Tag: reuben sandwich

Categories
Café

Yellow Deli – Katoomba NSW Restaurant Review

I worked at the base of the Blue Mountains for two years in my youth, and despite asking my partner on a regular basis we never made the trip up. It would take another two years for her to actually want to go of her own accord, an opportunity that I jumped at – not only to climb an awful amount of slippery steps, but also to eat at the famed Yellow Deli.

The Yellow Deli, according to the internet, is a kind of global chain cafe run by adherents of certain subgroup of Christians. Though many of the online reviews for the cafe deplore the group’s alleged “child abuse”, on further reading it appears that they refer to the use of physical discipline, which whilst I don’t believe is really OK, kind of just sounds like growing up as an Asian kid.

Common amongst the Yellow Delis is this extremely rustic aesthetic, with fit outs of recycled timber, hanging lanterns, and leather-on-chairs. It felt like something you would find in rural New Zealand, though I guess just as appropriately at a town in the mountains.

To drink we had a Hazlenut Dande Mate Latte, which was creamy and nutty and quite pleasant. I will comment here only about the experience of having the drink, and not about any of its purported health benefits.

To eat we had a bowl of chilli con carne ($13), served with jalapeno bread and whipped butter. Whilst the chilli didn’t taste so different from any other chilli, we did appreciate the inclusion of large meatballs within it, though it meant that the meat was focused in discrete areas, and once gone so did we lose our desire to continue eating the rest of the chilli. The jalapeno bread was quite good though, sweet and still warm, and well paired with the butter. It was quite a lot of food for the price.

The reuben sandwich ($13.50) was unfortunately not an advance on the classic, served with housemade potato crisps but otherwise generally uninspiring.

The deli rose sandwich ($13.50), was however quite good, with two types of beef (roast and corned), provolone, onions, butter, and tomato amongst other things. I enjoyed the onion roll here more than I did the light rye bread of the reuben, with its increased softness and textural palatability. This sandwich was also just more moist than the other, with the tomato, although ultimately reminded us strongly of something from Subway. Pretty good though.

COMMENTS
I think the main draw for the Yellow Deli, apart from the obvious, is its sick interior. We had just seen a video about some 1000 year old pub in the UK, and whilst we don’t have any such historic buildings here in the colonies, you could totally imagine this place to have a history like that. Food-wise, nothing particularly special, but out of the things we did eat we liked the deli rose sandwich the most. Most things were a bit too salty for me.

The Yellow Deli Katoomba
214 Katoomba St, Katoomba NSW 2780
(02) 4782 9744

Categories
Café Latin American

Storgē and Co. – North Parramatta NSW Cafe Review

My girlfriend and I often fall victim to sponsored posts on social media, and it was just such a sponsored post that led us to Storgē and Co., one of North Parramatta’s foremost demountable-based Latin American restaurants.

Storge and Co features a mix of indoor and outdoor courtyard seating, though it appears that the indoor seating is not used on days with clear weather. We parked in the Petbarn next door, making a note to buy some cat food so that we wouldn’t feel bad about taking their customer only parking.

The Crispy Dog ($10) is pretty good. It is a hot dog of grilled chorizo, pico de gallo, parmesan, and a rich creamy sauce, topped with a generous serving of potato crisps for an extra crunch. The flavours of this hot dog were quite good. The chorizo sausage itself had quite a complex flavour which rose beyond mere saltiness, which I did not expect from a $10 hot dog. The pico de gallo provided freshness, whilst the potato crisps were salty and crispy. The white creamy sauce was a bit heavy, though in conjunction with all the other flavours and the deliciously toasted bread was not as unbalanced as in the pepito.

This creamy monstrosity is the Pepito ($15). It is essentially a toasted sourdough baguette, filled with 24-hour marinated beef tenderloin, parmesan, mozzarella, and topped with “heavenly sauce”. The beef was very tender, juicy, and tasted good, but that was essentially the best part. There was an absolute cheese overload, and while I can’t tell you the exact components of the heavenly sauce, I assume it is named so as the rich fatty creaminess books you an express ticket to heaven. The sauce and two cheeses mixed together make this a very heavy roll indeed. Not at all wholesome, and not really that good to taste either.

Enthused by our recent positive empanada experience at Mas Tinto, we ordered Storgē and Co.’s cheese and guava jam empanadas (3 for $9.50). Unlike Mas Tinto’s Storge and Co’s were a major disappointment. Where Mas Tinto’s guava and cheese empanadas were lightly but deftly flavoured, Storge’s take is much more heavy handed. I was surprised to find both a too-sweet and too-salty filling, The flavours were unfortunately far too strong, and the dipping sauce did nothing to help with this. It would’ve been better for them to sell them individually, but I imagine that if they did they would only sell one to each customer, and no more following that.

The Thre3* Milk Cake ($6.50), consisting of sponge cake soaked in and topped with three or four different types of milk reminded me of something served for dessert at a year 6 camp. Not awful, but not very good either. A strange hit of nostalgia, and a no go from me.

