Bathers Pavillion

Balmoral Beach has always been one of my favorite places in Sydney, I'm happy just to buy a slice of brownies from the cafe and enjoy the view from the window or buy a take away coffee and had a walk near the cliff or even bought a takeaway dinner from a nearby resto (the most memorable one when we bought hainamese chicken rice from Ginger and Spice all the way from Neutral Bay) and ate it in the bench.

But when Moco gave me a surprise to actually enjoy a dinner in the hot seat of course I won't complaint :)

Complimentary amuse-bouche. I don't think I'm a fan of cold cauliflower but hey it's free.


Beautiful bread. Crunchy on the outside, soft in the inside, served warm and let the butter melt on it..hmm..

Funny that I'm quite picky with bread and noodle whilst Moco's favorite normally consist bread and noodle lol

Our entree..

pan seared scallops with bourdin noir broad bean puree and walnut vinaigrette

beetroot cured duck breast with chevre liver parfait, brioche and dill vinaigrette

Well I was actually struggling to eat the duck breast. I can't even eat a raw king fish, let alone to chew a raw duck, what was I thinking? I think the word brioche has distracted me, I love good French brioche. But sadly I can't see any brioche on the plate but anyway at least I tried something new so next time I know NOT to order it again. I think I ended up stealing Moco's scallop entree ;)

Love my main though, poached free range chicken with confit leg sweet corn pudding and smoked prawn butter..hmm..


Moco's main pan roasted barramundi with smoked ham hock spring onion, peas and baby cos lettuce



Dessert to be shared..

menage a trois des chocolats sauce anglaise

Bottom line, Merci Moco..you're the best xx

Choco Cannelle Patisserie Fine

Wohoo nothing can make me happier than waking up on a beautiful sunny Saturday and knowing I will get a yummy breakfast.

Ok, to be honest I don't know if it's gonna be yummy or not but I have faith.

I've been wanting to visit this patisserie since I read this review. Even though not many people have reviewed it, all of the positive comments sound so sincere and definitely poked my curiosity. Shame that their opening hours are not too convenient for me, they close on Sundays and are only open until 12 on Saturdays? And nvm that they only open until 2pm on weekdays.

So I said to Moco, we have to dedicate one of our Saturday mornings to go there!!

Finally the day had come..got there by 9.30am and greeted by a friendly French ;)

With my hungry eyes I just went loco with the pastries, we had a hard time deciding so we got more than I think we should.


The price was not as cheap as what I expected for a suburban patisserie but hell it's darn good. The croissant was crunchy at the end and soft at the middle. The fresh brioche just melted in your mouth. The tiny tart was too tiny to be shared, it was amazing.





The coffee was nothing to brag about, but we will definitely come back for the croissant and brioche!! Ah the brioche..don't know why it's so hard to find a good brioche like that. Or actually I found it hard to find brioche period.

There were not many seats available so we just had take away and brought our treasures to a closest park - Happy Saturday indeed :)

Le'toile

Okay now I'll try my new method to just post whatever recent events that I went to and deal with the older posts when I got a chance :)

Look where Moco took me for my birthday! hehe wasn't actually a surprise since I requested to go there =p

I saw Manu on the street a couple of weeks back and I regretted I didn't ask him for a photo so I was half hoping by going to his restaurant I could have a photo with him, no?

Soon I got there I peaked my head straight to the kitchen - he wasn't there but there's no harm of trying! Soon as we sat down I overheard the lady on the table behind us was quite disappointed she couldn't see Manu that day - oh lady you're not alone!

I've checked the menu before we went there so I pretty much knew what I wanted to order (it doesn't happen too often - per say..)

Moco and I decided to get the 2 courses lunch with me having an entree and a main and Moco chose to get a main and a dessert.

Moco was quite surprised when I ordered the Mackerel as my entree, since I can't stand mackerel fishy smell however when I asked the (sweet Franchie) waiter, he assured it won't be fishy but it'd be salty. It doesn't mean much to me since I don't like salty food either, but hey I still wanted to order it. And glad that I did!

Look how fantastic my entree looked and what a generous serving for an entree too!

As the main, I went for the Kingfish and Moco was very much eager to try his butcher's steak, and soon you can see why..

Yummy giant king fish and the buttery mash beans on the bottom!

What a perfect colour of the steak!

Moco's dessert - the Creme Brulee, I'm not a fan of creme brulee but according to Moco it was superbb!!

The generous portions still amazed me, sometimes French restaurant invested more in their decor and I ended up with two pieces of tiny meats I could barely see. I demand quality and quantity yeah!

Bottom line I enjoyed it very much, it's a wonderful lunch with a perfect companion. Didn't get to see Manu but I think we're lucky to get such beautiful weather on the last day of summer, enjoying the cozy spot at the back courtyard and relaxing French music at the background. Merci Moco! xx

La Renaissance Café Patisserie

This might sounds cliche, but it is one of my favourites cafes in Sydney. It's French and it's located at The Rocks - all tourist boxes ticked.

I always believed the best cafe is the hidden one in a laneway, far from the main street and only advertised word of mouths. But this cafe stole my heart from my first visit and again despite of the touristy location (fyi touristy location = rocketing prices), it just kept on calling my name to come back there.

I have tried various cakes from there and I gotta say they all pretty darn good. Their macarons are quite a big hit too, some of my friends even claimed it better than Zumbo's macarons! I would actually don't have much comment for it, as myself not a big fan of macarons (most of the times I found it too sweet). I mean of course I'd be happy to snatch one but if I had to choose one pastry, I won't hesitate to order the Passion de Pierre - A light creamy passionfruit mousse, with a layer of raspberry jelly, encased in joconde and decorated with fresh seasonal fruit.

For a pretty small cake the price is a bit at the high end, for each visit Moco and I would spend at least $20 - that's two coffees and two cakes. Of course you can cut your budget and just order a take away, but it'd also take away the imagination of having patisserie in a Paris bistro. Imagination certainly does cost money these days.

For that beautiful Saturday arvo, Moco chose to have the Chocolate Eclair - Traditional choux pastry filled with chocolate pastry cream and topped with chocolate fondant.




Oh so many beautiful pastries, so little time.