The Sydney Morning Herald wrote this handy article about best places to eat brunch in Sydney. I better get cracking as I’ve only been to two of those – and one of those I wouldn’t set foot in again!
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.
This place is hard for me to get to as my usual brunch day is Sunday, and Bar Biscotti is closed on Sundays – thereby handing all the Sunday gym/shopper business to its rival, Cafe Zenja. However on a rainy Saturday my usual plans were put aside and we gave it a go.
Ever since Boost came onto the scene, closely followed by Pulp and many others, Sydney became swept into healthy drink fever. Smoothies are refreshing on a cool day, and also are a great meal replacement as they are so filling! But then I decided to delve into the nutritional information of these drinks after a tip off from a newspaper article and discovered these may contain as many calories as a high sugared soft drink! And no wonder why. They are made with fruit juice, fruit and frozen yoghurt or sorbet with no fresh milk in sight. So that was the end of those drinks for me. Admittedly, some of these chains have introduced drinks with some milk component, but before that I already discovered my own trick of making a more nutritious and lower calorie version which is equally as delicious (and much cheaper!!). (more…)