Hotel Bondi, Bondi Beach

Back in Jun, MSG Cafeteria was approached by Hotel Bondi to drop by and sample some of their new bistro menu. So on the date of our booking, Whitty and I made the trek out to Bondi from the city after a brief stop by Zero Degrees to try their puffer fish. As we arrived at Bondi Beach early, we ended up walking along the promenade so that Whitty could go Pokemon hunting - apparently there were a lot of "rats and pigeons" around, as well as an occasional Psyduck if you're lucky.

Outside of Hotel

Whitty and I met up with the manager of Hotel Bondi, Ralph, who explained how the hotel had been renovated back in Dec 2015 - complete with new floors, paint job, new furniture and lighting. It certainly looked worth it! There were some awesome LED chandeliers at the main entrance for the hotel and more interesting lights spread throughout the bistro and bar area to provide dim lighting for guests. There was ample table seating inside as well as a pool/TV room. Apparently, Hotel Bondi previously leased out their kitchen but took the kitchen back in Mar 2016 so they're now serving their own food, complete with a new bistro menu.

The Waffle Shack, Ultimo

Anyone who knows me well will know I looovvve waffles - I got a waffle maker for my 21st and I cannot stop raving about Toscano's choc chip waffles. As a matter of fact, I'm actually munching on it right now as I'm writing this, much to the dismay of my fellow work colleagues as it generates wafts of sweet baked goods smell across the office once it comes out of the toaster... nomnomnom.... Hence I was uber excited when a FCBA event was held at The Waffle Shack as it could only mean one thing - wafffllessss!!!

My eagerness knew no bounds since I ended up scouting the place twice (because I was that eager) before the designated start time... all within hours of trying out the 'Sexy Me' egg waffle from Haven. Surprisingly, The Waffle Shack was sort of a hole-in-the-wall, sharing common space with a mobile phone reseller and a convenience store. I think I may have scared Chris (the owner) with my near-stalky photo-taking of him in action when there were no customers.

Outside of Store

Waffle Stack on Display

Haven, Surry Hills

Situated next to Central Station, Haven is famed for brewing specialty coffees that are specifically tailored to your preferences (based on aroma, sweetness, after taste, body and acidity), as well as for their fancy food items, like their signature HK-style egg waffles.

For those that have never heard of or tried HK-style egg waffles, then you're seriously missing out! One of my fondest food memories of Hong Kong is of their fresh egg waffles (along with the dragon's beard candies, sticky rice balls, and egg tarts with flaky puff pastry shells) - the sweet fluid batter is cooked on a special waffle iron so that when cooked, the waffle forms a lattice of egg-shaped pieces with a crispy exterior and gooey, custard filling. There are a few Asian cafes/restaurants that do sell fresh egg waffles in Sydney (e.g. in Eastwood for $3-5), or you can attempt to source an egg waffle machine or iron online that makes these awesome waffles... but sadly, you'll be out of pocket by at least $100 in order to get it shipped to Australia (yes, I've checked).

Hence you can see my eagerness to start off my food-driven day (note: this meal was followed by a visit to Koi Dessert Bar and The Waffle Shack... and Hotel Bondi) with a visit to Haven to see if their egg waffles live up to the ones from Hong Kong.

Passion Tree, Chatswood

I've heard a lot of hype around Passion Tree - their cakes here (and at the similarly named Passiontree Velvet in Macquarie Centre - are they under the same company since they also sell the exact same cakes and macarons?) give Zumbo desserts a run for their money (literally, since they're in the same price range) but more importantly, they're famous for their Bing Soo desserts involving a hollowed out fruit - like watermelon, rock melon, or pineapple - topped with shaved ice, fruit balls, and ice cream/block. Since this place was personally recommended by a friend, I decided to take the plunge and actually visit the cafe. I have previously walked by several times before but decided against jumping straight to dessert in lieu of eating a proper dinner.

The inside of the cafe is decorated with white decor (think white tables, chairs and wall cladding) but this highlighted the bright, colourful desserts on display:

Outside of Cafe

Front Counter

Desserts For Sale

Creperie Suzette, The Rocks

Part of the Harbour Rocks Hotel, Creperie Suzette serves customers fresh coffee, galettes and crepes within a small cafe space hidden within The Rocks, Sydney. The cafe gets a lot of natural lighting through the large windows along Harrison St and has a distinct Parisian feel with the internal decor, exposed brick walls and vintage wall art.

Cafe Sign

Outside of Cafe

I-Creamy Artisan Gelato, Sydney CBD

Hidden from the main street foot traffic, I-Creamy Artisan Gelato is located inside Skyview Plaza, off George St. If you decide to venture through the plaza, you'll soon encounter the large crowd surrounding the store - either curious bystanders, customers patiently waiting, or those that have already been graced with their gelato and are happily eating away.

Several of their flavours (including their coconut & lychee sorbet, white chocolate miso, Thai milk, durian, black sesame) have won gold or silver awards at the annual Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Show for the past few years so it's certified with a tick by industry experts. As you may notice in the below pictures, some gelato flavours have a bright yellow tags (they seriously look similar to minions, although I highly doubt I-Creamy is affiliated in any way with the movie) - indicating the awards level of the gelato - and others have a green clover/flower tag - indicating that there is adequate gelato for the staff to make 'flower gelato's.

Top Left: Store Front
Bottom Left & Above: Gelato on Offer

Flour Drum, Newtown

A while ago, Aunt-T joined MSG Cafeteria to various food blogger groups, which were mentioned on our blog but I never really asked about.. And it wasn't until I recently logged into the blog email for the first time that I discovered 50+ unread emails - a veritable minefield of spam (of the inedible type) and gold (of the edible type) because within the long list of unread emails were exclusive invites to food tasting events!

One of the recent invites received was from the Food Critics & Bloggers Australia (a.k.a. FCBA) for a tasting event at Flour Drum, Newtown. Having rarely been to Newtown (mainly to visit Black Star Pastry and Brewtown Newtown), I had to research on how to get here.

Located 10 min walk, or 4 min by bus, from Newtown station, Flour Drum sits inconspicuously among boutique shops along the main road but is rather like a hidden gem in the rough - for inside the cafe are some of the friendliest staff I've encountered and serve mouth-watering cakes. The co-owners - Christopher, Victor and Johnny - were easy to chat with and happily engaged in conversations with various customers scattered across the cafe (except maybe Johnny, who as the executive chef of Flour Drum spends a lot of his time in the kitchen - he stayed up till 3-4am making cakes for the weekend!!).

Outside of Cafe