Baroque Bistro, The Rocks

Last week, I headed to the Aroma Festival in Circular Quay/ The Rocks. I naively hoped to grab a cup of coffee and a lardy hot dog and didn't take some things into account:

1. It was lunch time (albeit a bit late)
2. The lines were insane; and
3. Gourmet sausages always rapidly deplete.

And so, our 'quick and cheap' lunch turned into a couple of not-as-cheap-as-I-wanted open sandwiches at Baroque Bistro. How did this happen?

Well... We were meandering along George Street and turned onto the pedestrian street in-between Guylian and Orient Hotel, where all the food stalls were located. Stomach was rumbling and the crowds made our walking speed a torturous amble. Eventually we made our way along Playfair Street, where the crowd was a little thinner. It was then that we spotted only a petite line at Baroque. We joined it and thankfully only had to wait a few minutes to receive a table (as there were only two of us, we ended up taking priority!). And thus ends my long-winded explanation.

Service was brisk and efficient, providing us with a reprieve.

We decided to go halves with 2 tartines. Both were too soggy to eat without the aid of cutlery, but the flavours were simplistic and pleasant. It was a shame that these were the only two meaty tartines available to choose from, as two pork dishes made me crave for a bit more variety.

The sausage was accompanied with a couple of cherry tomatoes and a lot of onion, which had been sauteed lightly.

Grilled Toulouse sausage tartine ($14.00)

They were more generous with the pulled pork, which was once again surrounded by onion - this time of the less pungent red variety.

Pulled pork shoulder tartine ($14.00)

Overall verdict? Indifferent. The lunch wasn't particularly filling, but it was the early afternoon and we were planning on having dinner in a couple of hours, anyway. Most people probably order dessert after this (there was plenty of stomach room for that!), but we only had a few hours left to do some shopping and decided to leave.