Central Baking Depot, Neutral Bay

 Central Baking Depot ("CBD") was recommended to me by a friend who had visited the Sydney city store and fallen in love. I visited the CBD website and saw that they had a branch in Neutral Bay. As it's closer to where I live and in a location where I figured there would be fewer people, I decided to pay a visit to that store instead.

The process of finding this branch had us positively flummoxed because the address stated 7/19-25 Grosvenor Street, which seemed consistent with all the other busy hipster-looking establishments. We walked up and down but just could not find it, and on Google Maps it was situated off of the street (more on Grosvenor Ln). We should have paid heed to Google Maps in the first place, as it was exactly where Maps said it would be!
 

Exterior

Coffee: Good, smooth on the palate. Moving on.

Flat white ($3.10)

The lamb sausage roll was lovely - I was afraid that it would taste too much like lamb (that sickening aroma/ flavour where meat hasn't been marinated well), but the mince was completely inoffensive.

Lamb sausage roll ($4.50)

The beef brisket pie with mushrooms and red wine was just as enjoyable. The pastry was really crunchy on the outside but quite moist inside, which I personally don't mind (at times I actually prefer it). However, those who detest soggy pastry should stay well away. The chunks of beef were tender and the red wine made it just that little bit more gourmet.

Beef brisket pie ($5.80)

To finish off, we shared a sweet danish - blackberry and apple with a light custard. It might have been nicer if it was toasted, though I suppose warm custard doesn't sound quite as appealing. Despite its small size, it was pretty dense and filling. I'm glad I was talked out of getting a 4th item.

Blackberry danish ($4.00)

Inside the danish

And no, $5+ pies are not exactly cheap (e.g. if you want to take half a dozen home for arvo tea), but for a sit down lunch where we shared 3 pastries between two (and which kept our stomachs full for 4 hours), $7 a head is not bad at all!

After the quick lunch, we headed off to Bradley's Head, which had gorgeous views of the harbour. Will definitely have repeat visits to Neutral Bay and its surrounds :)

Mad Spuds Cafe, Surry Hills

One day I decided to embark on a trip to Le Monde. Alas, it was a Sunday. It turns out that Le Monde is closed on Sundays. Instead, I headed to Crown Street to partake of the organic potatoes from Robertson* (where they filmed Babe).

Crown Street, that strip of trendy cafes and bars, was packed, with sizable lines outside various shop fronts. Mad Spuds was no exception, and we had to put our names down to wait our turn. There's a cute stationery/ card shop right next door, though, so we browsed around to kill time.

*: I just realised why there's a big potato in Robertson.

Signage

After about 15 minutes' wait, we were led inside to be seated. The interior is quite small but turnover seems quite high and there's a bit of outdoor seating. The waitress serving us was really friendly but I think we gave her a fright when the two of us decided to order 3 mains (not realising how generous their portions are).

The coffee arrived soon after. I must say that even though the spuds are the main attraction, the coffee is kind of amazing. My flat white had a really strong coffee aroma and taste but lacked the bitterness that I often find accompanies that amount of coffee flavour. It was creamy, rich, and made me want more. I later learnt they were given 2 coffee cups in the SMH good cafe guide. Definitely seems well-deserved.

Cappuccino ($3.50)

Flat white ($3.50)

My choice of dish was the 'boxty' - a potato pancake with mustard, bacon, avocado, fried egg, apple puree, white sausage, and what seems to be a dash of curry powder or paprika (tasted more like curry powder!). The boxty was crisp and formidably filling, tasting astonishingly nothing like your typical potato. The bacon was fried till dark and crunchy (the way I like it), and they were generous with the slabs of avocado. The egg yoke was half runny and the apple puree contributed some sweetness to the otherwise savoury dish (which I could actually have done without, but if that's the traditional way, who am I to comment). The white sausage patty was meaty and felt like mince, making the entire dish rich and full of carbs and protein. I should have been content with sampling one dish for the duration of that visit. Alas, I'm a committed glutton.

Boxty ($16)

My brunch buddy had a  vegan dish, which was a stack of tofu, avocado, corn bread, potato and lentil, and many many Boston beans (with a slightly Mexican twist), and crispy quinoa puffs. It was tasty, but I think I preferred my tower of food because of the greater variety of ingredients.

Vegan brekkie stack ($16)

Finally, we shared a dish of twice cooked potato skins. At the time of ordering it, we thought that potato skins would be like crisp cut French fries - a mere snack and easy to share. When the plate of spuds arrived, I felt dismayed at the fear of not being able to do it justice. We managed to get through most of it (with a lot of trouble), so thankfully we didn't waste too much.

The taco flavour refers to the Mexican style of making the spuds. The dish consisted of 4 halves of potatoes with crispy skin on the outside and supporting chunks of mozzarella cheese, beef (spiced but it wasn't spicy), chilli sauce and coleslaw. It's definitely a main and deserves the respect of people who order it as a main.

Taco potato skins ($15)

 And so our brunch ended with our stomachs completely filled to the brim with starchy goodness. My conclusion? I would totally go back for the good coffee, excellent service, and cheap (and filling and aesthetically pleasing) food.

Reuben Hills, Surry Hills

I've been champing at the bit to visit Reuben Hills ever since I saw a mention of it in an SMH article regarding good cafes/ coffee. Sadly, I never quite got round to it until recently, even though I commute via Albion Street on the way to uni. My moment finally arrived one fine (and sweltering) Sunday afternoon. The roads around the area weren't overly busy, so it was a surprise to find that Reuben Hills was buzzing (quite loudly) inside. Reuben Hills doesn't take bookings, so we had a (thankfully short) wait in order to obtain a table for the four of us.

