Pączki

Guys, the search is over. I finally found (well, ate) pączki in Sydney.

Easter Lunch

This year, we had our first Easter meal at our place.

Wild Pear Cafe

The act of hating on the state of Sydney's public transport seems to be a popular pastime, especially on r/Sydney. Perhaps I am in the minority, but I genuinely don't believe it is as terrible as it is made out. Sure, there are cities with a better transportation system. But is it the worst? Far from it. And so off I went to catch public transport to Wild Pear Cafe. Yes, it took me 3 different transfers (bus - metro - bus) and understandably a lot simpler to drive to the cafe.

Seabay Handmade Noodle Restaurant

Historically, I have not possessed any semblance of restaurant loyalty simply due to the fact that new places are continually popping up. However over the past 9 months, I have found my favourites for various cuisines. My new favourite Chinese restaurant is Sea Bay Handmade Noodles. There are two locations - Eastwood and Burwood - and I have been 5 times now across the two places in the past 6 months!

The restaurant specialises in handmade noodles and dumplings, with the former dominating at least 80% of the menu. Typical of Chinese restaurants, the service is efficient and no fuss; the roles and responsibilities are clearly defined where their objective is to get you in and out of the place as fast as possible. Whilst this may be jarring to some, I actually much prefer it that way. Although I admit it is slightly disconcerting when the waitress gives the occasional stink-eye.

I admit, it looks like a bowl of lettuce. But there is a generous serving of noodles and dumplings underneath!

The noodles are chewy and a little firm

What my boyfriend and I like about the place are the large serving sizes and super cheap prices! Dishes are on average $13 which is incredibly cheap by Sydney standards.

Hot and sour soup noodles with wonton 

The place is completely no frills and cleanliness may be questionable, although I have never been sick. The food is cheap and tasty and there are so many other noodle dishes that I have yet to try.

The Local Mbassy, Ultimo

After checking out of the hotel after a staycation in Sydney CBD, we headed 600m down the road to the reasonably rated cafe, The Local Mbassy, in Ultimo. From a quick look on Instragram and Zomato, it was easy to see that the appeal of the place boiled down to their red velvet pancakes. See screenshot below.

Although I don't mind red velvet, I am actually not a big fan of pancakes and much prefer a savoury dish for breakfast. I ordered a flat white and the open melt.

Open Melt // thinly sliced pork belly, spinach, mozzarella cheese, fried egg, house onion pickles, melted onto freshly baked artisan bread.

One of the weirdest parts of this melt was the fact that the bread was not toasted at all which meant it ended up being quite soggy due to the pickles and the egg. The second weird thing about it was the fact that mozzarella cheese consisted of 80% of the dish. I love cheese and especially love it when it is melted, however it was the only thing I could taste. It overpowered everything and I honestly couldn't even find the pork belly hidden underneath the thick layer of cheese.

The coffee was decent although a little on the burnt side.

Overall, not a place I would really head back unless I was in the area of Ultimo. As I was leaving, I saw a girl standing on top of her chair to take a photo of her food (including of course the red velvet pancakes).



A question to my readers, what kind of coffee do you normally order at a cafe? I used to order lattes however I slowly got tired of burning my fingers on the glass cup and have now transitioned to flat whites.

Jasmin 1

When people ask me what my favourite cuisine is, I am slowly gravitating towards answering middle eastern (Turkish, Lebanese, Iranian) rather than Japanese or Italian which is what I have done in the past. Over the weekend, we visited the popular Lebanese restaurant, Jasmin 1, in Auburn for dinner and it was fabulous!


Mixed plate $17 // Combination of grilled chicken, kafta, shish kebab, falafel, fried kebbe, tabouli, served with hommus, baba ghannouje, garlic dips, pickle salad, lebanese bread
There is something amazing and very addictive about garlic sauce with lebanese bread. My favourite from the plate was probably the grilled chicken and kafta.


Kibbeh


Fattoush $8 // A mix of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, radish, onion, parsley, capsicum, shallots, mint, dressed with fresh lemon juice and olive oil, and topped with fried crispy Lebanese bread

The salad was a nice break from all the carbs and meat from the other two dishes. As the salad was topped by something deep fried, of course it made it that extra bit special!

Too much food was ordered and I was so full by the end of it. Another highlight of the meal was the complimentary cinnamon tea which was a nice contrast to the heaviness / oiliness of the dishes.

Sud

On the way to a house warming party on Saturday night, my boyfriend and I stopped at Sud for an early dinner.There aren't too many places to eat in Concord and it was quite busy when we got there at 6pm. In fact, the server quite rudely informed us that "you can sit there" at the most awkward table right next to the door. In fact, the table was propping the door open.

We ordered the diavoli pizza and the ravioli funghi.

$24 // tomato, mozzarella, capsicum, black olives, salame, chilli flakes

I am not entirely sure where the chilli flakes were but it was a very average pizza. The pizza base was quite nice though. The toppings were quite limited and there really wasn't anything special about it at all.

$24 // beef Ravioli with mixed mushrooms sauce and topped with parmesan cheese

This was below average - it honestly didn't taste that much better than the ones you can buy in the fridge section at the supermarket.

The whole dinner was quite a let down; the food was so average and I was still a little miffed about the attitude of the server. At prices they charged, I was expecting quite a bit more. By the time we left, the place was completely packed and quite lively. I am not entirely sure why there were so many people there; perhaps there really wasn't anything else in the area.

This review is quite Negative Nancy but considering I am someone who is not fussy when it comes to food, I suppose it does say something about the place.

