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 :)

Deus

I remember we had brunch at Deus on 14th February, not because of Valentine's day but because it was Chinese New Year and we needed to go to Moco's parents for dinner so we decided to have only one meal before the dinner.

We got there about 11ish I think, and the queue was already long. I couldn't say the place was small, cause it wasn't that small. So it's just really full because there were lots of people, it's quite interesting since I didn't find the cafe's location is convenient where people can just walk pass through and what's more interesting the cafe is also selling bikes and bikes related items!



We had to wait quite a while for our food but thankfully we didn't have to wait too long for our coffees. Being me, I actually moved a couple of times until I was satisfied to find a small cozy spot at the corner. Yeah it's busy but I refused to sit in front of the loo or being squeezed to fit into the long communal table =p



Moco's brunch was not my cup of tea, in fact the prosciutto freaked me out a little bit ( I don't know, I'm just not a fan of cold meat) but the poached egg on the top of the asparagus was absolutely great.



I ordered the sausage and beans which apparently one of the popular dishes there. But I think my highlight was the fresh spinach leaf on the top of my sausage, it really balanced the taste of good and evil in my mouth ;0



I think it's a cozy place to catch up with friends but if you just wanted to have a quick bite, it's not recommended to go there on weekends brunch :)

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.

Sloanes Cafe

I find it hard to catch up with my friends these days, so I was thrilled when I heard that my bridesmaid chucked a sickie, I booked her for a brunch right away!

She hesitated at first, risking getting caught but I managed to lure her to go out with the potato wedges from Battuta that she likes but after a long walk around Paddo we just couldn't be bothered to walk back to TS.

Desperately looking for food we went to the second cafe that we saw (we were desperate but we still liked to see our options).

I picked this cafe since I've had the coffee there and it's quite nice but I've never tried their lunch menu. I'm not a big fan of sandwiches I find them very ordinary and boring (unless it's a special sandwich with grilled Turkish or sourdough bread with a special filling sealed with melted cheese of course) and unfortunately most cafes only serve sandwiches during lunch time. But on the menu the word pineapple caught my eyes and I decided to give this so called Hawaiian sandwich a go.

Sadly as predicted my sandwich was so ordinary..

In terms of presentation I think my friend's lunch looked more appealing but they went overboard with the melted cheese so really all I could taste was just the cheese.

I really liked the place with its cozy backyard seats but I think next time I will just stick with their coffees and cakes :)

Giulia

Moco took me for a brunch the next day after the hens night. He's been to this cafe before and he thought I might like it too. From outside it certainly looked promising, from inside it also seemed to have all the factors that I like for a cafe. Cozy venue, extensive menu, and friendly waitress. What else can I ask for? Let me think. Hm..I'd like my meal to be fully cooked please.

How disappointing. My meal looked so great but when I cut through the sausage it looked so raw! And I am not a fan of raw food period.

At least the poached eggs were nice.

The friendly waitress took it back to kitchen to be re-cooked. It looked better when it came back but still when I cut it, the meat was so red! As I said the waitress was friendly, but I didn't say anything about the cook did I? Well that's because the chef was a snob. He obviously was not happy when I told the waitress the sausage still looked uncooked. He even came to our table and was a bit defensive of his cooking. I didn't want to make any drama so I waited for Moco to finish his meal and I just left the sausages.

Moco's haloumi omelet

Such a waste to leave the sausages untouched, but what can I do? I paid the meal and I believe I deserved to request the meal the way I wanted it. Cooked.

I know it might be just one of those days when it's too hectic and you just can't control your day, if only the cook was more humble and more understanding. But obviously that was not the case. Shame, but I shall hold back the temptation to go back there. As much as I wanted to go back there and try the other menu. Surely there will be plenty more cafes who offered cooked meals.

Cottage Point Kiosk and Limani Seafood

Despite of the heavy rain we still went for a road trip. Well I actually thought the rain stopped at some point in the trip, but you know normally the more you think it will then it won't. So as you might have guessed the rain actually stopped when we got back home. Umm..anyway enough about me being a bitter anchorwoman.

I lurve road trip. Main reason is probably somehow I feel less guilty to non stop snacking in the car? And I also love the fuss going to grocery shop and prepare all the junk, I was even willing to ride the bike to get some more food. Anything for some lovin..

The day started early-ish, just early enough to get breakfast at Maccas. We actually made two trips to Maccas since after picking up my friends, they also wanted some Maccas..

