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

And oops just like that, 2 weeks a week flashes past! March has been kicking my ass and tbh the last thing I want to do after working all day is to jump right back onto my computer. But anywhos! Let’s talk about how I came to know about Cuppa Flower that opened a second cafe in Waterloo! My sole purpose of visiting was for this Totoro chiffon cake 😀 I mean cmon! Look at it! So instagram friendly and so kawaii! The totoro is a black sesame, ultra fluffeh chiffon with whipped cream in the centre. But don’t worry I ate other foods!

Cuppa Flower has an all day breakfast menu so of course I opt for the pretty as a picture Buttermilk Pancakes ($15.50). There’s 3 pancakes with fresh strawberries, kiwi, orange slices, grapes and served with a swirl of vanilla cream and a jug of maple syrup. Apparently there was crunchy honeycomb but I didn’t find any on my plate unless I ate it too fast?

Noods gets the Bacon and Egg Roll ($8.50) which comes with a generous amount of crispy bacon, gooey fried eggs and tomato sauce on Turkish bread.

We return the following weekend for the lunch menu which begins at 11am. I’d initially baulked at the price of the Wagyu Beef Burger ($20.50) which I thought was damn pricey for Waterloo but it does come with a generous serve of golden, battered chips and the burger was pretty damn tasty.

I quite enjoyed the beetroot relish which brought me back to tuckshop days of the classic Aussie burger with tinned beetroot! The pattie was nice and juicy and the cheese sufficiently melty though I did have to remove the lettuce because you all know my issues with lettuce on a burger haha 😛

Noods opts for the Linguine Al Funghi ($13.50) with bacon (+$2) which was a beautifully creamy pasta with a healthy amount of parmesan cheese and button mushrooms. It did get a bit too salty towards the end but that was one mighty fine pasta!

Aaaand for dessert the Taro crepe cake! Layers of crepe alternate with a light, creamy taro buttercream to create a dessert that’s the perfect amount of richness and not too sweet.

Cuppa Flower
Shop 1, 15 Allen Street
(cnr George and Allen St)
Waterloo

Trading Hours:
7 days: 7am – 5pm

I’m always on the lookout for new steak joints, (I am carnivore, hear me roar) and when the magic words of bone marrow appeared on the menu at the newly opened Eastside Grill, I ended up visiting twice on consecutive weekends with Isaac and Raff. Located on Level 1 of The Old Rum Store (opposite Bistro Gavroche), Eastside Grill is a meatlovers paradise featuring the Japanese Binchotan charcoal grill.

We smell the buttery scent of the Roasted Bone Marrow ($23) before it even hits the table. Helloooo delicious! It’s perfectly roasted so the marrow is jelly-like and still scoopable from the bones. It doesn’t come with any bread but we had leftover bread from the complimentary bread basket which we used to mop up every last bit. It’s rich and buttery and I loved the medley of mushrooms on top.

The Prime Beef Tartare ($19) with a cured quail egg and rye croutons arrives on the most beautiful plate. Isn’t that the most gorgeous plate you’ve ever seen? But anyways the tartare was ace, balanced and well seasoned but could probs have done with a few more croutons.

The 200g Ranger’s Valley Black Angus Beef NY Striploin – Grain-Fed for a Minimum of 270 Days ($42) is one sexy piece of meat. It’s a perfect medium rare, juicy and beautifully grilled thanks to the Binchotan.

The Grilled Peach & Hand-Pulled Stracciatella ($19) isn’t quite what we were expecting, I guess I thought it’d be more a salad with fat peach wedges and a giant splodge of stracciatella cheese but hey it was still plenty tasty with the pecans and rocket pesto and does provide some relief from the richness of the steak.

The Truffled Mac n’ Cheese ($12) is off the chain insane- super cheesy and intense with truffle oil and gotta love that blanket of toasted breadcrumbs!

We were incredibly full but the Green Tea Tiramisu ($16) called to us! It’s a surprisingly light dessert with layers of matcha soaked sponge alternating with freshly whipped cream.

Eastside Grill
Level 1, The Old Rum Store
2-10 Kensington Street
Chippendale

Trading Hours:
Lunch Thursday – Saturday 12:00pm to 2:30pm
Dinner Monday – Wednesday 5:30pm to 10:00pm
Dinner Thursday – Saturday 5:30pm to 10:30pm
Closed Sunday