I love the Hunter Valley. Every year the boy and I escape for the weekend to get our cheese and wine fix and bring a trunk full of deliciousness back to Sydney! So one bright and early morning we head off from Sydney for the 2 hour drive to the Hunter and check in at the Crown Plaza Hunter Valley.

It was a tad chilly that morning but oh man how inviting does that pool look!

The breakfast buffet ($38pp) at Redsalt is pretty damn impressive, there’s the egg station where you can customise your omelettes, the pancake machine station (where I always end up googling how much it would cost to have one of these babies at home), the hot food station with bacon, sausages and hash browns, the coffee and juice station, and of course there’s fruits, cheese, cereals, breads and fresh pastries.

I’m a fan of chardonnays and so a visit to Scarborough (179 Gillards Road, Pokolbin) is always a winner, especially the free cheese platter!

Cafe Enzo (Broke Rd & Ekerts Rd, Pokolbin) has the fricken best scones I’ve ever had. The scones are ginormous, with a nice light crust, buttery crumb and are just oh so fluffeh.

We sign up for the Lovedale Bus Tour ($55pp) which runs every Saturday, starting at 12.30pm at the Lovedale Bar with a tasty platter of pulled pork sliders, prawns, fish and chips and of course a refreshing glass of your choice from the taps. We head to the Lovedale brewery for a tour of the beer making facilities and get a walkthrough of the bottling and canning process.

And then hopping on the bright yellow double decker bus to hit a couple of wineries in the area- Tamburlaine Organic Wines and Cockfighters Ghost Wines welcome our group and with some very nice discounts 😛

For the months of May and June, some of Lovedale’s best chefs and winemakers are joining forces for the Lovedale Pie and Wine pairing. We were in need of sustenance before heading out for a big day of wine tasting so went downstairs to the Lovedale Bar & Restaurant for the beef shin pie with mashed potatoes and green beans and paired with a Lovedale Brewery Lager. The pie was pretty damn tasty tho with incredibly flaky pastry and tender meat, tho purists will say it’s more of a pot pie than a proper pie lol /stares at Noods.

One of my absolute Must Dos in the Hunter Valley is visiting all the cheese stores! First stop is Binnorie Dairy (Tuscany Wine Estate, Hermitage Rd & Mistletoe Lane, Pokolbin), which is a must visit if only just to get their flagship cheese, the international Gold Medal Winner marinated fetta.

And then onto Hunter Valley Cheese Factory (447 McDonalds Rd, Pokolbin, next door to McGuigan’s Winery) where I can never resist the neon green waxed cheddar or their grape vine ash brie.

Hunter Valley Smelly Cheese Shop (2144 Broke Rd, Pokolbin) has 2 locations, the main one is at the Roche Estate Complex (2144 Broke Road, Pokolbin) but for some reason we prefer heading to the Pokolbin Village location (Shop 3, 2188 Broke Road, Pokolbin). It’s less frenetic at this store and the staff are super lovely and there’s cheese tastings which always pleases my soul.

My favourite restaurant is EXP (1596 Broke Rd, Pokolbin) who use fresh, local produce from the Hunter region. The food is always incredibly presented and so very delicious and the matching wines from Oakvale winery is always great.

ChocolateSuze stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Hunter Valley as a guest.

Heads up Sydney there’s a spanking new patisserie that have set up shop in the old Oconnell Street Merchants premises upstairs from Brewtown in Newtown. Drury Lane is run by North Hobart’s Sweet Envy, with Alistair Wise at the helm.

There were so many baked goods that I wanted but there’s only so much Raff and I could possibly eat! Fat lamingtons, unbelievably flaky croissants, pretty as a picture vanilla slices…

I’m immediately drawn to the ginormous cookie sandwiches ($7) in the display, there’s the Monty – an orange biscuit with coconut butter cream and jam filling and the Nutterbutter – a peanut cookie with peanut butter buttercream filling but we choo choo choose the Margate!

Isn’t she a beauty? The Margate has a chocolate buttercream and ganache filling and is pretty damn incredible, tasting like a softer, chewier  version of an ANZAC biscuit <3

Drury Lane’s kitchen also pumps out a savoury range, buttery pies and sausage rolls are available so be sure to check out the chalkboard for the days selection. There’s two kinds of of sausage rolls: Pork & Fennel ($7) and a Lamb & Harissa ($7). And for the pies there’s: Cauliflower & Cheese, Tongue & Cheek and a Chicken & Sausage Gumbo Pie.

The pastry is brilliantly flaky and of course shatters all over me thanks to my inability to eat like a normal person.

