Briciola

We wanted to go to Zenja again for brunch, but the place was so packed that we didn't get any service for 10 minutes, so we decided to head to the Cafe Strip at Concord again.

Food

This offered the usual cafe fares. I decided to test them out so got the Eggs benedict - poached eggs on toast with tomato and spinach ($11.90). This looked like an almost exact replica of yesterday's eggs.... Taste wise, the eggs are cooked through rather than just set, but the muffin was better. The hollandaise was pretty good but just below MBC. But.. I got spinach and tomatoes as well to liven it up a bit!

We shared a plate of banana bread with butter and honey ($4.90). This was just how banana bread should be, sweet, warm and toasted, dusted with icing sugar, with butter and honey on the side. The three of us couldn't finish the 2 generous slices.

When my cappuccino ($3.50) finally arrived, it was beautiful, passing that all important test of not being bitter! The beans are from Danesi caffe.

Rating - 6.5

Atmosphere

The place was a bit less busy than Majors Bay Cafe (MBC), with more than half the tables filled. The weather wasn't too good but they had put up some clear plastic to shield against the wind in the al-fresco seatings. The inside area looked warm and inviting too.

Rating - 2

Service

The service was SLOW. Our drinks order took so long to arrive, and they didn't all arrive at once either! We had to remind them again to bring us water. It took at least 20 minutes before our bill arrived. It was lucky that we were there for a leisurely brunch so we didn't mind waiting, still, it's unacceptable, especially considering the place wasn't that full. They should really take a leaf from MBC, maybe that's why they charge more there?

Totally unrelated to the service but I thought I would mention, one of their guy waiters was wearing very heavy eye makeup. I guess it shouldn't be that unusual nowadays...

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

It worked out to $17 p.p. It's cheaper than MBC but the food is comparable, the only thing worst was the service.

Rating - 1

Brownie Points - 11

Info

82 Majors Bay Rd
Concord
NSW 2137
Phone (02) 8765 1414

Majors Bay Cafe

We decided to venture to the Mediterranean side of our backyard for a leisurely Saturday lunch. Our venture led us to cafe hardland, Majors Bay Road Concord, but it seems that half of Concord also had the same idea. Never fear, there are enough cafes here to cater for all.

Food

Well, you'll be spoilt for choice here, as well as the standard lunch and all-day breakfast menu, there are also specials on the board. You can have a pasta or salad and a glass of wine for $15 at lunch.

We decided though, to try out their breakfast menu, it was one of those Saturdays. Slokky ordered the Egg Royale - poached eggs with smoked salmon and MBC's own chef hollandaise sauce on toasted English muffins ($15.50). We expected more wow factor than what arrived on the plate, exactly as the menu described, English muffins topped with eggs and salmon, with yellow hollandaise sauce... and nothing else! Granted, it was very well executed, the muffins toasted, the eggs cooked until nearly set, and a divine sauce.

I ordered the Savory Pancake - sandwich stack, baby spinach, onion, smoked salmon and cheese with hollaindaise sauce ($15.50) which was a bit more unusual than the standard offering. Again, the plate was not adorned, the food was plonked down, but this tastes divine too! The cheese binded all the other ingredients together, and the pancakes were light and not too fluffy.

This was all washed down with a super fresh banana smoothie ($6), with real banana taste, even though it was ultra expensive.

The food was executed well, but it was more boring than I imagined. Looking at some of the other patrons' orders though, I think lunch would be the go next time around.

Rating - 7.5

Atmosphere

The usual people were out for breakfast, lots of family groups and friends catching up. The feel is very buzzy and friendly. There are plenty of newspapers and mags on offer. My only gripe though, the flies that swamp around the al fresco area. Maybe I should have sat inside afterall.

Rating - 1.5

Service

It did take us awhile to get served at the beginning. We weren't really shown a table, but we nabbed one of the outside ones ourselves. The waiter came quickly to apologise and cleared the table for us. We were handed menus, delivered water, and they gave us good time to consider our orders. We had a hard time choosing though so they had to come back again.

It's a casual kinda place so the service wasn't that professional, but our waiters were very friendly and smiled a lot, making us very welcomed. The bill was settled very efficiently too.

Rating - 3.5

C-factor

It's definitely on the upper side of cafe fare, but the food is good and so is the service, so it's reasonable.

Rating - 1

Brownie Points - 13.5

Info

80 Majors Bay Rd
Concord
NSW 2137
Phone (02) 9743 1060

Barambah Organics Fresh Milk

Taste

Well, it wasn't as good as that milk I had in Tassie, years ago, but it's the second best milk I've tasted in my life. It doesn't taste like water, actually has some sort of crema, and that milk taste.

Barambah Organics won the Silver Award from the 2005 Dairy Association.

Rating - 8.5

Look

Like ordinary milk, except this has a cream top. It is also unhomogenised, so you have to shake it before use.

Rating - 2

C-factor

This is exy, at $ for 2 Litre. I don't know if I can justify paying double the amount for an everyday item, maybe I will splash out occasionally...

