Category: Food

Two Wolves Community Cantina

Two Wolves Community Cantina is the type of venue we need more of. It’s not fine dining, and it’s not a place where you are going to impress your peers with how fancy it is. This place is fantastic for two reasons: it is a social enterprise (a Not-For-Profit) one at that, and the food is fantastic.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a sucker for mexican food anyway, but this place is great. Again, I have to proceed with the caveat that it is not fine dining, or anything new or innovative. It is just your clasic tex-mex venue with burritos, nachos, chilli fries, the classics.

Going back to the social enterprise part of this place though, is that they don’t make a cent out of it. All proceeds are given to communities in need around the world, either directly or through community groups that go and volunteer over there. As well as raising money, this venue works on volunteers, giving a lot of people who might not get the opportunity to hold jobs elsewhere a chance to get some work experience and learn some skills. Everyone that works there is friendly, kind and makes it a truly one of a kind experience.

And above all else, it isn’t expensive. Not even drinks. I have been back here a few times and honestly I am shocked that this place doesn’t get busier. I mean, they do $3 tequila shots as one of their specials. How that hasn’t got the uni students lining out the door, I don’t know. Maybe they just head in later after the old people like me have gone to bed.

Over the times I have been there, we have tried the nachos, burritos, quesadillas, chargrilled corn, and the chilli fries, which is most of the menu. I think my faviurites would have to be the nachos and the corn, although I am easily impressed by both of those dishes because they are some of my favourites. At the end of the day, though, they are cheap, easy delicious meals and you can’t really go wrong.

 

I give Two Wolves Community Cantina 5 out of 5 stars, and would recommend anyone looking for a great value for money meal with a great social purpose.

Panama House

A few weeks back it was my birthday, and there’s nothing that young females living in Sydney love more than a good boozy brunch to celebrate their birthdays. Most people will know the basic ones you can go to (The Winery, Darlo Country Club, etc.) but my sisters messaged me asking if I wanted to go to Panama House for my bday, which is one I hadn’t heard of. My main thought about this place is that they should be much more popular and well-known then they are. With a view of Bondi Beach and the blue ocean that accompanies it, and a $30 bottomless menu covering food, tea and coffee this place has everything you need for a great morning. For the price of $50, you can also add on bottomless drinks for 2 hours including mimosas and bellinis.

Even though it was winter, I was grateful for the outside seats, as the patio area has the view and a much better vibe on a sunny day, and with heaters and blankets provided, the winter chill wasn’t too bad.

Panama House’s focus is on Latin American food, which isn’t exactly synonymous with brunch, which might be why it hasn’t kicked off yet. The bottomless menu had 7 courses which you had to work through before you could start ordering more. You had enchiladas, croquettes, and then the more exotic dishes like chilli baked beans with a fried egg on top. The food was delicious, albeit a little unusual for a brunch, and definitely had a kick to it to warm you up in the winter weather.

The catch with the bottomless menu (because you know there always is a catch with something like this) is that the food is extremely slow coming out. We hadn’t had breakfast before going and had an 11 o’clock sitting so we were definitely hungry by the time we got there, and after we arrived we waited twenty minutes for the first dish, which is fine. The next dish, however, took another 40 minutes to come out and when it did, it was a very small dish. By this time, there was some definite ‘hanger’ rippling throughout the group. One can only assume that this is done to limit how much time at the end you have to order more rounds off the menu. Luckily, by the time you got through all the dishes, you were pretty full anyway so we only ordered one more round of one dish, but the slow start at the beginning was frustrating.

The good thing about a place like this with bottomless offerings, is that they didn’t make everyone opt into everything. Only two of us decided to go for bottomless drinks, whilst the rest opted out and that was fine. The service of drinks was great too, in that we just got given a bottle of champagne and juice and could serve ourselves, and the refills on these was very quick too. So if your aim was to go and get super drunk at a brunch, that was very do-able here!

All in all, it was a pretty good experience, although their food service could have been quicker, and they didn’t do split bills.

I give Panama House in Bondi 8 out of 10 for a boozy weekend brunch!

Pizza Autentico

One thing that has always made me a little sad in Australia is our lack of all-you-can-eat experiences. One of the great things about places like the UK and the Canada is their all-you-can-eat Indian and sushi respectively. Well finally, all my prayers have been answered and Australia, and in particular, Sydney, has finally started jumping on the all-you-can-eat and drink meal deals. My boyfriend and I have noticed heaps of these deals popping up recently, and when we saw one for $50 all you can eat pizza and pasta and all you can drink wine and beer, we knew we had to try, even if it was on a week night.

