Tag: scone

Categories
Café

The Garden Berry – Berry NSW Restaurant Review

Il Locale’s extremely limited business hours meant that we ate at Berry’s The Garden Berry (apparently their official name) for lunch instead.

This scone ($7) with cream and jam was quite expensive, but actually really very delicious, better, in my opinion, than some cafes that might do scones as a main attraction. The scone was warm and fresh and soft, and the jam was just out of this world. Just take a look at those chunks of berry. The value proposition is better if you order two scones for $10 (with an appropriate increase in the quantity of cream and jam), and it is a regret that I will have to live with because I really wanted another one.

I can’t say that I loved this Chicken Cotoletta ($26), self-described by the restaurant as “a fancy chicken schnitzel”. Though the sourdough breading is clearly and visually greened up by garlic, parmesan and parsley, I couldn’t really taste a huge difference in quality compared to just a normal schnitzel. The meat of the chicken itself was also not exactly top tier in terms of moistness, and I know it’s going to sound like I have a complaint about every element of this dish, but for some reason the chips just didn’t hit right – perhaps undersalted? (Recognising there was salt on the table for us to add ourselves)

Back to a happier state, this trout salad ($25.50) was excellent. My resident at work (JDK – seriously a great guy and a great future doctor for the local area) had recently made me a hot smoked salmon salad, and I wanted to replicate that experience at The Garden Berry. This house smoked Tasmanian ocean trout was equally wonderful, moist and appropriately oily and smoky, with a generous serving to boot. I loved the crispy capers and roasted leak which added textural and taste interest to the underlying greenery. I didn’t love the random tiny potatoes, which I felt didn’t really have any flavour do them, but my partner did and was happy that she got to eat more than her fair share of them. The dill and horseradish dressing was not particularly perceptible, but did add to the flavour of the potatoes. Overall and excellent salad.

COMMENTS

We chose to sit outside (in the garden, in Berry), so I guess I shouldn’t complain at the random spider that we saw climbing up the pole next to us. During our lunch we had no less than four groups of people rotate through the table next to us, including a couple who moved to an indoors table, and another couple who left without ordering. Their server was kind enough to offer them suggestions as to where else to eat in Berry. Super nice of him.

Get the scones.

The Garden Berry
103 Queen St, Berry NSW 2535
(02) 4464 1920

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Japanese

St Kai – Mortdale NSW Restaurant Review

We had a really great meal at St Kai, a Japanese-inspired cafe with great food, but not that many Japanese people on its staff.

The tantanmen ramen with miso pork ($22) was a really good bowl of ramen. The broth was incredibly thick and rich, heavy on the umami and heavy on the creaminess, with the perfect amount of spice from Mama Liu’s chilli oil (thinking about this now, I might actually pick up a jar for home). The noodles were very jīndao 筋道 (a term which I think is being slowly eroded by the increasingly popular “Q” of Taiwanese origin) in texture, with great chewability and springiness. I enjoyed the included greenery (seaweed and bok choy), and there was plenty of meat in the bowl for neither of our two adult humans to not feel like we missed out. An additional thoughtful touch to our experience included the provision of a pre-warmed share bowl, which I have a photo of but will only post on request because that’s not why you’re here. Overall a great bowl, quite elaborate for a breakfast, but actually somewhat breakfasty in its flavour.

Next, the first of two breads. The folded dashi eggs on soft milk toast ($21), allegedly with flying salmon roe as per the menu but thankfully with non-flying salmon roe in reality was a treat. The eggs were perfectly cooked, just a little bit runny but still with some of its own structure. The dashi and bonito powder added a high degree of umami to the meal, whilst the generous serving of ikura, juicy and salty, was perfect to flavour the dish. I don’t know if the shokupan is made in house or if it’s from elsewhere, but found it to be nice and sweet with a good toasting around the outside but still soft on the inside. Very good.

Next, a sweet dish. The french toast with black sesame butter & miso caramel ($18) was at its base essentially the same as the dashi eggs on toast, with what is probably bread cut from the same loaf. Where it differs is in its taste and execution, a real testament to how versatile bread as a vessel is. This was a sweet dish, highly buttery and decadent from the mass of butter served. The black sesame itself wasn’t particularly sweet, if at all, and indeed they also add some of it to the tantanmen for extra sesame-ness. Most of the sweetness of this dish came from the miso caramel, which all added up was just the right amount of sweetness (ie. not too sweet) for my mood that day. My partner actually got bored of all the bread, but I did not. Very good. Love bread.

