Bush, Redfern

Kangaroo curry puffs, all day pikelets and Sydney's best cheeseburger? Bush by chef owner Grant Lawn in Sydney's Redfern has established a strong following since it opened just over a year ago. And in today's tough new Covid world, it's still drawing in (socially-distanced) fans.  

Cheeseburger $15 with chips $6

The Bush cheeseburger is legendary and with one bite you'll know why. The bun is soft but not too doughy nor sweet. The blanket of bright yellow cheese oozes seductively. There's a good hit of tang from the thick sliced pickles and a generous splodge of burger sauce. But it's the beef patty that brings it all together, a reassuringly unevenly shaped patty that's charred and caramelised in all the right places. It hits all the right notes of an American cheeseburger executed oh so very well. 

Is this Sydney's best cheeseburger? It's definitely a front runner. Make sure you get chips too. Here they're old-fashioned crinkle cut chips, fried to a golden ridged crunch.

Nan's sausage roll $7

We're thwarted by last night's diners who ate the last of the kangaroo curry puffs (noooo.... shakes fist) but console ourselves with Nan's sausage roll. What the sausage roll lacks in length, it makes up for in girth, a hefty slice served with tomato sauce on the side.

This is a classic sausage roll made with beef mince, soft and juicy in the middle, encased in flaky pastry. 

Dirty vegetables $14

Dirty vegetables will balance all the fried food, right? Crisp iceberg lettuce and crunchy fresh cucumber slices are dressed with vinaigrette and pistachio smithereens, an assembly that tastes much cleaner that its namesake would suggest. 

Courtyard seating

We're seated inside but there's a cosy looking courtyard out the back too. An Australian bush theme extends throughout, from the Aussie fauna plush toys dotting the dining room to the beautifully raw timber tables, tree stump stools and native floral arrangements. 

 

Pikelets with assorted toppings $14

Fairy bread and butter pudding is one of their signature desserts but we skip this in favour of their all day breakfast pikelets served with a choose-your-own adventure assortment of toppings. 

Pouring salted caramel sauce onto pikelets

The salted caramel sauce is particularly good, its salty sweetness tempered by a caramel pushed to a satisfyingly bitter edge.

Pikelets with toppings

Classic honey with butter is great but the wattle seed cream is even better, topped with a rubble of crushed pistachios. 

Native Australian ingredients pop up throughout the entire menu, including wattle seed damper (sold out when we dined) and desserts that that use lemon myrtle and strawberry gum.

Bush

55 George Street, Redfern, Sydney

Tel: 0403 780 067

Open Tuesday to Saturday

Breakfast 7am-3pm

Lunch 12pm-3pm

Dinner 5pm-10pm

Takeaway is available. Call 0403 780 067 

Gardener's Lodge vegan cafe, Camperdown, Sydney

You can't even tell it's vegan. Seriously. There's been a lot of hype about the lasagna at vegan cafe Gardeners Lodge. Believe the hype. It's every bit as cheesy and meaty as any Nonna would make. But vegan.



You'll find Gardeners Lodge in the quaint sandstone building that sits on the edge of Victoria Park. You know. The huge park opposite Broadway Shopping Centre. On a sunny day, it's a glorious spot to soak up some Vitamin D and admire the tranquility of Lake Northam.



Otherwise you can take a seat inside the building, a mix of small tables and communal seating with a close-up view of the dessert shelf lined with treats.


Zucchini fritters $16

The menu offers a mix of cafe staples with Italian favourites. You'll find zucchini fritters on the all-day breakfast menu, alongside avocado bruschetta, cheese and (plant-based) ham toasties, and an acai smoothie bowl.

The fritters are generous with zucchini but perhaps not as crisp as expected. There's plenty of health-reviving zing on the plate though, with dairy-free feta, peppery rock leaves, fresh lemon and a good splodge of avocado to smear on sourdough toast.


Lasagne $18

The lunch menu kicks off at 11.30am. Ordering the lasagne is pretty much mandatory. You're score a magnificent slab of oozing lasagne that could almost pass as a meat version. It's satisfyingly savoury (hello umami), amped up with mushrooms, lashings of bechamel sauce and enough dairy-free cheese to make you want to kept digging that fork in for more.

It'll be no surprise to learn that there's some serious pedigree behind the lasagne. The recipe is by Marco Matino, the chef behind Gigi's in Newtown, the pizzeria that switched to an all-vegan menu in 2015 and hasn't looked back. Marco is the brother of Jessica Matino Ndibe, the co-owner of Gardener's Lodge.


Caesar salad $14
with plant-based schnitzel $5

On the salad menu, the most substantial offering would be the Caesar with added plant-based schnitzel, over the mixed salad and the pumpkin salad. We're not quite sure what's in the smoky rashers nor the schnitzel but they're eerily uncanny in similarity of appearance and texture to bacon and chicken. There's a great crunch and toothsomeness to the schnitzel, although we probably could have done with half as many croutons.


Mushroom panini $17

There are sandwiches too. Panini are made using Brickfields ciabatta. The mushroom one is worth trying, if not just for the dairy-free blue cheese playing off against pan-seared oyster mushrooms and the slight bitterness of crisp radicchio leaves.

