I love that food brings people together. It’s part of the reason why I love blogging so much, it’s a chance to catchup and bond over food! Helen and I organised the 8th Annual Sydney Food Bloggers Meet Up at Belles Hot Chicken in Barangaroo because well, fried chicken!

Flat lay 😛  Belles Hot Chicken is now a permanent fixture on the Wulugul Walk in Barangaroo, with a whopping 130 seat capacity. There’s house made sweet tea and lemonade and they’re licensed with beers on tap and have a nice range of natural wines. Order and pay at the window, then grab a seat and try not to drool as the scent of fried chicken envelopes your senses.

The Baller Bucket ($65) includes 16 Wings, 4 Sides & 4 Sauces. We’ve gone for half Southern style and half with Medium spice. The chicken is just as amazing as I remember, incredibly juicy meat and a crisp coating that shatters my world (and all over my dress because I’m the worlds messiest easter). Also, there’s just something so incredibly satisfying reaching into the bucket and pulling out a wing!

Sides! Coleslaw and Mixed Bean Salad

And Fries and Pickles. No pics of the sauces but we got: Belles Blue Cheese (fave!), Belles Ranch Dressing, Peach BBQ sauce and Mississippi Comeback.

Surprisingly one of my favourite things at Belles is the Fried Mushrooms haha they’re just so fricken tasty! You can order the mushrooms individually for $4 a pop but we decided to get a normal serve ($14) which came with a choice of sides and ordered the Broccoli & Almond salad so we could try all the sides from the menu. Seriously though these mushrooms are the absolute bomb- they’re crumbed and fried to a glorious crunch but are still ridiculously juicy.

The Chicken and Waffles ($20) are only available on the weekend and it’s fan bloody tastic! I know some people don’t understand the whole sweet and savoury thing but I’m telling ya, this just works! The waffles are fluffy, with crisp edges and perfect for soaking up the chicken juices and lashings of maple syrup.

The Chicken Ribs ($14) are lip smackingly delicious. There’s a fair amount of meat on the ribs which are drenched in a sticky and sweet peach bbq sauce and the slice of devils bread is perfect to mop up the juicy remnants.

Hiiiiiiii! I’m so glad that our community of bloggers are such a friendly bunch, it was so lovely to see everyone and thanks ya’ll for coming! The list:
All About Food Blog | Belly Rumbles | Chewtown | ChocolateSuze | Coco and Vine | Drool Worthy World | Eatventures With Jay | Food Is Our Religion | Girl In a Food Frenzy | Grab Your Fork | iFat – Food Chronicles | I’m Still Hungry | Insatiable Munchies | Lateral Eating | Ramen Raff | Sarah vs Carbs | Simon Food Favourites | Sugarlace | The Girls Who Ate The World | The Random Foodie | Weekend Food Escapes | Welcome to Andyville | When the World Stops Spinning

Belles Hot Chicken
Shop 5, 33 Barangaroo Avenue,
Wulugul Walk,
Barangaroo

Mon – Sat: 12pm – 10:30pm
Sun: 12pm – 9:30pm
(Closed between 3:30 – 4:30pm everyday)

Still on a mission to eat all the pastas in Sydney, Sarah, Viv and I trekked over to Bar Machiavelli in Rushcutters Bay, the sister restaurant to Machiavelli in the CBD. (Psst, don’t go to the wrong restaurant now heh heh) All pastas are made in house and the menu features 9 pastas to choose from or there’s the veal cutlet, spatchcock or fish of the day available if you’re not so carb inclined.

We start with the Seared fois gras de canard served with brioche and cornichons ($39) to share. The foie gras is melt in the mouth spectacular. It’s lusciously rich and buttery and although it came with a plate of lightly toasted brioche I chose to savour the foie gras by itself. Bliss.

The Chestnut pappardelle with porcini mushroom and Madeira sauce ($38) is pretty damn amazing, the ribbons of pappardelle are silky and delicate and there’s a generous amount of intensely fragrant porcini mushrooms buried under the curls of parmesan. But that sauce! Ahhhh that is one lipsmackingly delicious sauce!

The Gnocchetti with Roquefort, Gorgonzola dolce and caramelised walnuts ($36) is the very definition of a warm hug. Each pillowy soft gnocchetti (a smaller version of gnocchi) is smothered in a creamy cheese-alicious sauce and I absolutely loved the sweet crunch of the walnuts sprinkled throughout. It could’ve done with a stronger blue cheese flavour but that’s just me loving pungent blue cheese in sauce form.

The Tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce ($36) is a delicious tangle of awesomely rich sauce coating every strand in loooove. My brain only remembers what it wants to remember and that this was tasty. The end.

I loved the space at Bar Machiavelli, it’s cavernous without being echoey, and the black and white projections on the walls were fascinating to watch. I’d read that service can be a bit snooty but we had a lovely waiter who was down to earth and super friendly and while the prices are defs on the exxy side, the pastas were pretty amaze so would defs be keen to return again!

Bar Machiavelli
10 Neild Avenue,
Rushcutters Bay

Trading Hours:
Mon – Thurs: from 6pm
Fri & Sat: from 5pm
Sun: closed

It takes a lot to be able to convince Noods to make the trek across the Bridge but just the mention of Mentaiko Pasta ($16) and he grabbed the car keys quick smart and off we went to Double Cross Espresso Bar in Crows Nest. Mentaiko is made by brining and seasoning fresh pollack (or cod roe) and is something we’d fallen in love with in Japan and have been obsessively searching for ever since. I took great joy in stabbing the gooey 63˚C egg and letting its golden innards run freely, coating each strand of pasta. There’s also a dollop of creme fraiche and mixing everything together created one creamylicious pasta that is right up there in my top 5 pastas in Sydney.

The Big Breakfast ($17) comes with crispy bacon, mushrooms, grilled tomato, a golden hashbrown and 2 eggs of choice- Noods being Noods wanted one 63˚C egg and one sunnyside up which they were happy to do.

The Soufflé Omelette ($16) is ridiculously light and fluffy. The french style omelette has ricotta cheese folded through and it’s like eating a freaking cloud man! I’d order this again but next time I’d add a side of bacon or mushrooms for a salty kick.

Double Cross Espresso Bar is a cosy little joint with some tables outside for those needing their hit of Vitamin D and prime position for dog watching.

Double Cross Espresso Bar
Shop 2, 118 Willoughby Rd
Crows Nest

Trading Hours:
Mon – Fri: 6.30am – 6pm
Sat & Sun: 7am – 5pm

Edit: Woo! My IG pic made it into the Tele!