Enter Pizza Autentico. I don’t think this is a new deal for Pizza Autentico, because they seemed to have themselves set up well already, maybe it’s finally just something we are hearing about some more.

Pizza Autentico is a tiny little establishment in the heart of Surry Hills. Unless you went looking for it, you probably would never stumble across it. If you’re in a small group, you get put on the communal table on the ground floor, a big slab of granite which can seat probably around 20 people. There is a waitress that walks around with various bowls and plates of pizza and pasta, offering you some with each lap and then you simply say yes I want to try, or no I will skip this one out (you never say no) and they give you some to try. As for the drinks, I was drinking red wine which was brought out to me in a big carafe, and my boyfriend was well stocked with beer the whole night.

The reason I like this deal is that they don’t limit you to just one type of meal in the hopes that you will get bored and stop eating, I don’t think we saw the same meal twice in the whole 2 hours we were there. To be fair, the majority of the meals brought around were pizza but you had a wide range from your classic Margarita to your sausage and potato. You could taste the freshness of the dough and ingredients though, so I wasn’t complaining about all the pizza.

The pastas were the real winners though. I am salivating right now just thinking about their four cheese gnocchi. Eating that gnocchi was like biting into little pillows soaked in cheese. It was certainly rich, which is why a small amount was perfect, but the taste was sensational. My other favourite was a chilli penne, with just the right amount of kick, balanced with a tomato sauce.

Often with all you can eat deals, the staff do their best to make your life difficult, or to slow your orders, which don’t get me wrong, it makes sense, but it is rather annoying as a customer. Not at Pizza Autentico. Here, the staff were friendly, helpful, and making sure you were always topped up with food and drinks. They even come and do the courtesy call to let you know when your time is up.

All in all, I cannot recommend this place enough. I think it is potentially my favourite place in all of Sydney, and my boyfriend and I have made the pledge that all our celebrations and nice dinners will be there from now on. If you live in Sydney this place is an absolute must.

I give Pizza Autentico 5 out of 5 stars, I can’t see how anything could top that!

Flying Fajita Sistas

This one has been on the list of places to go for a while, and all it took was winning a bet against my boyfriend for him to take me there, which is a shame because this place is gold, and now that I know how good it is, it is dangerously close to where I live!

They do daily deals in the menu, and on a Thursday when we were there it is 2 for 1 drinks, as long as they are the exact same drink. This is a fantastic deal, especially when the drinks are already decently priced to begin with. I would definitely love to go back with some of my gal pals and make use of that deal and the cocktails, but sadly my boyfriend could not be convinced about the cocktails so a local beer on tap it was for us.

It’s not a huge menu but there is everything you need on it. Dips, starters and decently priced mains, that’s all I need in my life. We got the Queso Fundido to share, which was the first time my boyfriend had queso. He wasn’t a fan of the Jalapenos (he doesn’t handle spice very well) but loved the chorizo addition. The corn chips were fresh, and I can only assume homemade, and even without the dip were delicious and perfectly salty

We followed up with a Chimichanga each, which is not the most common mexican meal in Australia. We normally have our burritos plain, not deep fried. What I really appreciated is that the Vegetarian option was Jackfruit, and not just a vegetable medley. Jackfruit isn’t the easiest ingredient to whip up, but it is delicious, and gives you a much more meaty texture. I (obviously) got the Jackfruit whilst my boyfriend got the beef brisket. We both devoured ours in minutes, but the star of the dish was the toppings, the charred tomato salsa balanced out by sour cream and cheese was the best part, and the part I had to leave until the end so it was my very last mouthful. When you hear deep-fried burrito, you hear oil and batter and something that makes you feel disgusting after you were finished eating, but this was so well done it wasn’t the case at all. All the flavours stood on their own and didn’t need to be doused in oil and fat.

Sadly, we didn’t get to try out anything on the dessert menu, as my boyfriend’t nut allergy normally interferes with that, but I know that I am going to be going back soon so I wasn’t too worried about that.

 

I give Flying Fajita Sistas 5 out of 5, I will be back there digging in again soon!

Gallon

I am lucky enough to live in a suburb of Sydney that is full of bars and restaurants, and sadly I am not making enough money to let me treat myself on going out to all of them as often as I would like. One of these bars that I wish I could go to more is Gallon. I have now only been for my second time, and both times I vowed I would go back again.

Gallon has the vibe of an Italian wine bar. It is where you go when you want to be a little bit fancy without being over the top. You can share some tapas, order some nice wines, and sit in either the beautiful courtyard, or inside with the dimmed lights and cosy vibes.

