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Buns and Balls, Darlinghurst

11:02 PM | Labels: burgers, cocktails, darlinghurst, Kings Cross, meatballs

That's right. You read it. Buns and Balls. Facing the ever popular Hugo's Pizza opposite as well as the other well established restaurants near by, you damn well better come out with all guns blazing and what better than to do so than to start with the cheeky promise of 'Juicy Buns and Tasty Balls'. That certainly grabs attention.

Boasting a in-house DJ, a groovy and retro fitout, street art and a share able menu; Buns and Balls, run by the Darling group, is a vibrant boozy den chockful of meatballs and burgers and good times. The night was headed by the ultra amicable Simon Hancock and the rest of the staff aren't too shabby either. With booze free flowing, the night was on.

Watermelon, Lime and Vodka 12

Freshly juiced cocktails start the action. The watermelon juice cocktail was super fresh and you could taste it all the way in here.

Pineapple, Gingerbeer, Vodka and Bitters 12

Pineapple cocktails are the way to go here. They're all the great things shaken up; bitter, the slightly astringent ginger, sweet and sour pineapple action, foamy creamy top and you've got a party in your mouth going on.

Tofu Meatball 9

The tofu 'meat' balls, filled with dense tofu with a crunchy exterior wrapping it were super delicious. They're just absolutely fall apart and goes perfect with their spicy tomato sauce.

Chargrilled Steak Salad 12.5

The beef salad was a little lifeless here which was the general consensus. The gentle crunchy leaves were quite nicely dressed but the beef was a little dry.

Chicken Salad 12

On the other hand, the chicken salad was easily the better of the two. It feels a little more complete with the rest of the vegetables and croutons happening and especially with the spicy chilli sauce that really jacks up the flavour of the chicken.

Grilled Chicken 10

The chicken burger was definitely my favourite of the night. You get a lot going; chilli sauce and crumbed juicy chicken, cheese and mayo and the other usual suspects. It's sort of like a more refined Oportos burger and there's definitely nothing wrong with that. All for a measly tenner.

Sweet Potato Fries 6

Goes perfect with their sweet potato fries. They're well seasoned, soft on the inside, sort of crispy on the outside and with a fantastic flavour. Happy days.

Ice Cream Block 14

Dessert was written to be a surprise and first came in the form of ice-cream cookie sandwich. Whilst I was having particular issues with the hardness of the cookies (in my eyes Subway cookies still are the best cookies ever made... mmmmm just thinking about it...) and plain ice cream, there's just something deliciously tasty about it that makes sharing so hard.

Doughnut Bites 8

What appeared to be Krispy Kreme donuts were gently warmed through and came with a chocolate dipping sauce. Simple but utterly delectable.

Burgers and meatballs (if it hasn't been obvious already) are what's happening here and that's their passion. With the exception of the excellent 10 dollar burgers, prices are here and there but are generally acceptable particularly for the area. The place is as hip and grudgey as any can get, the food was great, moreish and ticks all the right boxes for a good night out in the Cross. I mean, what more could you want.

Petit4s attended this tasting with a guest courtesy of Sian from The Darlin Group.

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Memphis Wings, Casula

4:12 PM | Labels: American, burgers, Casula, cheese, Ribs, subs

About to get a heart attack and a half everyone. As with nearly all things American, dieters need not apply themselves here. Memphis Wings are bringing their little slice of Americana down to Casula and it seems like the word is out.

Located at Casula Crossroads (the location for the second Costco in NSW), it's a nice little drive away for me and I can really see the place filling up in the coming months. It's loud, hot and open with flies buzzing around everywhere but their top 50 1950-80's classics really give this place character.

6 Wings 9

Wings are a bit of a let down here. Just pretty much sour and salty and I suppose I was expecting more from peri peri. The accompanying curly fries are pretty amazing but. They're super crispy and fun to play with at the same time. I think I'll hit the chipotle next time round.

Full Beef Ribs 26.5

The ribs here are really amazing. All wonderfully gnarly and smoky from the 4 hour smoking process and soft and tender from the 17 hour slow cooked process; they're finger licking good without being too sickening or fatty.

Beef Brisket Burger Meal (with curly fries, corn and drink) 14

We get their brisket burger which is packed with juicy soft slow cooked beef chunks. It's ridiculously tender and packed with slaw and mayo which makes it super unctuous and tasty.

Original Philly 8.5

Their philly subs are quite popular here with super tender beef slices and soft bread. It's livened up with a squeeze of their almost artificially yellow sauce which is really addictive.

Quesadilla 8.5

The quesadilla also packs their yellow cheese sauce but some melted cheese instead to bind it all together would have been better. We get ours filled with tender chicken and salsa which really hits the spot. It would have bee nice if they were cut but.

