The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
It’s hardly fair to write a review about a cafe based only on a croissant that they don’t make themselves, but here I am doing so – this site is as much an attempt to drop pins on everywhere I’ve eaten as it is a real attempt to write food reviews.
I had this croissant ($6.80) from Story So Far on the morning of the second portion of a difficult verbal quiz. My morning’s caffeine needs were already met by a white Monster.
I was informed that it was baked buy a husband and wife operation nearby, but no further information was volunteered.
It did what it needed to do and absolutely nothing more.
I was fresh off the plane, with my luggage at Southern Cross, looking for some viennoiserie at 2:30PM. Sadly there were no obvious nearby locations available, and I settled on an acceptable alternative within a short walk.
The first of two bagels I had was this absolutely loaded Salt ‘N Sauer ($15), packed with an unreasonable quantity of salted beef, a mountain of saukerkraut, and a small amount of dijon mustard on a sesame seed topped rye bagel. This was truly quite filling for something relatively compact in two-dimensional space, though true to its name was quite flavourful, erring on the edge of being too salty (but not too sauer).
After eating half of the above bagel, I then turned my attentions to the Miss U Lox ($16.50), a classical kind of smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese, pickled red onion, and cress, again on rye. This bagel was more expensive but much smaller than the other, reflecting recent increases in price across all brands for smoked salmon products. The filling was simple but clean feeling and tasty, though this did tend to mean that certain bites leant the other way into having inadequate flavour. The sweet pickles came in handy in dealing with the excess bread.
Overall I had a pretty enjoyable meal, but it turns out I was the schmuck, because I went to a bagel shop looking for ‘classical’ bagels, not realising that it was run by Asians and thus missing out on a likely good quality Asian-fusion menu. Maybe I’d try a miso tuna.
I’m surprised I don’t already have a post up about this place – I recall with some degree of certainty having an expensive but absolutely massive plate of nachos for breakfast after a run of night shifts back in 2021, a similarly massive meal of a burger and chips in a subsequent year, as well as a lamb wrap earlier this year.
I won’t write about those out of respect for the fact that there’s no way that I could even pretend to remember details about a meal eaten as a first year registrar – that’s why this blog exists, after all. What I do want to tell you about today is the secret, off-the-menu item known as the “kid’s meal“.
This Kids Cheese Burger ($12), an off-menu wonder features a very basic cheeseburger with a beef patty, slice of American cheese and some tomato sauce between a seeded bun, and an ample helping of freshly made fries. Those who frequent this establishment will have become wary of their gigantic servings of mains and chips with every order, and yet we find that the simple kid’s meal provides an adequate portion for adults of most shapes and sizes.
There’s nothing particularly kiddy about the Kids Chicken Schnitzel ($12), which again is a delicious, normal amount of food, that can fill up your average adult, especially if they are on a GLP-1RA. The schnitzel comes out fresh, juicy, and piping hot, as do the chips. Ask for a side of tomato sauce in your order notes and enjoy it in front of your workstation whilst discharging patients if you dare. You may be rewarded.
Order via the phone or the website if you don’t want to face the shame of ordering a kid’s meal in person.
This was our first breakfast as a married couple, within line of sight from the NSW Government facility in which we were married.
I don’t know that calling your sandwich Mortadella 2.0 (Better than Bourdain)Ozzo ($22) is a particularly good way to honour a dead man’s legacy. But that is what Eat Ozzo has done for their mortadella sandwich, folded into a wood-fired pizza dough.
The flavour was pretty good, with a relatively healthy serving of LP’s mortadella, which I maintain is the best mortadella around. I enjoyed most of the flavours, with the artichoke and straciatella doing heavily lifting, though I thought that it had an unusually large amount of cabbage hidden under the surface, overpowered most mouthfuls. The surface layer was a strongly positive exerience, but the second half of the meal, mostly of a slightly bitter charred cabbage was unenjoyable, leading me to try making my own at home with a pizza dough ball from Woolworths, straciatella from Paesanella, and mortadella from Harris Farm. In some ways it was not as good (particularly in terms of the bread – I have yet to succeed in making something edible in the Breville Pizzaiolo), but in other ways, especially with the lack of cabbage, it was better..
The Chopped Chook Salad Ozzo ($11) is a smaller sandwich on their breakfast menu, which inspired a similar instinct to make it again at home in my new wife. It featured a cold mixture of avocado and chicken which was marketed as a “NY deli style chopped chicken salad”, which, having never been to New York, I guess we just have to trust. The flavour was pretty good, superior to the Mortadella with the lack of bitter cabbage, and as was the price.
I’ve not had a lot Strawberry Matchas (strawberries matcha?) ($15.40), but this was on the terrible end of things – too sweet, watery feeling, and expensive.
Overall A place where the food leaves you thinking – I could make that at home. All prices noted include a 10% weekend surcharge.
Eat Ozzo Harbourside, The Star L G, 80 Pyrmont St, Pyrmont NSW 2009
My recent wife has decided that my parents’ place is the optimal place for her to study, far away from the cats and other homely distractions, and so I took the opportunity to take us to a semi-local sandwich shop that had been on the radar for some time.
Sadly, the tart display case was near empty by the time we arrived, and so we did not have the opportunity to try the Cacio e Pepe tart, nor any number of other yummy-looking fruit tarts pictured elsewhere on the internet.
We instead had two sandwiches. The hoagie ($19), a cold sandwich of mortadella, salami, lettuce, cheese, beef, red peppers and a sauce that was allegedly mayonnaise but tasted more like Thousand Island was okay but not life-changing.
I enjoyed the ciabatta and especially the sesame seeds which added a nice dimension of flavour, as well as the generous serving of meats, however each bite of this $19 sandwich merely served to remind me of the excellent $15 sandwich we had from Ranieri’s Delicatessen nearer to home. Unfortunately while I have no specific complaints, this sandwich did just fail to amaze, and I do think that sandwiches should be evaluated in their broader context of their alternatives.
The fish burger ($17), featuring a panko crumbed hake fillet, melted American cheese, onion, pickles, and house tartare sauce between a milk bun was my wife’s choice. She quite enjoyed it with its flaky fish fillet and crispy panko crumb, however I personally felt that the tartare sauce could have been applied more generously, a la Kosta.
Again it was difficult not to draw a direct comparison to our nearby fish burger favorite, which in my opinion it falls short of.
Overall, neither of the two sandwiches I had blew me away. It’s a competitive market for sandwich makers out there.
