Category: Café

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Café Modern Australian

COOH – Alexandria NSW Restaurant Review

COOH’s Bourke Road restaurant has long been on my list of places to eat at this year. We’ve driven past it countless times on our way to the other restaurants, but it’s taken us over nine months of living in the area to finally pay a visit.

COOH is situated in a high-ceilinged warehouse on Bourke Road. There is no parking available, and minimal street parking in the area, so we did a sneaky and parked at Grounds of Alexandria around the corner. It is a beautiful, large room setup, with a large bar and kitchen area on show. We had lunch on a Wednesday, the same time as what appeared to be a local mum and bubs group.

The potato chips with aioli ($8) were salty and ultimately unsatisfying. It is difficult to pinpoint what was wrong with them, and it was probably more a constellation of things that did not quite meet the mark. We found that we were quite aioli dependent with these chips, and ran out of the aioli early. Luckily we were able to get additional aioli at no charge.

I ordered the seared tuna with a spice crust, spiralised salad, jalapeno salsa, and avocado puree ($26). This was a dish I was quite excited about – there are some beautiful photos online of essentially sashimi tuna with a seared crust, and that’s what I thought I would be getting. I was wrong. The tuna that I ate today was almost fully cooked through, nowhere near as rare or raw as expected. While I enjoyed the flavours in the spiced crust I felt like the overcooking lead to a strange and unpleasant texture – no better than what I could make by myself at home. I enjoyed the spiralised salad, as well as the avocado puree, and thought the plating was quite nice. I could not identify any jalapeno salsa, and indeed didn’t realise it was meant to be part of it until I took another look at the menu whilst writing this review. I would not recommend this dish.

The Morrocan lamb and quinoa ($28) I enjoyed even less than the seared tuna. Most disappointing was the inexplicable lukewarm temperature of the lamb, almost as if it had been cooked and left to rest for far too long. The quinoa was also cold, which I just don’t feel goes well with a meat such as lamb, which is meant to be served hot. I enjoyed every other element of the dish – the plating, the mint yoghurt, the sweet potato, currants, and pomegranate seeds, but unfortunately the two title ingredients were a let down.

My trip to COOH was ultimately a let down. I didn’t really enjoy anything we had, despite the restaurant having generally good reviews online. My partner had good things to say about the space, and even considered it for some kind of formal occasion in the future, however the food was such a let down that it would be a veto.

Not my cup of quinoa.

COOH Bourke Road
90-96 Bourke Rd, Alexandria, NSW, Australia
(02) 9002 1333

Categories
Brazilian Café Latin American

Chachii – Wolli Creek NSW Restaurant Review

A month ago if you had asked me about the racial demographics of Wolli Creek I would’ve told you that its expansive high rise apartments were mostly full of international students of Chinese descent. There are just so many Chinese restaurants, Chinese groceries, and Chinese people everywhere you look – my girlfriend’s brother included.

It was a surprise to me, therefore, to find a Brazilian restaurant and a Brazilian gym tucked away in Wolli Creek. off the beaten track. It was also a surprise to me to have looked after four patients of Brazilian descent in the ED over the Christmas-New Year period, having not seen any all year. I guess I was just not aware.

Coffee served at Chachii is from Gabriel Coffee. It was good anti-headache and anti-sleep therapy before a long day of apartment hunting in Westmead followed by a return to the ED in Kogarah. The surprise addition of a small cookie is always welcome.

I played it safe on my first visit to Chachii with a serving of Chachii’s Lamb ($19). It was a well priced plate of two well poached eggs (in a good way, not the bad way), confit cherry tomatoes (similar to my last experience with confit cherry tomatoes I wonder why they even bother), and slow cooked lamb on catupiry cheese with cassava and bacon crumbs dusted around the plate. The 12-hour slow cooked lamb was flavourful and delicious, but not too tasty as some other local lambs have been. The catupiry cheese, a Brazilians brand of creamy cow’s milk cheese, was reminiscent of a whipped feta but with a very mild flavour – great at adding moisture and creaminess to the dish. This was really good.

—

I went back to Chachii with a couple of post-night shift mates a few days after my initial visit.

The beef pastel ($8) was surprisingly huge, much larger than other empanada s I’ve had at Pochito in Mascot. It had a crispy, thin pastry skin and was filled with a tasty beef mince filling. I quite enjoyed this and can recommend it.