Slamming ribs and philly subs are where it's at in Memphis Wings. It's pretty much a one dimensional sort of food: the unctuous and smoky American kind. If you follow Man versus Food like I do, that's pretty much what you've got here and that's bloody amazing.

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Buffalo Dining Club, Darlinghurst

1:41 PM | Labels: burrata, cheese, Italian, Kings Cross, mozzarella, pasta

Creamy. Soft. Melting. Magical. It was pretty much love at first sight when a plate of Burrata landed on our table at Buffalo Dining Club. I'll be honest, what particularly drew me to this little part of Kings Cross was the flipping insane 97 percent rating at Urbanspoon more than anything else.

I've gotten away from the stigma of Kings Cross. There's so much more to this place than straight up gentleman clubs and random muggings. It's the hub of good food and you can pretty much find a place that serves up decent nosh at any corner. This place, for instance, lights up with its easy going atmosphere and casual dining. The small bar is accompanied by an equally brief but strong staple of menu items written in chalk on the wall.

Burrata 19
Potato Croquettes
Marinated Sicillian Olives

J finds the burrata too creamy but it's crazy good to me. It's pretty much a stringy and supple buffalo mozarella skin that surrounds more buffalo mozzarella mixed with luscious cream giving it a one-two texture contrast and inducing a scrumptious eyes-roll-to-the-back-of-the-head moment. This is where the party's at.

They're accompanied by bread sticks, Sicilian olives, soft and creamy potato croquettes (which are pretty much a cheffy tatter totts). More could definitely be done with those potato croquettes but I suppose it's not meant to detract from the cheese. Of note is the spreadable 'nduja which is a mixture of sausage and peppers which liven up the palette with its slight spiciness.

Bresola 16

We get wagyu bresola action going on mainly cause I don't like pork (gasp!). It's light, dainty and salty but we're not getting any wagyu properties mainly because it's cut so thin and not particularly marbled.

They go through a wheel a week because there'a a bit of Roman tradition that arrives with the presentation of this dish; our pasta's place in and twirled around, catching the sides and scrapings of cheese.

Cacio e Pepe 18

It's such a joy biting into a chunk of pecorino which is a perfect combo with the generous amounts of pasta and the gratings of pepper. However, the pepper can be a quite over powering and jarring with its chunky texture.

Buffalo Ricotta Gnocchi 18

The gnocchi is more my thing. They are little light dumplings of soft ricotta cheese and flour to bind it together, tossed with some fresh basil. It's finished off with a deliciously deep napolitana tomato sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan. Utter bliss and undoubtedly one of the best things here.

Buffalo Dining Club is a celebration of all things cheese and really affordable Italian food. Cheese is the hero of this place and I wouldn't have it any other way. Cheese.

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Bitton Gourmet Cafe, Alexandria

3:11 AM | Labels: Alexandria, cafe, grocer, juice, Milk Shake, pie

We were close to Alexandria that same day and I've heard a lot about Bitton so we decided to head off there. Hey she was driving after all. Which is good because I can't be trusted with directions at all. My friends all know this sadly...

It's quite cosy and chill inside and we're instantly greeted by a lively waiter and seated immediately. It was late afternoon and I hear this place usually packs out. It's stocked to the brim with Bitton's products, from their jams to fresh baked goods.

Homemade Spicy Chicken and Leek Pie with Tomato Sauce and Green Salad 17

Their pies were just disappointing. Everything you'd expect from a pie just wasn't there except the pastry which was decent. The filling was god awfully dry, leeks were shredded up to finely to be existent, there was no gravy present and it was just really hard to eat.

Sour Cherry French Toast with Roasted Banana and Pear and Cinnamon Ricotta 14

Now on to the good stuff. There pretty much everything good that can go on a breakfast place that goes on here. Bananas, soft raspberry brioche, ricotta drizzled with maple syrup. After a while the textures get a little too homogeneous and you don't know what's what. Maybe a little contrast thrown in and it would be perfect.

Caramel Milkshake 5

Bitton's milkshakes there are much cheaper than what you'd get elsewhere which is GREAT. I'm seeing other places do flipping 8-9 dollar milkshakes for like what... milk?!?! I'm always a sucker for milkshakes regardless and these were good. The caramel flavour is a bit on the light side but their texture is spot on, thick and viscous but slurpable and utterly delicious.

Juice 5

The juice there's fresh. You can combo it up (for a 0.5 surcharge) like we did and pair fruits with fruits and they'll be happy to oblige.

Bitton's okay. Their prices, for the most part, are pretty standard. It's a really nice location and their staff are super but their food's got loads to improve on. It's enjoyable but it's hard to justify coming back.