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 11

Ingredients

pasteurised full cream milk

Available At

Organic grocers

Tasmanian Gourmet Sauce Company Olive and Capers Pasta Sauce

Taste

This is a very divine pasta sauce. The tomatoes are top quality, tasting sweet and juicy. I really love the olives and capers in this, adding a saltiness that is quite complex. It's not too thick and is smoother than those chunky sauce you usually get.

Rating - 8

Look

It's a beautiful vibrant colour, in a pretty jar.

Rating - 2

C-factor

550g for $12.50 is quite pricey, but it's top quality stuff.

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 10.5

Ingredients

tomato, onion, olive oil, olives (5%), celery, carrot, capers, garlic, tomato paste, spice

Available At

174 Leighlands Road
Evandale
TAS 7212
Phone (03) 6391 8437
Website

etc Bakery Cafe

Taste

When you're in Tasmania, you have to have scallop pie, so we tried out the curry scallop pie ($6). It was not as good as Jackman and McRoss but it's a close second. The pastry was glorious, thick and buttery, I only wish it was a bit more flakey. The pastry encased some juicy scallops in a slightly sweet curry sauce. They were pretty generous with their scallops.

We washed this down with a cappaccino ($3.50) and a mocha ($3.50). There wasn't that much difference between the two coffees, but they were well made, not too hot or too bitter, with the added touch of a jaffa! They use Grinders beans.

Rating - 7.5

Look

It's a huge space and a welcome relieve on the highway. There's a huge deck area you can look out to the surrounding forests, all the food is displayed under glass counter, and you can spend a few hours reading the paper.

The food were all presented with care. The service is casual, you pay at the counter, get a buzzer, and collect the food when it rumbles!

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

Excellent service and Sydney prices, I think they're ok.

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 9.5

Available At

5783 Bass Hwy
Elizabeth Town
TAS 2131
Phone (03) 6368 1350
Website

Wagamama TGV 2

Yes, Wagamama is not my favourite restaurant, but when you are in a big group and want somewhere quiet to eat without the crowd, this is the place to go.

Food

I tried very hard to order something I haven't tried on the menu that I haven't written off for tasteing terrible, but I couldn't, so in the end, I got a mix of dishes I tried before I had the blog and can't remember what it tastes like, and dishes I haven't tried.

The teriyaki steak soba - teppan-fried soba noodles with bok choi, red onion, snow peas, beansprouts and chilli. Garnished with
grilled sirloin steak marinated in teriyaki sauce ($17.50) was pleasant enough. A big plate of so-so soba noodle was delivered, in a sweet sauce. I didn't taste any hint of chilli though. When they said "garnished", they really mean it, only 4 thin strips of steak rest on top of the noodles, so the dish is almost vegetarian. The best thing about the dish is the super crunchy vegetables.

Slokky went back to the chicken katsu curry - chicken fillet fried in crispy breadcrumbs, served with a light curry sauce and japanese-style rice. Garnished with mixed leaves and red pickles ($15.50) as his first choice was not available. It wasn't the best katsu curry. The sauce was sweet and simple, there was nothing else in the sauce. The chicken strips were a bit dry and tasteless so you really have to drown it in sauce. The bowl of rice was really big though.

We also shared a atsui chicken salad - salad of mixed leaves and cherry tomatoes with marinated lemon pepper and wasabi chicken ($15.50). The salad is not that spectacular, but it did provide a lot of greens to accompany the light on vegetables dishes.

Rating - 5

Atmosphere

All wagamamas are the same, and I've described this before. I would like to say that I rang to make a booking for 8 but they were quite rude to me on the phone, saying that they don't usually take bookings for less than 10 people after 12:30pm, so when we walked into a half-empty restaurant, I was not pleased. They also sat us right next to a couple, even though there were empty tables, so I would hear their conversation very clearly. Luckily they were almost finished with their meal and left.

Rating - 1

Service

I'll give our server, an English girl obviously on a working holiday, points for trying. She was quite frustered when we ordered, as a couple of us wanted the kare lomen - a spicy soup made from lemongrass, coconut milk, shrimp paste, chillies, fresh ginger and galangal, served with ramen noodles., but it had run out. She wanted to give us more time to think about our order so she would take our drinks order first, but we had already all decided on our second choice, and she got confused about that.

One of our parties wanted a prawn dish since the kare lomen prawn wasn't available, and she actually recommended the yaki soba, with not a hint of prawn, and told him that it had lots of prawns. She also didn't mention the ginger in the dish...

Service was pretty slow today, there was a 10 minute gap at least between some of the mains. The bill also took forever, and she couldn't figure out our 2 for 1 vouchers...for a restaurant that was only half full, not good enough.

Rating - 2

C-factor

Yada yada yada, I would only consider coming here if I had a voucher.

Rating - 0

Brownie Points - 8

Info

level 1,
TGV
500 George St
Sydney
NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9264 9155
Website