Not convinced? Try the melanzane grilled eggplant, plant-based schnitzel or tomato and olive bruschetta.








Gardener's Lodge 
Victoria Park
Corner of Parramatta Ros and City Road, Camperdown
Tel: +61 (0)425 334 023

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 8.30am-3pm
Saturday and Sunday 9am-3pm


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All-you-can-eat seafood buffet at Talay's Thai Seafood Restaurant, Duo Central Park, Sydney

All you can eat seafood including scampi sashimi? DREAMS CAN COME TRUE. Wear loose pants and get yourselves to Talay's Thai Restaurant, now open at the new Duo Central Park development on Broadway. Just $69 will net you as much seafood as you can eat in two hours, as well as unlimited Thai milk tea. Yeah boi. Want to know what's included? Read on...


All you can eat prawns, Balmain bugs and oysters

The all you can eat seafood buffet only runs at dinner, and includes a self-serve section plus dishes you can order via tablet. That means you can hook into prawns, Balmain bugs and oysters while you wait.

NB I've included the prices for a la carte for some dishes. The prices in brackets are what you'd pay if you ordered each dish individually off the menu. If you order and pay for the buffet, everything mentioned in this post is included.


All you can drink Thai milk tea, bael fruit tea and Thai iced milk green tea

And sure, plain water is provided, but you can also go nuts with all you can drink Thai milk tea, bael fruit tea and Thai iced milk green tea. As always, these tend to be on the sweet side, so I'd suggest you fill up your glass with ice to provide some much need chilled dilution. The choice - and tooth enamel - is yours!


Tom yum soup with prawns

Help yourself to tom yum soup, definitely on the fiery side but a touch too sweet for our Thai ex-pat, the G-Man. It is filled with plenty of prawns though.


Pipi clams with fresh chilli and garlic (a la carte $13.90)

They also have pipi clams with fresh garlic and chilli in the bain marie...


Crab fried rice 

plus plain and crab fried rice.


Scampi sashimi (a la carte $6.90 per piece)

But don't fill up on the carbs because food orders tend to fly in thick and fast. Our scampi sashimi arrives on a massive wooden board, peeled for easy eating. The flesh is firm and deliciously sweet. I'm still amazed this is part of the buffet considering it retails for $90 per kilo at the Sydney Fish Market.

The tablet only permits us to order two raw scampi per diner (we're a group of four tonight) but when we ask if there is a limit, our waiter somehow sends through another order to the kitchen. I'd understand if there's a quota per diner, but it won't hurt to try your luck if you do hit a maximum order on the tablet.


Parboiled cockles (a la carte $14.90)

For most of us, eating parboiled cockles is a first. There's a stronger and chewier taste here, like a mussel crossed with a pipi, but it's a reminiscent flashback to childhood for the G-Man. Make sure you help yourself to a bowl of Thai seafood sauce for dipping too. You'll want to dip everything in this spicy, sour and garlicky dressing.


Raw salmon roll with Thai mint spicy sauce (a la carte $17.90)

The raw page on the tablet menu includes salmon sashimi (tasty) plus raw salmon rolls, doused in a vinaigrette pepped up with chilli, garlic and mint. Due to messy hands eating crab, I managed to take photos of most, but but not all, of the food we ate.


Raw peeled prawns in hot sauce (a la carte $16.90)

If you love raw scampi, you'll probably also love raw prawns. Crust crustaceans have an incredibly lush sweetness that is lost upon cooking.


Prawns and squid on the grill

Grilled prawns and squid are cooked to order. The grilled squid (sorry, no photo) was so awesome we finished the lot and then ordered another. The squid is tender with a slight char to the edges, especially on the tentacles.


Prawn cutlet with tamarind (a la carte $21.90)

What the menu describes as prawn cutlets turn out to be semi-peeled prawns. We tried the prawns with garlic as well as tamarind. They're equally tasty, with firm and sweet flesh.


Thai style steamed blue swimmer crab (a la carte $22.90)

We feast on steamed blue swimmer crab, served Thai-style in that it comes with a side of Thai seafood sauce. Ask for crab/nut crackers if you don't find any on your table.


Making fresh som tum green papaya salad  in the kitchen

And it's not a Thai meal unless there's som tum, or papaya salad involved. Mercifully the som tum is pounded fresh to order in the kitchen, ensuring the papaya is well macerated in that tangy fish sauce dressing.


Green papaya salad with fermented crab (a la carte $11.90)

You can order the papaya salad Thai-style or Lao-style. The latter includes fermented crab that creates a darker fishier dressing. We tried both, although the fermented crab version always gets bonus flavour points from me.


Spicy pickled crab salad (a la carte $16.90)

Highlight dish is this spicy pickled crab salad. That means raw blue swimmer crab with som tum papaya salad and pickled crab. As I've waxed lyrical before, raw crab is unbeatable. If you're worried about the crab not being fresh, as with all raw food, you should immediately know by smell, touch and taste.

