Where The Monster Sat, Petersham

Another Saturday morning, another brunch joint ticked off the sheet. This time round, WN and I picked a cafe based purely on it's name. Situated within view of the Petersham station, and with ample parking around the area, WTMS is a nice decent sized cafe with outdoor seating, is doggy and also pram friendly. Perfect for catching up with friends who have recently given birth. :)

Outdoor seating with loads of shade :)

As we haven't caught up in a while, conversation took over the perusing of the menu but after being asked twice by the waitress, we figured it was best we start ordering.

Their quirky designed takeaway cups

I forgot to get a photo of our coffees but you're not missing out on much. No latte art however the coffee was pretty good! WN and fi both opted for the Iced Coffee instead and both gals said it was REALLY GOOD. I wonder if it was because of the especially hot weather that morning. Note to self : order the iced coffee next time.
 

Smoked Salmon and Potato Hash

Soon our dishes arrived and as per the above picture, I got myself the Smoked Salmon Hash. I had fun with this plate by combining the key element which to me was the pieces of potato with either egg, bacon or salmon. When I felt adventurous, I combined all of them and had a party in my mouth. : P

Gluten Free eggs benedict on a Potato Rosti

WN had the GF eggs benedict on a potato rosti. You should have seen her face when I casually sliced the egg in half just to get an oozy eggporn shot, lol. She commented that this dish was slightly on the salty side. 

High ceilings, large windows, friendly atmosphere :)

WTMS is a quirky little cafe with lots of open space. I didn't feel like I had to rush nor did the polite staff give me a sense that they preferred if we just ate and got out ASAP. Would I come back again? Yes I will.

Do check out their facebook page as well if you wanted to 'follow' them on their journey from acquiring the shop lot, to renovating it and finally to serving customers. 

Where The Monster Sat
Address : 16 Douglas Street, Stanmore
Opening Hours : 7am to 4pm (8am to 4pm on weekends)
Facebook / Google Maps

Brighton The Corner, Petersham

Continuing on with our weekly cafe visits is yet again another cafe in Petersham.
Just off a leafy backstreet where the traffic isn't heavy, this place is just 200meters from the station which makes it convenient for those who don't drive. We got ourselves the window seats and enjoyed watching the early morning dog walkers and staring at the mural drawn by some high schooler.We lost interest fairly quickly... :P

Did this place used to be an old bottle shop?

Both the missus and I ordered the same coffees today (skim flat whites) and we were pleased after the first sip. You know you're gonna get a good cuppa when a cafe uses beans from Little Marionette. I haven't been disappointed so far....oh and compliments to the barista too. :) 

Braised Brisket. Potato Hash, Mojo Verde, poached eggs, Onion rings ($17)

 After what felt like an eternity,  our food finally arrived and I was starving by then! Sheathed in crispy batter, the onion rings were a delight to eat. Sadly one of them was actually the outer later of an onion. I chewed on it for abit but finally gave up. I had to put that aside. The beef was tender and slivers of it was used to wipe up some of the lovely egg yolk. Topped off with crispy potato hash and Mojo Verde to add to the taste, this was a kicker of a dish to eat.

Hot smoked salmon, pickled radish, fennel, peas, quinoa &  poached egg ($17)

The missus went for something a little lighter and complimented the chef for the generous helping of salmon. It's always a joy to eat when every element of the dish harmonizes with each other making each bite enjoyable. And check that eggporn out!

Housemade crumpets, caramelized pear, Dulwich Hill Honey butter ($14)

Wanting to end on a sweet note, we ordered the above halfway through our meals. Note : if you're planning on ordering this, please eat it right away. by the time we started, it went a little cold and lost it's crisp. Nevertheless, the crumpets still tasted awesome and awesome-er when you add a generous amount of honey butter to it.


Brighton the Corner is worth a visit for it's good food but only if you have time. The service is a little on the slow side and this was confirmed by a few other cafe-hunter friends of mine.

