Just when I think food is getting better in the Sutherland Shire I get slapped in the face with ignorance.

White pizza or better known as pizza bianca is a strange pizza request according to Swiss Quattro.   Quite sad considering they were a NSW winner in the I Love Food Awards.

This is our third attempt to get a white pizza with boconcini, sundried tomatoes, prosciutto and basil.

The first attempt was actually not too bad, I thought I had found the fantastic alternative to pizza that has way too much cheese and topping on it.   Sadly the second one was very pathetic and resembled garlic pizza bread with a scant amount of topping.  It is the third pizza that I actually felt we should ring up and complain about.  I don’t complain that often, but this was s#@t in a box.  Please excuse my profanity.

The base had turned orange through the amount of sundried tomato on it, okay I have to take into account that maybe they were being generous, but it rendered it inedible.  A scant amount of boconcini, some prosciutto and no basil.  What was delivered to us was poor excuse for food, I felt this so deeply a phone call was made to Swiss Quattro.  Basically I was told that my pizza request is a strange one and we are the only ones to make such a request.  What really irked me that no apology was made, let’s face it, you can see what it looks like, for delivering inedible food.  No want to listen to me as to what a pizza bianca is,  they make pizza they should know what it is.  No offer of compensation for a pizza I advised would not be eaten and thrown in the bin.

If I had been served that in their restaurant it would have sent it back and I would not have paid for it.  Sadly being home delivery, I did not have that luxury as the box wasn’t opened until the pizza came inside after paying for it.

I think what was delivered is the perfect example of not having pride in your food.  Would you send that out to a paying customer??  I don’t think you would, it is embarrassing.

In regard to their other pizzas, nothing to rave about to  be honest, but their service is quick and the pizzas are delivered hot.  We won’t be ordering from them again, obviously, no skin off their nose I am sure as we are not that regular as I make better pizza myself.

Sara xxx

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I have seriously run behind on restaurant posts for Belly Rumbles.  Seems to be so much cooking going on I want to share with you guys.

Quite a few months ago (err January!!) it was Mac’s birthday and we decided to get the family tribe together for a Sunday lunch at DJava in Cronullla.

DJava tout themselves as “The Shire’s only authentic Indonesian food” and it makes a nice change in the Shire from Thai, Chinese and modern Australian.  I was also after a BYO restaurant, it fitted the bill, so we just had to try it out.

It was a really hot sunny day, but the restaurant was lovely and cool with a breeze running through off the ocean.  There are nice views over Cronulla beach from the back balcony area and seats outside at the front which look over The Kingsway.
Beside a couple sitting out the front we were the only group (7 of us) dining there for lunch.
I was quite surprised when we went to order a few things from the menu and advised that they weren’t available.  I really wanted to try the Rempeyek (Javanese peanut crackers made fresh on premises) but was advised that they are very time consuming to make and that management will probably be taking them off the menu, so therefore not available.

We chose dishes to share and I wish that our waiter had advised us on the portion sizes as the servings were quite small to share between 7 people.  We only ended up with a mouthful of each dish to try between us.

The food was fantastic, service was great, but sadly very very slow considering the only 9 customers all up.  We weren’t really phased by this as we were all happy to have a long lazy Sunday lunch, just very hungry at the start.   Lumpia:  Homemade vegetable spring rolls with vermicelli noodles & mixed vegetables, deep fried. $5.90 for 2

We had ordered the beef version of the Lumpia but ended up with the vegetarian ones, we weren’t fussed. Nice and crispy with a flavoursome veg filling.Bakwan:  Fritters of bean sprouts and prawns mixed with seasoned batter, deep fried and served with fresh peanut dipping sauce.  $6.50


Sate Ayam:  Satay chicken sticks. $5.90 for 2 sticks


I am a sucker for chicken satay and I think I have an addiction to peanut sauce.
Sambal Goreng Kentang Udang:  Spicy prawns and potatoes cooked in a fragrant & spicy sambal.  $18.90


Udang Mentega:  Prawns in a rich butter sauce.  $18.90


Gado-Gado:  Mixed blanched vegetables, tofu and lontong (rice cakes) topped with freshly made peanut sauce.  $14.50


Gulai Ayam:  Mild coconut chicken curry.  $13.90

Ayam Kecap:  Grilled chicken pieces in a sauce of butter & traditional spices.  $13.90


Dendeng Balado:  Dried beef with capsicum and chilli dressing.  $14.90


Both beef dishes were favourites, tender and tasty.

Rendang Daging:  Rich and spicy Sumatra style beef curry.  $15.90



Sambal Goreng Tempe:  Crisp fried strips of soybean cake in sweet & spicy sambal.  $5.50

Coconut rice.  $3.90



Seri Kaya:  Coconut egg custard with rich java palm sugar, subtly flavoured with pandan leaf.  $5.90


Beside the deflated appearance, the Seri Kaya wasn’t too bad.  I have had better black sticky rice pudding, but it curbed the craving that I was having.

Bubur Ketan Hitam:  Black sticky rice pudding topped with coconut cream.  $6.50



Bathroom sign appealed to my childish sense of humour.

It was a shame that they couldn’t provide a few dishes that were on the menu (5 in total) as they sounded interesting and tasty  They were dishes that included fresh pineapple, whole fish, bananas etc which I think maybe they had run out of on the course of the weekend and didn’t bother to replenish for Sunday lunch service.

A return trip is in order, on a busier day/night, to try some of the other dishes.  What we did have everyone was really pleased with and found delicious.  We will go back.

