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

Categories
Bakery

Milkwood Bakery – Berry NSW Restaurant Review

I went many times to Milkwood Bakery but with varied levels of enjoyment.

The Portuguese Tart ($4.20) had a nice and crispy and crunchy pastry, but I didn’t enjoy the (lack of) warmth to the filling and found it overall to be a bit oily for my taste.

The Vegan Carrot Sesame Cake ($5.50) was chosen as they had run out of their far superior regular carrot cake (reviewed down below). I liked that as compared to their regular carrot cake a small portion was available, and though it did not taste as rich or as good as the standard option it was ultimately not bad, especially as they had hamstrung themselves with the strict avoidance of any dairy.

I enjoyed the pastry component of the Beef and Pork Sausage Roll ($7.20), which was oily and flaky. The meat was thick and well textured, but in my opinion too salty to tick every quality box.

The Wagyu toastie ($13.50) had a pastrami like wagyu meet with cheesse and beetroot. It was alright, but not the best toasted sandwich of the Shoalhaven area.

I enjoyed the chocolate exterior of the Lamington ($3.50) but really quite hated the texture and taste of the sponge.

This carrot cake is actually very good. The cake itself was nice and moist with an unusually large helping of walnuts, with good flavour, and I also quite enjoyed the frosting. It is certainly much more pleasant than the vegan version also sold at Milkwood. I only wish that this could be sold in a smaller portion, though we had no difficulty inhaling this delicious cake in its entirety.

The Beef Bourguignon Pie ($8) was pretty good, though I’m not sure it was exactly $8 good. It was quite mushroomy, and perhaps I would give it a higher rating if I were a paid shill for Big Mushroom, who look like they’re splashing out on the social media influencers these days.

And finally, the Blueberry Custard Tart ($6.50), with its shortbread crust. I’m sure it is clear by now that I have a lot of opinions for someone who can’t bake himself, but this crust felt just a bit floury for my liking. Was a big fan of these huge juicy blueberries though.

Milkwood Bakery
109 Queen St, Berry NSW 2535
(02) 4464 3033

Categories
Bakery

Tuga Pastries – Alexandria NSW Restaurant Review

Another day, another bakery – this one just a stone’s throw away from my partner’s GP, who has a particular interest in promoting long-term behavioural change where it comes to modifiable risk factors for non-communicable disease.

Tuga Pastries is perhaps best known for their Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Tart – $4.50), often being mentioned in the same breath as Sweet Belem when it comes to Sydney’s pastry tier lists. Though I’ve had Tuga’s Portuguese tarts at other cafes like Ashbury’s 3 Tomatoes, the experience was far better eating it fresh from the source. The filling on this tart was extremely gooey and creamy, with a fresh-out-of-the-oven warmth that coated and curled around the tongue. The pastry was similarly warm, fresh, buttery, and flaky, though if I had one complaint about this pastel de nata overall would be that it was a bit too sweet for my taste. Despite this, I would rate this above Sweet Belem‘s based on textural factors.

This great big slab is the Pork, Lamb and Harrisa Sausage Roll ($9), an attempt to fancy up the humble Australian classic that I feel met quite limited success. It features quite a thick block of finely minced meat wrapped in puff pastry, served with an extremely stock standard tomato sauce that for some reason we couldn’t get enough of. I personally found this sausage roll a bit lamby for my liking, and would’ve liked a coarser texture than what was offered here. Wouldn’t get it again.

I had no love for this 3 Cheese Toastie ($13), which I found quite dry, especially with all its seeds. I think the only way to make it better would be to add some kind of moist vegetable or meat to it, which would ruin the concept of it being a cheese only toastie. Maybe I just don’t like cheese-only toasties, but my partner, who chose this item, did not like it either.

This pear danish ($6) was really quite good. I enjoyed the flaky, buttery pastry, but more suprisingly I enjoyed the pear, which looked sweeter than it actually tasted. It was, in fact, not too sweet.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by how dense and ricotta-y this blueberry ricotta tart ($6.50) was. Didn’t love it.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Though much of what we had at Tuga was a bit hit and miss, there’s no denying the high quality of their pastel de natas. These are probably my favourite Portuguese tarts in Sydney right now, and for that reason alone I’m looking forward to the next time I have to take my partner to the doctor to hear about why we shouldn’t be eating so much.

Tuga Pastries Alexandria
10/112 McEvoy St, Alexandria NSW 2015
0412 664 165

Categories
Bakery Café

Earnest Arthur – South Nowra NSW Restaurant Review

So I’ve been wanting a pie from Punch the Ploughman for weeks now, but their pie times are completely at odds with my waking-and-eating hours. Unless I purposely stay up after work for two and a half hours after I finish my night shift or unless I somehow send my resident out of the hospital to grab lunch there is just no way for me to get the pies that come out at 10:30AM and run out by 12:30PM. Earnest Arthur, one of the Shoalhaven area’s premier pie stops was a promising alternative for a couple of post nights feeds.

