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 Paramount Coffee Project (Surry Hills)

I have been holding off posting my experience at Paramount Coffee Project (PCP) as I really wanted to return to try their Crab Po Boy before I was happy enough to talk about my experience there. But sigh! I just haven't been able to return since my first two visits from weeks ago. So here it is, my post on PCP without trying the Crab Po Boy!

A week after Paramount Coffee Project opened in Surry Hills, I had an opportunity to check it out with my mate DD. My first visit was at lunch time. As it was only a week old then, it was not flooded with people yet. I loved the wide open space of the interior when I stepped in. It was larger than I anticipated but quite cool actually! There were a few bicycles stacked at the rear wall and it reminded of the bikes I saw when I was at Seven Seeds in Melbourne last year. Not surprising since this project is a joint one between Mark Dundon of Seven Seeds and Russell Beard of Reuben Hills.

And I liked the separate coffee station where serious coffee aficionados can hang out.

I had the Double Fried Chicken which was a spicy coated fillet with house slaw and creole relish. The chicken was tasty and I liked the slight kick in the relish. The only thing I found wanting was I would have liked the chicken to be crunchier. But the flavours were certainly there.

DD had the Joey chestnut which was a wiener with mustard, ketchup, cheddar, onion jam on milk bun hot dog. In other words, an upmarket version of the very American hot dog. DD also ordered some pickles with it. I had a bite of the hot dog just so I could taste the flavours and textures. The wiener was really good, there was a nice bite to it. The only thing we found wanting was the texture of the bun. It wasn't as soft as we had expected. It was actually quite dry. Maybe the bun was toasted too long. But that diminished the other good things about the hot dog. But I have been reading other blogs since then, some of whom had the hot dog and there were comments on how soft the bun was. So I take it as an anomaly that DD was not lucky enough with his hot dog bun.