The Chicken & Sausage pie is a winner, more of that incredible golden pastry and tender pieces of chicken buried within. I also loved the homemade tomato chutney on the side which is sweet, tangy and slightly smoky.

The Pecan Sticky Bun ($7) was featured in Gourmet Traveller’s Top 50 dishes and it’s not hard to see why! Bite into the crisp outer pastry studded with a generous amount of pecans that’s smothered in a gooey, irresistible dark caramel which has got a good hit of salt to stop us from going over the ledge into a sugar coma. Definitely a must order with each visit!

Last but not least is the Jatz Crack Pie ($7), a layer of sweet caramel quite like the Momofuku crack pie or a caramel slice and layered with Jatz crackers for the buttery salty hit.

I’m looking forward to returning and trying every single baked good on the menu!

I’ve been dying to try one of Andy Bowdy’s cake creations for ages but had been deterred by the prices. But let us rejoice! For Andy and his partner/manager Maddison Howes have opened Saga in Enmore with mini versions of his famous cakes and oh so much more!

Customers can choose to dine in or takeaway the desserts. There’s boxes of tiramisu, fresh focaccia, flaky palmiers, and cookies galore which were flying out the door when I came by last weekend.

What a beautiful display! There were 4 flavours of the miniature versions of Andy’s cakes and I opt for the Grace ($15). There’s layers of fragrant carrot cake, salted caramel, mousse, baked cheesecake, pecans, crispy ginger cookies, segments of mandarin and the signature torched meringue. Yes the cake is pricey but it’s definitely more than enough to feed 2 people and you can see how much effort has gone into all the elements for this creation.

The brunch menu is available all day (8am – 3pm) and Noods goes for the Mushrooms on toast ($18) which is a fricken forest of mushrooms that have been roasted, pickled or caramelised and jumbled on top of a slice of sourdough with a thick schmear of creamy mayo.

I was tempted by the Philly Morgs ($17) sammich with porchetta, braised kale and bacon dressing from the sandwich menu (available 10am – 3pm) but decide to go for the Corn Pudding ($17.50) instead. It’s a riot of textures with the charred corn, the bite of spelt grains, the crunch of cornbread crumbs, and the schmear of caramelised corn custard hiding underneath tying everything all together. There’s also celery in there but we all know how I feel about celery 😛

Want a shot of the gooey egg you say? Well say no more, here you go!

I absolutely adored the Banana Cream Pie ($8.50)- sinking my spoon into the cloud of vanilla chantilly, past layers of rich banana cream and rivers of salted caramel before making my way to the chocolate biscuit base. The pockets of Jack Daniel’s gel is probs a bit much at 10 in the morning but hey. Whatever floats your boat!

Saga
178 Enmore Road,
Enmore

Trading Hours
Mon – Tues: Closed
Weds – Sun: 8am – 4pm

The Camperdown Commons has been on my radar for quite some time and I finally visited with the rellies one sunny lunchtime. The space is amazing, you would never know this pocket of greenery exists so close to the CBD! Grab a coffee from the converted shipping container at the entrance, chill out on the lawn and order from the (limited) brunch menu or do what we did and head over to Acre Eatery. The fully functioning farm provides produce for the restaurant, including the edible flowers for the cocktails.

We start with the Duck liver parfait ($18), it’s a bit dense for a parfait but plenty tasty with the mead jelly and slathered onto the sourdough crisps. Probs could’ve done with a few more crisps as not everyone slathers to my ratio of inch thick parfait to bread 😛

The Smoked potted fish ($15) is the very picture of summer. The salmon dip is deliciously creamy with a light smoky flavour that’s not too overpowering with the garden vegetable crudités.

We were a group of 10 so decided to order from the Sharing Menu instead of getting Mains. The Free Range Lamb Shoulder ($80), was fricken amazing, the lamb was fall apart tender and so flavoursome that it barely needed the accompanying jus. The salsa verde was a great burst of freshness for the palate when the lamb became a bit too rich. Also mad props to the brussel sprouts with a light yoghurt dressing which had a satisfying bite, and the tumble of roasted vegetables which provided me with enough nutrients for the week.

The Slow Roasted Porchetta ($65) is a beauty, the pork was tender and the golden crackle was spot on perfect. The pile of roast vegetables contained carrots, zucchini, beetroot and pear but it was the bucket of apple slaw that won my heart.

Pretty damn full but we couldn’t resist the Banana tart tatin ($15) with crisp pastry, sweet banana slices and a giant scoop of rum and raisin ice cream.

Acre Eatery
(Inside Camperdown Commons)
31a Mallett Street
Glebe

Trading Hours:
Mon – Tues: Closed
Wed – Fri: 12pm – 10pm
Sat: 8am – 10pm
Sun: 8am – 9pm