vegetables – fun for teaching kids where their food comes from and what they look like before they’re picked.

And chickens are always a favourite! The back garden area is a great place for kids to get their energy out while parents are enjoying a relaxing brunch.

Highchairs: No.
Stroller storage: No.
Easy access: Yes.
Change tables: No.
Kids’ menu: No.

http://www.blackstarpastry.com.au/” target=”_blank”>Three Blue Ducks
143 Macpherson Street,
Bronte NSW 2024
Phone: (02) 9389 0010
Prices: $$
Hours: Sun-Tues 7am-3:30pm, Wed-Sat 7am-12am
Get Directions

Chur Burger: Sydney’s Best Burgers, Surry Hills

January 23, 2015 / Inner West, Surry Hills, Sydney, Sydney Food / 0 comment

I love burgers. LOVE burgers. In fact, the last meat I ate before I gave up all kinds of meat for good was a hamburger. I wasn’t sure I could be a vegetarian when I loved burgers so very much, but after much searching and sampling, I’ve been finding the best vegetarian burgers in various countries now. My previous Sydney fave, The Counter, closed down while I was living overseas, and I hadn’t found a worthy successor until my recent visit to Chur Burger.

Chur Burger has been popular with food bloggers for a while, always a good sign. Nestled in the quiet back streets of Surry Hills, Inside however, the vibe is lively, with retro pop music playing loud (the music was actually our only grumble about our dining experience. While we liked the music selection, we found it too loud to hear what our friends were saying).

We had a bit of a food splurge and ordered waaaaay too much for our little family to eat. Everything was so delicious though, that we gave it our best shot and walked away with groaning stomaches at capacity.

Mozzarella sticks and tomato jam (special of the day, $10). HEAVEN. Deep fried cheesy goodness.

Sweet potato fries, garlic, lime ($8). Delicious. Thick, crispy and soft in the middle.

Chips, chilli salt ($6). We ordered these with plain salt so Cheese could eat them. Perfect, fat fries.

Spiced chickpea fritter, grated beetroot, honey labne ($10). The holy grail of vegetarian burgers. I find it so hard to get a decent vegetarian burger and this one was pretty much perfect. Lightly spied patty, and the honey labne was devine.

Grilled beef, cheese, tomato jam, mustard mayo, pickle ($10). This was Alec’s. Asked for a comment he said “it was really good” and that was all he could offer.

We also ordered two Milkshakes – Vanilla and Milo ($10, all with Heilala vanilla). I only tried the Milo one but it was absolutely divine. Cheese and I battled it out to see who would get to eat the chocolate Milo bits left on top at the end. Alec said his vanilla was delicious and drank the entire thing before I could sample it.

Chur Burger had lots of families dining in, as you’d expect from a burger place. While there was nothing particularly kid-friendly about it (no kids’ menu, room for strollers, change table), it was such a laid back, casual affair that bringing a few noisy kids certainly had no impact on the other kid-free patrons’ dining experience. I certainly felt very comfortable with my wiggle preschooler and didn’t worry to much if she was being loud or fidgety – no need to feel like everyone has to be on their best behaviour, so long as they’re hoeing into burgers and enjoying their shakes and fries.

Highchairs: No.
Stroller storage: No.
Easy access: Yes (one step).
Change tables: No.
Kids’ menu: No.

Chur Burger
48 Albion Street,
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone: (02) 9212 3602
Prices: $
Hours: Mon 11:30am-9pm Tues-Sat 11:30am-10pm, Sunday closed
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