A Breakfast, Brunch and Dinner - New York City

I have been struggling to bind my one off meals while at New York so I thought it would make sense to have a couple of posts covering my various meals which are not specifically themed.

This post covers a breakfast, a brunch and a dinner which occurred on different occasions during my recent trip.

Jack's Wife Freda
One day while I was strolling around Soho, I was near the boundary of where Soho changes to Nolita and I saw a group of people milling around a little cafe. My curiosity got to me, I decided to get nearer and saw the sign "Jack's Wife Freda".  What an interesting name! It certainly perked my interest and after a bit of googling back in the hotel, I came by one early morning for breakfast.

It was a cosy little bistro packed to the brim with diners. I managed to slide into a little table and ordered the Madame Freda. It was a Pressed sandwich with duck prosciutto, cheddar béchamel, gruyere and a fried egg.

It was delicious! The duck prosciutto was thinly sliced, and the béchamel and gruyere was nicely cheesy. There was a small salad of rocket with pickled onion. I loved the sweetness of the onion.

I also had a fresh cantaloupe juice (for us Aussies it is rock melon juice).

The people were friendly and I could see Freda running the front of house.

Wishlist: Green Shakshuka with Challah toast.

Jane
My friend JN and I were informed by the hotel concierge that Jane was one of the best places to have brunch when in New York. How could we resist checking it out? However, since it was so popular, it is a must to book for brunch.

When we got there on a Sunday, we understood what he meant. It was quite a large restaurant but whoa! It was so full of people and the queue outside to wait for a table for those who booked was just as bad. Goodness! I could only hope the food's good!

By the way, I may have forgotten to mention that Jane has special menus for brunch. Brunch is only on Saturdays and Sundays.

The other thing to be aware of is if you order a dish from the brunch menu, you get a free Cocktail!!!! :)

Three Williams (Redfern, Sydney)

I have been hankering to check this place out since it first opened last year. So I finally made it, thanks to a last minute decision made on a late Friday night at work. Three Williams here I come!

When I got there around 11.30 am on Saturday, there were people queuing up for a table. I quickly put my name down and I was told it would take about 20 to 25 minutes to get a table. I was willing to wait no matter how long it would take. My friends arrived in a few minutes and after a short wait we got a table. A lot less than the 20 minutes. Yay!

The young lady who called out my name asked me if we would be happy with a small round table as there were 3 of us. We said yes! Now why would I even mention this? This is the first time I have been asked by anyone in a cafe or restaurant whether I was happy with the size of the table offered! Big tick!

We decided to order a few dishes and share.

Fish croquette with lemon and aioli - as I could order this as an each, it was all mine. I liked the presentation, cutely presented in a egg carton. It was nicely crunchy and a good start to get my appetite going.

Glazed beef brisket, slaw, gherkins and chipotle mayo narnie - we ordered 2 of these. The meat was juicily tender and I was intrigued by the texture of the naan bread. It impresses me even more to know these naan were made in-house. I definitely liked the crunchy slaw and gherkin, a much needed texture to a delicious dish.

Spicy smashed beans with avocado on toast. The original dish included two poached eggs which I elected to leave out as I knew we would be ordering a few dishes. Note once again it was the considerate young lady who questioned if I wanted to leave the eggs in or out (big tick!). I didn't even know that was an option. Admittedly it was not an attractive looking dish but as we started having bits of it, we kept coming back for more. It was quite addictive and the star was the spicy baked beans. Thoroughly enjoyed this!

The Little Owl (New York City)

When you think about a city as big as New York City, the choices for meals are tremendous! Not only for the locals but for visitors to the Big Apple.

One of the benefits of social media is following certain travel magazines who post beautiful pictures through Instagram. One of these photos was a Beignettes dish from Little Owl. At that time, I made a note to check this place out the next time I am in NYC.

I had arranged to meet up with one of the girls from my group on Sunday morning for a brunch kick off. A few of the other ladies heard of our plans and joined in too and it ended up being 8 of us firstly working out how to get there and then just enjoying the Greenwich Village vibe and food.

The Little Owl is a tiny little cafe located on Bedford Street. By the time we got there it was almost 11.00 am and the place was full. Note that it was open from 10.30 am that day. The waitress told us it would be a 15 minute wait and asked us if we wanted coffee or tea while we waited. I thought that was a nice touch and a few of us took up on that offer. It was also nice there were benches we could sit while waiting.

