FoodieChat

My friend Annie highly recommends this restaurant and I have been wanting to try it for ages.  A quick check of restaurant review websites came back with surprisingly mostly good reports – and I am pleased to add my own to them!  It’s on the main street at Victoria Road, on the corner, and the ambience would be romantic and cosy – well that is, if we weren’t banished to the neon-lit, cold back tables near the kitchen!   Danny the host came and apologised that it was because we’re young and not whingy that he had to give the better tables in the heated front section to the oldies… not that we were given a choice, and we had also booked too!  Suspiciously, later tables were also escorted to the front when challenging the back tables!  Anyway – now to the food. Great value!! We had the garlic prawns ($17) – fresh king prawns in a thick sauce of tomatoes, basil, white wine and plenty of garlic.  I was upset that I wasn’t told that the pastas are in fact HUGE and main sized – so I ended up having the equivalent of two mains and therefore missed out on dessert! But hey. I’m not one to criticise value for money.  

The penne with calamari was a huge serve – tangy with capers, cubed potatoes and tender calamari strips – sssoooooo filling at $19 – warning: do not order pastas as entrees unless you are sharing!!

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Recipe from an amazing cookbook where every recipe I’ve tried works.  The tang of fresh lemon combined with the fluffy cakey top and smooth custard-like bottom is a terrificly light but satisfying post dinner treat. (more…)

A beautiful day, a beautiful view and beautiful people – Ripples Cafe has undoubtedly one of the best views in the world, nestled beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with unbroken views of the harbour and Sydney Opera House framed beneath the bridge.  A gorgeous day for Sunday brunch,  I was looking forward to kicking back and enjoying watching the ferries and the world go by.  We were slightly puzzled as staff saw us, but didn’t hurry to bring us in.  A smile seemed to help and we were seated and offered drinks.  The meals are priced upwards of $10, but reasonable at below $20.  After a some time deciding, we settled on the corn and zucchini fritters; omelette with chorizo, and apple and rhubarb pancakes.

The fritters weren’t what I expected – not fluffy or thick as Bills’ corn fritters are.  Three per serve came with crispy delicious bacon, and drizzled generously with basil pesto, and topped with zesty dressed rocket leaves, with a dollop of avocado salsa ($14) – quite yummy.  The hash brown ($5.50) on the side (or in this case, on a plate on the food ) was homemade and not as satisfying as the deep fried version – and also comes in a full size at $12.90 with black pudding (yuck).  The open spanish omelette with chorizo, smoked mozarella and pesto (more pesto!) at $14 was generous and chocka block full of yummy chorizo. The cheese was a bit overpowering for me and I couldn’t taste much egg, but otherwise, a very satisfying meal.

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