Bessies and Alma's is a new restaurant in Surry Hills with a modern Mediterranean menu. The restaurant is by the team from the very popular Bar Copains and is located on Albion Street in Surry Hills. Find out what the buzz is all about here and what is a must order (and a must leave behind!).
It's 4:30pm at Bessies and Alma's in Surry Hills. The reason for the in-between time was that it was the only time Laura and I could get a table here at a week's notice on a Saturday but neither of us are bothered by this. What we didn't expect was that it is absolutely heaving with people here. Every table is taken and you'd swear it was 7:30pm. We are shown to a table and waitstaff are very friendly. The menu is made up of four sections: snacks, small plates, large plates and sides.
Laura starts with a coffee martini as she needs a hit of caffeine. The coffee martini comes in a frozen ceramic cup and it hits the spot for her like only an espresso martini can.
We both skipped lunch for this meal so we are famished and order quickly. If you eat from the snacks menu I definitely recommend getting the sourdough flatbread. It's soft, puffy and hot and spread with garlic butter and herbs. This is a definite must have.
Both of us cannot go past a good whipped cod roe dip and this one is silky smooth with a little salmon roe on top and a good level of saltiness. If you get the flatbread (and I insist that you do haha) then this is the perfect partner.
I love all three elements in this dish: the mortadella, devilled eggs and pickles. The house-made mortadella has a bit more texture to it and comes as a good sized serve for two but it's the devilled eggs that are a standout and so utterly moreish with a silky smooth yolk centre. The mixed pickles provide a salty punctuation to each bite of mortadella.
I wouldn't normally order anchovies as they're so simple to recreate at home but Laura doesn't eat meat apart from chicken so she couldn't have the mortadella so this is her choice. Like the pickles these provide a salty hit to our snacks and I do like the chilli and herb oil.
The Moreton Bay Bug sandwich is a crust-less round white bread sandwich filled with a crumbed and fried Moreton Bay Bug patty along with shredded lettuce and sauce. The patty is freshly fried and piping hot but the sandwich's texture is a bit wet. It's fine but I don't think I'd order this again.
We did end up ordering a lot and I think we could have stopped at the small plates and completely done away with mains. We end up ordering two small plates: the wood fired prawns with a lardo and paprika oil sauce and rosemary. These two prawns are absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked so that the prawns are still succulent and the sauce is ideal for mopping up with the sourdough baguette pieces provided.
The pipis are our second small plate choice. They're covered in jamon pieces with a fantastic white wine based sauce reminiscent of Portuguese clams. In fact it's the garlic toast and the sauce that we both really love.
We really wanted to try the market fish with crab and tomato sauce but that has capsicum in it and Laura is allergic. The only other choice we wanted was the peri peri chicken but again the sauce had capsicum in it so we ask for the sauce to be served on the side. The chicken is juicy and delicious and it's very good with the sauce and the mayonnaise on the side although we were both very full to do this justice.
We were recommended the beef fat potatoes for their crispiness. And they are good, each sharp edge of the potatoes crispy and we dunk these into the smoked paprika mayonnaise.
We would have ordered the Turkish chopped salad and it was recommended to us (but again the capsicum) so instead we go for the wood fired saffron and parmesan rice. It's essentially the flavours of Risotto Milanese crossed with a paella style serving.
Time keeping is a bit delayed here - there is a time limit for the table but the kitchen wasn't quite able to keep up so we end up ordering the dessert while we are eating our mains. The wood fired Portuguese custard tart takes 10 minutes as it is baked fresh but alas it isn't quite what we were hoping for. If you're expecting something like a traditional Portuguese custard tart this is not it. The pastry is hard and crisp instead of flakey, layered and buttery and the custard inside is liquid, quite watery and not very creamy. We mostly leave this behind.
The lemon meringue marshmallow is better and sits on a paper thin disc of filo pastry. It's a torched lemon flavoured meringue that gives our palates a nice puckery hit.
At the end we receive the bill and the machine offers us a choice between 15, 20 and 25% tip. I guess gone are the day where 10% is the standard as they push us towards tipping more.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you mind eating a very early dinner or a very late lunch? And what % do you normally tip and where are you from (because it differs between countries!) :)
This meal was independently paid for.
Bessie's and Alma's
111-115 Albion St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Monday to Wednesday 5pm-12am
Thursday to Sunday 12pm-12am
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