Tag: corn fritters

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Café

Plunge 46 – Summer Hill NSW Restaurant Review

I respect breakfast as the most important meal of the day, both from a medical standpoint as well as a cultural standpoint – the post night shift breakfast is probably one of the things that keeps me coming back to work. Despite my respect for breakfast as an institution, I don’t necessarily believe that breakfast should be limited only to breakfast foods, like eggs, beans, and more generally a simple lack of meats made in elaborate ways. So it comes as no surprise that I am an absolute sucker for an all-day menu.

My partner and I ate from Plunge 46’s extensive all-day menu, this morning in the middle of her run of night shifts.

We had this very lovely plate of corn fritters ($22), which is a very standard dish that my partner likes, but this rendition came with some excitement. As you can see from the photo, there was not a whole lot of batter on the corn fritters. The corn kernels themselves were quite visible macroscopically without need for any additional dissection, meaning that compared to others in its category this rendition was quite corn-forward and probably a bit healthier than its competition who are mostly completely encased in batter.

We enjoyed the sour cream, the slightly smashed avocado, the tomato and all the other bits involved, particularly the red liquid, which was somewhat of a salsa-like concoction. My partner was particularly pleased by the appearance of rocket rather than the more common wilted spinach, the two occupying opposite corners in her vegetable tier list. The fritters, topped off with a well poached egg, was overall a strong showing.

The tempura fish tacos ($17.50) that I had read about on the Google reviews before I went were somewhat less exciting (although my partner did enjoy them, to be fair). I found myself eating my allocated taco quite quickly without really being able to taste anything particularly different between the mixture of cabbage, avocado, tomato in this taco compared to the corn fritter dish. Apart from a slight hint of bitterness it was hard for me to really unpack any of the flavours in my little taco that I had, almost as if I basically ate my taco on autopilot without the ability or opportunity to really understand and enjoy it. Perhaps such an assessment is not entirely fair, but I do feel like if it were great, I probably would’ve paid more attention to it.

Luckily for this Plunge 46, there are still quite a number of options on the menu that I’d like to give a go, and it is quite likely that I’ll be back in due course.

Plunge 46
46 Lackey St, Summer Hill NSW 2130

Categories
Café

Little West – Haberfield NSW Restaurant Review

We spent like half an hour doing a post-walk stand-around waiting for a table at Little West, but we got to see a little cat after our meal, so it was kind of worth it to me.

The smoked brisket sausage roll ($10) was somewhat small in size, but made up for it with its good texture, both internally in the house smoked beef brisket filling, as well as externally in the buttery and flaky pastry. The house made bush tomato sauce was a bit tangier than your regular tomato sauce, almost similar to a BBQ sauce.

This banana & macadamia loaf ($7), toasted with a slab of cultured butter, did very little for me. At the very least I can say it was not too sweet, but I think overall it was not too anything in terms of taste.

This brunch bowl with house hot smoked salmon ($24 including a $7 salmon supplement) was wholesome and good, hitting the mark on a number of counts, including a good corn fritter, well poached eggs, and a varied smattering of fresh greenery. Little West’s commitment to making a bunch of different ingredients in house, where your usual café might just buy their smoked salmon from an external supplier, is pretty impressive, even if the quality of the end product does not differ noticeably from something off-the-shelf.

meow

Little West
Shop 2, 53-55 Waratah St, Haberfield NSW 2045
0482 078 099

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Café

Saint Marks – Randwick NSW Cafe Review

Saint Marks on Clovelly Road is just one of two unrelated establishments with the same name in Randwick. The one we’re interested in today is a cafe – the other, a hotel on Rae St, will not be mentioned again in this post.

The sweet corn fritter stack was quite well plated and visually appealing. My partner, who as you may know by now is a big fan of corn fritters really enjoyed it. She liked the sweetness of the fritter, which helped this dish stand out from the rest. A further point of distinction was the texture of these fritters, which were quite loose and corny, in a good way. Unfortunately the poached eggs that were added on for an additional fee were not good. As you can see from the photo one of them was very well cooked. No good.

