About Me

Food is one of my many joys in life. It is a common bond I share among my friends and family. Combining food and travel makes it all the more interesting. I enjoy going out for a good meal with friends and family. The array of various cuisines and our fantastic array of produce really makes Sydney such a great city to live in. Blogging is my hobby and my posts on restaurant meals I have had are paid for and not gratis. Any gratis provided to me will always be stated beforehand.

Monday 18 August 2014

Big Tree House Cafe (Rydalmere, Sydney)

It's nice to find out through social media of new cafes and restaurants. Especially when this cafe is so close to home, I would even say it is within walking distance!

Big Tree House is a cute cafe located in the suburb of Rydalmere. It is one of 2 stores located amongst a row of houses. Quite unusual to see a cafe situated in this way. But it works; people come and have a coffee, breakfast or lunch. Ultimately that's all that matters!


Once I found out about it through Instagram, I decided to visit over a few weekends. So please don't think I had all these in one go! :)

Gang nam style burger - I kicked off my first meal by having one of the specials. It was soy marinated beef, with onions, lettuce, mushroom, served with crispy kipfler. The beef was juicy, tender and bang full of flavour. The brioche bun was nicely soft. Yum!

Note: This dish has since been incorporated to their menu.

Corn fritters with poached eggs, bacon, avocado, and tomato relish. The eggs were perfectly poached and I loved the combination of bacon with the corn fritters. Nice!

Ricotta pancakes with honey cinnamon butter, and caramelised bananas. Lovely caramelised flavours without being overtly sweet. The pancakes were soft and fluffy but had an interesting texture because of the ricotta.

Shakshouka - how could I resist baked eggs! One of my favourite breakfast dishes was not let down here. Cooked in a compact ceramic bowl but definitely filled with robust flavours. It was slightly spicy and had nice bite size chorizos. And the long slices of the toasted bread meant I had enough bread to dip into my tomato based sauce. Happy times!
I removed the greens from the top - just for my pic! :)
My last visit prior to putting up this post was to try their Big Tree Beef Burger. A very highly stacked burger filled with beetroot, bacon pineapple, tomato, onion, lettuce, cheese, a juicy beef patty and aioli. Served with a side of chips!. I wasn't sure how I would be able to down this burger without making a true mess of myself but slowly and surely I did get through it with minimum mess. Was it delicious? You betcha!

They have a good barista who makes consistently good coffee. You just can't go wrong when it's Campos coffee (in my opinion anyway!). On one of the visits, I decided to try out their mixed berry smoothie.


And every time I visited, the place was full. It is heartening to see a local cafe being supported in this way. One thing to note is I found the plating of the dishes to be quite neat and elegant. Owner Justin Park's pedigree of having worked many years at Peter Doyle @ Quay and at Doyles is definitely showing in the plating of the dishes.

So if you are ever in the Rydalmere/Dundas area, do drop by and check out Big Tree House. You will love it!

Big Tree House on Urbanspoon
Big Tree House Cafe
88 Calder Road
Rydalmere
NSW 2116
Website: bigtreehousecafe.com.au
Facebook: bigtreehousecafe

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

10 comments:

Little Munch said...

It's such a neighbourhood gem isn't it? I love how the menu is evolving.

Cindy said...

Hello Little Munch, thanks for visiting! I agree, what a gem and even better it is so close to my home! Hehe! :)

chocolatesuze said...

those pancakes look glorious!

Cindy said...

Hi chocolatesuze, they do look delicious! :)

Helen (Grab Your Fork) said...

The ricotta pancakes look amazing, and how much of a skyscraper is that burger! lol. Love it when you get small businesses nestled in among residential - such a rare thing these days!

Cindy said...

Hello Helen! When they brought the burger, I seriously had to sit and ponder how I was going to eat it without making an absolute mess! Hilarious! :)

Olivia @ mademoiselleinsydney said...

These ricotta pancakes look delicious :)

Olivia @ mademoiselleinsydney said...

These ricotta pancakes look delicious :)

Amanda said...

The exterior is so cute and all the food looks delicious!

Cindy said...

Hello Amanda, thanks for visiting! Great food and friendly service! A winning formula! :)