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Hartsyard, Newtown

8:10 PM | Labels: chilli sauce, dude food, fried, gravy, Newtown, oyster, Ribs

Hartsyard has been on my agenda for a long long while. I mean seriously it's on the same road as my uni and I manage to go to other places that are half way around the city instead. American 'dude food' isn't my thing and neither is an 'aren't we all hip?' mindset but Hartsyard has, for a long while, filled hipsters with hearty guilt-inducing food happily and a visit was inevitable.

On a Friday night, it's absolutely packed to the brim by 6 with a line waiting outside to boot but I suppose that's like any other restaurant on a Friday night. It's dark and loud, but not in a seedy kind of way with base ball cap moustached chefs running the kitchen. Speaking of seeds, we're recommended to order two 'seeds' and one 'feed' between the pair of us but we manage to order a whole lot more.

Pisco Punch 18

It's a school night for me (literally) but A gets a pisco punch. It's a deliciously boozy thrashing, slightly sweet and tart with lemon juice but it's the concentrated pineapple slice that gets me going.

Oyster Po Boy 17

We start off with their oyster po boys which are impossible to eat cleanly. Tiny english muffins sandwich a deep fried oyster, under some Old Bay mayo and colesaw. The wonderfully soft muffins are the perfect vehicle for the crispy battered oyster and mayo combo which manages to provide cream and crunch in an utterly lip-smacking way.

hot sauce

Their hot sauce is flipping brilliant. It's not so much hot as it's much more sour and you get the background smoky perfume from the ingredients. We're told it's made in house, by the super cheerful and bubbly waitress, from half the ingredients being smoked and blended together with the non-smoked regular ingredients.

We're also told that they plan to sell it in the coming months but right now, eating in house is the only way to try it. Everything tastes much better with it. Hell we were even tempted to throw a bit on our desserts... kidding of course... or am I? Hey essay, don't you know I'm loco...

Nappa Cabbage 17

The fresh crunchy cabbage would have been a good cushion had it come at the same time as our heavier mains but by itself I find it a little light and boring. I ended up just dousing it in hot sauce. Definitely had better cabbage. It was probably an item for the health conscious or vegetarians.

Lamb Ribs 29

When the sun went down, I forgot I had iso until the next dish. Do I even deserve a DSLR...? Portion sizes here are massive. A normal group, through careful selection, can come in and out of here with a 30 dollar bill per person. The lamb ribs, for example, are giant and despite the fact that they're more fat than meat, what do I really care? They're roasted down so that their skins are black, rugged and slightly crisp and you get then get this wonderfully soft, barbeque sauce-infused tender meat and fat layers punctuated with whole whackings of chilli.

Poutine 23

We absolutely couldn't leave without some of their decadent poutine. Don't think stringy cheese and gravy and chips (not that there's anything wrong with it of course!), this is the much more refined version. The chips stay crispy despite being doused in a gravy that's actually made entirely of real short rib meat (as opposed to powder gravy... iiickk) and with a kicking of cheesy cheddar sauce and crispy celery chips, this dish is an absolute foodies dream ... and a gym junkie's nightmare.

Cake of the Day 20

Watch out Zumbo, their dessert chef Andy Bowdy is a crazed genius. Not a square inch on the plate isn't covered with refreshing yuzu ice cream, salted caramel sauce, crunchy popcorn and a flipping cheese cake deep fried in artery clogging blueberry pancake batter. If it weren't for the acidic yuzu jam ice cream, passionfruit curd and piquant bursts of blueberry within the batter cutting through it all, I think I might have just passed out.

They've got a different cake and soft serve every week as over the top as this week which might occasional feature the likes of deep fried oreos, jack daniels and bacon, chocolate ice cream and french fries or jam donut pies with strawberries, meringue, custard and croissants. Shieeeeetttt.

They've started to do some cake orders in which you can throw in some pretty funky combos and chef Andy will pretty much make whatever it is. They aren't cheap, however, at 190 dollars for a ten serving cake but in the spirit of all things Hartsyard, they appear to be packed to the brim full of ingredients.

Needless to say, don't go in expecting finicky clean food with delicate dainty elements. Don't go in with a diet. And don't go out without giving some dessert a go. Hartsyard is the epitome of the mindless American indulgence but with a lot of refinement thrown in. Food comes in thick and fast and you'll leave rolling on the pavement outside so definitely not for the faint hearted. Hartsyard has stolen my heart away. And returned it filled with sugar, lamb fat, smoked hot sauce and all the other good stuff.

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Buns and Balls, Darlinghurst

Memphis Wings, Casula

Buffalo Dining Club, Darlinghurst

Bitton Gourmet Cafe, Alexandria

Hartsyard, Newtown