There was a deal on for 4 courses with matches wines and a cocktail on arrival $60 = Shut up and Take my money!!
The upstairs area is where we sat - the lighting was very dim. The only bright lights came from the torch on my friends phone and the flash on my camera taking photos hahaha (did not feel guilty at all!) On arrival we had a verbina sparking cocktail - Smooth and a hint of sweet to get the night going. To start we had the smoked salmon with wasabi pea, mock caviar and crumbs matched with Dell'uva Arinto 2014 - Enjoyed the wine but thought the dish was a bit salty towards the end. For main, Lamb neck with hay cream and mushroom sauce matched with Dell'uva Primitivo 2014 - Both the Lamb and the wine went perfectly together. The lamb was so soft and not too overpowering! Just wow! Next came the Milawa blue with chilli chocolate, quince paste and chicharron ( I had to google chicharron and its pork belly) matched with Dell'uva Graciano 2012 - All the flavours worked very well. The chilli chocolate was great. Final course was the geranium mousse with tomato soup cake and rhubarb matched with Ad Hills Pinot Noir 2013 - Loved all of it except the rhubarb sorbet - too sour for my liking. First time visit and will indeed be back to try other items on the menu. Overall, i enjoyed everything and it's an even better experience when you get matched wines with dinner. I am always a big fan of trying before you buy because you know what you like and most of the times everyone's palate is different.
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The Baron is your local in Castle Hill. Sourcing local ingredients in order to provide you with the best food experience.
Arrived about 10.30 on Saturday and the place was packed! The waitress took down my name and said that there would be about a 10 min wait - which wasn't too bad. You may have to flag down a waitress when you are ready to order. We were seated at the end of a large communal table. I ordered the Return of the Avo on toast and Jen got the Bacon & Egg Roll. We also ordered the Black-ish fried rice to share. My niece ordered the hot chocolate and the peanut butter and Oreo doughnut...(insert Homer's drooling voice). My avocado on rye combined with the salsa verde was simple, yet, dang tasty! The blackish fried rice with chorizo, chilli, garlic, spring onion and fried egg is the bomb! A combination of sweet and salty! As we were leaving someone had ordered the rice but also added fetta cheese and avocado. Even better combination! Overall, Great first time visit, will definitely be back again. Coffee was good too!
Arrived about 10.30am on a Tuesday and there were lots of tables to choose from - I guess the weekend would be packed!
Got a piccolo and the Little lost bread and my companion Nick got the Truffle soft serve and matcha latte. Little lost bread ~ the brioche french toast was all i had hoped for, the centre was warm, texture was soft and everything blended well together. Only thing i would say is that after a while it can get a bit full on but hey i was prepared! I believe this dish would be great to share as it's quite a large serving. Nick's Truffle soft serve comes at $15 a pop, i'm not a huge truffle fan nor expert but i believe that is reasonable? Considering it was Milk & truffle soft serve with truffle honey and truffle salt! Truffle everything except the cone :D If you aren't too hungry they have delightful sweet treats on offer to give you that extra boost along with your daily caffeine. Overall, the experience was lovely, coffee great and friendly staff. I know hope to come by again to try their famous scotch egg!
If you haven't been to Macquarie Centre - be warned this place is a maze!.
After 10 minutes of walking around and asking the concierge we finally found it! Smaller space and smaller menu compared to their Pitt St Mall Store. We arrived about 1.30pm and the place wasn't too packed. Ippudo is located beside Max Brenner and Thrive Cafe on the Herring Rd entrance to the centre. It's more a quick lunch time or dinner time visit. They have a lunch special for $20 ($16 for ramen and $4 for either Gyoza set, karaage set or Chashu Rice set) You order and pay at the counter. Food arrived just under 5 minutes! Uber quick! The broth had a nice consistency to it, not too thick or runny. The Chicken karaage pieces were very meaty which was great. The lunch sets that come with the ramen also include a small bowl of salad and that had a nice dressing with it. Overall, loved my first visit and would def be back to try the open pork buns!
