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.
Look, this is really a review of a cookie that I had at Blair St Dairy, because that was closest to where we were and had to be again within a 45 minute window (some kind of magnesium sulfate floaty thing in Bondi Junction – my partner’s idea, but I agreed to go because she wanted me to, and magnesium sulfate is probably my most used drug). It really doesn’t matter though, because it’s only a cookie, and both places are run by the same people.
So what can I tell you about this chocolate chip cookie ($?6.50) that you can’t tell just from the photos? It was big, it was thick. It was warmed up for us before serving, which made it quite nice and soft. It was initially though to be not-too-sweet based on cookie, but opinion was changed to too-sweet once the taste of chocolate chip was established. The oiliness and sweetness of the cookie didn’t quite fit with the overall vibe of The Bondi Local, but these are probably the people who have some extra calories to spare anyway.
We had fun looking at all the Halloween displays outside the homes between our car and the café. You don’t get that as much when your house is worth less than $3 million of inter-generational wealth.
Anyway if you want the cookie and have an acceptable Trigs/HDL/LDL/HbA1c it’s probably more efficient to buy their cookie dough from the shops and bake your own.
We had a hard night of moving hard rubbish between our new place and the hard rubbish pickup at our old apartment complex, which took multiple, completely unnecessary trips because it turned out to be extremely easy to book hard rubbish pickup in the Inner West Council area. By the time we had finished moving all our stuff, all planned locations for a late night meal were closed, and we ended up at Brothers Kebabs in Annandale for a late night feed.
This halal snack pack with lamb and chicken was good, but expensive. I’m not sure of the price any more, but I want to say that it was in the neighbourhood of $22, which is quite pricey but I guess reflects the rising cost of everything these days. The meat was good, the chips fresh and crispy, and the saucing generous, though we were given the chilli sauce out of the squeeze bottle, not the luxurious looking spooned-from-the-tub chilli sauce that they were putting on the kebabs. I will have to ask for that next time.
I hadn’t had a pide for a good long time, and this chicken type pide hit the spot. Again, post midnight, I did not manage to remember to get prices or even the name of the menu item down. I wish it had come with more lemon, but I’m sure I could’ve asked for more.
A pretty good meal, good hours, and a rare finding of lamb.
UPDATE OCTOBER 2025
My wife picked up some kebabs and chilli sauce on the way home from work.
Kebab was fine.
One was lamb and the other was beef, but they tasted more or less the same.
The housemade chilli sauce ($1) that I was looking at last time didn’t end up being that good. It was sweeter than it was spicy, kind of reminiscent of a romesco.
I don’t remember much about this Western Sydney Hyderabadi restaurant, even though it hasn’t been so long since I ate at it. I will instead attempt to entertain you with a few pictures, some scattered thoughts, and a fun fact that I learned from my Western Sydney North Indian friend (ES).
I enjoyed the chicken 65 ($15 – actually listed as $14.99, but they don’t carry 1 cent coins), though it was a bit wetter and saltier than others that I’ve had. I was surprised to find that my friend had never had this before. Maybe I’ve just had it a lot because there have been a lot of Indo-Chinese restaurants in the places I’ve lived.
My interesting fact of the day, relating to this mutton biryani ($16 – $15.99, who are they trying to fool?), is that mutton biryani can refer to biryani with meat from either goat or sheep, and it’s not possible to know which one it is unless you ask. Where in Australian English we always mean old sheep, mutton almost always refers to goat in the Subcontinent, and therefore in a Indian restaurant in Sydney it could literally be a flip of the coin. This mutton, whatever animal it may have been, was not too gamey (which is my usual concern with old sheep).
My not so interesting fact about this arachi chicken (let’s just call it $16) is that I’m not the only one who couldn’t recognise this based on the photo. See below a screenshot from a Google Review by ali rizvi838.
I don’t know what this is. I’m waiting on my friend to text me back at time of writing. (EDIT: it is ladoo) It was soft, sweet, and drowned in syrup. It was pretty good.
General comments It’s weird that I don’t remember much about this place, but the general vibe was that it was good and affordable. Much more memorable was the weird fact that I learned about mutton.
Update – Delivery Order I didn’t feel like this was worth a separate post, but I had a subsequent delivery app meal around 3am one night from the Mehfil branch in Merrylands. Both the Chicken 65 Biryani and the Chicken Tikka 4-Piece were excellent.
The Chicken 65 Biryani ($17) included not only Chicken 65, but Biryani rice with chicken inside it, a surprising outcome as some restaurants try to get away with a protein-free biryani if the meal is already topped with Chicken 65.