They do delicious pizzas, salads and other little bits and pieces, and there is a lof of Halloumi on the menu, so really, what more do you need? My friend and I shared the Natalia pizza and the Mex Chicken Salad. Normally when you get a salad at a place like this, it’s very basic, small and very unsatisfying, but a nice side. At Gallon though, the salad was moreish, delicious, filling and huge. I would have been happy with just salad for dinner, and we all know ‘You don’t make friends with salad’. Luckily, the pizza was also delicious. It was a very basic pizza, with very few ingredients, but you couldn’t tell with the flavour explosion it provided. It was light and not oily, and with the fresh cherry tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, very refreshing.

We also grabbed some wines- there wasn’t a huge menu there but enough choice for someone like me. I want to go back and also check out their Spritz menu because they looked affordable and delicious.

I am already in the process of convincing my boyfriend to take me there again next week, because I love how simple, easy, but delicious it is here. Another nice little thing they do, is its small enough that they remember who has ordered what, and so there are no numbers of anything handed out. It gives it a really nice personal touch,

I give Gallon 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Grounds of the City

Anyone that knows Sydney knows of the Grounds of Alexandria. If you can brave the crowds then it’s always a great experience, but this weekend I got the rare chance to check out the little sister, Grounds of the City. I have visited here before for the odd coffee here and there, but this was the first time I have been here for food. I potentially also picked the worst day for going here, Saturday morning. Not only are most of the cafes in Sydney CBD closed on a Saturday, but also then you have the added attraction of a Grounds venue, so we ended up waiting 40 minutes for a table.

We finally got seated, right next to the waiter’s stand, which means that as the waiters hustled and bustled past, one of my companions kept getting hit by the drawers or the waiters themselves. At the same time, the service wasn’t particularly great. Ordering was slow and things like getting water at the table was a bit of a chore. Don’t get me wrong, the staff was pleasant, just a little slow and understaffed.

The vibe of the Grounds of the City is its main appeal, as they call it, the ‘old-school charm’. It makes you feel like you have stepped back into the time of prohibition, and honestly they have done a really fantastic job creating that vibe. I would love to check this place out at cocktail hour, because I can imagine the atmosphere is even more magical then.

In terms of the menu, the choice of coffee is so diverse; cold brew, filtered, batch brew, and then all your usual suspects like your Cappuccinos and Long Blacks. The coffee is good, maybe not the best in Sydney but definitely a good quality. The menu is fairly ritzy too. You know how normally you can go to a cafe and get a nice bacon and egg roll for $8? Not here. Here, a bacon and egg roll served on a pretzel bun will set you back about $20. Not to say that’s a bad thing, but just to give you an idea of the menu. Myself and one friend went for the Hash Potato Stack, which was poached eggs and a manchego sauce with wilted spinach and a potato hash. It was delicious. I am pretty partial to a potato hash but this met my high standards and I devoured it quickly. Our other friend got the steak and eggs, which is certainly not something that I would ever opt for at breakfast time, but he said it was all cooked well, and he is a chef himself so I would tend to trust his judgement and might have to check that out myself next time.

Overall, Grounds of the City was a great meal. Service could be better and I definitely know to book a table in advance next time (or go in an off peak time), but I would definitely be very keen to go back and check it out again. If anyone wants to take me for cocktails there, then that would be very much appreciated!

I give it 3.5/5 stars.

Shiba’s Restaurant

On the main street of Pyrmont (Harris Street), there is a new Japanese restaurant in town. It has been there for a few months now admittedly, but it is still relatively new. I drive past it a couple of times a week and always think to myself, I should go there, but now finally I got the perfect excuse to go. I was catching up with an old friend from uni and she suggested it and how was I to say no to that?

It’s certainly not a fine dining institute there, in fact with the soft toy Shiba’s scattered throughout the restaurant I would say it’s pretty kitschy. You know it’s not a high class establishment when the wine options are house white, house red and that’s it. I ended up getting an Asahi because the $5 house wine didn’t sell it to me.

There is a very extensive menu, with lots of options to make it a set and add lots of different things. I opted for a Chicken Katsu donburi (on its own) whilst my friend got the Chicken Katsu set with Sashimi and rice. My Donburi was pretty yummy, the sauce was good and the chicken was cooked well, but the amount of rice in it was too much. I couldn’t finish it, and I am not someone who doesn’t finish my meals regularly. Mine also came accompanied with Miso Soup. I normally turn my nose up at Miso soup as the Miso is a very distinct taste which I have not adapted to, but the Miso soup here was the best I had. They had toned down the flavour just a bit, so it was much more palatable.

