Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks

Down at the rocks in Sydney is the Harbour View Hotel, a laid back, unpretentious place for a friendly, casual and good value meal with a heritage feel.

Parking is not too hard and it’s easy to book a table.

Wine by the glass starts at $7.50 and the Harvey River Shiraz is a generous pour and a good choice.

The kangaroo salad is one of the best picks.

Kangaroo salad- $22 with zucchini, pumpkin, red onion, macadamia, coriander & mint in a dukkah lemon dressing

The fish and chips are excellent too.

Beer battered market fresh fish & chips $20 with mesclun & tartare sauce

Other choices include the club sandwich…

Chicken, bacon, avocado, tomato, baby cos lettuce & aoili, with fries $16…

..Lamb shanks braised in red wine & mirepoix vegetables $26 Served with green beans, roasted tomato & creamy mash potato ( quite good)

The hamburger was voted by our group as the least of the options $16 – 100% wagyu beef patty, pickles, cheese, lettuce, tomato relish, onion ring and fries

A good choice would also be the Mezze dips and breads for two $24.

It’s close walking down to the Sydney Theatre Company at Walsh Bay, but there’s also Fratelli Fresh down there for an equally good experience.

Mie Kocok Bandung, Maroubra – great value Indonesian dishes

Having a sudden opportunity for lunch in Maroubra, the Good Food Guide App pointed me to Mie Kocok Bandung, suggesting that I would find:

…food adventures galore, friendly staff and an intriguing regional menu being enjoyed by packed in Indonesian families…

It is all true! And more! Not only were the staff friendly but the other families dining were terrifically helpful with ordering, sharing their a suggestions and tips like free green tea.

Sticking with the Good Food Guide, we went with their recommendations of…

Mie Panorama $11 at Mie Kocok Bandung Maroubra thanks #@goodfoodau

Gudeg Komplit $11 jackfruit and tofu with egg cooked in coconut cream excellent Indonesian dishes at great friendliness at Mie Kochi Bandung Maroubra # thanks again #goodfoodguide @goodfoodau

However, the Bandeng Presto – deep-fried soft bone milk fish was sold out so we chose a Mie Kocok Campur combination $11 ( a soup).

It was all great! Tasty, great value and great fun!

And if we’d been organised with wine it would have only been $2 corkage! (Good to know for next time!)

Hartsyard, Enmore Road, Newtown

Hartsyard is just one of the hatted restaurants on Enmore Road (and very helpfully just across the road from the Urban Hotel).

Focusing on American style dishes, it’s famous for it’s fried chicken and biscuit and the soft serve desssert of the week!

Especially good choices for sharing were the….

Smoked Trout with onion dip, golden beet, trout roe, bagel chips $29

….the signature dish Fried Chicken with buttermilk biscuit, low country sausage gravy $33

A generous serve with four pieces to share and two delicious pieces of soft buttery biscuit.

Perfect with the hot sauce.

Hartsyard soft serve of the day- this time banana with rich caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, shaved chocolate and whipped cream – must be shared! $20

But other excellent choices are the cauliflower dish and the mushroom dish, next time!

The Cook’s Garden

The Cook’s Garden was another Good Food Guide recommendation that proved to be an excellent spot for brunch in North Turramurra.

The garden setting is lovely and there’s plenty of space.

Breakfast is served until 11am and I loved the Vanilla bean yoghurt panna cotta, organic granola, blackberry compote $12

The sourdough fruit and nut toast with cured butter and jams was good…..

Toast served with choice of spreads, ‘Drunken Sailor’ jams and preserves $6

Breads
Classic sourdough / farmhouse wholemeal / sourdough fruit and nut / banana bread

……but the fritters just needed a bit of bread in the side as it only comes with one egg.

Sweet potato and zucchini fritters, goat’s cheese, tomato chutney, soft poached egg, watercress salad $18

The Stinking Bishops, Enmore Road

The Stinking Bishops is happily just across the road from the Urban Hotel in Newtown and does great cheese and meat platters as well as salad if you’d like to dine In!The Parmesan and pesto dressed rocket is delicious and worth adding to the order.

Prices are very reasonable and staff are very helpful and accommodating!

Highly recommended!

Hawker Lane, Westfield Chatswood – a first look

The Good Food Guide to Sydney calls out Hawker Lane as one of Chatswood’s good cheap eats.

And very good it is!

While still a food court by nature, it does have more ambiance and is clearly popular.

Excellent choices were the steamed pork dumplings with soup $8.80 for 8…

…the cumin lamb bun $5.80…

…and my favourite was the Saffron Roast Chicken Kathi Roll $7.90 from Chachu’s Street Style Kathi Rolls.

The perfect finale was a sea salt and purple yam soft serve from Aqua S.

Lanterne Rooms, Campbell – the $18 Market Lunch

The Lanterne Rooms has gorgeous decor and staff service.

It’s also one of the few fine dining restaurants in Canberra to offer a quick weekday lunch for under $20.

The Market Lunch is excellent at $18 per meal.

You can choose from:

Kari Daging – Slow cooked beef in traditional Malaysian curry w/ Pickles, croquettes, salad & rice (my overall favourite)

Kari Ayam Chicken thigh cooked in coconut gravy w/ Pickles, croquettes, salad & rice

Babi Assam Pork stew cooked in tamarind sauce w/ Pickles, croquettes, salad & rice (the best favoured sauce).

Team it with a bottle of BYO wine at $12 corkage per bottle and it’s great value.

Boathouse By the Lake – a first look!

The Boathouse by the Lake, must have one of the best positions in Canberra.

The views are lovely and it’s perfect how they change over the evening with each course.

The four course meal for $90 included a chef’s plate of snacks…

….homemade bread with cured butter, beetroot puree and pickled beetroot on parmesan shortbread, choux pastry with goats cheese and honey

…and a 65 degree egg course, which is surprisingly lovely.

The menu changes, but on the evening we visited we enjoyed:

Cured ocean trout cucumber, labnah, avruga caviar (our favourite)

Pan seared bug baby gem, buttermilk, chlorophyll

Blue eye cod baby spring vegetables, prawn, fumet

Slow cooked lamb rump eggplant, chickpea, puffed rice (our favourite for this course)

Rosemary cheesecake sweet beetroot, blood orange, burnt butter

Mandarin & black pepper sorbet liquorice custard, blueberries, green tea (voted the best dessert)

To finish, we were surprised with lovely petit fours.

BYO corkage is $25 per bottle, but a 25% discount up to $40 is offered for Canberra Entertainment Book holders.

The Boathouse is very well set up for large groups and this is it’s great strength and this could be a little overwhelming for more intimate diners who feel distracted by what’s going on in the rest of the venue.