The cooking, eating and travel blog of a hungry blogger from Sydney, Australia featuring original recipes, interviews and articles on all things food @Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: Modern Australian

Nielsen Park Beach House, Vaucluse

nielsen park kiosk outside

Nielsen Park in Vaucluse is one of those lovely areas that I frequented when I was a teen and growing up, the Beach House or kiosk as it is more commonly known, is one I used to go to a lot for my fix of ice creams or more grown up fare. So on this Sunday I’m filled with a bit of nostalgia walking along the promenade. A part of me swears the same families are walking past me as the ones that were there 20 years ago.

nielsen park kiosk view

No that’s not Brian McFadden

nielsen park kiosk outside -1

The left hand side: the cafe side

nielsen park kiosk rhs

The right hand side: the more casual side

In Sydney where anything that is waterfront is expensive to dine at (I’m looking at you Balmoral Beach!), it is amazingly good value with all dishes under the $20 mark. In fact the most expensive thing is $18.50 (no wonder we see some bottles of Veuve Cliquot carried to other tables). The atmosphere and decor is like someone’s Beach House with mismatched cushions, wooden chairs and white paper tablecloths. It’s unpretentious and friendly despite the very upmarket neighbourhood. There is an all day breakfast as well as items such as burger, fish and chips etc but the blackboard which changes weekly features more creative fare. When facing the building, the cafe is on the left whilst the takeaway with ice creams is on the right.

nielsen park kiosk menu 3

nielsen park kiosk inside

It has to be said, the coffee is fantastic which is a great start.

nielsen park kiosk antipasto

Antipasto plate $18.50

Click here to read the full story

34 comments | September 24, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney CBD

rockpool bar and grill room

I recall the first time I walked into Neil Perry’s Rockpool Bar & Grill about 6 months ago. You see my Inner Burmese (no road sense) had struck again and I promptly got lost and I meant to walk into Spice Temple. I felt like a child walking into an adult’s domain. Everything was incredibly tall and silver and sleek, like New York’s Chrysler Building. The pillars were sky high and reached to the higher than high roof. I in turn felt like little I was little more than 80cms tall and a child in high heels. Waiters in white jackets bustled about, men in suits lunched and I almost expected Don Draper to walk past me. I vowed to come back. One day. Maybe when I was grown up.

crockpool bar and grill

Fast forward to a few months later and I was lucky enough to be taken here by Winston and Sandra. Just a couple of weeks ago, it was newly minted by the SMH’s Good Food Guide as the Best New Restaurant. On the table are four books plus the large paper menus that are printed out each day. There’s the Red Wine menu, the White Wine menu and then there’s also a booklet that explains the differences between the types of meat.

Lastly there’s the cocktail menu with a page of “Rockpool Bar & Grill House Rules” which may be terrifying at first for a split second before you realise they’re meant in an amusing way. Things such as “Gentlemen, do not approach ladies, and if you’re lucky enough to have one approach you, endear her as you would your Mother”; “Don’t look fiercely at people, or talk loudly or harshly, but cultivate a smiling countenance and a quiet, but firm tone of speech” and of course ” No hooting, no hollering”. And to add to the retro Mad Men vibe, service is old school deferential and unfailingly polite.

rockpool bar and grill rules

The House Rules

There is much indecision when faced with a menu like this. There are cold plates, hot plates, salads and then there’s the grill section. And who’s kidding whom? The grill section is where you want to plant yourself firmly. It is however an expensive patch of Real Estate with steaks heading up towards $110. This is why this particular restaurant is off limits on most corporate lunch lists. Neil Perry advises people to share steaks to try and taste the differences between them. The cynic among us would think this was to help repay the way for the reported $35 million fitout for both the Bar & Grill and Spice Temple. Yes in Perry’s world there’s no such thing as a GFC and I chuckle at the last House Rule “Remember, nothing is on the house, except for the roof” .

rockpool bar and grill bread

Bread and butter

The bread is a lovely crunchy sourdough baguette slice and the butter is sublimely creamy like a lovely French butter.

rockpool bar and grill setting down

Click here to read the full story

50 comments | September 22, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Manta, Woolloomooloo Bay Wharf

I am an odd creature in Winter time. During Summer I am a night person and love going out at night but in Winter I prefer to stay in at night and huddle close to warmth. My solution to this Winter Night-time hibernation is going out during the day when the sun is shining and then retreat back into the house at night when the sun has gone down and the temperature dips. This also is good for the species Foodus Bloggerus. This ensures that we get enough light to photograph our meals whereas dining at night means that I don’t have to eat at 5pm to catch the last vestiges of light. So on Sunny days you’ll find me perched outside, lizard style, bathing in the warmth and getting my Vitamin D before scurrying home. One such day was our Sunday afternoon lunch at Manta on the sexy Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf, just around the corner from where Russell Crowe and other lucky individuals live.