Overall, it was a satisfactory meal, especially for the prices. I wouldn’t say it was the fanciest establishment, but it was still great. If you’re around Pyrmont and you need a quick and easy dinner, this would be the place to go. I give it 6 out of 10!

Piato Restaurant

This cafe/restaurant is one of Sydney’s best kept secrets. There are a lots of cafes in Sydney and it’s impossible to know them all, but normally a cafe this good would be one of those popular ones that everyone has heard of. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very busy, but it definitely isn’t one that’s plastered all over social media, and where people head to just because they have seen it in their feeds.

For those Aussies (or even those from overseas), the actor who plays Carbo in Packed to the Rafters (AKA George Houvardas) is the owner of this establishment, and it has strong family vibes, with his brother and what I can only assume is his uncle or Dad, running the shop with him. I have been there twice now for breakfast, after someone who was new to Sydney invited me there as she had stumbled across it on a walk one day. Both times I was there for breakfast, but as the name suggests, this place is a restaurant and serves up Italian food for lunch and dinner. Next time I am heading back I am planning on going for dinner to see if the later meals are just as good.

The popularity of this place means their cafe spreads out down the street. You walk up to grab a table and you get taken to tables and chairs in front of stores two doors down. The service is lovely, over the top helpful, and even though they are popular and busy, they never make any attempts to rush you out of there to free up your table.

The breakfast menu is extensive, with everything from bircher muesli, to the big breakfast, to more unique Mediterranean style dishes. Last time I was there I got the Tomato & Basil scrambled eggs which were fantastic. My only qualm with the food is that the portions are mismatched. I got two huge pieces of sourdough for a moderate size of eggs, and only ended up using one piece of bread. My friend next to me had the opposite, where she had too much avocado for everything else, and had half an avocado left in the end. The food was delicious though, and I would have to go back a couple of times to try everything I was interested in as there were so many good options available.

On top of the food and the service, the other great thing about this place is the vibe it gives. You feel like you could be out having a long, lazy day in the streets of Italy. I don’t know how they have managed to create that vibe, but it is inescapable. Something about it makes you want to spend your entire day there chatting with friends and eating delicious food.

I am now a huge fan of this place, and if I ever had friends or family visiting Sydney and I wanted to take them somewhere, this is where we would go. Without having tried their lunch or dinner menu, it seems hard to rate them fairly but based just on breakfast, this is undoubtedly one of Sydney’s best kept secrets.

I give Piato 4 out of 5 for its breakfast and vibes.

 

Filicudi- the romantic italian

Valentines Day, the infamous day that sends boyfriends and husbands scurrying to the florists, and single people trying to fill their time with anything to prove that they are ok with being alone. It’s a night love by some, and hated by a lot more. Now, I have to admit, I went out for dinner on Valentines Day, but not for the reason that everyone would expect.

My boyfriend and I have been dating for 6 months now, and so this would be our first Valentines Day. He warned me early, he was not a Valentines Day fan, and since I am not that fussed on over the top romantic gestures, we decided we would skip it, and not celebrate it. The difficulty is, his birthday falls on the 15th of February, and because of the kind-hearted person he is, my boyfriend was spending his birthday doing a charity climb to help a child with Cerebral Palsy and his family climb Mt Kosciuszko on this day so we couldn’t celebrate together on the day, so our only option was to celebrate the night before on Valentines Day.

I must admit that part of me kind of hoped my boyfriend would suprise me, but he is a man of his word and there was no suprise. On thinking about it all though, a nice dinner is all I need. Anyway, we did indeed go for a very lovely dinner at a nice little authentic italian restaurant in Five Dock called Filicudi. The place catches your heart from the moment you step into the cosy little restaurant, with empty bottles hanging from the roof (a bit of a hazard for those tall ones like my boyfriend), the walls covered with newspaper clippings and eclectic paintings and artworks, and cosy little tables of two everywhere.

It was recommended to us, and so we were looking forward to checking it out. We booked a few weeks in advance, luckily, because it was packed and people were rolling in and out all night, some even getting turned away at the door. The only drawback of this setup, was we had a couple sitting right next to us, only about 40cm away. This wouldn’t normally be so bad but this couple was probably on their 2nd ever date, and I don’t think they were quite yet 18 so their conversation as Annoying. As. Hell. I am sure on any other night this wouldn’t be a problem, but listening to these young guys call Calvin Harris the best musician of our lifetime really didn’t set the scene well.

Luckily, I realised that cocktails were so cheap, so before long I was sipping on a $12 Aperol Spritz. We decided what we wanted pretty quickly; pasta for me, pizza for my bf, and some garlic bread as well. Carbs on carbs. I went for the Diavola pasta; penne with mushroom, chilli and a creamy tomato sauce. My bf went for the classic Meatlovers pizza.