The Saint Marks Burger (with extra patty and cheese – $20) was a tall but very expensive burger. The patties were slightly underseasoned but otherwise had good texture with a very meaty mouthfeel. The pickles were tangy and I appreciated that there were both internal pickles as well as external pickles. At the $20 price tag I would have expected this burger to at least have come with some chips.

DISCUSSION
Despite the good internal airflow supplied by large ceiling fans we chose to dine in Saint Marks’ outdoor seating due to extra risk-averse nature (and in view of recent new COVID-19 cases in the area). Towards the end of our meal, whilst all internal customers had left we started to hear the staff inside make a series of seal noises. This was quite odd.

3.5/5 – (lean 3, egg no good)

Saint Marks
80 Clovelly Rd, Randwick NSW 2031

Categories
Café Middle Eastern

Silly Tart Kitchen – Potts Point NSW Cafe Review

My partner had a hankering for mimoas last week and it was my duty and pleasure to fill the role of designated driver on our trip to Silly Tart. She had the bottomless drinks, a choice of any four cocktails for $35 per person for 1.5 hours, and we both shared the “feed me” tasting menu, also $35 per person. While the menu lists the “feed me” as being only for a minimum party of 4 people, they were happy to accommodate our indecisiveness as a couple.

We sat in the outside “garden” portion, open to air but with a translucent roof covering which provided a degree of shade. There was a nice breeze and some grapes on the tree outside. Semi-fit for COVID-19 dining.

Hummus with lemon sauce and warm flatbread.

Our first dish of our tasting menu was the hummus with lemon sauce and warm flatbread. This was a good dish to start on. The hummus was mild but flavourful, and as you can see quite well plated with its garnish of shallott, tiny radishes, and cut up cherry tomato. The warm flatbread was indeed warm and served in two forms. There was more than enough flatbread to mop up all of the hummus and even enough left over to eat with the next dish.

grilled asparagus, apple, pecorino with lemon sauce

The grilled asparagus, apple, pecorino with lemon sauce was quite good. The asparagus was drenched in olive oil which I think is pretty much unavoidable for grilled asparagus. The lemon sauce was the same as the previous dish, and I wish they had mixed it up a little. The green sauce was I think a pesto but not too pesto-y.

Hash of pumpkin, salt and vinegar potato, herbs and shallot

This is a hash of pumpkin from the chef’s father’s garden in Goulburn NSW with salt and vinegar potato and herbs and shallot from the herb garden that we were sitting in. I’m not particularly sure why the provenance of the pumpkin was so important to point out, as if the unnamed chef’s father was some kind of famous pumpkin king (if so, why not tell us his name?). We liked this dish overall. Salt and vinegar is one of my partner’s favourite seasonings on her favourite legume. There was a lot of shallot, as with the previous two dishes, which was not all finished.

corn fritters and tomato relish with their house-smoked 2 week crispy bacon

The house specialty, corn fritters and tomato relish with their house-smoked 2 week crispy bacon was the fourth and final course. The house-smoked 2 crispy bacon was indeed extremely crispy, thin, and delicious. It was just packed with umami and flavour, and we were sad that there was so little of it – especially as this was the only meat we got all meal. The corn fritters themselves were quite bad, with a poor internal texture that was more bready than corny. The tomato relish was nice and just the tiniest bit spicy.

As mentioned, my partner enjoyed three different cocktails while I indulged in a delicious glass of water.

The water was filtered and chilled, served in a glass bottle and drunk from quite a large and heavy glass. I did have the opportunity to sneak a sip of each of the cocktails – Bloody Mary, Mimosa, Grapefruit Gin Spritzer, however take it from my partner that they were all quite good. My partner’s favourite cocktail was the bloody mary, which she thought was bloody delicious.

VERDICT

While ultimately a good time, I would have liked it more if there was more meat. The dishes were all quite repetitive, with an overreliance on shallot a recurring motif. It would even be a very reasonable place to come as a vegetarian, if you’re happy to miss out on a few pieces of bacon. Silly Tart Kitchen otherwise provides good value as a $35 pp tasting menu, as well as a $35 pp bottomless drinks service. They also offer 700mL premixes of their cocktails at a very low price ($15-ish).

4/5 but give me more meats

Silly Tart Kitchen
1 Kellett St, Potts Point NSW 2011, Australia
+61 2 9331 1048

The Silly Tart Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato