All Fattoushed Out

Thursday night found us at Arabella Restaurant and Bar. We were seated at a lovely table up front with a fantastic view of king Street. The view itself was not so spectacular but a perfect location for people watching if that's your thing. (It is mine, but then I'm a perve)

The girls, Christine Edel and Briony ordered a bottle of wine (to share, not each they're not booze hounds for goodness sakes and it WAS a school night lol), and we ordered a couple of mixed dip plates to kick things off. The mixed dip plates were divine: Hummus, Babaganouj and Garlic Labneh. OH MY GOD I have never seen a Hummus so silky looking, it was glorious. And they all tasted frikken awesome! At first I thought the $18.00 price tag (per mixed dip plate) was a bit steep, but then I saw the dips and how yummy they looked I stopped caring about the price.

We also ordered Ladies Fingers: Gorgeous pastry filled with feta cheese herbs and parsley. So dainty and oh so yummy, Fattoush: the MOST AMAZING salad I have EVER had in my life!!! It doesn't sound that flash, I mean it's just tomato, cucumber, shallots, radish, capsicum, lettuce and fried crispy bread but combine all of that together and dress it and its fucking genius. We also ordered the Grilled Eggplant Salad: Grilled Eggplant, capsicum, shallots, parsley, tomato and lemon. So delish!
Best part of the night, 4 chicks that work together talked about pretty much everything other than work! So excellent.

The wait staff was very friendly and we didn't wait too long between courses. The food smelled AMAZING and the portions were huge!!

Edel ordered the Shish Tawouk, oh so good marinated chicken breast served with pickles, salad and yoghurt. Is it just me or does the chicken look like the head of a penis? Just asking.

Briony ordered the Lamb Schwarma, marinated lamb strips served with salad, yoghurt and pickled beetroot. The pickled beetroot looked soo good; I don't know what shade you would call it though; kind of a cross between hot pink and magenta looked lovely on the plate.

Christine ordered the Mansaf Lamb: rice with minced meat, mixed nuts, herbs and spices; topped with strips of lamb and a side of yoghurt. It didn't look like much when it came out but it smelled like heaven.

I got the Mansaf Dejaj: Rice with minced meat, mixed nuts, herbs and spices topped with chicken strips and a side of yoghurt. I was a bit weirded out by the nuts in the rice when it came out but one taste and I was hooked. It was, for me, phenomenally good. Oh so frikken good.

Everybody left something on their plates, not because it didn't taste good but because we were so stuffed. I was seriously tempted to do the Al Bundy and unbutton the top button of my trousers, but civilised people can't do that shit in public! Oh and Edel had her leftovers at work today and OH MY GOD the amazing smell was wafting across the office and making me drool, I was so jealous.

A great night was had by all, at least that's what I was told (they could be humouring me lol) Oh and the whole bill (wine included) came to $199, so a very affordable night out.

Shaken not Stirred

Saturday morning 1030 am Brunch with the girls at Martini Cafe 529 King St, Newtown NSW 2042. When I first walked in I have to admit I wasn't too sure about this little place, but that may have been because I stepped in a very soft and spongy spot on the floor and thought I was going to fall through LOL.

We were seated upstairs in the "playroom" a large room upstairs with ample space for 8 adults to sit and eat in comfort, couches to lounge on and heaps of books and toys for the littlies to play with. And the best thing, Ollie couldn’t escape or fall down the stairs due to the massive gate!

It was so good to just sit and catch up over coffee’s with the girls (man free zone, well except for Ollie) before we ordered our meals. The iced coffee was frikken good, they use real espresso shots, and no syrup!!! A little strong for my tastes but stirring in the ice cream helped add that bit of sweetness, I can highly recommend.

I ordered the chat potato rosti with poached eggs & baby spinach served on a field mushroom and a side order of corn fritters.

Tahu ordered the gluten free toast with spinach, mushrooms, grilled tomato and bacon.

Stella ordered the poached eggs on rye toast with baked beans, mushrooms and spinach.

Sarah ordered the eggs benedict.

Jess ordered the bacon, poached eggs, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and toast.

Sue ordered the corn fritters with bacon, spinach, mushrooms and tomato relish.

And Sheena ordered the vegetarian monstro which consisted of roast pumpkin, mushrooms, hash brown, baked beans, relish, eggplant, grilled tomatoes and toast - hold the eggs. This meal comes in a half and full size, with the full size $16.00 definitely looked the best value.

Everything was served at the same time, so no one was sitting around waiting which was fantastic. The service was great, very friendly staff. So the verdict? We all had poached eggs, and not one person’s were cooked properly. They were all over cooked, an utter disappointment. And the corn fritters were like rubber, which just about broke me as I had been craving them since the moment I heard they served them, which was well over a week ago. Maybe holding off serving everything all at once was why the eggs weren't up to par? Who knows.

Everything else however was BLOODY BRILLIANT! I don't know what they did to the mushrooms, but fuck me they were yum. Sarah reckons the sauce on the eggs benedict was delish, shame about the eggs though. Everyone was happy with everything but the eggs and to top it off, Brunch for 8 adults in inner city Sydney $140, a bargain if you ask me.