The Ichigo Tokyo Milk ($4.50) tastes like steamed Big M and I have regrets.

STRAY THOUGHTS I don’t know who Peggy Gou is or why she features so prominently on St Kai’s promotional material. Do they have a commercial arrangement in place, or are they just fans? Another stray observation I will make is that during our one our stay at the restaurant, all tables inckluding our own were inhabited by Asians, but none of the locals who were just dropping by for a quick coffee were. Does this say something about Asian-Australian yuppies (another dead word) as a social group? Who knows.

ACTUAL THOUGHTS We enjoyed our meal and recommended St Kai to our friend and colleague BJCHC. Who would’ve thought such a place would exist in a small side street of Mortdale?

Update June 2023

We went back for another meal. Unfortunately, and I don’t know if it is just what we chose this time around, it didn’t really do it for us.

The wagyu cheeseburger donburi ($23.50) was a bit oily and didn’t feel the best, though the egg was great. Maybe it would’ve been better as an actual cheeseburger, possibly with the rice formed into “buns” a la Koku Culture (RIP).

The melon pan ($7.80) with jam and cream was like a scone but not.

The udon sama ($23.50) with black garlic with forest mushrooms, truffle oil & charred lemon felt really oily, and even my partner who is a big lemon fan didn’t love this. Maybe I’m just a lover of meat, which was noticeably absent from this.

A ghost coffee flight ($16), designed for someone more into their Hoffman-esque coffee content than me.

Second round thoughts: I think there are still things on the St Kai menu that are really good and worth a try, but unfortunately visit number 2 downgraded them from a strong recommendation to a mild recommendation from me.

St. Kai
38 Balmoral Rd, Mortdale NSW 2223

Categories
Bakery British Café

The Tea Cosy – The Rocks NSW Cafe Review

When my partner told me we were going to The Tea Cosy in the Rocks I imagined an Importance of Being Earnest-style meal with thick white tablecloths and cucumber sandwiches. What I didn’t expect was a water gun fight with a flock of pigeons in outdoor-only seating.

One of the little terrorists

Our meal was had in an outdoor courtyard, on nice marble-style tables with good cross-ventilation. Service was fine but not great – when asked for water we only received one glass of tap water, and it was only on our second request that we received a jug – this time chilled (so why wasn’t the first?)

We had the Grand Stand ($28), a set of four freshly scones with double thick cream and a selection of two jams (we chose Raspberry & Vanilla and Lemon Curd) as well as six ribbon sandwiches of three flavours (choice not offered – we received smoked salmon, curried egg, creamy tuna).

The scones were large, warm and fresh, coated in a thin layer of sugar. My partner told me these reminded her of the ones she had at her Merrill Lynch cadetship orientation back in 2011, before she decided she wanted to be a doctor. She had, until now, not had scones as good as those, and was chasing the high to fill a hole that The Tea Cosy’s scones fit into perfectly. The serving of cream and jam was entirely adequate for these scones. My pick of the two would be the raspberry and vanilla, though the lemon curd (a bit sweet) was good too.

The sandwiches were pretty middling. The smoked salmon and curried egg ones were probably the strongest of the bunch. I wish we had been given a choice, as the jam and ham sandwich that they offer actually sounds a bit strange and potentially wonderful. Bread was soft and crust was pre-cut to suit the tastes of the upper echelon (not us).

We were a bit full by the time the New Zealand Style Scones with salami, fresh tomato, and Pepe Saya butter ($14) arrived half an hour later. This scone was more of a savoury cake or even a non-eggy quiche than a scone, with lots of cheddar, parmesan and spring onions packed in. The salami wasn’t special and seemed rather like the stuff you get at the deli counter at your local national supermarket chain. The Pepe Saya butter, of which we were given two, was the highlight. I wouldn’t get this again.

L : Mint and Lime Iced Tea, R: Cappucino

The Mint and Lime Iced Tea ($7.50 glass) was quite good, not too sweet, very fresh tasting. It was a hot day and I wish we had gone for a jug instead. The coffee was just coffee.

VERDICT

Visit The Tea Cosy if you’re chasing a 9 year memory of the perfect scone, or if you’re particularly fond of shooing away pigeons with a provided watergun. Skip the New Zealand style savoury scones.

4/5

The Tea Cosy
7 Atherden St, The Rocks NSW 2000
0401 730 504