Tag: smoked salmon

Categories
American Bakery Café

Small Talk Coffee & Snacks – Dulwich Hill Restaurant Review

This is Small Talk’s Lox Bagel ($17.50). I don’t know the physical or legal difference between a bagel with filling and a sandwich, apart from the type of bread, but nonetheless enjoyed this bagel with filling. The bagel has a sweet and savoury flavour, with a mildly dense texture providing a perfect balance of bite and chew. The filling of smoked salmon, caper paste, pickled onion and cream cheese was deeply umami, with a good mix of different textures and flavours. My partner and I shared the one bagel, and I do not think it was inadequate. They come pre-sliced in half, so if eating with a friend or colleague they are optimal for sharing two different halves of two different bagels.

Another item pre-destined for sharing is their Raspberry Fritter ($7.50), essentially a square glazed donut with a light hint of raspberry filling. If you were to close your eyes it would be almost indistinguishable from a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut, though the grooves did make it extremely convenient to tear and share. Not the strongest dessert though, and I feel too expensive for what it was.

Please note that this venue is more takeaway oriented, with only very limited outdoor benching available.

Small Talk Dulwich Hill
Shop 2/355 New Canterbury Rd, Dulwich Hill NSW 2203

Categories
Café

Piccolo Me – North Rocks NSW Restaurant Review

All things considered, Piccolo Me is home to some pretty tasty, pretty cheap food.

The North Rocks Smash ($19) is a full featured smashed avocado plate consisting of smashed avocado on toast, rolls of smoked salmon, two poached eggs, and some tomato and herby stuff. All elements are good, including the runny yolks inside the poached eggs. At $19 it makes for a pretty reasonable value proposition. Just don’t add a beef patty for $5 like me and then wait fifteen minutes before digging into it.

The Hangover Roll ($10) is a great bacon, egg, and hashbrown roll at a great price. It hits just right, and it hits with the best.

The Piggie Smalls Wrap ($12) is very similar to the Hangover Roll, but in wrap form. I’m not too sure what the difference is, actually, but assume there must be one. Also good.

The Hen Solo Wrap ($12), unfortunately not pictured, is a nice chicken wrap that is jam packed with grilled chicken and enough sauce and tomato to maintain the moistness. I can also recommend.

The Pablo Escobowl salad ($15.90) is, like many of Piccolo Me’s other dishes, a meat forward meal. The pulled pork was absolutely excellent, with good moistness and a slightly sweet and slightly tangy marinade. Maybe it’s the fact that I hadn’t eaten for 24 hours before this meal, but my first taste of it sent me straight to heaven. The other salad components were fine but nothing to write home about, the smashed avocado being the secondary breadwinner of the dish. I opted for some extra Moroccan chicken ($4) in my “salad”, which unfortunately ended up a bit dry for my liking. A good bowl.

Piccolo Me North Rocks
6/213 N Rocks Rd, North Rocks NSW 2151
0468 617 337

Categories
British Café

Mad Spuds Cafe – Surry Hills NSW Restaurant Review

UPDATE: Now permanently closed (prior to publication)

My partner is one of Sydney’s foremost potato fanatics, and Mad Spuds Cafe in Surry Hills had been on our hitlist for a while. Unfortunately, despite the potato heavy menu, we were disappointed.

One thing to note about the food at Mad Spuds Cafe is that the menu options by themselves feel a bit half cooked – that is, they feel incomplete and are lacking essential components. We had the Mad Spud Stack, a signature dish of the restaurant, which was a stacked dish consisting of a mashed potato patty, haloumi, avocado, spud skins, sweet potato, caramerlised onion, and sprouds, decorated with a solitary cherry tomato and yoghurt/balsamic glaze. While props had to be given to the plating and delicate balancing act of keeping all of these ingredients vertical, I found the taste to be quite bland. It was only with the addition of a sausage ($4) that we were able to turn this subtle tasting vegetarian dish into something more tasty, but even then I had my reservations.

My partner enjoyed the Sunny Salmon Rosti ($15.50) more than me. Again I thought that the flavour of t he rosti was too mild, however this time it was helped along by the smoked salmon. I will also take this opportunity to say that an extra $3 for a single poached egg is too much, even if it was poached to a perfect amount of runniness.

My partner paid $6.50 for a choose-your-own-adventure green juice. She liked it, but it would’ve been no one’s fault but her own if she hadn’t.

Verdict
Don’t let the fun, casual name fool you. Mad Spuds Cafe plays it safe with its mild flavours, with no madness or spirit of exploration in sight. I would hesitate to bring a colleague here, especially considering the smorgasbord of yummy foods available elsewhere on Crown St.

Mad Spuds Cafe
479 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9698 8108