Henri Marc

This review is a massive throwback! I visited Henri Marc on the way to the Blue Mountains back in mid April.

The cafe was quite busy at 8am when I visited and it was very quirky! It honestly looked like it used to be a garage of some sort, converted into a cafe. The coolest part was their sink which was made from a re-purposed gas cylinder. I was seated at the bar and had a great view of the kitchen!


The table was so high that the bar stools all had an extra 30cm added to the legs for the extra height. Never been seated so high up ever! 

Buttercup

Buttercup is a Dee Why cafe that opened up earlier this year. I have walked past it numerous times as it is on my weekly walking route and I had always wanted to give it a try.

I popped in for breakfast last week and immediately enjoyed the bright décor - especially the yellow! It is very modern and quite different to the other cafes at Dee Why. It is located a bit further away from the rest of the restaurants at The Strand and is where the old Indian restaurant and laundromat was located.

Blackwood Pantry

There are always so many new cafes popping up in Sydney that it makes it really hard to keep up with them. That being said, it does get to the point where they are a little bit interchangeable. I guess at the end of the day, cafe food are all kind of similar.

When I visited Cronulla, I popped into the newly open Blackwood Pantry.





Similar to a lot of new cafes, it had a very clean, simple and beautiful interior with lots of natural light. I ordered the Buddha Bowl.

Fried eggs, quinoa, kale, roasted cauliflower, pickled red cabbage, toasted almonds, lemon & buttermilk dressing - 17

It was amazing and it was so filling. I really loved the picked red cabbage (I am in a bit of a 'pickled' phase right now).

My dining partner ordered the Morning Glory.

Soft boiled Egg, Chorizo, Tandoori roasted Sweet Potato, Kale, pickled Red Onion, whipped Goat Cheese, Avocado - 18

Funnily enough, my dining partner and I usually end up picking the same item and the Morning Glory was my second choice after the Buddha Bowl. I also really enjoyed it, especially the chorizo. However the highlight of the entire dish was the avocado! There has been an avocado drought which has meant that I have not been able to afford avocados lately. $4 for one? No way.

I would definitely recommend Blackwood Pantry if you are in the area. It's really simple, delicious and not overly expensive food.

Dutch Snacks

This post is a little belated! At the end of last year, Mei and I exchanged a goodies box filled with snacks from our home country. I included things that a) I quite enjoyed and b) were quite iconic as Australian snacks. She has posted about it here.


Packaged so beautifully!







Unlike Mei, I didn't have the forethought to take photos of each item out of the packet as I was too busy stuffing my face!

My favourites were:

• Shortbread (mmmmmmmm!!)
• Lukken (although they are Belgian!)
• Stroopwafels! Of course, I love these and in fact, I should have some left. Not sure where I've stashed them now.

Thank you Mei! I love how the internet has provided me with this opportunity. Although my only issue is that I wish that Australia Post was not so bloody expensive as I would be able to do something like this more often.

Revolver Cafe

It is honestly hard to keep track of cafes in Sydney because new ones are always popping up. There are cafes that are quite popular and trendy for a few months (largely attributed to Instagram) and then they fade away a little. Revolver was a cafe that I had heard about a little a few years ago but never managed to visit until a few weekends ago.


The chai latte was a little too spicy, but not in a good way.

The Ultimate Cheeseburger | 16.5 | Beef patty, smoked mozzarella, beetroot, old school pickle, house made slaw with aioli, and BBQ sauce in a Sonoma bun with chat potatoes on the side


Trout Rosti | 17.5 | House smoked, Tasmanian ocean trout on a corn rosti with smoky roast capsicum relish, baby spinach and avocado 

I ordered the trout rosti and it was disappointing. Firstly, the trout was cold which made me suspect that either a) it came from the fridge or b) was canned. I love potatoes and everyone who knows me knows that is pretty much the most defining thing about me. I thought that the corn rosti would include potatoes (as the term rosti would imply) but either the potato was almost non existent or it was just corn.

I also tried the Cheeseburger. The best part of that dish were the potatoes which were very close to perfection! The burger itself though was very average.

Overall, not a place that I would necessarily visit again unless I was in the area of Annadale.

Shuk

One of the perks about housesitting near Bondi was the fact that there were so many cafes nearby. Although I do need to make a disclaimer: my definition of close is anything that can be reached in under an hour, or 5 km, by walking.


I am writing this in the room that I am staying in; I am staying in the 8 year old daughter's bedroom. This would have been my dream bedroom as a kid, lilac walls, purple curtains and a vanity table. I have a cat lying on the bed and he has been sleeping for 6 hours now!

It is a shame that Yelp isn't used more widely in Australia as I much prefer it over Zomato. However, I did manage to find a cafe which was Shuk.

This was a 40 minute, 4.8km walk. As I started the walk at 6.30am, Bondi Beach was the quietest I had ever seen in my life.



Shuk was located a bit further back from all the other cafes in Bondi and North Bondi and was at the corner of two streets. I ordered The Cure which was quite good, however I squeezed far too much lime onto my salad.




cured salmon, 60/60 egg, sweet potato & quinoa
croquettes, mix leaf, spinach, dill sour cream, almonds $18 



On the way back to the house, I spotted this tree with a bunch of notes!

Cafe Belle Fleur

Who would have guessed that Cafe Belle Fleur is located at a Flower Power (flower nursery) in Glenhaven. It was a bit expensive considering it was at a Flower Power and in the middle of nowhere, however the food was pretty good and the setting was quite pretty.






I ordered the vegetarian burger (lentil & chickpea) and I actually can't wait to recreate it at home for my lunches next year!