Cafe Nho, Bankstown

Remember those mini tubs of creme caramel your Mum would buy you from the supermarket fridges? The ones with the plastic tabs you’d have to break off the bottom so the custard would slide out? You’ll get a flashback to childhood with the Vietnamese version, banh flan. It’s all about that sensation of slowly savouring chilled custard - sitting in a lake of caramel sauce of course - made even colder with a blizzard of chipped ice scattered across the top. Take that, tropical humidity.


Vietnamese creme caramel $6.90

At Cafe Nho, they kick things up a notch by adding a crown of red rubies. They’re those addictive nubbins of water chestnut jellies tinted red so they look like giant pomegranate seeds. Or rubies. Put it all together and you’ve got a multi-textured dessert of silky custard, bitter caramel and the refreshing crunch of water chestnuts encased in chewy tapioca jelly.

You’ll find a constant crowd of families, teens and couples at this Bankstown cafe, spilling across the footpath out the front or hidden in the booths at the back. Everyone has a drink or dessert in front of them. The constant whir of blenders doesn’t faze anyone.


Watermelon, lychee and strawberry frappe $6

Here you can design your own fruit juice, smoothie or frappe from a rainbow of tropical choices. We’re talking dragon fruit, soursop, jackfruit and, you guessed it, durian. And even though you keep forgetting that avocado is a fruit, the folks here haven’t. If you can’t make up your mind, pick a preset combo from the menu, like mango, coconut and whipped cream or watermelon, lychee and strawberry.


Pomelo rind, white seaweed and beans $6.90


Smashed durian $10

Otherwise the dessert menu revolves mostly around shaved iced concoctions. The shaved ice with candied pomelo rind and snow fungus will cool you right down, or get that ice blitzed up with smashed durian. They’re not stingy with the durian either. The crowd favourite is probably the homemade jelly combination, a parfait glass filled with grass jelly, basil seeds, red rubies, shaved ice and coconut milk.


Cafe sua da iced white coffee $4

Looking for a turbo-charged pick-me-up? Get the Vietnamese coffee. It’s super strong and just as sweet. Most locals have it with condensed milk and poured over ice but you can pull out all the stops and get it blended with Oreos, Tim Tams, Bounty or Snickers.






Cafe Nho
64 Bankstown City Plaza, Bankstown Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9709 6820

Opening hours
Daily 7am-6pm

This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.

Merchants of Ultimo, Broadway Shopping Centre

It's like a food court, but with table service. The Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre is like a mini food court, complete with salad bar, pizzeria, rotisserie, cafe and patisserie. What most passersby don't realise is that eat in diners don't have to line up at each stall to place their order. Roving waitstaff offer complete table service, offering a clipboard menu of all offerings and a single bill at the end.


Seating inside the Merchants of Ultimo

Seating fills up quickly during peak hour. It's a cleverly designed space with plenty of timber beams, hanging greenery and tempting visuals, like legs of lamb slowly spinning on the rotisserie and pastry chefs icing bespoke cakes at the counter.


Salad station at The Gardens

The Gardens has to have one of the prettiest displays of salad vegetables around, much more enticing than the usual stainless steel sandwich bar set-up.


Salad ingredients

This station isn't all vegetarian. They also churn out wagyu cheese burgers, buttermilk chicken burgers and salads mixed with woodfired chicken, rotisserie lamb and miso glazed salmon.


Valoriani Forni wood fired oven

And on a cold day, you'll relish the heat from the Valoriani Forni wood fired oven, tucked away in the corner.


Rotisserie lamb salad $17

We tried a number of dishes over a series of visits. The rotisserie lamb salad was a winner with tender shredded lamb piled high with salad greens, cherry tomatoes, quinoa, roasted corn kernels, giant golden raisins and squeaky slices of grilled haloumi. The coriander and yoghurt dressing helped everything come together.


Roast pork with woodfire corn and house slaw from Henry's Block $16

The roast pork doesn't arrive with as much crackling as we would've liked, but the Henry's Box concept is a cute idea, allowing you to pick your protein and two sides. The woodfire corn is sweet and juicy, drenched in lemon butter and covered in shaved parmesan. The house slaw of shredded celeriac, kohlrabi and fennel is refreshingly crisp.


Sweet potato fries $5

And then there are the sweet potato fries. In a city plagued with soggy imposters, these are every bit as noisily crunchy as the ones in your wildest dreams. You'll be fighting over the last one.


Digging into lunch


Making pizzas at Pizza Mario

If there's one stall that shines, though, it's Pizza Mario, run by the same folks behind Da Mario.


Potato pizza and margherita pizza ready for the oven

In the open kitchen you can watch them prepping the pizza dough, layering on the ingredients and then transferring them into the woodfired oven using a peel.


Sliding pizzas into the oven


Diavola pizza $16

There are a dozen pizzas to choose from, including a ham, mushroom and ricotta calzone and a nutella calzone for dessert. The diavola pizza packs some devilish heat with spicy salami and chilli.


Buffalo margherita pizza $16

Traditionalists will go with the classic margherita for $13 or upgrade to the buffalo margherita for $16, strewn with buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes.


