Brewtown, Newtown

Not actually late to the party this time. Just a huge backlog of stuff I need to do. That aforementioned party is the huge social media driven attention that Brewtown is currently experiencing. Keen to check it out for myself and always happening to be around Newtown, off we went to hipster town. 

If you haven't heard of them already, Brewtown is hot news right now. Avid followers line up outside keen for their freshly fried batches of cronuts, roasted coffee and other simple breakfast items.

Corned beef hash with garden peas, poached egg and parmesan crumbs 15

We start off with potato hash, corned beef and eggs. I'm always looking forward to perfectly poached eggs but they definitely need to up their egg game because they were incredibly over-cooked.

Beetroot cured ocean trout with goat's cheese, caper berries and baby beets 16.5

Next up is a fresh little garden of watercress, sweet baby beets, salty caper berries and dill with sweet ribbons of ocean trout and creamy mild goats cheese thrown around. 

Squid ink linguine, garlic chilli prawns, kale and parmesan 18.5

Health nuts rejoice as the usual affair of squid ink pasta, parmesan and prawns is twisted up with the addition of kale. We love the touch of chilli at the end which brightens up an otherwise plain-jane dish.  

Cinnamon Cronut 4.5

Chocolate Crumble Cronut 4.5

Raspberry Jam Cronut 4.5

First time ever with cronuts and they're pretty good... for a fad (I adore macarons by the way so a little ironic). I think I set the bar a bit high but you get what you expect: a flakey layered doughnut. They're nice and crisp with simple toppings; perfect way to finish.

The food's top notch, the coffee's roasted and brewed up stairs and they've almost single-handedly fed Sydney's obsession with pastry hybrid. Matched with bright-eyed service, it's easy to see that the whole hype around is totally justified.

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Miss Peaches Soul Food Kitchen, Newtown

 42 percent. That's what the rating for Miss Peaches read a couple months ago. I'm going to be frank. Urbanspoon, whilst never deciding what my end opinion is, pretty much dictates where I go out to eat. Sure, if no one's heard of the place and I happen to come across it, even better. I know it's pretentious sounding but I hardly ever venture out to an unknown place knowing it there's a 'greater likelihood' of it being crap. I hardly am spontaneous. There's actually heaps of 'research' (other blogs heh heh) that goes into my places so needless to say I went into Miss Peaches with a lot of trepidation.

Really sorry for all the picture quality. Wasn't planning to get a post up on this one so I didn't bring my proper camera but then everyone else started taking pictures off food so I figured I'd join in the 'fun' with my phone. Yeah...

Tatter Totts 8

See tatter totts remind me of something I had as a four year old. They're really nothing special so why on earth did we all (me included) keep coming back to them. Was it the fact that they were generously seasoned, fluffy and light? Was it the slightly spicy, sweet maple ketchup? Mysteries of the world...

Fried Chicken 4 per piece

Chicken. Boy I love fried chicken like a dog loves his bone. Despite what consisted mostly of white meat, the chicken was pretty well cooked. It probably wasn't the juiciest one to date but the batter was so delectably spiced that it just kept everyone coming back for more. 

Short Rib Sliders 20 for 4

Short ribs, whilst they could have been more tender, were nice and sticky and cut right through with some really good colesaw. Hut damn they were terrible. I'm sorry I can't possibly make this sound better than it actually is. They were just really dry, crumbly instead of crunchy and flavourless. Pretty much by the end of it there was a pile of corn bread sitting on top untouched with all the filling having disappeared.

Food was here and there but the place certainly has the right vibes going on. Prices were quite affordable, cocktails were pretty funky and the place has some really up beat service going on despite the busy night. Be wary of what you pick and choose but expect to come out generally in good spirits (the booze ought to do it for yah). 

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Hartsyard, Newtown

Hartsyard has been on my agenda for a long long while. I mean seriously it's on the same road as my uni and I manage to go to other places that are half way around the city instead. American 'dude food' isn't my thing and neither is an 'aren't we all hip?' mindset but Hartsyard has, for a long while, filled hipsters with hearty guilt-inducing food happily and a visit was inevitable.

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Black Star Pastry, Newtown

T'was Black Star Pastry's truffle weekend the other Saturday and Sunday and on top of that I ordered a croquembouche from them for Y's 21st that very Saturday. Double the fun! Little sad that there's only 2 items this year compared to the 8 last year but it was a fairly busy day. I've been there heaps of times before and they're very reliable while it comes to pulling off big pastry jobs so they were the obvious choice when it came to making a croquembouche cause I sure as hell ain't making it.

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Mary's, Newtown

From the outside, it appears to be an alley where one goes and get knifed but little does one know that a slight deviation off the King Street strip hides one of the most talked about burger joints of late: Mary's. 

It's incredibly dark inside so I apologize for the nausea inducing pictures. They're planning to update the space soon with a dart board and all but for now there's not much save for a really dark space in a double story barn. It's a pub so expected a loud night but also go in expecting local beers on tap. You come here for booze, cheeseburgers and fried chicken. That's all. Don't go in expecting much else. 

Cheese Burger 14

Mary's Burger 14

It really does taste like a whooper but there seems to be a few subtle differences. The burger is insanely soft (no hyperbole). It just melts easily with its greasy sauciness made with a simple combo of tomato, mustard and melty cheese in a fugue of sweets and savouriness. Shoestring chips are generous but just the plainly run of the mill kind. There's 3 available: mushroom burgers for the vegos, cheeseburgers that come with pickles and Mary's burger that comes with lettuce and tomato (you know... to help make it a little healthier).