We’re seated across from the wharf where in October, they’ll host an Oyster festival featuring the best oysters of the season. We take a look at the menu – Manta is known for its seafood but their meat page (done in a leather look material) is beckoning. Is it silly to go to a seafood restaurant and order steak? Perhaps, but Mr NQN is liking the look of the steaks. We order some entrees and mains based on their recommendations (I always ask for staff recommendations) and sit back and soak up the sun while nearby boats bob up and down on the sparkling water.

1/2 dozen chef mixed oysters $25

We’re served three types of oysters: the Clair de Lune from Batemans Bay, Coffin Bay Pacifics and Sydney Rock Oysters from Port Stephens. As similar as oysters appear to be, when faced with the three different types we taste they’re also quite distinct. The Clair de Lune is sublime and my favourite of the three, the Pacific is rich, creamy and enormous and the Sydney Rock is all briney deliciousness.

Raw Selection $38

Click here to read the full story

38 comments | August 5, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Mad Greek, North Sydney

My friend M raved to me about this place. She works in North Sydney and finds herself here, almost every day for lunch with her 2 boys on school holidays and they devour meal after meal. The Mad Greek in question is no doubt the person that merchandised the store, I suspect a graphic designer’s nightmare with multiple fonts and colours all over the window and large tins of SPC tinned tomatoes given pride of place in the front window.

From the outside, it’s posters of everything proclaiming “World Famous” this and that although you’d have to presume that’s a little on the hopeful side. The Mad Greek is also the man that would have scared you as a child, as he does with In, with mock stern and gruff expressions that adults can (for the most part) read but leaves kids wary. All dishes are $10 or under which includes pizzas, pasta and breakfast dishes, most with a Greek or Italian theme. We order with him and we’re not kept waiting long at all for within 5 minutes, our food arrives.

Cappucino $3

The coffee is by Primo. It’s a little bitter.

“World Famous Bacon and Egg Brioche” $4

Click here to read the full story

27 comments | June 7, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Fort Denison Restaurant, Sydney Harbour

A visual reminder of Mother’s Day written in the sky

Despite being born and bred in Sydney, I still find the Harbour one of the most spectacular places to be on a sunny day and my hearts swells with pride at the sight of the beauty of Sydney. I am truly a Sydneysider through and through. And today, for Mother’s Day, we’re playing tourist in our own city with my parents. If you remember Mother’s Day in Sydney on the Sunday, you might be puzzled, recalling a day filled with intermittent rain and you’d be right, it certainly was a so so day for weather. However the day before on the Saturday was a picture perfect day with not a cloud in the sky and only the gentlest breeze blowing. As we try and avoid restaurants on Mother’s Day (and Father’s Day and Valentines Day) through bad experiences in the past with harried, stressed venues being understaffed and trying to push us out in order to get the next seating in place, we simply celebrate it the day before and we’re lucky we did so weather-wise.

Fort Denison

Fort Denison is on Pinchgut Island, a small Island in the middle of the Harbour. Formerly a prison when Sydney was itself a penal colony, it was a prison within a prison. Nowadays, it serves as a tide marker and is Sydney’s only Island cafe.

The boat ride from Circular Quay to the Island

The tiny “ants” are the people doing the Sydney Harbour Bridgeclimb

Accessible by boat, we board at Jetty No 6 at Circular Quay at 12:45pm for the 5 minute boat ride. Within 5 minutes, we arrive at Fort Denison which is a lot smaller that you’d expect (you can walk from end to end in less than 5 minutes) and are greeted at the cafe. The waiter is friendly and polite and lets us know that in a few minutes at 1pm they will be firing the canons which they do once a day, every day on the dot at that time.

The canon firing-kudos to my husband who captured this while covering his ears!

Why 1pm? Since 1906 it allowed ship to set their chronometers i.e. watches and the practise only stopped during World War II due to alarmed residents and resumed in 1986. Today a young boy gets to do it and we all cover our ears (it’s loud!) and after some view gazing and a chat with the friendly woman that oversees it we head back to our table under a huge marquee.

My mother and I order a couple of items to share while my dad who doesn’t like sharing orders the battered flathead and chips and my husband orders the lamb shanks. Prices are extremely reasonable considering the unique Harbour setting. We also see that they have a New Year’s Eve Celebration here for $1,000 a person-I wish!