Penny Fours - Leichhardt

I'd heard from somewhere that there was an awesome little patisserie in Leichhardt and couldn't wait to check it out. Located on the quieter part of Norton Street, Penny Fours is this tiny spot with just two small counters and a couple of tables. Behind the front, however, is a massive massive kitchen area - which I found really quite confusing because on this Saturday afternoon, the place was quiet as! Not a soul in sight - but we braved a try anyway.

Lucky for us, we were not disappointed. The chocolate tart ($4.50) was amazing!!! The tart pastry was crumbly and golden, and despite looks, the chocolate filling was really chocolately, light, fluffy ish and just delicious. So delicious that I couldn't resist but to also get their salted caramel chocolate. This was also really really yum! It took sooo much self restraint to not also get the chocolate croissant.

chocolate tart

salted caramel

So looks can be deceiving! Though a super quite small and quaint patisserie, it exceeded my expectations muchly.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 29/40

Penny Four's
141 Norton Street
Leichhardt 
NSW 2040

Tuscany Ristorante - Leichhardt

Hubby and I were absolutely famished one Saturday morning (probably closer to midday) and were looking for something to eat. Out of the whole entertainment book, hubby opted to go to 'Le Pain Quotidien', the Leichhardt branch... which also happens to be the shop that no longer exists >.< Hence, as we were both starving, we entered the first restaurant we saw nearby - Tuscany - which sits just outside Norton Plaza, where we parked.

We both decided on pasta dishes, and just in case that takes forever to come, garlic bread was also ordered. The garlic bread was really really really buttery. Maybe a bit OTT on the butter as I felt as though I could squeeze drip the butter out of the bread. It was tasty though, and the bread was soft and the crust was crunchy. Either it was good, or we were both too hungry to know any better.

Garlic Bread

Hubby's lasagne came as quite a big stack. It looked hefty and substantial with loads of layers of pasta and meat sauce. It was tomatoey and relatively tasty. I think it would have tasted even better with a few less layers of the thick pasta sheets.

Lasagne

I ordered their Ravioli Paradiso - which was essentially ravioli with prawn meat inside, served with a prawn bisque. I was sold by the sound of prawn bisque and was a little disppointed that prawn bisque was scarce on my plate. The ravioli filling was quite tasty but the pasta was a little thicker than I would have liked. The sauce was really rich and tasty but as I said before, I would have appreciated a bit more sauce.

Ravioli Paradiso

Overall, it was a relatively pleasant experience. The atmosphere was classy and nice. The waiters were polite. The place filled with delicious aromas every time someone's food came out - that's got to be a good sign. And with the entertainment book discount, lunch came to under $30~ (but I guess it would have been quite a bit more without that discount)

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29/40

Tuscany Ristorante
55 Norton Street
Leichhardt
NSW 2040
Tel: (02) 9568 2220

La Parrillada - Leichhardt

My friends had initially wanted to try Brazillian barbeque in Leichhardt but unfortunately, it was booked out on this (and probably every) Saturday night. So, as our goal was barbequed charcoaled meat and lots and lots of meat, we opted to try out La Parrillada, a Peruvian grill restaurant nearby. This place offered over 3kgs of meat for 4 people ($110) and for four hungry carnivours such as ourselves, it sounded pretty good :)

La Parrillada

In terms of drinks, my company wanted to try the purple corn juice. Unfortunately, this was sold out. Instead, I tried their Peruvian soda, the Inca Kola ($3.50). This looked and tasted like asian Schweppes creaming soda, just as sweet but with slightly more fizz.

Inca Kola - $3.50

As part of our meal, we started with bread rolls and chargrilled frankfurts. The bread rolls were slightly warm but was a little tough and chewy. The frankfurts were really hot and very tasty. Chargrilly, meaty, with little chunks of fat visible. Oh well - we were about to embark on over 3kgs of meat so what was a bit more fat?

bread roll

Chargrilled Frankfurts

To accompany and complement the meat, we got a variety of sauces. There was tomato sauce (the red one), mayo (white), mild homemade chilli sauce (green), and hot spicy chilli sauce (orange). I loved the mayo and the green chilli. It was mild yet tasty. The orange one was definately too hot for me, but my partner finished platefuls of it.