The Coxinha ($6), made of shredded chicken surrounded in dough was also delicious. Maybe we just like deep fried foods. I thought it was better without the sauce.

The Coracao Sandwich ($13) is a sandwich of chicken hearts cooked in beer and spices in a baguette roll. It tasted OK, mostly a salty, slightly umami however with no significant differences in texture or taste throughout the sandwich it did get to feel a bit samey. Whilst I don’t mind chicken heart I normally prefer it in smaller quantities.

The X-Calabresa Sandwich ($15) is a sandwich with a large serving of Brazilian chorizo, cheese, caramelised onion, smoked mayo and a tiny amount of cos lettuce and tomato. It was my favourite sandwich of our visit, owing to the variety of ingredients and flavours (tangy, salty, sweet) contained within. The Brazilian chorizo tasted quite different to any chorizo I’ve ever had.

The Mortadella Sandwich ($13) is a national food of Brazil. As a recent convert to mortadella fanhood (especially LP’s mortadella) I was really keen to try this sandwich, and very glad that one of my friends wanted to try it as well. Whilst mortadella is generally less salty a meat, the sheer quantity of grilled mortadella (300g in this sandwich) and melted cheese meant that the sandwich overall was quite salty. Similarly to the Coracao sandwich I feel like this would get a bit old towards the last bite (though I only had a quarter of the pictured rolls). Chips, which were an additional $3, were fresh and good.

VERDICT
Chachii is one of Sydney’s only Brazilian restaurants open before noon. Everything on their menu is distinctly Brazilian, and I think if you, like me, are not very familiar with the cuisine it’s worth the adventure.

Chachii
9-11 Arncliffe St, Wolli Creek NSW 2205
(02) 9171 0813

Categories
Café Middle Eastern

Nineteen43 Bakehouse – Rockdale NSW Cafe Review

Nineteen43 is a Lebanese cafe in Rockdale, only a few minutes drive from my work. I visited for a quick breakfast after a night shift, and a takeaway meal to bring home to my partner.

Hummus & Lamb

The Hummus & Lamb ($18), with 12 hour slow cooked lamb shawarma shoulder served w/ Smokey paprika, burnt butter & pickled chillies with a side of fresh baked flat bread looked and sounded like it would be good.

The beautiful plating of lamb floating on a bed of red-sprinkled hummus was really quite appealing – it’s just unfortunate that the taste did not live up to what the eyes predicted. I found the meat to be way too overmarinated and oversalted. It was just too tasty. I had hoped that the hummus would provide some sort of reprieve from the oral salt bath that was the meat, however it itself was also quite tasty. The flat bread was fresh and actually quite delicious, but given the amount of salt in the meal the quantity of bread was just plainly inadequate.

Portuguese Tart

The Portuguese Tart was OK if you’re a fan of the big floppy ones. The filling was quite floppy inside, however I thought that the pastry was actually quite good.

Breakfast Pan

This is the takeaway version of the Breakfast Pan ($23), with two poached eggs, grilled haloumi, sujoq, garlic mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, crumbled feta, avocado and toasted sourdough.

I wonder if the dining-in version really is served in a pan, or merely a plate. I also wonder if the name indicates that all the ingredients were cooked in the same pan, but find that unlikely given that the eggs are poached. My partner quite enjoyed this. She liked basically all of the key components of the meal, barring the feta which she thought was a bit too baa for her. I also indulged in a few choice bites, and can safely say that this dish does not suffer from the sodium load issues of the hummus and lamb. I can recommend this one – a bit like a big breakfast.

Smoked Wagyu Kaak

I didn’t think I would go back to Nineteen43 after the eat-in dishes above, but given the buzz around their toasties/kaaks I thought I would give it a try. I’m glad I did. The Smoked Wagyu Kaak ($19, chips included) is actual wow. The thin slice of Jack’s Creek smoked wagyu was all that was needed to give the kaak a strong and delicious umami flavour. The pickles, slaw, and harissa mayonnaise added a great tanginess to the smoked wagyu kaak, one that I can still imagine on my tongue now. The chips that came with the smoked wagyu kaak were fresh shoestring fries, however I wonder if it can be ordered without them as the kaak stands well on its own without any need for additional carbs. I can definitely recommend this.