This Peking duck sausage roll ($6.50) did not hit the spot at all. I read on one of their Google reviews that a customer was disappointed that they had missed out on one of these rolls when they were there, a disappointment that only induced me to try it myself. Sadly I don’t really think they missed out on much, as I found that the filling was quite floury or carby, kind of like the stuffing of a supermarket rotisserie chicken, but denser and dryer. It was difficult to appreciate any duck at all, though I’m sure that it’s in there somewhere. Even assuming that there is some duck in there, I don’t know, as a guy from the Beijing region, what about this was particularly Peking. It piqued my interest but did not peak my tastebuds. I think a bit of tomato sauce could’ve gone a long way, but whilst I’m sure it is available within the store it was clearly on display or not freely offered on either of my two visits.

The surf and turf pie ($8.40) was a big improvement over the duck sausage roll, with clearly appreciable big and juicy prawns, and limited but large chunks of meat. This would begin a trend that would continue for the rest of the pies that I had at Earnest Arthur. Their pies are much gravy with limited in number but large sized chunks of protein. Not bad.

The jalapeno, beef and cheese pie ($8.40) was the strongest of the four foods that I tried at Earnest Arthur over my two visits. Making up for the meat-limited approach of this bakery was the use of jalapeno and cheese within the filling, thereby taking up room with something other than gravy. The flavours of jalapeno pepper and cheese were actually quite complimentary, with senses both of freshness and umami.

The dill and snapper pie ($8.40) was really quite pleasant, with mild flavours, creamy and not too fishy. Again, lots of (yummy) goop, with only odd chunks’o’fish.

GENERAL VIBE: I don’t know if I’m really describing what I’m trying to say adequately. It is highly possible that if they chose to use mince instead of large chunks of steak and fish and prawn, they might be able to better spread their protein throughout the pie. The fact that they probably do in fact use more expensive and larger portions of meat means that it leaves entire mouthfuls of just pastry and gravy without anything to chew on, and concentrates the pleasure of meat-eating onto other mouthfuls. I don’t know that the overall consistency of their pies are accurately conveyed on the cross-sections on their website.

The flavours are mostly good (barring the Peking duck sausage roll), but I personally would prefer balance. Otherwise if you’re going to go the chunky steak route then to put in enough steak to fill the entire pie, though $8.40 is already quite a lot to pay for a meat pie, and more steak would certainly mean even more money than that.

Two pies per breakfast is too much pie for a guy trying to not eat that much pie.

Earnest Arthur
(02) 4422 4000
171 Princes Hwy, South Nowra NSW 2541

Categories
Asian Fusion Bakery Japanese

Azuki Bakery – Newtown NSW Restaurant Review

Despite their small size and tiny amount of available seating, Azuki Bakery in Sydney’s inner west has some of my favourite pastries of recent times, incorporating mostly-Japanese but broadly East Asian flavours into a universally loved medium (bread).

We’ll start by talking about this Kimchi Pork Sausage Roll ($5.80). This Korean inspired sausage roll was the savoury highlight of our meal, with a good flaky pastry and a warm and flavourful meaty filling.

While I had great expectations for Azuki’s Beef Curry Pan ($5), this was unfortunately not quite the picture of perfection that I had hoped. I enjoyed the light and sweet bread and the crispy oily external layer, but sadly found that the internal filling was just a bit too cool for my liking. While it is true that we waited maybe five minutes for one of the three outdoor tables to free up (our prediction for which of the three Asian couples presently seated would leave first and be replaced by us, also an Asian couple, was completely wrong – the ones who had finished eating first actually ended up staying the longest to sit and chat), this bun was otherwise straight from their counter. It is a shame as I could tell that the filling would otherwise be pretty good, but was just lacking a bit of warmth to open up the flavours and aromas.

Azuki is not the first bakery to advertise its Hot Cross Bun ($4.20) as the best in Sydney, but to be honest my knowledge of hot cross buns is neither deep nor broad enough to dispute or support this claim. This particular hot cross bun was quite densely packed compared to your average supermarket variety, with a good amount of spice in the dough and a deliciously heavy load of fruit and walnuts. It was, all in all a good hot cross bun.

The Yuzu Doughnut ($5.20) was pretty good, not too sweet apart from the candied citrus slice on top. I enjoyed the soft dough and the mild but delicious yuzu custard cream within.

This Custard Puff ($4.80) came on its own in a little cake box, so you know it’s special. It had a strong Beard Papa energy, and I loved everything about this, from the sweet and buttery cookie choux pastry to the light and creamy vanilla custard filling. So good.

The Strawberry Extra Decoration Cake ($58), which I ordered for a family birthday based on our good experience with their other offerings was sadly not as exciting as the rest. It was a fairly basic sponge cake with an interior layer of strawberry, and in my personal opinion too much whipped cream. It did not stand out as a cake against competitor cakes. At least it was not too sweet.

THOUGHTS

We tried and liked a great number of things from Azuki, but the one dessert I think you can’t walk past is their excellent custard puff. We’ll definitely be going back for another, along with some other things.

Azuki Bakery
3/63-71 Enmore Rd, Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 8542 9317