Mash and Gravy 5

Mash and gravy is a must order here. The potato mash is uber buttery and smooth, rounded off with a slight crack of pepper and an almost watery similarly buttery gravy with a real meatiness to it. Just give me a bucket of this and I'm set. Happy days.

Service here is great; sharp yet laid-back and relaxed at the same time. Glorified Hungry Jacks is what I keep thinking initially, especially at a 14 dollar asking price for what essentially are fries and burgers. It's still hard to justify and I'm not sure it's different enough to warrant another visit but it should definitely be tried out for newcomers. I'll be back for some good ol' fried chicken action in the future which I hear great things about.


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Mooberry, Newtown

Once upon a time, frozen yoghurt used to be a sort of novelty. One where people used to happily travel a long while just to reach. With the competing Noggi and Moochi stores only in Strathfield in the past, queues were always waiting but these days you can pretty much walk right outside your house and find one waiting outside ready to be built. 

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MakMak, Newtown

If there's one thing that gets everyone's attention, it's the recent article on the best macaron by Time Out magazine that judged MakMak to be the best place for the little bitefulls. It certainly got mine. Having only recently opened a new pop up store in Newtown down King St, I was keen to try what they had on offer.

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Black Star Pastry, Newtown

Newtown - a treasure trove of fashion trends, 6.50 thai, music, street art and good food as i'm slowly discovering. Whilst passing Oscillate Wildly the other night, I spotted a quaint little bakery next door and it turns out it was the famous Black Star Pastry. Christopher The is the genius at work here, formerly of 2 hatters Universal and Claudes, Christopher has since left and opened up a little patisserie in the heart of Newtown.  I haven't had much time to visit it lately but I knew a visit was inevitable sooner or later.

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Oscillate Wildly, Newtown

Oscillate Wildly. I know, sounds like more a theme park ride than anything else but down Newtown it just happens to be a restaurant. One of the most widely sought after restaurants in the area in fact, known for their adventurous creativity that's a delight to many. And at 100 dollars a degustation, it's one of the cheapest you'll find.

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The Pie Tin, Newtown

I like pie. You guys up for pies? Course. Cooool. Conversation seems so short and to the point these days. Take that conversation for instance, 2 replies and it was organised with a group of old friends. But with pie involved, need there be much disagreement? Pie in itself is only a 3 letter word. What on earth am I talking about. Anyway of late, it seems like The Pie Tin in Newtown is quite possibly the most blogged about eatery this year. I mean who doesn't like a little braised portion of meat with good old puff pastry slapped down with some ketchup? It's not far from my uni; just a 10 minute walk down City Road into the hip part of New Town. Wait hold that, all of New Town seems pretty exciting, from your second hand stores, book shops and some $6.50 Thai to cure an academic's ailing stomach so pretty much all of it is worth exploring.

Autumn. It's the season of cardigans, gloves, heavy boots and scarves, sunny yellow/ burnt orangey hues, apples, hearty roasts, pumpkins, cinnamon and cocoa. Its the season with that hit of coolness; a reason to get all cosied up and take brisk strolls around the park while watching the occasional Autumn sky light up with a burst of crimson purple. It's the season where all those cheesy childhood memories of running around while brown leaves were spin/floating around come to be. From the tree, the transition from summer into autumn is so apparent with the shock of vibrant maroon gradually taking over. Autumn's such a wonderful season.

Communal tables down the centre, hanging lamps, exposed brickwork with a dash of quirky colour and vintage  decorations make this a very welcoming dining area. I'm already won over immediately stepping in. 

Tender Steak, cheddar cheese, smokey bacon 11 with chips

Lamb and Rosemary 6.80

Slow Roast Beef Brisket, hickory smoke and mushrooms 12 with sides

My beef brisket pie was quite good. There were quite a lot of grisly and chewy bits and they could of been chopped up a bit more but that pastry was a stand out, with the smokey peppers lighting up every bite. There were only 3 sides on display, fortunately the sides I ordered were well done. The coleslaw didn't have the living life chopped out of it and it retained a lot of the crunch factor which made it so delicious.

There wasn't too much sharing go around but I did manage to be force fed a stack of chips. Thanks to Heston Blumenthal, I can't even look at the humble chip the same anymore. They way he describes it: a glass like outer layer with a fluffy inside just makes me want to make some. Now I view all chips with a critical eye. These ones were soft and not particularly crunchy and thanks to my high salt tolerance, the over seasoning was only just bearable.

Lemon Meringue Pie 7.50

You might think that is a whopping amount of meringue but it works really well to counteract the tartness of the lemon and I love a good acidic creamy lemon curd. You might want to have some of that with the more neutral double cream which does wonders counteracting that sweetness. 

Snickers Pie 7-50

My peanut butter obsession sees me ordering the Snickers Pie. Quite selfishly actually, I neglected J and his peanut allergy. Sorry mate. I was pretty disappointed a Reeses pie wasn't out on display but the Snickers one surely made up for it. Creamy layer after layer of thick caramel and peanut butter mouse punctuated with snickers bits on top of chocolate and a chocolate biscuit base topped with more snickers. Delicious.

When you factor in the ginormous portions, Pie Tin comes at pretty good value. Deviate off the main road into the quiet neighbourhood and it's hard not to be drawn in to the allure of fresh home-made pies. Look forward to the next on my list of Newtown eats: Black Star.



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