La Parrillada sauces

We also got a bowl of chips and salad with our deal. The chips were slightly too oily. The colour was also a bit off-golden brown. It seemed to have been deep-fried in old oil. It was still crispy though and we did manage to polish off the whole bowl. The salad was a bit plain. Just lettuce, cucumber, tomato and bits of red capsicum. I used the lettuce to wrap around my meat to make me feel a bit better about the whole deal.

hot chips

salad

Now onto the pile of meat. The waitress asked us how we wanted our meat - we chose medium and it got slightly more cooked as it stayed on the grill longer and longer. This huge pile of meat had stuff like sirloin, T-bone, and New York beef cuts, pork loin chops, pork spare ribs, lamb cutlet, chorizo, and beef and pork ribs. Yes - it was every vegetarian's nightmare. I also, was in a bit of shock to see such a huge pile of meat. Nonetheless my dinner company was overjoyed at the chargrill flavoured meat and we dug into it straight away.

Pile of meat - over 3kg

I had doubts about our ability to eat all this meat but amazingly we managed to gobble it all up after a good couple of hours. We were all thoroughly stuffed and left feeling satisfied.

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29.5/40

La Parrillada
470 Parramatta Rd
Leichhardt
NSW 2040
tel: (02) 9560 0943

Braza Churrascaria - Leichhardt

Braza Churrascaria

My partner was dying for Brazilian churrasco - so much so that we got to Leichhardt at around 6 ish and waited around til 8.30 ish, refusing to leave until we finally got a seat. Having more than one churasco place on Norton Street, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the restaurants were all booked out - accepting pretty much no customers without a booking. I guess we were lucky we finally got a table at Braza.

So what is it about churrasco that entices people? It might be the rowdy, lively atmosphere. Or the all you can eat part for $38. Or the fact that you get a wide variety of meat (definately would not recommend this place to a vegetarian). Or, as what my partner falls for, the love of char-grilled, barbequed meat spinning round and round and round on a skewer roast type thing. :P

The deal is, $38 - all you can eat meat. Lovely meat-bringing people come around and around with skewers of different types of meat. If you want it, you say yes - they cut a bit off for you, and you pick it up with the tongs. If you say no, they are (mostly) not offended. There's also this funny egg-timer shaped thing (below). Apparently, putting the green side up means you want food, red side up means no more please. However, throughout the night, the lovely meat-bringing people largely ignored this signal, often brining food when the red was up, and ignoring our table when the green side was up. Hmm...

Green-red stopper

Person comes round with MEAT

Apart from meat, there are also some (vegetarian) side dishes. There's rice, potato salad, green salad, tomato salsa, cassava chips, crumbed banana, roasted cassava flour and brazillian chillies. The rice was just... umm... rice. The tomato salsa - no complaints from my partner. Cassava chips... pretty tasteless ish. The crumbed banana was ... icky >.< Well.. I'm not a fan of banana so I'm biased but even my partner (who does like banana) disliked the wierd texture. The potato salad??? omigosh - sooo sooo sooo yummmy. Mmmm... Soft fluffly potatos accompanied by corn, zucchini, carrots and deep-fried onion flakes. Green salad was nice - just enough vinegarette. Apparently unlimited refills of side dishes... but probably unneccessary - there's just soooo much food~!!!

Rice

Tomato Salsa

Potato Salad

Cassava chippies and deep-fried banana

roasted cassava flour

Vege salad

In terms of meat, there's plenty! Ranging from:

icanha - Rump Cap
Costela - Beef Rib
Fraldinha - Thick Flank
Alcatra - Rump
Linguiça - Sausage
Coração de Frango - Chicken Hearts
Asinha de Frango - Chicken Wings
Sobre Coxa - Chicken Thigh
Costelinha de Porco - Pork Ribs
Paleta de Porco - Pork Neck
Pernil - Pork Leg
Pernil de Carneiro - Lamb Leg
Alcatra de Carneiro - Lamb Rump

There's also seafood - Prawns (Camarão) and fish of the day (Peixe do Dia), and Pineapple, cheese and garlic bread.