Pizza upskirt shot

But the magic is all in the pizza crust, super thin and almost floppy in the middle with a puffy blistered crust that has just the right amount of woodfired char.


Buttermilk chicken burger $18

The buttermilk chicken burger is a satisfying number too, a juicy fillet shielded by a crunch of knobby batter. The milk bun is soft but still still sturdy enough to hold the chicken, salad, sriracha and pudding of molten smoked mozzarella cheese.


Seating in front of Nero's Brew coffee station

Coffees are served via Nero's Brew using Single Origin beans.


Desserts from Leave it to B

And it's hard to pass up the sweet treats from Leave it to B by ex-Rockpool pastry apprentice Brendan Dewar who went on to open Brendan Dewar Patisserie in St Ives.


Berry tart $8.50

The L-shaped glass cabinet runs from gateaux to croissants. 


Cheesecake slice


Citrus pillow $8.50

We've had the millefeuille and a tropical fruit dome takeaway, but the only dessert we've had eat-in was the citrus pillow, a fancy lemon meringue tart with shards of isomalt toffee. The lemon curd is bracingly sharp, just what you want against the sweet blowtorched rosettes of meringue.






Merchants of Ultimo
Level one, Broadway Shopping Centre
1 Bay Street, Broadway, Ultimo, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9346 8775

Opening hours
Daily 6am-9pm


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Miam Patisserie, Pyrmont

Miam? It means yum in French, uttered by many who venture into this cute and cosy bakery in inner city Pyrmont. Owner and head pastry chef, Meylissa Yusuf, threw in an accounting career for one with a sweeter bottom line, training at Le Cordon Bleu before working at Adriano Zumbo in Rozelle and then Cheeky Chocolate in North Strathfield. Miam is her first solo venture.


Counter seating

The cafe's clean lines, white tiles and warm timbers contrasted with black steel have been designed by Guru Projects, the same folk behind Nel. Restaurant, Harry's Bondi and several Toby's Estate outlets including Sydney Airport and Barangaroo. Industrial stools line a narrow timber counter against the window inside. Outside you'll find a handful of tables, each set with a mini vase of blooms.


Five spiced slow cooked pork $8

The menu is short and sweet - it's so so concise they don't even have menus to hand out. The daily changing menu is chalked up on a mini blackboard. On the day we visit, it's a selection that includes a ham pocket pie, onion and sage sausage roll, bacon, leek and thyme quiche, cheesy Vegemite quiche and a handful of sandwiches.

We're immediately drawn to the five spiced slow cooked pork sandwich. The mention of crackling is the clincher.


Five spiced slow cooked pork with pickled vegetables and crackling

The pork is soft, tender and fragrantly spiced, made even better by the occasional encounter with a smithereen of crackling. Each shard of crackling is ridiculously crunchy. It's a toe-curling moment each time you hit the jackpot. The richness of the sandwich is tempered by ribbons of pickled carrot and daikon, crispy and sweet.


Bacon and egg roll $6.50

The bacon and egg roll is fast becoming a Miam signature dish. Described as Indo-style, there are unmistakable parallels with Indomie Mee Goreng, the two minute noodle classic that's a mainstay of any uni student's diet. A crusty baguette is piled with sweet soy-glazed bacon, crispy fried shallots, a runny fried egg and squiggles of mayonnaise. Sriracha is optional but definitely recommended.


Runny fried egg with sweet-soy glazed bacon, mayonnaise and deep fried shallots

It's sweet and salty comfort food with a blanket of rich egg yolk and a satisfying hit of umami. The crusty baguette is strong enough to soak up all that gooey egg yolk too.


Pain au chocolat $4.50

The display counter includes a raft of options to include with your post-lunch coffee.


Strong flat white coffee

Hot drinks include a complimentary mini cookie, so delicious that you'll be relieved to know you can buy full sized versions of these. This one is richly chocolatey.


Pear caramelo $9
Caramel mousse, pear jelly, ginger cake and almond crunchy base

We missed out on the last matcha concord cake by thirty seconds (swiped by the customer in front of us) but we're just as pleased with our next choice, the pear caramelo.


Caramel mousse, pear jelly, ginger cake and almond crunchy base

It's an elaborate construction that belies its $9 price tag. Inside the glossy dome we find stratified planes of caramel mousse, pear jelly, ginger cake and a crunchy base made with toasted flaked almonds. Brittle flakes of feuilletine around the external edges provide caramelised crunch.


Salted caramel apple pie $4.50

The salted caramel apple pie is equal parts comfort food and sophistication, a pocket of flaky pastry filled with hunks of apple.


Inside the salted caramel apple pie

I don't get a lot of salted caramel flavour in this but the sugar crystals on top are sweet enough. The apples are cooked well too, soft and yielding without tipping to the point of soggy mushiness.


Black sesame cookie $4

And to take home? A black sesame cookie for afternoon tea. Next time I'm definitely getting the XL chocolate chip cookie. Each one is a lesson in baking patience, with the batter matured for a couple of days before baking. Miam.






