Grandma's Little Bakery

On so many occasions, the most fun and exciting things have happened when I have least expected them, and this situation was no different. For a week, my friends and I had been planning to meet up for brunch as it had been a while since we had seen each other due to work and university commitments, so we decided to meet at the 'Potting Shed' in Alexandria. Given that this day was quite cold and had been forecasted with a chance of rain, it was a risky choice as the Potting Shed is an outdoor area. Whilst we were driving to the venue the rain began to fall, however we decided to proceed given that we would need to wait in line for a little while and hoped that by the time it was our turn to be seated, the weather would have cleared up. Parking was quite difficult to find around the venue itself, and as we could not find any nearby, decided to continue along the streets and happened to stumble upon 'Grandma's Little Bakery'. As this had also been on my list of cafes to visit, we decided to change our plans to this location instead.


After putting our names down for a table, the staff ushered us to the little shop inside the cafe whilst we waited to be seated. This store had lots of little condiments and cute items such as hard candy bags, small grass rabbits, Grandma's Bakery cookies and loaves of bread just to name a few things. It was a smart move by the staff, because if any of their diners are like me, then they are suckers for caving in to purchasing such items. In the 15 minutes that we had been waiting, I had already picked up some Oregano seasoning for the Zatar I was planning to make when I got back home. 

After being seated, we were given ipads which housed the menus on them. This is a really great idea and one that I had not yet seen in any cafes in Sydney, as not only did it clearly outline the ingredients in each dish, but also provided images of the item to help us better understand what it was. Given that the menu was not incredibly extensive and was organised on the ipad in an easy to follow format, there was minimal confusion about how to navigate through the pages and choose the meal that we desired. After much deliberation and a few questions to the waitress who was attending to us, we made our choices. 

My friend and I chose the Shakshuka (baked eggs) - I opted for the 'Grandma's Mazal Classic Shakshuka' (as it had capsicum in it), and she opted for the 'Spicy Shakshuka' alternative (as she preferred one without the capsicum). The others ordered the 'Beef and Mushroom Vol-au-vent', 'Spinach and Ricotta Pastry' and 'Grandma's Gourmet Basket Pie'. 


Looking around at the other dishes that were being served to those around us, we began to really build an appetite. The dishes not only looked like generous servings, but also smelled amazing. When our meals finally hit the table, we were not disappointed. My classic Shakshuka was delicious - the eggs were baked to just the right amount, and the soft bread that was served with the dish was the perfect accompaniment to mop all the tomato and capsicum sauce up. Tasting the other dishes around the table as we each shared our meal, I thought that I would have actually preferred to have ordered the spicy alternative, as it gave the dish that little extra kick of flavour that mine lacked. The spinach and ricotta pie was also very tasty, with the pastry being beautiful and flaky. Unfortunately, as I am vegetarian, I was not able to taste the other 2 dishes, but from what I heard from the others, their meals were also full of flavour and delicious.

Despite us all being full and content with our meals, we were in the presence of a dessert blogger, so had no choice but to also try out the desserts on the menu (really it was just a perfect excuse to eat more!) From what he had read online, the 'Grandma's Haya Cream & Cheesecake' was apparently highly recommended, and in addition to this was keen to try the 'Malabi', so both these desserts were ordered. Luckily for us, the cheesecake was actually the last one of the day - we had snatched it up just in time! 

To be honest, the cheesecake was a little bit of a let down. Although the sweetness was the right amount to me, the texture was just not right. The thing that excites me about a great cheesecake is the biscuit base that cracks when you put your spoon through it, so to get just a biscuit crumble base that was not solid but rather the same texture as the garnishing on top was quite disappointing. I however really enjoyed the 'Malabi'. This is a custard like dish with its origins from Israel.  It had a good hint of rose water, and was accompanied by a berry syrup and pistachios. Definitely a lovely way to end the meal. 

All in all, our experience at 'Grandma's Little Bakery' was a good one. Good food coupled with great company can never be a bad thing, so from me I would score it an 8/10. 

For more information about this cafe, visit http://www.grandmasbakery.com.au/

If you are looking for the best desserts in Sydney, hit up Dessertified on facebook -

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Espresso Organica

Majors Bay Rd in Concord is a popular destination for foodies at any time of the week. With dozens of restaurants packed onto this street covering just about every cuisine, it is the perfect location for either breakfast, lunch or dinner. For weeks, I have been wanting to try the food at 'Espresso Organica', as numerous people had checked into this cafe on facebook and had been posting some seriously tasty looking photos. So when I organised to meet two of my former work colleagues, I decided to take them to this cafe as it conveniently sat in the middle to us all.