Variety of meats on our plate

So how was the food? The beefs and pork were quite palatable. And I absolutely loved the sausages (my bias) and chicken wings and the pork ribs and the prawns. But what really blew me away were the Chicken thigh (OMGness sooooooooo tender and juicy and char-grilled tasting), the beef ribs (WOWnesss!!! words cannot describe) and the fish of the day (the grilling kept all the juices in - which was sooo much better than I expected!!!). Mmm... and we also hung around for the pineapple. The pineapple is a weird and wonderful thing. Beautifully caramelised, yet brings along that citrisy type pineapple tropical taste afterwards.

In restaurants like these - one tip. Don't be greedy! You can end up with lotza meats on your plate but you can't stomach it all at once~ And before you know it, the meats will become cool and then slightly cold. So the tip is to NOT pile your food up on your plate. Instead, get a steady flow of meats (at the pace you eat it) so your meat is the lovely sizzling temperature when you eat it~ But ... can you resist and say NO when your fav cut of meat comes to your table?

I'm glad we hung around Leichhardt for this place. But (unlike what my partner wants), I probably don't need to be back any time too soon. Waaaayyy too much meat LOL

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money -8/10
Overall - 30.5/40

Braza Churrascaria
13 Norton St
Leichhardt
NSW,
tel: (02) 9572 7921

Caesars - Leichhardt

Caesars

On a somewhat dreary wet Sunday night, I found myself in the Italian Forum needing to make the ultimate decision on where to eat. Having eating at Caesar's previously (probably a little over 4 years ago) and having found it pretty good, I was still a little nervous when I made the decision to step into the restaurant (cos there was no one in there!!!).

One of the waiters was nice and friendly - and most importantly, offered us a free bottle of wine. The other waiter was... umm... very noob and didn't really know what she was doing half the time. Nonetheless, the important thing is, our orders were taken and food arrived.

A garlic pizza was ordered to share as an appetizer. This was very flavoursome. The vertex of my slice was crunchy and biscuit-like. If I closed my eyes, I would have thought that I was eating Cheddar Shapes. The "crust" or the arc bit tasted like a normal gourmet pizza. Interesting and quite yummy.

I have no idea why this photo is so yellow.

Garlic Pizza

I ordered the fettuccine with chicken and mushrooms in a cream-based sauce. I was surprised by the size of my pasta and the amount of mushrooms in it~ Quite nice and very herby flavoursomeness. The chicken was also very tender. The only criticism of this dish lay in the sauce. It was not cheesey or creamy enough. Instead, it had a very oily taste to it.

Fettuccine with chicken and mushrooms

My partner had the pasta of the day which was penne with chunky beef. My partner very much enjoyed this. The beef was the chuncky braised typed - which my partner likes, and the pasta was al-dente and my partner gave the dish a rating of 9/10. Again, the downfall was in the amount of oil which was used.

Pasta of the day - penne with chunky beef

My mum shared what looks like a clam risotto and the pappardelle al funghi with a family friend. No complaints from their side of the table so I assumed that all was in order.

Clam risotto (?)

Pappardelle al funghi

Other dishes ordered on the night include the lasagne and the steak (cooked medium and with mushroom sauce). My dad commented on the awesomeness hand-cut chips crunchiness. Again, plates were cleared and everyone seemed to enjoy their meals.

Lasagne

Steak with mushroom sauce

Now onto dessert, which was a slightly different story. The vanilla cannoli deceived our fellow diners. Whilst we assumed that the outside would be crispy and the inside would be smooth, it seemed to turn out bland and somewhat tasteless.

Vanilla Cannoli

As for the gelato that we ordered - they ran out of the restaurant to the gelato shop upstairs to get it for us!!! Oh well... I guess by ordering it in the restaurant, we get it in a glass with two added wafers. When the noob waitress put it down, I asked her which one had what flavour in it (they were different) and the waitress had no clue. If we just wanted any flavour, you'd think that we wouldn't have to pick the flavours from a list~ Nevertheless, gelatos were yummy. And cold.

Gelato

Despite having very little patrons in the restaurant, I think that the food was overall, quite decent. Large portions, came out hot, and everyone cleaned their plates. The service by the good waiter was quite good, and the service from the noob waitress... well... it was probably her first day :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8.5/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 32/40

Caesars
The Italian Forum
Shop 30
23 Norton Street
Leichhardt, NSW, 2040
tel: (02) 9569 0444