We had barely ordered before our garlic bread was out. As far as garlic bread goes, it was pretty good but it was a little too soggy in places, and a little too oily. Certainly not the best I have ever had, but pretty good nonetheless. It was at this point that my bf realised that the back kitchen in charge of everything that wasn’t pizza was literally being run by Nonnas (the pizza oven was in the front run being run by some middle age men). The Nonnas were dishing up the pastas, breads and mains. You know it’s an authentic meal then.

It wasn’t long at all before our mains were out as well. Now, my pasta sounded pretty basic but the taste of it was anything but basic. The kick of the chilli is the first thing that grabs you, but before long the smoothness of the homemade penne catches up. It was delicious, and my whole plate was gobbled down in a minute. I have never enjoyed pasta quite this much, and whilst I put a sprinkling of parmesan on it, it didn’t even need it. The pasta stood up on its own. I nearly had to lick my bowl clean at the end, the sauce was so good.

I also got to taste a little bit of my boyfriends pizza, and I am not normally a meatlovers pizza fan, but this pizza was delicious. The base was solid and tasty, but didn’t have a strong enough flavour to drown out the actual toppings of the pizza. The tomato sauce was garlicky and full of flavour, and the meat added even more taste explosions to your mouth. It wasn’t long before the pizza had disappeared too.

So over the course of the dinner, we had a large pizza, a main size pasta, garlic bread, a cocktail, and two beers. Now we were expecting a pretty decent bill to come out, but were shocked when the bill was just $80. Yes, $80 for the best authentic Italian I have had outside of Italy including drinks. The bill was even accompanied by a love heart shaped chocolate. It was a little touch but it rounded out the night perfectly.

We decided on leaving that this was going to become our go to place whenever we had something big to celebrate. It was an intimate enough setting that had good atmosphere, great service and delicious and authentic food. I would 100% recommend everyone to check it out, even if it is in the obscure neighbourhood of Five Dock.

I give Filicudi 5 out of 5.

Don Taco @ Redfern Social Club

I was lucky enough over my long weekend here in Australia to attend the newly opened Don Taco. This little kitchen is found at Redfern Surf Club, which for anyone unfamiliar with Sydney is ironic because Redfern’s inner west location is anything but close to the beach. Redfern Surf Club is as ironic as you would think when you get inside, with a very grungy hipster vibe, including an old-school set tv, fairy lights, and even a stuffed bin chicken (commonly known outside of Australia as an ibis). It’s hard to even find this place, as the outside of the building has some old upside down ‘Grill King’ home, which I assume suggests its historic roots.

This location is where the boys from Ume burger, a Japanese burger restaurant in Sydney, have opened up their next adventure, Don Taco. Opening just last Friday, they are very much in their early days of operation. Redfern Surf Club is a very fitting home for the restaurant serving up fusion Japanese and Tex-Mex food, as it’s all kind of a jumble, but somehow it all fits together.

It’s a pretty limited menu, but what is there packs a punch. We each got the Taco bowls (one with beef and one with 3 bean chilli), which was basically if sushi met a burrito bowl. The dish felt mostly Mexican, but with the addition of sushi rice and some Japanese flavourings, but was delicious, and suprisingly filling for the bargain amount of $12. We also got a share of beef and chilli tacos. The beef was the star for the tacos, and was pretty much the taco bowl but with a soft shell taco instead of rice. It was also good, but the Japanese flavours didn’t really come through.

As for Redfern Social Club itself. It is a place that is hard to categorise, and don’t be honest I don’t think they want to be categorised. You walk in and you are met with a wide audience of patrons, from large groups having a Sunday arvo sesh, to older families, to women meeting up for a drink, to a few couples who were probably just there for the food (like us). One thing that really suprised me was most people were sitting up at the bar, voluntarily. I find that the bar is often the last place everyone wants to sit, but there was plenty of chairs available and the patrons still chose to sit there, which lets you see the friendly vibes they are serving up there. The drinks were decently priced and great too. There are only a couple of tap beers, but a wide range of craft and normal beers as well. I tried a Sourpuss beer, as well as the Local Grifter Pale Ale, whilst my boyfriend tried the other tap beers. Our favourite was the on tap Cucumber kolsch by C-Brook. It was so different, and yet so delicious and refreshing. I am just kicking myself that I didn’t try one of their instagram-worth cocktails, but I know that we will be back there again because we loved the place.

Good location with good vibes, fantastic staff, good drinks at affordable prices, and delicious food. The only thing that could make this place better is if they offered a trivia night.

I give Don Taco and Redfern Social Club 8/10.