Archive for the ‘Cafe’ Category
V Rating: VV Bill Granger is the celebrity chef du jour in Sydney. He writes a weekly column in the Sydney Morning Herald, hosts a cooking show on pay TV, and publishes copious cookbooks filled with impossibly bright, light, airy photos and casually brilliant recipes. Oh, and he runs a few restaurants as well.
So, when a good friend of mine came to Sydney on the weekend I promised to take him to a special lunch spot - bills Surry Hills (formerly bills 2). Unfortunately, we arrived at 11.30am. Lunch didn’t start until 12.00pm. As a line was already starting to form for tables we didn’t like our chances of coming back in half an hour - so we had breakfast instead. I ordered the ricotta hot cakes with banana and honeycomb butter because every review I’ve read about bills make mention of them.
The hotcakes were thick, light and fluffy. The fairly meager slices of banana (bloody cyclone) were tucked cosily underneath the hotcakes. The slices of butter on top of the hot cakes looked surprisingly like slices of banana - making for a not so pleasant first mouthful. The hotcakes were good - don’t get me wrong. But not as good as the reams of glowing reviews suggested. Andy and our friend had the good sense to order sweet corn fritter, with tomato and spinach. On the menu it comes with bacon, but they had it with mushrooms instead.
The truly amazing thing about these babies was the succulent, whole pieces of corn. Even though the cakes were fried, the corn still retained a strong, fresh, sweet taste. And yes, I had food envy the whole meal. The thing about bills was that if it were a cafe I’d wandered into from the street I probably would have thought it was an amazing find. But because Bill Granger has such a mythic status in Sydney, by the time I tried it out it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The cafe is stylish and funky. The food was clearly made with high quality, fresh ingredients. There are some good vegetarian options on the menu… but maybe next time I’ll wait until 12pm and try lunch.
V Rating: VVV Verve enjoys a prime corner position in Canberra’s Manuka precinct. It is one of those trendy and sophisticated eateries where the prices are given to only one decimal place (eg. a long black is “3.5″, a Tiro is “4.0″). The atmosphere is very open and airy, and especially pleasant on a warm spring day when the accordion-style windows are open. Vegetarian options for entree include a winter Tuscan vegetable soup ($9.90 - I mean “9.9″), dips and bread (9.9), a warm vegetable salad or poached pear salad (14.9). The menu indicates that you can also request a vegetarian option of the antipasto plate for two (19.9), or the caesar salad (13.9). At lunch, there is also a vegetarian foccacia option (11.9). My choice was the warm vegetable salad. A selection of roast vegetables (sweet potato, baby eggplant and beetroot) was served on a bed of baby spinach leaves with a light but flavoursome dressing. It was delightful, and could easily be served as a main. My friend chose the Tuscan soup (in spite of the warm weather), which he described as “hearty”. For mains, the options are gnocchi in a creamy sauce involving muchrooms, semi-dried tomatoes, basil, ricotta and chilli (16.9), a stir-fry of hokkien noodles, cashew nuts and Asian greens (15.9). At dinner there is also an option of vegetable parcels (vegies wrapped in Kataiki pastry served on a sweet potato dhal) (21.9). On one of my visits, there was also a penne prima vera available as a special (16.9). I chose the gnocchi, as did one of my dining companions. It turned out to be home-made, which is just as well, given the price of the dish, and the size of the serving. My serve was quite small, especially compared to my companion’s. (I resisted the urge to suggest that, in the interests of fairness, he should donate to me four or so of his gnocchi dumplings…) The sauce was satisfying, if a bit lacking in depth - I couldn’t detect any chilli. Verve gets a VVV. It has a good selection of vegetarian entrees. The selection for mains is more limited (especially at lunch), but the entree salads are main-meal-sized. It also has a number of vegetarian side options (chat potatoes with rosemary, steamed vegetables, side salads) for between $6 and $11. Prices can be on the expensive side for what you get, in my view, but then you’re also paying for the location, and for a chance to watch the beautiful people strut past the window. - AC
V Rating: Super V Reasons for my excitement are enumerated as follows (I am doing it this way cos otherwise this post will turn into babbling food-related happiness) 1. It’s on Degraves St, which is one of my favourite of Melbourne’s cafe alleyways, coming off one of my favourite of Melbourne’s shopping lanes (Flinders Lane). 2. The food is, good, interesting, quick and affordable. It is also organic and largely vegetarian in combinations that I can handle (i.e. not everything has eggplant in it, and tomato is not a substitute for innovative spices which it often is in vegetarian cooking) 3. They have sourdough PIES, my friends. PIES full of mushrooms and tofu, or if you like, a vegetarian shepherd’s pie made from a wholemeal pastry. PIES. 4. The sandwiches come on a range of different breads, none of them white. I was very happy with my spelt bread sandwich with salad, tuna and soy herb mayo. 5. There is a range of food combinations to suit pretty much anyone’s food allergies or detox diets (mine included). They have wheat free, gluten free, sugar free, you name it. However I tried one of the sugar and wheat free apple and cinnamon muffins and it sadly wasn’t that good. I think the problem with muffins is that they kind of need something to soak up all the sugar replacement pear juice. But the vegan chocolate fudge is good according to all reports. 6. They do the all important LSD (latte soy dandelion). Las Chicas in Carlisle St, Balaclava still do the best, followed by Bare Pear (CBD). But TOFWD are now in third place. 7. They also sell their own range of organic wholefoods and products, like flours, sauces, jams, pasta, wines. 8. TOFWD naturally has a good selection of salads too. I am still getting through the deli goods though (like you know, the PIES), lost in the excitement of being able to eat them! Triple thumbs up for this little cafe. Go there go there GO THERE!
