Tag: wrap

Categories
Café Korean

Little Couple Cafe – Campsie NSW Restaurant Review

Unlike Rockdale’s former Angry Gnome (RIP), a café named in keeping with the appearance of its owner, Little Couple’s small but cute space near the train station in Campsie is staffed by two seemingly extremely normal sized people.

I rarely post photos of spaces or decor on this blog. I’ve always felt that food always comes first, and that no amount of flowers or lit up branded signage can make up for bad food. However, I really liked how Little Couple was able to maximise the usage of their fairly small space, by providing a nice elevated seating area overlooking the kitchen, above what I presume is their pantry. The airconditioning was a nice reprieve from the 40 degree sun, and it was just a nice place to be. Sadly the mango smoothie ($7.50) pictured in this interior design review we honestly didn’t love. It felt a bit too sugary.

In terms of food we had this LC Beef Wrap ($15), a very reasonable sized toasted wrap with a large portion of bulgogi beef, spinach, tomato, cheese, and aioli. Each bite was juicy and yummy, and based on the quantity of meat supplied as well as the location of their shop, one local Korean internal medicine specialist we discussed the wrap with believes that they must be losing money on each wrap.

The K-Toast ($7) featuring buttered bread sandwiching a cabbage omelette and sugar and tomato sauce I loved less, mostly because I had misread it as a crab omelette. Taken on its own merits it was fine, but not something I’d get again.

Overall thoughts That bulgogi wrap, with this cafe’s prime location, has got to make a great grab and go for train commuters. I only hope their business model can sustain it, because local internal medicine specialist CJP thinks it might not be able to.

Little Couple Cafe
1/199 Beamish St, Campsie NSW 2194, Australia
+61 416 302 724

Categories
American

Chooksy’s – Bomaderry NSW Restaurant Review

Chooksy’s, Nowra and Bomaderry’s answer to Wollongong’s esteemed Chicko’s, was on our must visit list during my partner’s recent stay in town.

First, the hot chips ($4). These were seriously good, next level. They were freshly fried with an incredible amount of crunch that persisted for well into half an hour after we got them. A colleague of mine had mentioned that she had thought about purchasing the restaurant (apparently up for sale at time of writing), but that perhaps she didn’t need to as her friend had worked at Chooksy’s and knew the secret recipe for the chip seasoning, though I suspect the actual secret to these chips are how freshly fried they are each time. Amazing.

The cheesy potato bake ($6) was really as described – cheesy and potatoey. Not too salty, which was good, but definitely one for my partner’s love rather than mine.

Interstingly, Chooksy’s does all of their burgers as either a wrap or a burger. We had an Extreme Chilli Chick ($13) as a wrap, which was actually extremely chilli. It was a chicken schitzel folded into a wrap with jalapenos, lettuce, onion, and two types of extremely hot sauce. I must admit that we underestimated just how extremely chilli this wrap was going to be, and it was nigh inedible for my poor weak tongue. Perhaps someone else would enjoy it.

This Salt & Vinegar Chicken Tender ($2.20) was quite bad. It didn’t give the impression of real meat that came from an animal.

Quite surprisingly, Chooksy’s fried chicken ($3.20 per piece) was actually unavailable the first time we visited, at around 2PM on a weekday. They were all sold out, and so we had to go back a second time to experience the promised delight. Their fried chicken was actually quite disappointing, perhaps moreso in light of our second journey, with a sad moistness after just ten minutes in the bag, and not much discernable flavour apart from saltiness. I would not rate this chicken above the Colonel’s.

The Chippy Chick ($13) as a roll I also felt like took some good ingredients and put them together only to make them worse. This roll consisted of a chicken schitnzel, hot chips, and liquid cheese and gravy. Unfortunately the combination of these winning ingredients, (especially their chips, which as mentioned above are usually great) made everything a bit moister, less crispy, and more mushy than desired. A surprising disappointment, though definitely much more edible than the Extreme Chilli Chick.

THOUGHTS
In the face of other options and in a somewhat health-conscious state, I would only recommend the hot chips at Chooksy’s, which I believe are of the top tier of hot chips in all of NSW.

Chooksy’s
1/429 Princes Hwy, Bomaderry NSW 2541
(02) 4421 8884

Categories
Bakery Middle Eastern

Soul Mill – Rockdale NSW Restaurant Review

After a few false starts at the beginning of 2021 I was finally able to visit Soul Mill for breakfast with my colleague JZHW on my last week of work in the Kogarah-Rockdale region.

Soul Mill specialises in oven baked goodies, most of which are cheesy and with a Middle Eastern theme. We enjoyed our Oven Burger ($9), which had a strong pide quality.

Our Oven Wrap ($9) was also very nice. I cannot for the life of me tell you which of the many menu options it was, though cross-sectional analysis reveals some greenery, maybe some chicken. Egg. What I can tell you was that the bread was thin and not overportioned, with a strong emphasis on the fillings. While I can attest that both my colleague JZHW and I enjoyed it, I feel very bad that I’ve left seven months between eating it and reviewing it and I am essentially doing them (and you) a disservice but not being able to describe it well.

Ah yes, some kind of manoosh, possibly the meat, cheese, and sujuk ($8.50). I have warm feelings about this manoosh, and actually do remember the moistness of its toppings and its superior taste. This manoosh stands out for its excellent price-to-quality ratio, and having had a number of manoosh during my days living in Western Sydney I would rate this towards the better end of the scale.

COMMENTS
It’s unfair, but what I remember most about Soul Mill was trying to go three times and only succeeding on the third. Each time was within the hours noted on Google, and without any evidence to the contrary through their social media channels. To be fair, it was the start of the year, not too far removed from the holiday season, as well as in the midst of some low grade pandemic-style uncertainty. Regardless, their food is filling and wallet friendly, and worth a visit if cheese and manoosh are your thing.

Soul Mill
9 King St, Rockdale NSW 2216
(02) 8580 2945