The Chicken Tikka (4 piece for $18) was tender, tasty, juicy and made me feel quite happy. The combination of the two things I ordered made me feel very satisfied and energised me to continue the rest of the night.
Pazar Food Collective identifies as an Inner-West restaurant, which as someone who lives two minutes down the road I think it’s a bit laughable. As I told our dining companions on the night, the only people who consider where we live to be the Inner-West seem to be real estate agents. Regardless of which highly-priced clique of Sydney we were or weren’t in, we had a pretty good meal. Prices noted below are inclusive of a 10% weekend surcharge, which, given they’re only open Thursday-Saturday, I think bears mentioning.
We started with this wood baked sesame nigella bread with salted wild oregano butter ($17.05 – $13.20 without the butter). Both the bread and the butter tasted good and fragrant, with a density that might just be in keeping with its own style. Though I enjoyed the bread, I do wish that there could have been a cheaper or even no-cost option (like a flatbread or something, especially because we ended up getting multiple servings, given that such a large number of their entrees are so sauce focused.
People liked the muhamarra ($18.70), but I didn’t. It is a dip that that the menu describes as consisting of roasted almonds and walnuts blended with blistered red peppers, pomegranate molasses, and chilli. It’s hard to pinpoint why I didn’t like it – I think it was a bit loose and watery textured, though clearly no one else around the table had any problems with it. Bread was essential, and again a bit of pita would’ve gone a long way.
I am a lover of meet, and yes the sujuk with hummus and blistered tomatoes ($25.30) was enjoyable. The sujuk was helpfully presented as a mince rather than as slices of sausage, which made a lot of sense for a dish that ultimately surmounted to a multi-textured dip. I tend to eat quite a bit of sujuk during my Western Sydney culinary adventures, often without enjoying it, but I must say that this time I was thoroughly impressed by both the flavour and texture of the mince. Similar to the last dip, the reds were again blistered to this time produce cherry tomatoes that brought with them discrete pops of juice and flavour. The hummus didn’t really register for me. It was merely a creamy carrier for the other tasty ingredients rather than the focus of the dish.
Wow, another sauce, and need for another bread. The braised Japanese eggplant ($23.10) with roasted red pepper tomato sauce, garlic labneh, and chilli crisp did nothing for me. Apart from the slices of eggplant itself (which did not feel extremely Japanese to me) this tomato and capsicum dish felt more or less the same as a combination of the other two dips. Quite missable in my opinion.
We chose to have both the mains to share between us. This is the wood smoked roast lamb ($51.70 – 2 person serving size), atop a bed of bulgur pilav and garnished with pickled chillis, sumac herb and red onion salad. Though I wasn’t wowed by the meat, I did enjoy the bright pickled chillis, herbs, and lemon, which helped to keep mouthfuls of lamb moist and flavourful. This was my first time having bulgur pilav, which from what I can gather by my mouth and by Google is a wholegrain dish very similar to but distinct from wholewheat couscous and quinoa. It had rice energy.
Tied favourite with the sujuk mince was this terribly photographed harissa roasted chicken ($40.7). This half chicken, roasted on charcoal, was super tender and flavourful, marinated in a tahini lemon sauce, and served with chilli garlic and green chilli toum. Each bite of the chicken was really superb, and though it didn’t need the salad to help keep it fresh and moist, its presence was appreciated because it gave me something to eat whilst I respectfully let my co-diners have their fair share of the chicken. Strong recommend on this one.
Comments This restaurant really has a lot of saucey and dippy entrees for a place that only offers $13.20 servings of bread. It would really make a lot more sense to just have bottomless pita, but it would probably cut into their bottom line and $13 bread sales. The sujuk and the chicken were particular standouts. We also had some pretty good sangria, which I promise I only had a couple of sips of.
Pazar Food Collective 325 Canterbury Rd, Canterbury NSW 2193, Australia +61 411 727 874
The Galaxy Mousse Cake ($78) from Dulcet in Books Kinokuniya is one of four or five new full sized cakes I’ve had this year, chosen by my partner who does not generally enjoy a classic sponge.
It is a very dense mousse based cake, chocolate on the inside, and not too sweet. The layer of raspberry and cherry inside the chocolate gave it a bit of black-forest like quality, which was enjoyable.
It was not a transcendent experience, contrary to what some online reviewers will have you believe. As someone who constantly chases novelty, I don’t think I’d order it again, but I do think it was relatively good as far as non-sponge cakes go.
Dulcet Cafe Located in Books Kinokuniya, Level 2/500 George St, Sydney NSW 2000 (02) 8084 4456