The Sujoq & Egg Kaak ($11, $14 pictured) with cream cheese, Sujoq (Middle Eastern Chorizo), Fetta shallots, & two fried eggs and the addition of halloumi ($3) was good but didn’t quite live up to the standard set by the Smoked Wagyu Kaak. I liked the taste of their sujoq, which I often don’t, and I thought that the addition of two eggs in this toastie was quite generous. The flavours were salty and eggy, just as a bacon and egg or chorizo and egg roll should be, however I found myself missing the zesty taste of the Wagyu Kaak’s pickles and slaw. I’d still recommend this – just not quite what I was looking for at the time.

Four Cheese Kaak with Pastrami and Tomato

The Four Cheese Kaak with Pastrami and Tomato ($14.50) was pretty good, but again not as good as the smoked wagyu kaak. I’ve never been a fan of cheese by itself, and I think that the tomato and pastrami were essential addons to the base four cheese. I would rate this above the egg and sujuk kaak just thanks to the freshness afforded by the addition of tomato. I wish I could add some smoked wagyu onto this so that I could have their smoked wagyu kaak for breakfast.

Lebanese chicken Foldover

The Lebanese chicken Foldover ($17) with Marinated free range chicken, slaw, Lebanese pickles, harissa mayonnaise dressing served w/ a side of French fries is a weaker offering than Nineteen43’s kaaks. While the kaaks offered a crispiness in the dough, this was not achieved by the bread wrapped around this foldover. The flavours erred towards the slightly-too-tasty side of things and reminded me of the first bad meal I had at Nineteen43, however thankfully this was tempered by the freshness of the Lebanese pickles. The chips in this dish were seasoned with a bit of spicy seasoning, as opposed to coming plain salted as they did with the wagyu kaak. Ultimately not a bad dish but not as good as the others on offer.

VERDICT

Would I come to Nineteen43 again? Yes- it is close enough to my work with enough unlimited parking in the council railway carkpark around the clock (there’s all day parking which was still available around 11:30AM, and also 15 minute parking suitable for takeaway). I would definitely warn any friends and colleagues away from the lamb and hummus (unless you’re on oral salt replacement – in which case eat away), but recommend the kaaks wholeheartedly.

4/5

Nineteen43 Cafe
7 Geeves Ave, Rockdale NSW 2216
(02) 9597 3595

Nineteen43 Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
Categories
Café

Culture Bean – Kogarah NSW Cafe Review

I would estimate that I’ve been to Culture Bean thirty to forty times over the past twelve months. Located on absolute prime real estate across the road from St George Hospital, Culture Bean is the leading off-campus provider of coffee and food to my starving colleagues whilst also commanding its own customer base from the wider community. Culture Bean is the favourite local cafe of one of our consultant intensivists in particular, but also known to frequented by everyone else we work with.

The reasons behind the fact that I’ve got very few photos to show for the sheer volume of food I’ve consumed from Culture Bean is multifactorial. It’s a bit embarassing to take photos of food in front of colleagues at work, especially bosses. Each meal also becomes less special the more you eat somewhere, and therefore in the mind less worthy of photography, even if you never took any photos to start with.

Bacon and egg sandwich

The bacon and egg sandwich ($11.50), not to be confused with the bacon and egg roll, is a fully featured, stuffed with ingredients sandwich featuring egg, rocket, halloumi, heaps of bacon, and your choice of sauce (default is hollandaise and barbecue). It is very filling, and the flavours are perfectly balanced. It is much better than the bacon and egg roll ($7), which I feel to be a bit too bread heavy and dry in comparison.

The mainstay of management at Culture Bean is their fantastically good value egg and haloumi slider and regular coffee combo ($8). These hot little sliders can be optioned with a vast array of sauces if you know to ask (otherwise you will be given barbecue), and make for a great post-ward round snack. The coffee at Culture Bean is from Gabriel Coffee, and is always of good quality.

Acai Bowl

Culture Bean’s literally award winning Acai Bowl ($16) is pretty OK. My first acai bowl ever and was just fine, not mindblowing. Knowing this is apparently one of the best in Sydney did not make me want to get any more acai bowls from anywhere else.

