West Juliett (Marrickville, Sydney)

When I read about new and upcoming cafes in the inner west, I am reminded time and time again of how many places I need to check out. There is a part of me that knows I am constantly trying to catch up but not very successful at it though! :(

Even though West Juliett has been open for over a year, I have yet to try it out until now. It was a Saturday and lunch time. My friends and I agreed to meet at around noon but fortunately for me they arrived earlier and put their name down for a table. By the time I got there, lo and behold they were already seated. Now I call this sheer good luck as there were many people hanging around waiting for a table.

After poring over the menu, I took a look inside the cafe and realised how very popular this place was. It was absolutely buzzing and packed with people!

Salad of Lamb shoulder, ripe tomatoes, freekeh, basil, tahini yoghurt, and chilli oil. It looked so fresh and the lamb was tender and delicious.

Grass fed burger, lettuce, cheddar, Dijon, tomato, pickles, mayo and relish. Impressive way to serve a burger, a knife stabbed in the middle of the burger is one way to attract attention! It was a very good burger, the meat patty was nice and pink and juicily tender. And the bun was soft and pillowy.

JM had the burger too but he had a bacon added to the burger and he loved every bite of it!

Paper Plane Cafe (Parramatta, Sydney)

I think I mentioned in previous posts how food trendy Parramatta is becoming these days. One of the main reasons is this café. Since it first opened a few months ago, it has been packing it in.

Paper Plane Café is located in Horwood Place, off the main streets of Phillip Street and George Street. After seeing so many photos of the food on Instagram, I had book marked it on my list.

My first visit was breakfast on a Saturday morning. I had the Truffled Eggs which was scrambled eggs with truffle oil, tomatoes, mushrooms on organic sourdough with a side of rocket parmesan salad.

I wasn't sure if I would taste any truffle but I was wrong. The earthy flavours of the truffle oil was prevalent throughout the eggs. It certainly made the scrambled eggs a whole lot more interesting.

On my second visit, my friend and I visited for lunch. I certainly liked the look of the lunch menu which is only served from noon on the weekends. We were lucky enough not to have to wait too long for a table.

Coogee Pavilion (Coogee, Sydney)

Another food venture by the Merivale Group and this time it is at Coogee. It has been a few months since Coogee Pavilion opened and it has been on my list. I did wonder when I could take the opportunity to frequent Coogee as it is literally the opposite side of the city from where I live.

Lo and behold a friend suggested we ladies meet up at Coogee Pavilion as she had been there and really enjoyed the vibe and the food. So here we are on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon enjoying the glorious weather and taking in the atmosphere of this happening place.

Fortunately we were allowed to book a table because it was packed as sardines and there were so many walk ins who had to wait for a table.

It is located at the most perfect spot right next to the promenade facing Coogee beach. There is a kiosk for take aways and in the main building there are sections for grilled food, juices, pizzas, Will and Co coffee and seafood (fresh/raw or cooked).

I could not believe how large the space was. More on what I saw later in this post.

We decided on the following:

Mini lobster roll with lemon mayo, celery and chives. I had to order this as I was curious to check it out. I liked the mini size, enough to get a good taste but not feel too full to have other dishes. There were nice flavours of tang and crunchy crispy chips. Yes, there were potato chips in the mix. Interesting combinations which I enjoyed.

A couple of us ordered the Coogee Diner Burger with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle with a burger sauce. Served with chips of course! Yep! It was seriously good! I could not get over the pillow soft burger buns, soooo good! Oh dear, I am getting hungry just describing the dish!

Bowery Lane (Sydney CBD)

Bowery Lane opened not too long ago and conveniently for me, it is located a couple of blocks from my office. This lack of distance made it so easy for me to have a mid week dinner with my friends in celebration of one of their birthdays.

It is located in an office building and as we arrived just at 6.00 pm the main entrance to the restaurant was not open so we went up the stairs and entered via the side entrance. As a result of that, I got a glimpse of the kitchen.

As you can imagine, I would have pored over the online menu and as it was, there were so many dishes I wanted to try. Decisions, decisions!

We started by sharing a couple of snack size dishes.

Char grilled lamb ribs with chimichurri and rocket. The lamb was tender and went very well with the chimichurri.

Manchego croquettes with smoked chilli aioli. The croquettes were delicious, not overwhelmingly cheesy but made more interesting with the chilli kick from the aioli. A nice surprise!

We decided to share the 1 kg braised Wagyu short rib which was served with horse radish cream and roasted garlic. I don't think my picture does justice to how beautiful this meat was. It was literally 'fall of the bone' tender and packed with flavour. I didn't need any sauce or cream with the meat. DELICIOUS!

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.

My First Time at Chur Burger (Surry Hills, Sydney)

Okay! I have finally joined the rest of the Sydney food blogging crowd who have visited Chur Burger! And funnily enough it was not even a planned visit but it's the spontaneous decisions that make it so much more fun, don't you think so?

This place is famous for its crowds and queues, let alone its burgers. So I was lucky to have one of my friends AJ arrive there ahead of us. By the time I got there, I only had to hang around for a minute and there were seats ready for us.

As expected, the place was full, with loud music in the background and the team busy as! We were seated near the kitchen area but I didn't realise until later on that there was a neon sign right next to me which would distort every one of my food photo. The sign was lit in red! Aargh!

Please excuse the quality of the photos, they had to be photo shopped. :(

We had the following:

Grilled beef burger with cheese, tomato jam, mustard mayo and pickle - I decided to try the classic beef burger to mentally compare against others from a rating perspective. It was a good burger, no question about it but in my humble opinion the jury is out if it is the best burger in Sydney.

Pulled pork with Chur BBQ sauce, red slaw and fennel mayo. AJ ordered this as he loved it the last time he had it and couldn't resist it again. Thumbs up from him!

The Tuckshop (Glenhaven, Sydney)

What does the term tuckshop connate for you? For me it reminds me of being back in school. We had canteens in our school back in Malaysia but a tuckshop is another word for canteen.

When I first saw a photo posted by chocolatesuze in early February on Instagram, it was a delicious looking cheeseburger. The name of the location intrigued me; it was called 'The Tuckshop' and when I clicked on the map, I realised this new place was in Glenhaven. The name brought back memories of being in a school canteen and it definitely caught my eye.

So I started googling a little more about it and found out it just opened on Jan 31 by the same dudes who have the successful The Baron in Castle Hill. And Nathan Hindmarsh of the Paramatta Eels is also a partner in this new joint.

That's it! I had to check it out. I am a fan of The Baron and chocolatesuze photos and blog post spurred me on even more.

It was a wet Saturday morning when I turned up with a couple of strapping young lads (my friends's teenage sons). I had a feeling they would enjoy the food here!

The tiny place was filled with people. There were 3 tables just outside the shop and that was filled. There was a larger communal table inside and it was filled too. The few stools set against the wall was full too (3 of which were filled by my group). There were tables and benches outside but as it was a wet day, they sat there empty. I would have loved one of those.

We eventually found some seats at the communal table after some people left after their meal. Talk about perfect timing!

We pored over the menu and decided on the following:

Tuckshop avo on toast - smashed avocado, house labneh, fresh tomato, and dukkah on Sonoma soy and linseed bread. Loved how exotic it tasted, a lot more interesting than the typical avo on toast. The labneh and dukkah made it a completely different dish.