For those of you who have watched My Kitchen Rules you may recognise the name, however, if you do not Helena and Vikki were finalists on the program in 2014 and were known as the "sassy twins" who cooked delicious Greek food with a modern twist
Since the show finale they have started their own catering company, released a cookbook and have now opened their first restaurant in The Civic Hotel in Sydney CBD. Two Fold has been open for over a month now and I got the opportunity to taste the culinary delights of an Aussie gastro pub style food with a Greek twist with a few other foodie friends :). For starters we ordered the Cured fish cones with pomegranate, coriander, finger lime and white anchovies and the pickled octopus jar. The cured fish cones were tasty and zesty. In all honesty, I am not an octopus fan, the tentacles creep me out! However, I got to try a non-tentacle piece and it was superb! Also Helena served the dish to our table and I have to admit I was a little starstruck! For mains we ordered the Two Fold Burger (pulled lamb shoulder, haloumi, sweet peppers, grilled eggplant, mint mayo) and fries on a buttermilk bun, the local fish of the say was Salmon and from the Grill - Spatchcock with pita bread and Tzatziki and finally Helena and Vicki's Pork Belly with braised cabbage, roasted spuds and homemade gray. All portions sizes were huge! The pork belly was the size of the whole plate! The braised cabbage was also a winner. Spatchcock grilled to perfection and went well with the grilled pita bread. Additionally, we were given samples of the grilled Giant Clarence River octopus and it was delish! (Yep, there were no tentacle bits) For dessert we got to sample the Chocolate Brownie with dark, milk and white chocolate, raspberries and and toasted marshmallows, the Baklava ice cream sambo with fig, pistachio and rose and finally the Revani semolina cake with orange lime mascarpone and syrup. Highlights were the Browni and Semolina cake. By the end of the night we were utterly stuffed but in a good way! We enjoyed the food immensely and I will return to try the Octopus as a main (shock horror). Because we went on a Friday day the pub was a bit noisy as one can expect but that didn't faze us, However, if you wish to go when it's a bit quiet try and go during the week nights. Overall a wonderful first time experience, having Helena serve the food to our table was mind blowing (I was a little starstruck) and the desserts were nostimos! (Greek for delicious :D) . Hope you get a chance to visit the lovely ladies and sample their nostimos food! Antio! xox For address details click here and a link for their menu click >> weebly
This month has been filled with anxiety, procrastination and annoyance...Yes, it is exams period and hence why i haven't as yet written a blog for the month of June.
Alas, a few weeks ago I wanted a chocolate/coffee fix and the best way to do that is with a Nutella bomb! Yes, you heard correctly! As per usual I tend to follow places on Instagram for a few months before i visit them and this is one of those places. Piccolo Me was establised in 2012 by Charlie and Ray Hachem. You can find their stores in Sydney CBD, Norwest Business Park, Crows Nest and Macquarie University. I visited the Crows Nest store located at 200 Pacific Highway. Arrived after 2pm because I had hoped by then it would't be too busy with lunch time crowds. Perfect timing there were only a handful of people there. I ordered the Nutella bomb and smoked Salmon sandwich. The Nutella bomb comes on a board flakes of chocolate and a Nutella Bomb loyalty card with instructions on what to do on the back. 1. First drop your Nutella bomb into your cup 2. Wait 1 minute before you start stirring 3. Swirl the stick until the bomb has dissolved 4. Lick the stick And there you have it, a delicious coffee with extra nutella on the side. With the side of chocolate flakes you can either add it to your coffee or just eat it with the spoon :D Overall, great first time visit, staff are friendly and my order came out in no time! My question to you is...Have you been piccolo'd yet?
Catch up with friends is always a positive but when then you have to decide on a place. Luckily, we both had an idea in mind and it was not Char & Co. Unfortunately, the place we wanted to go was booked out for a function so we decided to call up Char & Co because they were within walking distance and just out luck they had a table for two outside near the heaters. Good comeback considering it was 6.30pm on a Saturday night and most places would be already booked by then.
As we arrived there was only a group indoors and a couple outside. By the time 7pm rolled around the placed was full! You can choose either a Churrasco style from $55 per person or just order whatever you like for entrees, mains etc. We ordered some Asa De Frango (Spicy chicken wings & Chilli sauce) $14 and Pao (Warm sourdough & extra virgin and balsamic) $3pp to start, whilst we waiting for more friends to arrive. Chicken wings were the bees knees! Not overly spicy but just enough to feel the tingle on your lips! :P For drinks I got the Guava tree (Absolut vanilla, aperol, lemon juice & guava) and my friend Emma got the passionfruit, chilli & basil Caipiroska both $17. The Guava tree was amazing - think of a warm summer afternoon at the beach or a venue with water views with this cocktail in hand. The Guava tree was that good that by the time the rest of the group arrived we ordered 3 more and a Char & Co margarita. It appeared the restaurant was a bit understaffed as after the cocktails the girls wanted a bottle of red but it took them 10 minutes to bring it out! When a different waiter brought it out she apologised and said that didn't expect it to be a full house. Emma and I opted to get mains whilst the other girls preferred to get starters to share as they weren't too hungry. I got the Porco (Mojo pork sholder, chipotle barbecue, grilled pineapple & red cabbage slaw) came with shoestring fries $19 and Emma got the Frango. Burger was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! It was messy and saucy and there was good amount of pork shoulder. Shoestring fries crispy and light. I had to bail straight after but left on a happy note. Overall, it was a great first visit, staff were very friendly when they came around to our table. I was a wee bit disappointed I didn't have the time nor the stomach capacity to get the Churros with warm callebaut chocolate & Dulce De Leche! Oh well, this just gives me an excuse to visit again :D. Ciao!
Located in the Macquarie Shopping Centre in North Ryde. I have been to this place twice in the past week and loved it!
Seating is a mixture of booth style with stools, you can also sit at the bar or there are tall tables as well. The meals are made just a bit down from the cafe and all the drinks are made at the bar. We arrived around 11.30am on sunday and already the place was packed except for 2 empty tables so got one of them. Its table service so the waiters will sit you down and take your order. I was estatic to find they had lime milkshake on the menu! I LOVE lime milkshake it was always my flavour of choice when i was younger and as you can tell still is as an adult but its rare to find places that make it! So off to a flying start when i ordered the lime milkshake and the Smashed avocado and smoked salmon on multigrain bread. A friend got the cacao and coconut milkshake with a shot of espresso in it - she said it was devine! The presentation of the drinks is delightful! Its creative and edible. Most of the milkshakes come with a chocolate rim which you can nimble on. Anything with chocolate is always good in my books. The special drink they had on the menu was called "Chomp the yard" and it consisted of coffee with Nutella! It seemed very popular as most of the other tables ordered it. Food hit the spot. Staff were attentive and friendly. Once you are all done you can pay at the counter. Every week they tend to have different specials. The second time round they had peanut butter, sea salt and white chocolate milkshake! WOW I tried a little but boy did it have a kick to it! Definitely one to visit if your are in the area, if not make it a day trip out seeing as H&M is only a few shops down ;)
I received an invitation from Sweaty Betty PR to sample Pink Salt's new Autumn/Winter menu and of course i accepted!
Double Bay isn't the sort of area you would think of to go for dinner, however, there are few new places popping up and also a few old favorites like Pink Salt. On arrival we got to meet Evan the owner who was hospitable and delighted to showcase their new menu. Before our entrees arrived we got to try some single origin Brasserie bread with house made sage garlic butter and crab and pancetta croquettes. Hmm fresh crispy bread, the world would be lost without it. Our menu would be an alternate serve for entrees and main and the dessert would be to share with the table. I had my fingers crossed NOT to get the octopus for the entree and sure enough I got the braised octopus, squid ink aioli with pickled vegetables. To be honest I am not a fan of octopus, it creeps me out! But alas, I decided I would take one for the team and try it. Wow, i was not expecting to enjoy it! The taste is very subtle and I ending up finishing it all. My friend Bethany had the Grilled haloumi, white peaches, pine nuts and vincotto and that too was delicious. For mains, I got the Saffron gnocchi, duck ragu, peas and parmesan and Bethany got the Pork Belly, salsa verde, Louvi black eyed bean ragu and rainbow curd. For the sides to share it was crushed kipfler potatoes, rosemary and garlic and grilled baby corn with lemon butter fetta. The gnocchi consistency was just right and the duck was tender. I tend to like my food salty so I had to add a few pinches of pink salt to satisfy my salty needs. I also tried a bit of the Pork Belly and it was mighty fine! I also tend to steer away from pork belly but now i can understand the obsession. Dessert was to share amongst other table members, which was fine because by this stage we were all pretty stuffed. We sampled the following: * Tonka bean pannacotta, maple gel with apricot ice cream * Chocolate delice with salted caramel DC and coffee ice cream * Doughnuts, toasted almond flakes with honey almond ice cream Of course the doughnuts were the highlight! The chocolate delice is very rich so I only had a spoonful (this would be a dessert to share). The salted caramel and coffee ice cream together is a winning combination, so for you bakers out there place make me a cupcake with that combination :) thank in advance! Overall, good food, good wine and good company. I will definitely be back to try the rest of the new menu. Many thanks to Sweaty Betty PR for the invite and to Evan and his staff for a delightful night.
Have driven past this place many times and have heard good feedback so we decided to go during the weekday as hopefully that wouldn't be too packed as the weekend.
We got there after 1pm and it was still a bit busy but there was 2 tables empty. We ordered: 1 x Spartan chicken (Oven roasted chicken with Aegean slaw, preserved lemon mayo, caramelised onions and parsley) 1 x Uncle 'Tzimmy' lamb (Signature slow cooked lamb with tomato, tzatziki, onion, paprika and chips) You get cutlery, serviettes etc and a table number, Food came out about 5 minutes later to you table which was great as we were both starving! The chicken was tasty and blended well with the coleslaw and the parsley gave it a fresh kick to it. The pita bread was thick and had a little grease to it but added to the flavour. I saw other customers ordering the fries with Feta & Oregano but we decided against getting them as we probably wouldn't be able to finish it. Plus, i wanted to get some sweet loukoumades to take away! :D Quick, Easy service with friendly staff to match. |
AuthorI like trying new things, visiting new places and going on food adventures. I keep it short, simple and sweet! Categories
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