The French House, Waterloo

I've been feeling like a parent since the beginning of this year. My brother B is here in Sydney for school and I became his guardian. I remember bringing him to school for orientation on the first day and it was overwhelming. All the other parents who attended the orientation were real parents, whereas I was just a fake and probably looked like one of them (the students). I just couldn't wait to leave the school before I was mistaken to be one of the students #phew.

My duty as a guardian included collecting the result report. Hence, I had to make a trip down to the school and also had the chance to walk around Waterloo area. We were in search of a good cafe where we can sit, chat and eat. We walked passed The French House, which looked really fancy and classy and decided this is it. The interior was all Parisian like, with antique-like seats and round wooden tables. You have to order at the register, so if you meet a brunch/lunch crowd then you gotta be prepared to be standing for quite a bit.

My chamomile tea came in this metal serving tray! Somehow, I felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast all of the sudden, except that my teapot and tea cups can't sing and dance around. However, that entire tray was way too huge for our mini round tables, despite having two stacked together. 

We ordered french toast, which was served with bananas and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately, the french toasts were really bland even though the choice of bread was a perfect one to make french toasts. Also, it would have been heaps better if the bananas were caramelized rather than served as is. 

It was really difficult to decide what else to have because the menu was only available at the register. When it gets to your turn, you will have the cashier waiting for your order and the line behind you waiting to order so it is stresses quite a bit. A regrettable decision was to have their chocolate croissant.  

Despite the pastry being really thick, it will be perfectly fine if there was sufficient amount of chocolate innards to go along. But no. Looking at the photo below, you can already tell we didn't enjoy this very much. 

The fruit and chocolate tarts they have on display looked really yummy, but we didn't make it to have some of them mostly because we were not satisfied with what we had. Apart from the ordering system, the food also took ages to come. Perhaps, if we ever walk by The French House again we'll have their tarts to takeaway, but otherwise, we probably wouldn't return. 

The French House (urbanspoon)
1 Danks Street
Waterloo NSW 2017

Joe Black, Surry Hills

I was looking for interesting cafes to visit one day and saw heaps of positive reviews on Joe Black. It wouldn't be difficult to find a good cafe in Surry Hills but I was kinda looking for a cafe that is within reasonable walking distance (and time) from the city centre and Joe Black falls into that category! It was on my to-go list for the longest time, about six months or so, and I suspect I was trying to save some money and also avoid eating out too often since eating out means high spending and rather unhealthy food. Of course, cafe food can be as healthy as you want them to be (think gluten free options and free range eggs!), but because I'm not the most conscious person on Earth I tend to have the most sinful food in cafes. #firstworldproblems maybe?

The interior of Joe Black is just too.. chill (pardon my inability to describe it better). They reminded me of the cafe Robocog (link), where a couple of their staff (or maybe all of them) wears a moustache. What uncanny resemblance, really! We were seated shortly after arriving and had a quick through their short menu. 

Just look at the graphics, interesting! Well, I really didn't mean to shoot that lady in my photo, but there was no way I could have asked her to move aside :/ 

I would always order a latte, which was pretty good. 

There weren't many options on the menu, which was slightly disappointing. I didn't know what to pick at all, but settled with their pilate pancakes ($12.50). Their dishes had very funky names that you really wouldn't know what to expect just from their names, plus point! They described these pancakes with you'll need pilates after these chocolate covered bad ass mo foes. Exciting, not? This was how the pilate pancakes look like, where are the pancakes you ask? They were so generous with their chocolate sauce that the pancakes submerged within. However, some may not like their pancakes this thin, but I enjoyed it so much that this has to be my favourite pancakes thus far! The pancakes were thin and dough-like, with crisp sides. There was enough chocolate sauce and strawberries to go with every mouthful of pancake, you (and your tummy) will definitely feel overwhelmed.

My friend V had their Stromin' Norman ($9.50), which had a cheery tomato mix with spanish onion, avocado and a poached egg. She ordered a side of mushrooms to go along with her brunch. Unforunately, we were too caught up in our conversation that I don't even remember if I asked how did her toast went. But I reckon she probably said something like, "I must bring friends here one day!". So, does that make a good conclusion?

Sorry this photo is a tad blur, I think I got too hungry that I couldn't care more about taking photos :P

Each time I look at that photo of the chocolate pancakes, I feel like my tummy is telling me "get out of the house to Joe Black!!!" It is a pity that they don't offer heaps of options on their menu, but I reckon their pancakes will always get me to visit them. As much as Joe Black may not be my favourite cafe now, I will definitely recommend it to friends who don't wanna visit busy Surry Hills and yet wanna have some good cafe chillax place to hang around. 

Joe Black (urbanspoon)
27 Commonwealth Street
Surry Hills NSW 2001

Two Good Eggs, Surry Hills

We were in the vicinity while house hunting and were suddenly feeling hungry because we haven't had breakfast. Waking up real early and rushing from inspections to inspections back to back, we really needed some real food to last the day. Lucky we had a slot in between two inspections and decided to walk into Two Good Eggs despite only having a tight fourty minutes break. We made it!

Two Good Eggs is a cafe just around the corner of a building, overlooking Harmony Park. It was so crowded on a Saturday morning, but lucky we managed to get a table just tucked in at the corner near the coffee machine.

The three of us ordered a drink each, a skimmed cappuccino, a latte and a hot chocolate. The hot chocolate isn't the best that I've had ever (the best ones are definitely at Ralph's Cafe in Sydney Uni), but it was good enough.

The obligatory drink shot. My cuppa latte even came with a loacker wafer, nice touch.

Food came rather quick, allowing us to finish them within our 40 minutes break. We had on our table a smoked salmon and spinach scrambled eggs (with dill, sour cream and quinoa and soya sourdough) ($16.90). The toast was dry, a little over-toasted, but the salmon was fantastic!

We also a serve of their two good eggs breakfast ($17.90), which had eggs, bacon, hash, mushrooms, tomate and sourdough toast. I requested for scrambled eggs, instead of the poached eggs that was stated on the menu and it was denied - thumbs up for service! I really liked the hash, it was well-salted although a little oily. Well, hey, oil always come with deep frying so we can't expect less of it. The mushrooms aren't very juicy, but well pan-fried, and I especially love their tomate! I'm not sure if it's homemade, but it was so good. I don't usually like tomato, tomate or anything tomato (except pasta sauces if I can't choose olive oil base) but this was gooooood!

The last we had was buttermilk pancakes ($14.90) and B chose it with bacon and maple, just because he doesn't take anything exotic, fruity or anything-not-bacon-and-maple. This little brother of mine has a very picky preference so sometimes he always chooses the same ol' stuff. We didn't expect the pancakes to be this thin, because they're usually not (duh). It looks like a real tiny portion for a big boy like him, and indeed he wasn't feeling filled from that. Lucky I had the breakfast which was a massive portion, so he cleared up most of what I couldn't finish. Good stuff about brothers ;) But this isn't quite a must-try for me, since we can easily get pancakes with bacons elsewhere.

It isn't like Two Good Guys are very out of the way. It's closer to the city (where we live right now) than the usual Surry Hills cafes, so it's a good option if you're in the vicinity. I wouldn't say for sure that I will visit again, but I definitely like it and will recommend! 

Two Good Eggs (website/urbanspoon)
148 Goulburn Street 
Surry Hills, NSW 2010