We eventually got in and I just really liked this tiny place. It felt very west village and I could see there were lots of locals having brunch and not so much of the tourists. Perfect!

There was even a little waiting nook catered for people to wait for a table in the cafe.

A couple of the ladies decided to have cocktails in addition to brunch. There was an order for Bellini and Pink Prosecco.

Auction Rooms (Melbourne)

When I was in Melbourne recently, while at dinner with my nephew and his girlfriend, I was talking about my plans to check out places for good coffee and good breakfast/brunch. They both suggested I try out Auction Rooms. I had not heard of it before and was only too happy to take down suggestions from locals.

So that Sunday morning, I woke up feeling a little ill and I could feel I was coming down with a cold and sore throat. But the thought of having a decent cup of coffee and a good brunch kept me going until I found a pharmacy to get some Codral (after returning from Auction Rooms).

Auction Rooms is located in North Melbourne. It is housed in an old WB Ellis auction house, hence the very apt name. Never having ventured to this suburb before, I was interested to have look around the place. I took the Tram #57 from Elizabeth Street and stopped off at Tram stop 12. Then it is literally a short walk to Auction Rooms.

As I approached the cafe, I could see many people milling outside and there were also outdoor tables filled with diners. It was a bright and sunny morning in Melbourne, a perfect way to enjoy a meal by sitting outside.

I stepped in and was immediately greeted with a large loft filled to the brim with diners, there were lots of noise with all the conversations going on and a queue of people waiting for a table. Oh dear! I wondered how long it would take for me to grab one.

I had deliberately set Sunday as my day and I had not made any prior social engagements, which was a blessing in disguise what with being sick and all. So it was a table for 1. Hurray! I was lucky, I got a table straight away.

I loved the vibe. The place was buzzing and being there perked up my spirits! I couldn't wait to have my meal. I started with a skim cappuccino which by default is their in house blend called Candyman. They also have a coffee bar where I could see syphons, coffees from Kenya, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia displayed on the shelves. Serious stuff!

My coffee was very good. Smooth and creamy. I so wanted another cup and would have ordered more but refrained until I finished my meal.

The juice of the day was Watermelon, strawberry, with honey and mint. Delicious!

Brunch at Kazbah #2

This time we went as a larger group and managed to get the banquet menu. I went prepared (i.e. no breakfast and was not planning any dinner either).

It was packed with diners. Good that we booked and had a large enough table for 6 adults and 4 kids.

Starters: Sweet cous cous muesli, rice pudding with pears and porridge with dates.
Mains: Lamb tagine, vegetable tagine, turkish bread, pita, platter of potato hash, sausages, bacon, grilled haloumi and grilled tomatoes. In addition there was a platter of scambled eggs, fried eggs sunny side up and poached eggs (all served with either turkish bread or pita bread).
Dessert: Chocolate pancake and Banana pancake.

Sweet cous cous muesli

Porridge with dates

Rice pudding with pears

Platter of haloumi, bacon, tomatoes, potato hash and sausages

Eggs, eggs and eggs

Banana pancake

Can I just say there was so much food and we struggled to finish the dishes off towards the end. In addition some of us had Turkish coffee, watermelon juice with ginger (nice) and mint and spiced tea.
It was an exotic brunch and very much enjoyed by the group.

P/S I loved the rice pudding with pears. I could order that again the next time I visit Kazbah. Once again the lamb tagine was nice and the grilled haloumi was perfectly grilled and had a good texture.

Brunch at Kazbah

I was home in Sydney for the week-end and was lucky enough to catch up with some good friends over brunch. We decided to meet up at Kazbah as we heard of and read good reviews of their breakfast menu. We chose the Top Ryde branch as we could at least ensure we could get parking.

The Kazbah Top Ryde branch is located in the Piazza area of the Top Ryde shopping centre. It was very easy to locate and I quite liked the restaurant furnishings and deco.

I had my eye on the breakfast tagine. So we ordered the 2 breakfast tagine in addition to other dishes. One tagine was with lamb mince cooked in various spices, tomato and 2 eggs on the top. The other was a vegetarian tagine which included pumpkin, eggs, tomato and a variety of spices too. Both were tasty in different ways. I must say the lamb mince was full of spices and had a lovely flavour. Both were served with turkish bread and flatbread.

I think we will visit Kazbah again, this time we hope to bring a larger group so we can order the special menu for a group of 8 or more. There was a '3 types of egg' dish which looked really delicious but it was not on the standard menu. I will have to try that one out the next time!