French Onion Souffle Gratin ($20) is Bistro Moncur’s signature dish and it is freaking amaaaazing. Totally to die for (heh HI ANNA). The shallow dish is filled with golden liquid cheese and the island floating in the middle contains strips of caramelised onion melding perfectly with the incredibly light souffle. The complimentary basket of bread that is placed at our table is perfect to soak up the rich cheesy sauce.

Poached Bugtail Salad ($21.50) is an eye catching dish, the bright colours of the celeriac remoulade, grapefruit segments and avocado slices all but hide the bugtail slices layered beneath. The flesh is a bit on the squishy side but the salad of the day is a welcome contrast to my uber rich entree.

Grilled Sirloin with Cafe de Paris ($41.50). Yeah baby check out my steak lovingly bathed in butter! A flawless medium rare, with the perfect fat to tender meat ratio, the sirloin was just awesome. And um, rich covered in all that butter. After my super cheesy souffle I was totally about to have heart palpitations but I soldiered on! Cos it’s what I do! The side of fries were thin and crispy and were unceremoniously dunked into the butter sauce.

The boy has opted for the Prime Fillet Steak with Sauce Béarnaise ($43). Sadly his medium rare steak was a tad on the dry side and the bearnaise sauce oddly had lemon juice in it making it taste more like a hollandaise sauce. The string holding the steak together was left on and was inelegantly excavated and pushed to the side. Not happy Jan.

But dessert will make it better! Warm Chocolate Pudding with Chocolate Sorbet ($16.50) is a glorious sight, the rich chocolate sauce cascading down the edges of the light as air chocolate pudding. The chocolate sorbet is surprisingly refreshing and light in flavour.

Noods’ Blood Orange Granita with Poached Winter Fruit, Yoghurt Panna Cotta and Candied Almonds ($17.50) is such a pretty dessert though not one of my favs thanks to my dislike of almonds and multiple flavours and textures in the one glass. The panna cotta has a slight cheesecakey taste thanks to the yoghurt which I find intriguing but would’ve loved it if the blood orange granita was more in your face with flavour.

Sidenote: a ginormous bottle of sparkling mineral water was plonked at out table without asking what we wanted. We only found out when we got the bill that it was complimentary but still, I would’ve preferred to have been asked of our water preference as I’m totally ok with Chateau Warragamba. Service was a bit hit and miss, we started off with a lovely waitress however she was loved by everyone there and was soon run off her feet and we got switched with a not so happy waiter. Oh wells the glass of red and of course the company made for a delicious (if exxy) lunch.

OH HAI! My friends, they know me well. Bring me candy and you will have my heart on a silver platter. The very awesome Lene flew in from Chicago and was back in town for holidays and brought me some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. But not just NORMAL peanut butter cups, nay, they were HALF POUND peanut butter cups!!!


Check that monster out compared to its wee itty bitty cousin! Yeah baby that was one hell of a sugar rush!


In case you aren’t following me on Instagram (come stalk me at @chocolatesuze) here’s some of my random pics.. Like this one! The Dip (55 Liverpool St, Chinatown) is fast becoming my second home and for some reason I’m usually there on Wednesdays to hit up their chicken wings (6 for $10). They’re on the spicy side but the ranch dip is just too tasty and don’t even get me started about the awesome pulled pork nachos!


Oh how Tiny Tower has invaded my life! I thought I’d stop at 50 levels but it’s just so freaking addictive and I am determined to get the best elevator! And much lols to the random Domokun that appears. I am too cheap to upgrade my bitizens with costumes so I get my jollies staring at the randoms.


Don’t forget to support the Cancer Council on Daffodil Day!


Cheers to the freaking weekend! Have a good one folks!

(CAFE ISH IS CLOSED, SEE POST ON MILK BAR BY CAFE ISH HERE) OH HAI! So like, last week Cafe Ish (82 Campbell St, Surry Hills) started a ‘Tightass Tuesdays’ breakfast and lunch menu with 10 dishes for $10 and in my work hood that’s a bargain when you’re dining in and not grabbing takeaway to eat at your desk. A shoutout on twitter led our hungry group to converge with our cameras and lols yes I asked permission Josh!