So..... to visit or not to visit? Good food vs longer wait-time? Your call. :)


 
Address :49 Palace Street, Petersham 2049
Opening hours : 
Tue-Fri 7am-4pm; 
Sat-Sun 8am-4pm
google maps / facebook

Aslan Coffee, St Peters

Aslan Coffee is a place that I drive by quite regularly.  I've always thought it was humorous to name your cafe after a character from the series of Narnia books. The owner must be a massive fan. 

rawr

Located just off May street near St Peters station lies this little cafe. Whilst small in size, the one thing they are big on, is their coffee.

Always good to know what time it is in Bali

skim milk makes for tricky latte art

The aroma of coffee beans drew us to sit inside the shop with it's red bright walls. From what I saw, most of their customers came by to get takeaway. There were the occasional 'compliments to the barista' as well (Good job Ryan!) :) I like the fact that you can place orders via text message... Good for the person who's on the move. 

Ryan hard at work.

When it got a little quiet, I had a chat with Ryan, Aslans barista about their beans. Now I'm probably not going to do him justice and get this wrong but from what I understood, the boss (who is Indonesian)  sources for his coffee beans from his home country, testing out different regions to find the best one possible. In the past few months, they've purchased Bali coffee beans whilst still green and have been experimenting with different ways of roasting them in-house. For a more information about their coffee, do visit their website. Their story's actually pretty cool!

The Roastmax

Breakfast choices here is pretty limited and it was amusing to see Beef Rendang on the menu. I chuckled and ordered it! Maybe next time, you could also add Martabak Manis to your menu as a sweet treat!! :)

Beef Rendang ($12.50)

The beef was pretty good, really tender and had a good kick of spice to it. Perfect for a winters morning. Brown rice was served and this was cooked well. I would have preferred the salads to be replaced with green beans or something else stir-fried to go with the whole asian theme.. 

Breakfast roll on organic mini soft baguettes ($9.50)

WN had the breakfast roll in a mini baguette. No complaints from her. 

I forgot to mention earlier that there was also an assortment of cakes and pastries too which they get from Lux Bakery in Newtown. I took a photo of but it turned out pretty bad. :P I blame my super slow Iphone 4.... (note to self - please buy yourself a new phone)

Social marketing is the way to go in this day and age.

Overall, I'd come back here for a takeaway coffee any day. The staff are friendly and the coffee is good. I'm going to save their number down for when I do drive by again sometime in the future. 

Aslan Coffee
Address : 1 Council Street, St Peters, New South Wales, 2044
Opening hours : 
   Mon to Fri : 7:00am - 2:30pm
   Saturday   : 8:00am - 2:00pm
Google map / Facebook / Website 

Rustic Pearl, Surry Hills

Nothing is better than finding a parking spot right infront of the designated cafe...well besides the food that we're gonna be having of course!

Situated on busy Crown Street where I could name at least 10 cafes in a 200m radius lies Rustic Pearl. This cafe sets itself apart from the others with a heavily influenced Mediterranian twist to it.  This is evident in the decor, the tiles embedded in the tables, the assortment of Turkish coffee and the variety of Gozlemes on the menu.

Capacity of roughly 15 inside and 8 outside, this cafe certainly packs a punch

We got ourselves an inside table and I straightaway had a "foot in my mouth moment"
Waitress : How's it going?
Me         : Good! It's a gorgeous day and I don't have to be at work!.......oops
Waitress : Well, I do. *chuckle*
Me         : *laughs* Sorry!!! I didn't mean it like that, I hope you're not working tomorrow???
Waitress : Actually I am...
Me         : I think I'll shut up now... 
 WN       : *frowns* Can't take you anywhere!"

Small things like these never fails to leave a huge impression on me

Ok back to the cafe. I like it when cafes make little changes to the way they do things. Something as simple as using a fruit as a bottle stopper and also putting a slice of lemon and a mint leaf into our cups automatically makes them 'different'. Little things like this goes to show that they really do care about what they serve and the impression they give. 

Latte art interpretation : I love football(soccer)?

What do you see in the latteart above?  I don't know if it's because World Cup is on now but I see a guy kicking a football and there's a heart to the right. Rustic Pearl sources their beans from Mecca Expresso so you know it's going to be good. 