Kudos to Sue who looked green and still manned up and came. Poor love was not feeling the best but came anyway. Talk about a trooper! Love you Zuzka, you are one tough bitch, I'd have been crying at home LOL.

We all had a wonderful time, the atmosphere in the place is great upstairs and down. The staff really are lovely (not sure about the guy cutting the neck out of his shirt but his coffees were superb and he was a darling as we were leaving) I would definitely recommend this place for people with young kids, the mammas were able to sit back, relax and enjoy a meal out.

And if there are any doubts about how great a day we had, check this little face out, licking his lips and all

xox
Mel D

I am the Worlds Laziest Blogger

I am without doubt the laziest blogger on the planet. We went to dinner on Tuesday as part of The King St Challenge and I am only getting around to blogging about it now (Sunday). My excuse: it's too frikken hot to type, and think for that matter. Sydney has been going through a bit of a hot streak and I am not coping well at all. I honestly don't think humans were designed to withstand 45+ degrees, especially ones as pleasantly plump as me :-) ,that's my oh so polite way of saying that I am on the Fatty-Bomb-Bastic team.

So on Tuesday night in approx. 40 degree heat, Sheena, Sue myself and young Master Oliver drove down to King Street. We managed to find a parking spot, ON KING STREET, and less than a block away from our destination! When does that ever happen? I'll tell you when, when it's hot as hell and all the sane people are at home with air-con that's when!

Luckily for us, Alberto's Pizzeria Restaurant had air con, so we decided to eat in, instead of getting take-away and eating in front of the one shitty fan at my place, which basically moves hot air around and around in circles until you convince yourself its cooler (it's not).

We started with the Garlic Cheese Bread, 2 serves @ $4.00 each. The waitress informed us that Alberto himself said 2 baskets were for 3 people, too bad if we only wanted one I guess (we had left overs). It was pretty good though and even Ollie was enjoying it, who knew toddlers liked garlic?

Inside, Alberto's is exactly what I’d imagine a 70's pizzeria in Sydney would look like: pictures of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra; a few family photos; Football jersey on the wall and of course an Italian Flag. A nice change from some of the upmarket la-di-da pizzerias we are subjected to these days. And did I mention they had air conditioning?

We ordered Pizza's even though they have a selection of pastas and other dishes; it was the pizza I was craving. I figured the guy had been there 30 years so it had to be good, right?

Sheena ordered the Rusticana (Medium $19.50) a vegetarian pizza with Marinated eggplant, artichokes, roast capsicum, sliced tomato, onion and olives. She enjoyed it a lot. I tried a slice and thought it was nice, but not worth the $19.50 we were charged. Some of the toppings felt rubbery in my mouth, but maybe I just got a bad slice.

Sue went for the Madras Chicken (Medium $19.50) a chicken pizza with Marinated Chicken in a spicy Madras curry with onion, cashews, cucumber and yoghurt. Sue really liked it, Sheena wasn't having a bar of it and one slice was more than enough for me. To quote Sue "So much for the fire ban, there's a fire in my mouth" It was waaaay too hot for me, I think I gulped 2 glasses of water after my first bite. Maybe Alberto's need to throw in some chilled dunny rolls to go with this pizza, it's always twice as hot coming out as it was going in. just saying.

I ordered the Four Seasons (Medium $17.00) old school style with mushrooms, ham, cabanossi and pepperoni. It tasted pretty good but how bad can you really go with only 4 toppings, and I've had it a hundred times before in many different places so I had a pretty good idea what I was getting. It was however overpriced, at least I that's what I thought. Or I could just be a tight arse.

A few odd things to note: a meat lovers pizza is apparently an Exotic Pizza (WTF?) as are the pizza's Sheena and Sue ordered, which I guess is fine for the Madras Chicken, but the Rusticana? Really? Surely it's more of a gourmet than exotic? And what I thought was a traditional pizza, my four seasons, was in fact a gourmet pizza. Such weirdness. Oh and while we were there, 2 chicks walked in, sat down and left like 15-20 minutes later. They never ordered a thing, not even a drink, they just came in for the air con! Now I totally get wanting to escape the heat, but seriously you don't do that in a restaurant, a convenience store, a take-away or a proper shop for sure, but not in a restaurant. The poor waitress didn't know what to do with them, I would have thrown them out!

The food was average, the service was good, even Alberto came out to say hello, but it was the company that was the highlight of the night. Sheena and Sue have become two of my closest friends since we met and over the years have evolved more into family than friends really. These ladies are smart, fun, beautiful inside and out, amazing mums and they love me for me, what more can you ask for? Thanks girls not only for dinner and a great night out, but for being who you are!

If the best or most notable part of your dining out experience is the food, you are so doing it wrong! This challenge has sweet fuck all to do with the food and everything to do with spending time with the people I love most, my family and friends.

Til Next Time
xoxo

P.S.
We topped the night off with paddle pops for dessert at my place. Great way to end the night if you ask me :-)