Exterior

Reuben Hills takes rusticity to a whole new level, using a variety of glass milk bottles for water flasks, some sort of metal industrial machinery on the second level (not sure if that's part of the premises, but it fits), and tin mugs with spots of rust inside. The menu consists of traditional brunch items, Mexican food, as well as assorted desserts and drinks, exacerbating the usual ordering dilemma.

I figured that since I was there, I might as well be adventurous with the coffee, so I selected the Kenya Nyeri filter, which was described on the menu to have blackcurrant notes. The filters arrive in beaker-like containers that appear to be made out of the same material as mortar and pestle sets. Like steeped tea, the coffee is watery and is imbibed without milk. The coffee is bitter and, in the case of the Kenya Nyeri, it tasted like tart berries (which corresponds with the blackcurrant description). It was interesting giving it a go, but as I'm not partial to sour flavours, I will not be ordering it again.

Kenya Nyeri ($5)

Kenya Nyeri

I took my coffee with a brioche bun and a dulce de leche spread. The brioche was buttery and warm - very much like a soft croissant without the flakes and crunch. Combined with the caramelised and sugary dulce de leche, it whet my appetite and made me want to spoon the remainder of the confection into my mouth.

Brioche with dulce de leche ($6.00)

Alas, there was no time for dilly-dallying because my baleada (tortilla) had arrived and it was necessary to make progress on that before it got cold. It didn't really look like much, presentation-wise, but once I had a bite of it, I was glad that I'd decided to order it. The egg turned out to be an omelette, which, with the cheese, added a bit of salt to bring out the black bean and tortilla. When I read black beans on the menu, I was intrigued, as my only understanding of black beans are of the really salty beans used in Chinese cooking. These black beans tasted like chilli con carne without the chilli - very yummy!

Baleada with eggs, queso fresco (cheese) and black bean ($11.00)

After all these, I felt comfortably full. However, I was in a gluttonous mood and decided that there was plenty of room for dessert.

And so I ordered a strawberry, rose and vanilla milkshake. It was summary, milky and refreshing, with the rosewater being the strongest flavour of the three. Choosing it to accompany my cake was definitely a wise choice, as it was light and didn't result in sugar overload.

Strawberry, rose and vanilla milkshake ($7.50)

My passion fruit coconut teacake was dense, almost like a friand, and contained dessicated coconut, which had me chewing a lot at times. The only passion fruit that could be detected was in the white icing spread over the top. Despite its size, it was quite filling, so I halved it with one of my friends. The tiny three-pronged fork that came with it was also quite cute...

Passion fruit coconut teacake ($4.00)

And here is what the others consumed:

King prawn with avocado, corn salad, endive, chipotle aioli and lime ($18.00)

"Dirty bird" ($15.00)

The ice cream sandwich below had raspberry ice cream and liquid marshmallow. Had a bit. Wasn't bad.

Give a Dogg a Bone Ice Cream Sandwich ($9.00)

Trio Cafe, Bondi Beach

Amidst the myriad of fast food outlets and pubs exist quite a few tempting looking cafes. Strolling along Campbell Parade from one of the bus stops, it was an immense effort to stay on track and avoid popping into one of the hole in the wall eateries along the way, particularly with the sun beating down on the first day of summer. Would you believe that until then I hadn't actually set foot on Bondi? (North Bondi, anyway...) Nevertheless, I somehow waded through the throngs of half-dressed, tanned and, at times, orange beach-goers and managed to get to the other end of the beach.

Exterior

Unlike what the photograph suggests (it was taken in the early afternoon), lunch time at Trio is quite lively and the row of tables outside was packed. There's plenty of seating inside, however, and we had no problem getting a table close enough to the front to get a bit of breeze from the beach.

The colour scheme inside was a little odd, a deep maroon(ish) red contrasted against mustard yellow, which slightly reminded me of Maccas. The tables, however, were set quite prettily with crisp white tablecloths. We were given a carafe of water with a long sprig of mint inside - more of a decorative touch rather than anything else, as we couldn't taste anything in the water.

To drink, I ordered a hazelnut latte. Then came the tough part. The fact that they serve all day breakfast added to the inner turmoil of having to select a menu item. I mentally weighed up my prospective lunch choices and it came to a stand-off between the breakfast tasting plate (consisting of muesli, french toast, pancakes, shakshouka and corn fritters), the prawn salad (thinking it would be light and refreshing on such a hot day), and the prawn tagliatelle (I find pasta and prawns irresistible in their own right).

My hazelnut latte arrived soon after, complete with a coffee bean resting on a bed of heart-patterned foam. It was sweet, creamy and tasty, but I couldn't really detect any coffee as most of the flavour came from the hazelnut syrup.

Hazelnut latte "di lusso" ($5.00)

The pasta, tagliatelle with king prawns, was served with baby tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and a nest of various herbs. The white wine reduction was respectful to the prawns - light and tangy, while I have no complaints about the texture of the pasta. They were pretty generous with the number of prawns (hidden within the mass of curls of pasta), which were springy, moist and not overcooked. I was quite pleased with the portions overall, as I was made to feel quite comfortably full.

Prawn tagliatelle ($28.00)

My lunch buddy had a hot chocolate, with even more extravagant foam art, and the shakshouka, which was on the breakfast portion of the menu. What is shakshouka? It is apparently a breakfast that originates from the middle east, consisting of tomato ragout, poached eggs and hummus.

Hot chocolate ($4.80)

Shakshouka ($19.00)

Will I be back? I'd like to think so. The quality of food is solid and the breakfast tasting plate is very tempting. However, given the number of fascinating cafes and my abysmal track record in visiting Bondi, I'm not sure that I'll return anytime soon.