Category: Café

Categories
Asian Fusion Café

Leaf Cafe & Co – Clemton Park NSW Restaurant Review

Today we review a cafe local to our new digs in mild-Inner-South-West Sydney, a place where my partner’s consultant once took her to celebrate the end of internship and the beginning of many more years of service.

We had the Chicken Katsu Sando ($18), an unexpectedly large mass of food consisting of thick cut crumbed and deep fried chicken breast, sauce and slaw between similarly thick cut pieces of toast, on a bed of fries. Though the food was not what I expected, I have absolutely no complaints about the quantity provided. This was a mass of carbohydrate, fats, and proteins for only $18, though I do take exception to the vast quantity of bread provided. In my imagination (based on past experience, mind you – see my reviews of Devon, Ippuku, Sandoitchi, Kentaro) the chicken in this sandwich would have come between soft fluffy untoasted white bread, which while I will admit is generally thick, is much more palatable in a malleable, untoasted form. The sandwich otherwise had good saucing with a bit of sweet okonomoyaki style sauce and Kewpie mayonnaise, as well as a surprisingly huge amount of chicken. The chips were fresh and fine.

The Halloumi Benedict ($18), but note the asbence of halloumi in the photo and exchange for ham, was quite a competent benedict with quite a good hollandaise sauce. Readers of this blog will note that we eat probably fewer benedicts than the average brunch-goer, usually opting for a more unusual or diverse item if available on the menu. Though I was not too fond of the eggplant, I did enjoy every other part of this benedict, even if the egg was a little more cooked than I would’ve liked. I particularly enjoyed the English muffin, which had both a nice crispiness on the exterior layer and a good absorbency for the hollandaise sauce on the interior surface. Would be sick to see this muffin used for a sausage and egg muffin like Haberfield’s finest.

$6.50 is no small amount to pay for a chocolate malt milkshake but it was what my partner wanted and I was in no position to resist. It was fine. Quite airy.

THOUGHTS
Nothing really bad happened to me during my visit to Leaf Cafe & Co but I have exhausted all of the things I wanted to try there, and would definitely circle the block to the other local restaurants and cafes before coming back.

Leaf Cafe & Co Clemton Park
12/60 Charlotte St, Clemton Park NSW 2194
(02) 8057 4784

Categories
Café

Beans & Barrels – Parramatta NSW Restaurant Review

As a champion of the local Parramatta food scene and of all-day menus in general, I was excited to hear Beans & Barrels recommended online, and promptly took my sleep-deprived nocturnist crew comprising of CSJPH (and CSJPH’s SRMO), MJT, ES on a long 10 minute drive and 10 minute walk the next opportunity that I had.

Their all-day menu was quite extensive, with a number of highly customisable options that were available at any time of day.

I had the protein salad ($16), oddly named as it essentially featured all that you see above but without the actual protein components. It is a salad of beetroot humus, cherry tomatoes, spiced sweet potato, shaved fennel, dukkah, rocket, green apple, and lemon mustard dressing – completely inoffensive, relatively fresh, but not quite what comes to mind when “protein” is in the headline. To address this deficiency I added to it some very nice and juicy grilled chicken ($6) and two poached egg ($4) making it a good but $26 salad. I did end up leaving some of the greenery on my plate even having finished my additional proteins, which may either be testament to how much greenery there was (a good thing) or how much more protein was needed to balance it out.

I don’t know that I’ll come back, while good it was just a bit difficult to get to after a twelve and a half hour long night shift, but perhaps it will make its way into the rotation alongside our Parramatta favourites.

Beans & Barrels
Shop 6/180 George St, Parramatta NSW 2150
(02) 9635 3877

Categories
Café Middle Eastern

3 Tomatoes – Ashbury NSW Restaurant Review

3 Tomatoes is an unusually bustling cafe on an otherwise quiet suburban Ashbury street, a provider of a wide an interesting range of food options on their all-day menu as well as a selection of artisan groceries at their counter up front.

The Syrian falafel bowl ($17) with additional poached egg ($3.50) was a green and fresh bowl of sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, sliced radish, unsliced salad leaves, unsliced pickled chilli, and four or five freshly cooked falafels, all drizzled in tahini and parsley. This bowl was an enjoyable and fresh treat, promoting a healthful feeling with each bite of its salad-like ingredients. The falafels were warm and fresh, with a good crunchy external layer and warm, moist, textured interior. The first bite of any fried food is always the best, and while my enjoyment of the falafels waned as they radiated heat into the surrounding environment they remained reasonably good by the end, especially when paired with the mildly sour and mildly spicy pickled chillis. While I was initially concerned by the number of falafel served, they proved to be in the perfect ratio to the salad, and we did not find ourselves wanting for more at the end of the meal. The poached egg, an addition onto the base bowl, was well done with mastery shown in timing. Overall quite good. Very sesame flavoured.

It’s a shame that I don’t have a proper photo of the beef brisket ($18) without it being covered in part by the gigantic extra handmade 3T hash brown ($7). I would have liked to be able to comment on them individually, but the layering of the hash brown within the beef brisket dish made this impossible. The beef brisket dish with date molasses, capsicum, tahini, cooked greens and a fried egg was warm and tasty, if less fresh and wholesome compared to the aforementioned salad. The meat was a particular highlight, given that we have had some relatively disappointing red meats in brunch meals of late (at other establishments). The fried egg, similar to the poached egg, was cooked to a high degree of runny perfection.