V rating: VV ‘Bare Pear’ opened three months ago near the corner of Queen and Bourke Streets. It has a short but carefully designed menu of sandwiches using organic meat and vegetables and cheeses, breakfast muesli and toasts and a lunch special of soup (generally something vegetarian - today’s were tomato and bean or pumpkin, broccoli, lentil and spice) and a slice of sourdough bread for $4.90. Sandwiches are in the range of $6-8, which is pretty standard in the CBD. They use Bonsoy, which is the best tasting soy milk around as well as being, you guessed it, organic. They also offer muffins and organic coffee which people actually seem to drink and like (I am no coffee aficionado but am a reasonably well, if self-taught, people watcher). One of the muffins they offer has no gluten or added sugar. It is apple and cinnamon. I tried it and it was somewhat mushy - I was not keen on the texture, but the concept is good! So if you are looking for a healthy alternative at a reasonable price in the city, try it out. I am giving it a VV rating.
V Rating: VVVVV Bamboo cafe in North Bondi makes me think of San Fransciso. It’s something to do with the friendly organic vegetarian cafe, wih yoga retreat sidline, perched on a sharply sloping street vibe.* The range was better than your average cafe - there were some exclusively vegan dishes, and they made an effort to use soy milk. However, I think yum cha makes a better vegan brunch in Sydney.
Yes, that is more than he can manage. The baby spinach leaves came in a walnut oil dressing. So my new favourite ingredient. Overall, the standard of food was good (the olive tapenade was my other highlight) but the organic food made breakfast an expensive affair. I won’t be making the trek to Bamboo every weekend, but a lovely place for a slow, quiet start to your day. *I’ve never been to San Franciso so the comparison could be bollocks.
V Rating: VVV On Saturday morning Andy and I continued our search for the perfect Bondi breakfast spot. Instead of hitting the beachfront, we wandered along the Bondi Road until we came to Altar Lounge.
Bondi is justly famous for its beautiful beach and abundant backpackers, but there’s a lot more to the suburb. Bondi Road exemplifies this depth, offering a completely different experience to the glamourous Hall Street or holiday atmosphere of Campbell Parade. Most of the shops on Bondi Road are small, independently owned specialty stores. I often think ‘This is what shopping was like before supermarkets.’ You actually know the shopkeepers, and you buy your groceries from a number of little places that stock a great range of products and have a good knowledge of the goods that they sell. Bondi’s strong Jewish ties are also evident in the amazing bakeries and delicatessans that sell fresh bagels and quark. Altar Lounge is about half-way up Bondi Road. It’s a small cafe with aquamarine walls and homey, mismatched furniture. Facing onto the rundown street it’s an uphill battle to create any ambiance, but the owners pull it off. It’s also a good choice for vegetarians. Nine out of ten breakfast options were vegetarian, as were five of the eleven lunch dishes. It’s less vegan friendly because most of the veggie dishes use dairy products.
Perhaps underestimating the size of the dishes, Andy ordered the cheese and tinned asparagus toastie (there was a Proustian moment where fell quiet and reminisced about eating cheese and asparagus toasties as a boy in Queensland) and the poached egg. I think he was pretty happy with the result.
V Rating: VV Look, we’d been out for beers in a largish group and wanted some food, okay? We wanted somewhere close and simple and Blue Train was at least close. Their website describes the ambiance thus:
Spew. They were right about the delay but “comfy and funky lounge area” is stretching it a bit. When we were finally shown to a table I was starting to get a bit edgy about the awful noise of 200 drunken “young professionals” and “funky young things” shouting to each other across tables. But enough about my grumpy nature. The food was adequate. Veggie choices are restricted to a dahl, a pasta, a risotto, a few salads and a couple of pizzas. The menu was so boring I’m running out of motivation to type. I had the pumpkin, fetta, leek, pine nuts and roquette pizza which was okay. Somebody else had the mushroom, spinach, sage and marscapone pizza. It was okay. Ugh. Go if you must, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Reviewed 21 July ‘06, SDEB. |
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