Delicious-must-order-beverages

Next up were 2 really good beverages. 
Left : Chocomole Smoothie  Avocado, cocoa, honey, pistachoe, pomegranate
This drink is rich! It's super chocolatey and thick due to the avocado. Even with the honey, it wasn't overpowering in terms of sweetness. This drink goes well with the tartness from the pomegranate.
Right : Turkish apple iced tea w/ lemon, rose, mint & cucumber.
Somewhat similar to the line from Anchorman, it's like a party in your mouth. The tartness of the granny smiths works well with the mint. Throw in the sweet rose for flavouring, the subtle taste of cucumber and a dash of lemon for abit of zing and there you have it! It's like tripping out on tea!

No bigger than my iphone. I wonder what else, one could use this for. ;)

Bosphorous Benedict - grilled lobster meat with poached organic eggs, crushed avocado, hollandaise, chives, coriander, chilli

WN and A ordered the above eggs benedict with lobster but unfortunately, they both agreed that the star of the dish was a little on the bland side. I tried some of it and had to agree. It had no flavour...just the texture of prawns. No complaints on the other elements of this dish though.

Smoked wagyu omelette, buffalo mozzarella, spinach skordalia, bacon dust, tomato relish & toast

I on the other hand, had a smashing dish! The smoked wagyu was wrapped in a moist scramble of eggs which had just the right texture. Combine this with a small piece of sourdough and a dollop of spinach skordalia, every bite was thoroughly enjoyable. The cherry tomatoes were really sweet and I wouldn't have minded another helping of it. Whilst it sounded cool, the bacon dust didn't really have much of a presence in this dish. I literally wiped this plate clean with the last piece of bread and would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Rustic Pearl. 

Mediterranian sweets with our bill? :)

In my books, Rustic Pearl is another one of Surry Hills must visit cafes. The menu is vast so revisiting this place and trying out new dishes is no problems at all. I initially planned to get the Gozleme but got swayed by the word wagyu. That's ok as it's another reason for me to come back here again another time.

 

Trio, Bondi

When WN mentioned that one of her friends has now moved to Bondi and wants to catch up, I said "Tell her we'll pick her up! We can now try out Trio!" 
(living in the Inner West with way too many "wishlist" cafes left unvisited, we never really had a good enough reason to venture further out.  So off we went, the three of us to Trio.

If I sat outside, I would have been there all day too... good view of the beach from there.

We're used to waiting for tables now so when the waitresses said that it would be about 30-45 minutes, it didn't faze us. I told WN to take a walk on the beach with her friend as it was such a beautiful day whilst I dutifully waited. This is where I truly appreciate the invention of the Smartphone. First 10 minutes spent on facebook and next 10 on Instagram liking and commenting on awesome food pics.  Not long after, a table was cleared and we found ourselves seated.

I beg to differ :)

Looking around the cafe, I noticed a poster on the wall which made me chuckle to myself. This is one of the problems I personally face on weekends! If you read one of my earlier blogs, you'll know why. :)

Smart marketing strategy

If you can't bring the diners to the products on sale, bring the products on sale to your diners! I thought this was smart.

I really like Shakshouka and it's always my go-to dish on cold winter mornings.  The yarn and the paper tag used to tie it up also helped to give it a very homely look.

Alas, I prefer eating out so no... I didn't buy one. I'd be curious to hear from those who did and how it turned out.

minty water, chocolate milkshake and a skim flatwhite

Trio takes their coffee seriously. I mean besides the menu, they also had a full page printout  of the types of coffee beans that were used, how it was roasted (including number of days), the type of grinder,filter and even soy milk (for the lactose intolerant)! I don't know if it was psychological but it was a really good cuppa coffee! I was tempted to have another but held back because of another catchup later in the day.

Our wait for food took a lot longer than expected but as we were too busy chatting, it didn't bother us at all. The attentive staff especially an American by the name of Sue came to apologize for the inconvenience and said that all our drinks were on the house. SCORE!!!!!

Tagliatelle with king prawns

First up was WN's dish. She went for something savoury. Firstly, those king prawns were huge and made the above photo look more like a kids meal than a main. Packed full of flavour, WN had no complaints at all. I had to taste it for myself and agreed with her. 

Cinnamon & vanilla brioche french toast

The friend decided to go for something sweet and ordered the French toast. Each slice was pretty large and the serving of the raspberry and apple compote was pretty generous too.

