Tag: Cafe

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!

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.