The raw crab is firm but sweet. And it pairs so well with the spicy som tum papaya salad.


Crispy fried soft shell crab with garlic (a la carte $21.90)

If you're craving fried seafood, they have that too. We gorge ourselves on the fried soft shell crab with garlic, a crunchy tangle of batter and crab. We also munch our way through serves of the deep fried crispy salt and pepper squid (a la carte $14.90) as well as deep fried squid with garlic (a la carte $14.90). The latter is particularly good, with a knobbly crunchy batter.


Deep fried whole barramundi with garlic (a la carte $24.90)

Still hungry. You can order whole barramundi steamed, grilled or fried. Nobody's going home hungry.


Sticky rice with fresh mango and ice cream

Dessert isn't listed on the tablet menu but it is promoted on each table. We definitely have room for sticky rice with fresh mango and ice cream, served in a martini glass. There's a distinct saltiness to the sticky rice and coconut, saltier than what you'd expect in a dessert, but it works brilliantly against the sweetness of the mango and the cold scoop of ice cream.



Bookings are recommended for the all you can eat Thai seafood buffet, currently available for dinner at $69 per person (as at November 2018).






Talay's Thai Seafood Restaurant
Duo Central Park
Shop 5, Ground Floor, 38 Broadway Chippendale, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8067 0721

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 11am-10pm
Saturday and Sunday 5pm-10pm

All you can eat Thai seafood buffet dinner $69 per person (as at November 2018)
Bookings are strongly recommended


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Huxtaburger, Redfern

Burger fans rejoice. Melbourne's Huxtaburger is now officially flipping burger patties in Sydney. They're the second Melbourne burger lord to head north, hot on the heels of 8bit which opened in Darling Square in May.

Huxtaburger's first Sydney location is a clever one, sitting at the base of a recently completed student accommodation tower and only a stone's throw from Redfern train station.


Huxtaburger dining space

While Huxtaburger had an official open date of Saturday September 15, we acted on a hunch they were trading beforehand in soft launch mode. We rocked up and strolled right on in.

The dining space design is inner city grunge mixed with industrial chic. The vibe feels a little forced and over-stylised though, especially when the graffiti-covered walls are overlaid with feel good motivational messages like "Smash a burger. Smash Life" and "Every human is equal". Mmmkay.

Otherwise the menu reads much like its Melbourne counterparts. Burgers cover brekkie, beef and chicken. Vegetarians and vegans get to choose between the kale, zucchini and quinoa patty or the spicy bean and quinoa patty.


Cheesus beef burger $14

Out of the 8 variations of beef burger, we find Cheesus. The double grass-fed beef patty with double cheese and cheesy mayo isn't as hefty as you'd expect, but the melting puddle of cheese is pretty spiritual.


Double grass-fed beef patty cross-section inside the Cheesus beef burger

The beef patties are tender but they do have a somewhat spongy consistency. There isn't a great deal of caramelisation either, but there's a consolatory sweetness from the tomato sauce and pickles.


Britney chicken burger $13.90 

I'm a bigger fan of the Britney chicken burger, a towering assembly of fried chicken (you can also choose to have it grilled) with grilled bacon, aioli, cheese, lettuce, tomato and smashed avocado.


Hello bacon 

The chicken thigh fillet is impressively juicy, coated in golden fried breadcrumbs. And while the bacon could probably have been cooked to a darker crisp, there's a overall sense of harmony to this burger, the fried chicken and grilled bacon balanced out by crisp iceberg lettuce and creamy avocado.


Onion rings $6.50 

You can order chicken tenders, chips, hash browns or tater tots (called hash bites on the menu) as sides. We're all about the onion rings, their sweet translucency sheathed in crunchy batter.


Furphy ale $8.50 ($5 during happy hour 4pm-7pm everyday) 
and Shit The Bed hot sauce

Little self-serve condiment trolleys are situated at the front and rear of the store. From these you can help yourself to tomato sauce, salt and Shit The Bed hot sauce that really does stand up to its heat rating of 12/10. A liberal use of Scorpion chillies means this sauce has a Scoville rating of 35, 000 units. I'd recommend cautious dipping your food into this sauce rather than committing to a dangerous pour over.

And yes, Huxtaburger is licensed too. Choose from six beers, an apple cider or whisky and dry ginger ale. Wine drinks get just one red, one white and one sparkling. Happy hour (4pm-7pm daily) offers $5 Furphy ale, white wine or red wine. They also do milkshakes, soft drinks and Nespresso coffee.


Ice cream burger with chocolate sauce $3.95 

There's only one choice for dessert, the ice cream burger with chocolate or caramel sauce. Ours is missing the Huxtacrunch (crushed feuilletine?) promised on the menu but we're hoping this was just a soft launch glitch.

Keen to try the burgers yourself? Get there for their opening day party on Saturday 15 September for $1 Huxtaburgers from 12pm to 8pm. Expect craaazy queues. 






Huxtaburger
Shop C, 66 Regent Street, Redfern, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8591 1108

Opening hours
Sunday to Thursday 10.30am-9.30pm
Friday and Saturday 10.30am-10.30pm


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