INTERIM IMPRESSION
I think ultimately, out of the things that we tried at Storgē and Co., there are more losers than winners. While their Crispy Dog was good, it’s only a member of their seasonal menu, and not part of the regular cast. I wouldn’t mind coming back to try their Reuben Sandwich, though a return to Storgē and Co. is reasonably low on my list of things to do.

A RETURN

True to my word, I returned to Storgē and Co whilst servincing my car at West End Mazda across the road to try out their Reuben Sando ($12). The sauerkraut to meat to cheese ratio was certianly achieved, but I felt that whilst the bread was well toasted the insides remained extremely tepid. If I had to rate this sandwich against the two other Reuben’s previously in my life, I’d put this between the excellent one at Croquembouche Patisserie that I had no less than 10 times in 2020, and the extremely low-tier average one I had at Nepean Hospital in 2019.

Whilst I won’t bore you with exterior shots of the Beef Empanada (3 for $9.50), I can tell you they looked exactly the same as the guave empaanda from the outside. They were, however, much better. The more solid contents meant that the beef empanada wasn’t as piping hot, and therefore more easy to eat. The savoury filling of potato and beef was quite hearty, and the flavours were actually well comlimented by the provided dipping sauce. They were really not bad.

VERDICT
After trying quite a few things on their menu, I think really only the Crispy Dog was anything very special.

Storgē and Co.
69a Church St, North Parramatta NSW 2151
0413 054 553

Categories
Bakery Café French

Croquembouche Patisserie – Botany NSW Café Review

Wow! This review has really been a long time coming.

When we moved to Botany in January 2020 one of the first things we did, before we even started unpacking, was load up Zomato and look for places to eat. Croquembouche Patisserie caught our eye, and since then we’ve eaten there at least ten to fifteen times over the course of a year.

Croquembouche bills itself as one of top French bakeries in Sydney, and as the only French (non-Vietnamese) bakery I’ve ever been to I’d have to agree. We’ve eaten so many things at Croquembouche that I will only review our favourites.

The Reuben Sandwich is huge and flavourful. It’s actually the first thing I ever got from Croquembouche and has become a regular favourite. I would recommend to get it toasted.

The Ham and cheese croissant with béchamel sauce is excellent. The croissant is fluffy, and the béchamel makes the whole thing very creamy. They do an alternate ham and cheese croissant with gruyere which is a bit more expensive but I don’t like as much – no béchamel.

The Citron tart is my partner’s favourite thing from Croquembouche. In her words, “it’s probably the best lemon curt tart [she’s] ever had. Its balance of tanginess and sweetness is pretty perfect, and I wonder if it has some other complex citruses in there as well. Lemon parts are one of [her] favourite desserts, and [she] thinks that Croquembouche has one of [her] favourite tarts [she’s] ever tasted. You can’t quote me word for word, because I refuse to have non edited words and thoughts on a public platform. You’d better not be continuing to write what I’m saying.”

There is a healthy assortment of crepes on offer, which are all delicious and packed with ingredients like cheese, meat, and mushrooms.

This salted caramel tart was quite good, and not too sweet. This is coming from someone who generally doesn’t like salted caramel.

Croquembouche also offers an assortment of hot meat pies and sausage rolls. They’re pretty standard, and not really at the level of perfection as their other stuff.

Through the course of the year we had an assortment of fruity dessert pastries, which were mostly good and not too sweet.

This was an expensive but elevated hot cross bun.

The level of glaze on this apricot tart is enough to reflect stars in distant galaxies.

$10 for a bacon and egg roll and a coffee is actually quite a good deal. Unfortunately I think not everyone in the café can make coffee, and the wait for coffee during the morning rush can end up being a bit long.

My girlfriend loves chocolate mousse.

Some kind of savory bread of which I have no recollection. Looks cheesy.

This was a really nice sandwich, maybe Cuban, maybe something else, packed with ingredients including a generous amount of pickle. I’d get it again.

Look at this slice of unnamed tart.

Tart of berry. Small but concentrated.

This is one that surprised me. You would never expect such a dish sitting in the counter to have such perfectly poached eggs. Indeed this an entire brunch dressed as a sandwich. Really good, but flies under the radar.

I had a couple of these truffle and salami sandwiches throughout the year. Very tasty, but very oily.

The Salmon and Dill and Chicken and Dill sandwiches are also quite yum. A very pleasant dill taste mixed into a mayonnaise-like sauce with either salmon or chicken rillettes. I’ve never had one uneaten for long enough to take a photo.

THOUGHTS OTHER THAN EFFUSIVE PRAISE

If there’s one somewhat negative component of Croquembouche Patisserie it may just be the exquisite amount of care and time they put in to make the coffee and toast the sandwiches. I’m often in a rush in the morning before work, so I know to get my sandwiches untoasted and without coffee. Their food is also quite rich and buttery, which may be a problem in terms of long-term cardiovascular risk.

Having gone so many times in 2020 and not at all since moving to Western Sydney in February 2021, I wonder if these guys think I’ve died.

Croquembouche Patisserie
1635 Botany Rd, Botany NSW 2019
(02) 9666 3069