I have enjoyed the bocconcini pesto sandwich but wish it would have some meat in it. Conversely, I have also had the chicken pesto sandwich and wished it were less dry, and thought it could perhaps benefit from some bocconcini in it. Culture Bean would really be onto something if they could put both chicken and bocconcini in the same sandwich.

The Pulled Pork Burger ($10) is a good value burger full of saucy, wet pulled pork and a carroty Asian slaw. It’s quite nice and pretty cheap, but make sure you have some paper towels nearby as it does get quite wet.

I tried the Blue Heaven ($16) with blue spirulina, banana, mango, kiwi, goji & dragon fruit one day after a night shift. While I liked the dragon fruit I wasn’t a big fan of the other fruit, nor was I a fan of the weird blue colour. Just not really my thing to be honest, maybe other people like this.

I enjoyed the Culture Burger ($12.50), which is essentially a chicken thigh burger in an activated charcoal bun. They are able to do this is a normal bun if you ask, which I tend to do since I’m not really sure if activated charcoal is good for you or bad for you.

COMMENTS / VERDICT

I feel AWFUL that the staff at Culture Bean know my name and I don’t know theirs. The service is always really nice and friendly, and the food pretty good too. I always feel guilty when I walk past Culture Bean to go to Concrete Jungle/Cafe 959 and the guys at Culture Bean just look at me with this look of sadness. They are my home cafe but sometimes I want something different. Definitely the best place in easy reach of the hospital (but sadly out of Spectralink reception).

5/5

Culture Bean
2217/15 Gray St, Kogarah NSW 2217

Categories
Bakery Café Japanese

Café Cre Asion – Sydney CBD NSW Japanese Bakery Review

Manned by four people in a small industrial kitchen, Cafe Cre Asion is a hidden gem tucked around the corner behind about 16 security cameras. We went after a recent brunch for a sweet treat. They’re currently takeaway only, however it’s hard to imagine how they would manage to seat people on a normal day given their tiny footprint.

Raspberry Macaron
Chocolate Macaron

Sadly they were out of yuzu macarons, so we settled for chocolate and raspberry. I didn’t think these were very special.

Chocolate Cookie
Vanilla Cookie

Cafe Cre Asion’s cookies had a strong shortbread quality. They were very buttery and smooth, but had different textures and mouthfeels between the outer crust and the inner cookie, acting almost as two desserts in one.

Apple and cinnamon muffin

Wow. I really enjoyed this apple and cinnamon muffin. Without a hint of exaggeration this was the best muffin I’ve ever had in my entire life. Like the cookies, it felt like I was having 6 muffins in one. Each bite gave me a new experience, as I tasted the various components and textures separately. The muffin itself was very moist and light, while the muffin top had a nice and caramelised surface. Within the muffin there were pockets of cinnamon and apple which I found truly delightful. I cannot stan for this muffin enough. Please have one.

Second Visit

I returned in the middle of December 2020 to try some more baked goods after a disappointing visit to nearby Paramount Coffee Project.

All four cookies at Cafe Cre Asion

The Matcha cookie was dense with matcha flavour and not too sweet. I think it is suited more to an Eastern palate.

The Caramel and Walnut cookie is their only cookie that has “bits” in it. It is quite good, and I particularly enjoyed the walnut pieces.

Baked cheesecake

Baked cheesecake not good. Don’t get.

Swiss roll

Fruity swiss roll is pretty fruit. Light sponge roll with lots of cream. Quite nice and it almost feels like you’re not being bad with all the fruit.

Third visit

This chicken, mushroom, and wasabi mayo toastie ($13) is actually amazing. The chicken breast is so tender, complemented with the exact scientifically perfect amount of creaminess from the mild wasabi mayo. I shudder to think of just how much trial and error would’ve been neede din the lab to perfect the ratios, but it all just works so well. The lettuce, each leaf individually perfect, adds a nice fresh crisp to the sandwich, while preventing the juices of the sandwich soaking into the base layer of bread. The enoki, also great. This is sandwich science in action. I’ve never had a more perfect toastie in my life.

VERDICT
Despite not having any of the matcha or Japanese stuff that Cafe Cre Asion is known for, I’ve really enjoyed my two visits to date. I’d like to come back and would encourage you to do the same.

Try the muffin. It will change your mindset on muffins.

Café Cre Asion
(02) 8021 1629
101/21 Alberta St, Sydney NSW 2000