Miam Patisserie
Shop 140, 313 Harris Street, Pyrmont, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8018 6693

Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday 7am-4pm
Saturday and Sunday 8am-4pm


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Ciccone & Sons Gelateria, Redfern

These hot summer days are made for gelato. Gone are the days when you'd cool down with a Zooper Dooper or a Sunny Boy. Today's kids - both big and small - are more likely to be clamouring for the cold satisfaction of freshly churned gelato. Unless you've been completely off Instagram, Ciccone & Sons must have registered on your radar. After opening up shop in the depths of winter, they've become Sydney's most popular kid on the block as we hit heatwave season.


Whimsical decor inside Ciccone & Sons

The small and unassuming shopfront sits among a neighbourhood of 2nd-hand shops and neighbourhood fruit shops and bakeries on Redfern's Regent Street. Floor-to-ceiling glass folding doors offer a peek inside for passing drivers. The decor is a charming mix of memorabilia, including vintage posters, an old-fashioned cash register, bunting and an intriguing pair of boys lederhosen. Two long benches provide a communal rest stop for gelato customers, but the majority of people seem happy to takeaway with cones and cups in hand.


The handwritten gelato and sorbetto menu changes daily

The menu changes daily, always handwritten on the clipboard outside - and on a giant scroll of brown butchers paper by the register - and always includes at least one sorbetto.


Mark Megahey, co-owner of Ciccone & Sons

Chances are you'll find co-owner, Mark Megahey, inside the shop, a veteran gelato maker who racked up 15 years at Bar Italia in Leichhardt before opening his own business with business partner Sean O’Brien.


Croccantino gelato with toffee and almonds

What sets apart Ciccone & Sons from so many other gelato makers is their use of jersey milk for a creamier texture. They also make all of their flavourings inhouse, avoiding the use of any pre-made bases or pastes. The small batch gelato run - made using two old-fashioned Carpigiani churners - means flavours are often exhausted before the day is out.


Creme brulee gelato

That means the chest freezer of gelato changes daily with occasional wackier flavour combos including pear and riesling; lavender and white chocolate; cucumber and rosemary; and lemon and maple. Seasonal specials so far have included whisky brulee for Fathers Day, pumpkin and burnt butter for Halloween; and burnt butter and gingerbread for Christmas. If you can't decide, they'll happily provide tastings to help you choose - although most of the time, this tends to only complicate, rather than simplify matters!


Mascarpone & strawberry and buttermilk & passionfruit gelato $6.50 for 2 scoops

Pepe Saya products are the secret behind the rich and buttery flavour of the mascarpone and strawberry gelato, as well as the buttermilk and passionfruit gelato. The buttermilk is one of my current favourites, its slightly yoghurty tang providing supreme refreshment on a hot summer's day.


Mascarpone & strawberry gelato

And you can taste the milky richness from the Pepe Say mascarpone too. The strawberry puree folded through it has a clean berry taste that isn't too sweet or too sour.


Coffee and croccantino $6.50 for two scoops

The coffee gelato is an instant flashback for anyone who ordered the coffee gelato at Bar Italia. It's intensely caffeinated, with a gusty bitterness. Add this to an iced coffee and you are set.

The croccantino is ideal for toffee and nut fans, a rubble of hazelnut and almond praline adding textural crunch.


Mascarpone & strawberry gelato $4 for one scoop

Have we talked about price yet? $4 feels like a steal for a single scoop of jersey milk gelato, especially when the single cup is ridiculously piled up high. Two scoops will cost you $6.50. They also offer take home tubs for at-home dining pleasure.


Coffee gelato and salted cashew gelato $6.50 for two scoops

Salted cashew gelato is an addictive combination of salty and sweet, against a buttery background of cashew nuts.


Creme brulee gelato and buttermilk & passionfruit gelato $6.50 for two scoops

And the creme brulee gelato is pretty spectacular, glistening shards of golden toffee interspersed among the dulce de leche base.


Buttermilk & passionfruit gelato and gianduja gelato $6.50 for two scoops

And Nutella fans will dig the gianduja gelato, a smooth mix of chocolate and hazelnut.


Mango sorbet $4 for one scoop cone

For a fruitier or dairy-free hit, the mango sorbet screams a classic Aussie summer.


Watermelon and lime sorbet $4 for one scoop cone

And on one of several visits, I found satisfying refreshment in the watermelon and lime sorbet, spiked with a chilli hit that let the tongue with a confused tingling of both spice and coldness.


Fridge with Pepe Saya buttermilk, mascarpone, creme fraiche and butter and Sungold jersey milk

The fridge doubles as a handy pit-stop for stocking up on Sungold jersey milk or a comprehensive range of Pepe Saya products, especially his butter and proper buttermilk.


Friends who eat gelato together, stay together

And as the mercury climbs higher in the coming weeks, I expect to find myself stopping by with increasing frequency. I couldn't be happier at the thought.






Ciccone & Sons Gelateria
195 Regent Street, Redfern, Sydney

Opening hours:
Wednesday to Saturday 11am-9pm
Sunday 11am-6pm

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