Given that it was a sunny Sunday morning, the cafe was extremely busy, with pretty much every table occupied. Luckily for us, we did not have to wait for long for a table, and by the time we all had arrived the cafe was ready to seat us.

After ordering our coffees and catching up on everything that had been happening over the past year (yes it had been that long since I had seen them!), we began to look through the array of options on the menu. Needless to say, the amount of scrumptious often seriously confused us, and it was not until the last second when the waiter came to take our order that we made our decisions.

Two of us (including me) ordered the 'Baked Eggs Cayiana' whilst the other ordered the 'Vegetarian Stack'. We kept peering over to the table next to us to see what our meals would look like given that we had acquired quite an appetite that morning. When the food arrived at the table, we were thrilled with our decisions. The baked eggs were delicious, and had just the right amount of gravy to balance out the eggs. The tomato was also nice when mopped up with the bread that was served with the dish. My friend who ordered the vegetarian stack was also pleased with her choice, and even took a photo to prove to her personal trainer that she had eaten a healthy meal! :P

The service at the cafe was also great (except for the instance where one of the waiters excitedly came up to our friend to serve a meal which we did not order, and gave her a fright in the process - but it added to the entertainment of the catch up for sure!). For our experience at Espresso Organica, I would score 7/10.

For more info on this cafe, visit http://espressorganica.com.au/

Green Gourmet

Being vegetarian is not often an impediment for me. Normally when I go out to eat, I always find dishes that I thoroughly enjoy with most cuisines. The only time I feel as though I am missing out on some seriously tasty dishes is when eating Yum Cha. My friends always seem to have so many choices, however there are only ever 1 or 2 dishes that I can choose from. Browsing the internet for vegetarian Yum Cha restaurants, I came across 'Green Gourmet' in Newtown, and knew that I had to try it out!

Cold weather seems to always be the best time for Yum Cha, with the steamed buns, hot dumplings and warm noodle soups. Luckily for me, the day I had planned to go here turned out to be perfect Yum Cha weather. Given that my friend was also vegetarian, this vegan restaurant was a perfect fit for the both of us - and I knew that I didn't have to put up with complaints of meat dishes being more superior and tasty :P

Located at 115-117 King St in Newtown, this little joint is hard to miss with its bright green exterior. The venue was quite busy given that it was a Saturday night, however given the amount of restaurants located on King St reaffirmed for us that it was a good choice. Scrolling through the menu, there were dozens of options for us to choose from, all of which sounded just as delicious as the other! After much confusion, we ended up choosing the steam buns with spicy pork, the chia and vegetable dumplings along with the deep fried mushroom with crispy noodles. To wash this all down, we ordered the organic coconut water which was not quite what we were expecting (our fault though!)

So from the description of our meal, some of you may be slightly confused as to how 'spicy pork steam buns' falls under the vegan category. At this restaurant, dishes are made with soy fake meat, so although dishes

might have pork, chicken, prawn etc. within the descriptions, those of you who are vegetarian/vegan can rest easy that no actual meat products are used. All dishes that we ordered were delicious and we had no trouble smashing it all down, however the one down side was our organic coconut water. From the description on the menu, we thought that we were purchasing the young coconut which would be served in the actual coconut when it came to the table. However, we received it in a can and accepted the fact that this is what was served at the restaurant. However, 5 minutes later the table next to us received their coconut water in the actual coconut and we were outraged! Only to realise that we had accidentally ordered the beverage above the one we wanted. Derp!

And ofcourse, no meal would be complete without dessert! Luckily for us, even though we were completely bursting at the seams with the amount we had eaten, the fact that the desserts on the menu were gluten free, dairy free and sugar free meant that we could eat our dessert guilt free! We ordered the berry creme cheesecake with fig ice cream - Oh Hello! Amazing! (For those who are looking to try the desserts and don't want to dine in, Green Gourmet have their own little shop attached to the side of their restaurant for the purchasing of their desserts and other vegan products).

All in all, it was a delicious meal, and I encourage anyone to venture out for something a little different.

For this one, I score an 8/10.

For more info on Green Gourmet, visit http://www.greengourmet.com.au/