Clockwise : Green shakshouka, corn fritter, bircher muesli, french toast, some mango yogurt shot, pancake, turkish bread and hummus.

And finally, my dish which took up 1/3 of the table! The Trio Breakfast Tasting plate.
If you can't decide on what to order due to having way too many choices, then just order this.
I've never had green shakshouka before but I must say that I'm a fan.

Made with 1 poached in a ragout of green tomatoes, green capsicum, spinach and chilli, it was really very well balanced in flavour. So far, this has been the only place I've seen which serves Green shakshouka. (If any you know of where else serves it, do let me know!  ) 
Every other dish of the plate is fairly self-explanatory and I can confidently say that there's not a single serving there that wasn't to my liking. I should have taken the 'after' photo as proof! 

Trio is opened for breakfast lunch and dinner. I was very impressed with the meals we had, even more so after experiencing the thoughtful gestures from the wait staff, and I'm really curious now to see how their dinner menus are like....
Well, there's only one way to find out! :)

Trio, Bondi Beach
opening hours : 7:30-3:30 (Mon-Fri) 8am-4pm (weekends)
address : 56 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach
website / Map 

Bills, Darlinghurst

With 2 cafes in Sydney and 6 in Japan & London, one would expect the food and service at Bills to be nothing short of spectacular. Sadly it was not so....

usually, long queues = good food...

I began my Queens birthday long weekend with an outing to Bills on Saturday morning. We decided to try out the Darlinghurst cafe since that's where it all began. As I drove by and saw the queue, I was happy. Long queues usually meant good food :) So I quickly dropped the wifey and friend off to get a spot in line whilst I went off hunting for a car spot. Parking is painful in this area with most places being just 1hour free. 



Whilst staring through the window at other patrons eating with my face pressed against the glass (i jest), a delivery guy came by with about 4 boxes meat.  Noticing that it was from Vics Meat, I was excited, knowing that they bought quality stuff. Vics Meat is my go-to place for when barbeques are thrown. Visit it some time! :)

Anyhow, after about 30 minutes, we finally got a table inside.

Chic interior

Upon entering the cafe, we were greeted by a large communal table with artsy magazines, plants and 'fresh fruit' in the centre. The place looked good however the low ceilings only made everyone's chatter seem extra loud. We found ourselves raising our voices more than usual just to have a decent conversation.This is where it all started to go downhill...

After our coffees were ordered, we asked for a bottle of water and 3 glasses. When this was placed on our table, I had something that looked like a 3" long slimy beansprout root stuck to the side of the glass, half of it floating in my water. I'm usually not toooooo fussed about little things but this was quite gross, so I had it replaced. 

When the coffees arrived, I didn't bother taking any photos. No latte art, nice fern leaf , no hearts or cute bears, not even a blob of milk froth or anything that resembled the barristas pride in his work. It looked like he stirred it with a spoon!

Zucchini fritters, deep fried egg, haloumi, parsley salad, tahini yoghurt, pickles ($23.50!)

I planned to order the Zucchini fritters dish all along after recollecting a photo I saw from another blogger on Urbanspoon. I must say, she was a really good photographer.  :)

The 2 slices of  Haloumi had gone cold and rubbery, the deep fried egg was well...deep fried I guess, and rubbery as well. The pickles looked exactly like those that you would see at a Sushi Train outlet and I'm not sure if you can see it but, the parsley leaves I was given were really old and stringy. If you looked up any online dictionary, the word salad means "a dish of raw vegetables" I only had a vegetable (plural!) so how can it be a parsley salad! :P 

If I had to find a positive here, the Zucchini fritter was nice and crunchy. It was flavoured well. Now on to the missus's meal.

Corn fritters, roast tomato, spinach and bacon ($21.50)

What a waste of good meat! There were 2 slices of bacon on plate but they were cooked as 1! The kitchenhand didn't even bother to stretch it out on the grill. Sheer laziness. Then a handful of spinach leaves were placed next to the bacon and this was propped up by the corn fritter. Missus found a few slimy leaves between that pile. 

Once again the positive here would probably be the Corn fritter.

With the number of cafes out there still left unvisited, Bills for now is right at the bottom of my list of places to visit in the near future. The food and drinks were nowhere up to par with the prices charged for it.