We didn't actually go too far, seemed that we only drove to have an excuse having some fatty food. It only took us less than two hours to reach our first destination. Without wasting time at our first stop (if you didn't count Maccas as the first stop..) we went straight to the cafe which probably the only kiosk/cafe at Cottage Point. The price was not cheap but I guess it's the benefit of being the only shop surrounded by water.

Once we saw what's on display, it only took us two seconds to know what we wanted to order. Six of us decided to order the same thing, the luscious looking scones..

Warm home made scones with fresh cream and jam

three sets of identical orders (well with various types of coffee and teas of course)

If only the weather was better we'd be able to sit on the deck and enjoying the view, instead we had to sit inside and facing the walls..
But I guess it only made my soy latte tasted even better :)

Anyway up we go...between the next lunch destination we grabbed some snacks to be exhibited..

one of my friends half buried with our treasures..

It's quite tough to find a lunch spot during holiday, the rain optioned out to have a picnic too. We ended up crashing at this restaurant ( which my friend found using the iPhone apps). The restaurant looked a bit too fancy at first but considering the special deal they had, I guess it wasn't too bad. ($27 for one main and a dessert!)

I quite like the design of the restaurant, it reminds me of the Boat House at the Black Wattle Bay. With the 1950s music on air and the hanging lights at the corner, it brings out a relax and romantic atmosphere. The venue is certainly perfect for a wedding reception ;p

Moco's fish and chips

To be honest there's nothing special with this dish, the fish was actually a bit tough for Moco (and for another friend who ordered the same).

My Roast Pork Belly

This is the entree size and actually more Moco's request since I personally wouldn't order a pork belly. I was still full from all the snacks I had for the past hours so I didn't really mind..yes yes I know it's unhealthy but I could just eat chips and snacking around and skip the entire lunch and dinner ;(

Pan Fried Veal with Beans and Mashed Potatoes

According to my friend the veal was again too tough, the meat was overly cooked I supposed. But as in the picture, they're quite generous for the portion..

Barramundi with butternut pumpkin and sauce

I personally think this is the winner dish for the day. The pumpkin was naturally sweet and the barramundi was so soft and tasty. However my other friend who also ordered the same dish thought his dish was too salty (we suspected the chef might put a lil too much salt in his plate..)

Now moving to desserts time..

Toblerone Pate with caramel sauce and peanut coated ice creams

It's Moco's lucky day, I don't eat caramel or anything that's too sweet so basically for this dessert I only ate the ice creams and tried as much as I can to avoid the sauce. Again, there's nothing special with the toblerone pate..

Strawberry Panacotta with chocolate ice creams served in biscotti

Great dessert. The Panacotta was so smooth and not too sweet. Definitely the winner dessert for me!

The Citrus cake with lemon sauce and fresh cream

This one wasn't bad either. The tangy-ness was just right (hence it didn't leave a bitter after taste in the mouth like my last lemon cake!)

The aftermath..

The trip concluded with our lil visit to Ben and Jerry's new outlet at Manly!
I know you wouldn't think we could stuff another dessert in just less of an hour gap eh? Well you just never know if you never try..

Quite a line..

Yummo!

Gosh my sugar intake that day certainly went up!
Can't wait for the next road trip though. We're actually going again on New Year's day, but this time we're going with Moco's family. So I'm not sure in what degree they'll let me snacking all day ;)

Ampersand

I can't praise this place enough. From 1-10 rate, I'd give it an eleven. That's how much I love this place. Maybe the caffeine boost I had just kicked in and interfere my judgement, but who cares.

On one side I'd like to keep this place for myself, but on the other side, I'm dying to tell the world how great this place is. Well I finally decided to spread the joy today (since they're now frequently reviewed by media and won the small business awards, it's quite hard to keep it as your small secret place anymore lol)

So what I like about it? I think I like..the beautiful corner at the window where I normally seat on the weekend, the long table in the middle where I'm currently seating to work my ass off for the past couple of months (or that's what I suppose to do now but instead I write this hehe), the friendly and helpful staff/owner that might regret to let me stay in to use the internet for.ever, the amazing ice coffee, the great range of books, the cool toilet, the mysterious basement, the awesome selections of music, and seriously I just love this place from the very bottom of my heart, I don't know how many hours, minutes, seconds that I've spent in this cafe.

I feel so lucky for the fact I just live across the street from this place and able to visit this place at least once a week :)

Here's my second round of ice coffee today (with ice creams) and the bowl of the sinful chips.

can't resist to dip one of the chips into the tomato sauce before taking the photo..oops ;)

Where I'm able to have books, ice creams and chips in one place, that's definitely one of my happy places on earth!
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