The handmade 3T hash brown ($7) was my partner’s compromise after I told her she shouldn’t order the shoestring fries. It was quite large, though I guess if it had been any smaller we would’ve been upset at the $7 asking price. It had an crispy exterior with a moist interior, and was strongly herbed for additional flavour.

The pastel de nata ($4.50) from Tuga Pastries will be reviewed individually in a separate post if I ever make it to one of Tuga’s stores, but suffice it to say it was good, and I didn’t even have to wait thirty minutes in line to eat it.

Sticky Chai ($5.50), Soy Latte ($4.50). Coffee by Will & Co. Good foam on the latte.

THOUGHTS
It’s a very nice, doggy cafe in a very nice and doggy neighbourhood. I’d like to come back. I will admit that I looked online at real estate in the area after I got home. I am in the right age and stage chronologically but not financially. Pegfeeds is why.

A human, in double denim, petting a dog, not in denim.

3 Tomatoes
121 Holden St, Ashbury NSW 2193
(02) 8065 1288

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Chinese

STIX – Marrickville NSW Restaurant Review

My partner and I have been eating a lot of good food recently, much to the disappointment of my healthcare team and our mortgage deposit. This morning’s late start for my partner found us at STIX, a farm to table café with a much appreciated all-day menu.

We started with the potato hash ($8). I couldn’t stop her. For what it’s worth, these were great. These were extremely buttery and luscious, multi-layered with a thin crispy of an exterior and a soft interior. Pretty tasty.

The smoked trout rillettes ($24) with fennel and kohlrabi remoulade, celery, pickled eschallot, apricot jam and sourdough toast was next. I enjoyed the taste and texture of this dish, as something I could not dream of making myself. The base of sourdough bread was nice and crusty, with good structural integrity and able to carry the weight of its toppings with ease. The brightness, freshness and crunchiness of the celery was excellent with the more creamy textures of the remoulade and trout rillette. The taste and texture of the rillette, something difficult to make or find outside of a restaurant, were both good, and a reasonable volume was provided with our order.

The poached egg was comically small, though we do understand that when you’re raising the hens yourself there is a spectrum of eggs produced, and it’s not possible to only have 58 gram eggs. Unfortunately the small size of our poached egg may have contributed to its overcooking – I have no photos but it was 0% runny compared to what a normal poached egg is.

The last thing to mention would be the apricot jam, which was just a little bit sweet but added so much to the overall flavour of the dish, complimenting the saltiness and savouriness of the rest of the meal. My partner particularly liked that it was dolloped on in discrete bits, so that some mouthfuls would have some sweetness and others would not.

The very good chicken and sweetcorn congee ($21) was a dish that I felt I could probably make at home, and am in fact probably ethnically and genetically obliged to make at home at some point. It was a really tasty and hot bowl of congee, with a bit of spiciness from some tamari chilli relish, some sweetness from the corn, some ginger, and some saltiness from what I presume is just plain salt. The texture of the rice was very nice and soft, and has prompted me to freeze a bit of washed and soaked rice in my freezer just now so that I can make something similar soon. The chicken was not particularly plentiful, with a shredded grocery store rotisserie chicken kind of quality (though I do not mean to defame – I’m sure it was much fancier than this), but enough for enjoyment. This was ultimately a simple but very well executed dish, one that will inspire me to be a better Asian this week.

I made my partner wait a full twelve minutes after the end of our meal to decide if she still wanted this tea and toast croissant ($9.50). $9.50 is a lot to pay for a croissant. I thought that the earl grey tea cream filling of the croissant was plentiful in volume, but sadly not so in taste. It felt highly calorie dense, fatty and thick, but without the taste payoff that such expenditure should entail. I would’ve much preferred a stronger earl grey taste in this situation, preferably also without as much volume of cream. Filling aside, the marmalade glaze on this croissant was enjoyable, although in my imaginations of Beverly and Betty tea and toast diets (I am, for these six months, a geriatric medicine advanced trainee after all) I had always assumed it was plain toast straight out of the toaster that they were eating. I doubt you would get too malnourished if this croissant were your staple meal.

OTHER THOUGHTS
I don’t know how I feel about a place that only takes card, with a mandatory card surcharge for all payments. It feels like any mandatory, unavoidable surcharge should be built into the menu price from the start, but I guess the gods of the ACCC disagree with me. Pretty good food. Worth a visit.

STIX
20 Chapel St, Marrickville NSW 2204
(02) 9550 2772

Categories
American Bakery Café

Small Talk Coffee & Snacks – Dulwich Hill Restaurant Review

This is Small Talk’s Lox Bagel ($17.50). I don’t know the physical or legal difference between a bagel with filling and a sandwich, apart from the type of bread, but nonetheless enjoyed this bagel with filling. The bagel has a sweet and savoury flavour, with a mildly dense texture providing a perfect balance of bite and chew. The filling of smoked salmon, caper paste, pickled onion and cream cheese was deeply umami, with a good mix of different textures and flavours. My partner and I shared the one bagel, and I do not think it was inadequate. They come pre-sliced in half, so if eating with a friend or colleague they are optimal for sharing two different halves of two different bagels.

Another item pre-destined for sharing is their Raspberry Fritter ($7.50), essentially a square glazed donut with a light hint of raspberry filling. If you were to close your eyes it would be almost indistinguishable from a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut, though the grooves did make it extremely convenient to tear and share. Not the strongest dessert though, and I feel too expensive for what it was.

Please note that this venue is more takeaway oriented, with only very limited outdoor benching available.

Small Talk Dulwich Hill
Shop 2/355 New Canterbury Rd, Dulwich Hill NSW 2203