If anyone from Bills is reading this, please take the above as constructive feedback. 
It is the collective thoughts of a few people who go out every weekend for brunch.

Brewtown, Newtown

Over a month ago, I tried, going to Brewtown but the crowd outside were just crazy. Under usual circumstances, I would have waited but as I was starving, I could wait no longer and decided to visit another nearby cafe. It wasn't that memorable so I shan't blog about it.
This time round, I had no further plans for the day so didn't mind the short wait outside.

Situated on O'Connell St, Brewtown is located on the Northern part of Newtown where everything happens. I've lived in this suburb for over 10yrs and I'm still not sick of it. There's always something new to see, cafes to visit, people to watch, etc.

If I had to gripe, it's slowly losing it's 'feel' as more and more commercialized shops start to may their way in *coughfroyocough*, pushing out the quaint little 2nd hand op shops that just can't keep up with the crazy rent....anyway I digress.

Look for the street between Guzman Gomez and T2, you should immediately see a crowd of people standing around. To confirm that you're at the right place, look up towards the left and you should see this signboard. No it's not reversed. I was just standing on the other side of it. :P



 Brewtown took over one of my favourite bookshops, Berkelouw Books. At first, I wasn't too happy it was going but what can you do...life moves on, and just like that, Brewtown was born. I'm glad to see that it's kept the whole industrial feel of it, making it a tad bit more nostalgic.

From where we sat at the bar, we could see the steampunk coffee machines bubbling away like some sort of evil scientists lab. Did I order it? no. I am not enough of a coffee connoisseur to be able to appreciate it .. maybe in time.

 Soon enough, we were served by one of the most polite, eloquent waiters of all. Maceo. The coffees got ordered first followed by our meals. I like how underneath each cup, there was a 'sexy gnome' on the saucer looking back at you. then as you drink your coffee down, the word Brewtown appears on the inside rim. Little things I know, but hey that's what life is about! I WISH I could show it to you but silly me deleted the photos from my phone before sending it to my email address.

Anyway we sat and waited, then chatted some more, then waited, then admired the underside of the high roofs, then waited some more. Turns out, there was a mix up with our orders and it didn't get processed! #&*$(@#&$#

Maceo was very apologetic and promised to 'fix us up' after our meals. So after what felt like forever, the food finally arrived. Wheeeee~!

Grilled black sausage home made hash browns, canadian bacon and house relish with boiled eggs

I was starving when my plate arrived first but of course there was always time to take a picture!  The bacon was not overly fatty , the black sausage was packed full of flavour and the hash browns were a delight to eat. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. If I could comment, this dish would be so much better if there was just 1 more hash brown to balance out with the other items(Not to mention the missus who kept eyeing it off and wanting more of it).  I was also very impressed by the egg, perfectly boiled and smooth I had to take another photo!

That's one sexy egg

 The missus decided to take the healthy road today and ordered herself a meatless dish. As light as it looks, it filled her up. I had some of the polenta and found it to be quite tasty. It went well with my black sausage. :)

Baked polenta with mushrooms, grilled asparagus, poached egg & parmesan

Throughout our meal, Maceo kept asking if everything was all right and that if we were ok. Gotta love his attentiveness! He followed through with his earlier promise and after clearing our table space, Maceo brought out 2 cronuts. The regular  glazed one and a raspberry filled one. 

Glazed cronut in the front, Raspberry at the back

For those who are unaware, a Cronut is like a croissant/donut that has been  deep-fried. Now coat it in sugar (krispy Kreme style) and you have a cronut! Yes......calories galore. It definitely was delicious and a MUST to try if you've never had one before but as to regularly eating it, I might pass on that.  I wanna make my belly jolly, not jiggly.

Make it to Brewtown if you can as it's definitely worth a visit. Heck, spend the whole day in this suburb whilst you're at it.
There were so many other stuff on the menu I wish I could have ordered but that's ok. I'll come back another time.


Brewtown Newtown
add : 8 O'Connell Street, Newtown
opening hours :
Monday 10am-4pm
Tuesday - Thursday 12pm-4pm
Friday - Sunday 10am-4pm
map /website