The Karaage Soft Shell Crab Omelette was calling my name I swear! It was brilliant as usual, stuffed full of fried crab and avocado nubbins and the side of miso soup and rice was downed in a heartbeat.



I’d managed to convince The Ninja to share the omelette and the Wagyu Cheese Burger with me and with extra cheese and a side of fries I’m in my happy place. The pattie is juicy and MOIST, the buns lightly toasted and the squiggle of onions perfectly caramelised.



Lols Raff is in his happy place too.

EDIT: CLOSED

It started with a drink. Ok well technically it started with an email asking me to save the date a whole 1 month ahead of time to have dinner at La Casa Ristorante (271 Lyons Rd, Russell Lea). Stalking the menu and blog posts for a whole month kinda led a bunch of us to over order haha but it was so worth the food coma!


A complimentary bottle of prosecco and a garlic pizza kicked off the night, with the bubbly Carmel enveloping each of us with a warm hug. Every person that stepped through the door was welcomed like long lost family and soon the placed is packed with happy humans.


The oil is smiling at me! (I’m not crazy I’m not crazy)


Garlic prawns with cherry tomato, chilli & verjuice ($17) aka the garlic prawns of awesome. Seriously the best garlic prawns I have ever eaten, uber fresh prawns with enough garlic for me to be able to fight off a legion of vampires.


Crispy fried calamari served with rocket, aioli & balsamic ($16). “We HAVE to get the calamari,” Gianna cries. No worries mate, one plate of calamari coming right up! The calamari rings are lightly battered and a swipe in the aioli and a dab of balsamic later and our table momentarily pauses in conversation to fight over the remaining rings.


Of course what is a visit to La Casa without ordering Our Mamma’s original style meatballs ($15)! We were reduced to 10 year olds with drawls of baaallllllls mmm delicious baaaallllls. It might have been that second bottle of prosecco. Or the bottle of red. But man those balls were delicious! Hand shaped with love and rich tomato sauce that was totally to die for. I’m still thinking about your balls Mama Rugerri!


Pappardelle with pancetta, swiss brown mushrooms in a creamy white wine sauce ($21). It was insane how delicious this pasta was. Creamy and light, the ribbons of pasta wound its way around my heart to be held and bound forever with love.


Gnocchi with sausage, sage in butter & red sauce ($22). You know how people always say gnocchi are like pillows of happiness? No? Well this totally was! Light as can be, these plump little nubbins were gleefully spooned onto plates with all traces of sauce scraped clean.


Fettucine pasta with prawns, garlic, olive oil, chilli, spinach & capers ($23). Somehow I managed to not try this pasta um oops?


Wagyu Beef Cheeks slow cooked in red wine jus w/baby spinach & buttered potato puree ($36). But I made sure the beef cheeks were the first thing to hit my stomach and hot damn those were tasty cheeks! “Don’t bother with a knife,” laughed Carm and she was right cos these babies just fell apart the moment a fork came by.


La Casa’s famous meatballs topped with Fior di latte in a folded pizza ($23). We had wanted to order a pizza but knowing that we’d already ordered 3 pastas we settled with the meatball calzone to satisfy our pizza quotient. Meatballs wrapped in pizza equals awesome.


We also got the full rack of pork ribs ($34) in case, like, we were still hungry. We weren’t but no way were we letting it go anywhere! All cutlery was discarded in favour of gnawing at the ribs covered in finger licking delicious sauce.


Explodey point was imminent so we ordered 3 Tiramisu’s ($10.50) to share which had the perfect fluffy creamy mascarpone to coffee soaked savoiardi biscuit ratio.


Aaaand Cannoli filled with ricotta ($8) and some shots to end our epic meal. Truly that was an epic dinner and I’m still dreaming about the baaaaaallls 😛