Sara
xxx

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The Crest Hotel has been at the edge of the Southgate Shopping Centre at Sylvania for what seems forever.  I will say it has had a major makeover from the days when I visited in the late 80’s to listen to live bands.

Mac, Junior and I decided to call in for a pub dinner on the way home after the dreaded parent/teacher interviews.  My darling boy is doing year 12 this year and my heart goes out to him (and all the others), lots of pressure.

We wanted a quick meal as Junior still had homework to do, but sadly and also a positive, the place was really busy.  There was a bit of a wait for our meals.

Junior decided on the jumbo chicken schnitzel, chips and salad $18.

Schnitzel not as jumbo as Junior wanted, thin but moist, he scoffed the lot.

Mac went for the jumbo chicken parmajana, chips and salad $20.

Basically cheese and ham, not really any sauce on the parmigiana, but schnitzel was thicker and more jumbo than the plain one.

I seriously needed a steak!  Scotch fillet, chips, salad and diane sauce $25.

My steak was ordered medium/rare and was really delicious, no gristle and had a nice grill/smokey flavour.  I ordered my diane sauce on the side as I am always dubious of pub sauces.  It came on the side as asked and wasn’t the best and was happy to just enjoy the tasty steak.

The salads were dressed with a honey mustard dressing and the chips were good, not the best I have ever had but were crisp where the chicken or steak hadn’t been resting on them.

I do think their dishes are over priced for what you get.  My steak, even though I was happy with it, was not a $25 dish at all.  The two chicken dishes were lacking for the price as well I thought.  Staff were really friendly and helpful.

Would we go back?  Well I am not scratching it off my list, but have many more pubs to try in the Shire.

Sara
xxx

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Enigma: A restaurant located in the Royal Motor Yacht Club Burraneer Bay.

Enigma: Definition by the Concise Oxford Dictionary – Riddle, puzzling person or thing.

I have wanted to try this restaurant for so long and was so excited when I booked for our tribe for Mothers’ Day. My Mum, Mac and I, junior, Bro and Sis in law and Mac’s parents.

If you are not familiar with the Shire, Burraneer Bay is lovely, situated on the Port Hacking River and the Royal Motor Yacht Club is in an outstanding position right on it, truly lovely.

For Mothers’ Day Enigma offered a three course lunch for $50/head. When you do your homework there are places that offer a cheaper option where you can BYO and also there are places that offer a far more expensive option and fully licensed. This seemed a nice middle of the road licensed option.

As Enigma had fully booked out for lunch they “expanded” the restaurant to fill up the rest of one side of the club. I was advised on booking that as we would be in the “other” section we did not have to adhere to the two seating allocated time slots, we were invited to stay as long as we wanted. Cool!!

Mac, Junior, Mum and I were the first to arrive and seated at our table. Ordered drinks and settled in. The in-laws arrived about 10 minutes after us. As soon as they sat down we were pounced on to order. Fair enough in one way, this is the day to churn through the covers.

So after three approaches by wait staff and eight of us trying to navigate one menu between us, we were ready to order. Yes guys the rule of thumb was one menu for each table, very interesting.

On offer were 3 entrees, 3 mains and chefs selection for dessert. There was a kids meal which offered either chicken schnitzel, calamari & chips or fish & chips for $15.

Amongst the eight of us we ordered everything off the menu, ah the joy and variance of dining in a large group. We asked if we could order a side of chips as an extra and were promptly told “no” we were not allowed to deviate from the set menu. That quite honestly astounded me, we were not asking for something that was not on the menu and this item would of been at cost to us and profit to them. Obviously they cannot cope with a plate/bowl of chips as an extra.

After ordering my meal I attempted to order a bottle of wine with the person taking our orders, to which the response with attitude was “see me I am wearing black, see her over there she is wearing white, you order drinks off people in white”. Thank you for so eloquently advising me of that. Our waitress was a real gem, we were so lucky.

Now just to set the record straight for those who don’t know, in a previous life I have actually spent quite a few years working in the hospitality industry. Front of house in a variety of establishments and behind the bar at pubs and clubs. So yes I will be critical of rude/poor service, attitude and unimpressive food charged at a premium.

There was no bread offered on the menu to start with, their call, but does add a nice touch at little expense to the establishment.

For entree I opted for the 1/2 dozed Sydney Rock Oysters natural. They were lovely oysters, plump and creamy, served with a basic cocktail sauce and a tired looking lemon wedge.
Junior went for the grilled haloumi cheese. Some were a little on the overcooked side and quite tough some were lovely and tender, served in a circle of thick balsamic sauce with some semi dried tomatoes, red capsicum and an anorexic asparagus spear.
Mac had the smoked salmon. A couple of slices of smoked salmon draped over a ball of tired looking lettuce which had started to brown. Topped with a ring of red onion and crème fraiche. Again circled with the thick balsamic sauce.

I had seen the mains being served to other tables and had spied the barramundi which sadly look dry and extremely over cooked, so I decided against that option. I don’t like lamb so that choice was off the menu for me, I opted for the half lobster mornay (crayfish). I am not a great lobster lover, but figured after 1/2 a dozen natural oysters I may be able to deal with the richness of the” “lobster”.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy. This is where the word enigma comes in to play. Let’s solve the riddle of where the rest of my “lobster” went? You can clearly see from the below photo that there are three bite size pieces floating in a sea of runny white sauce. There was one last tiny piece hiding up near the head. I checked with the other four “lobster” eaters at the table and they too also only received 4 bite sized pieces. What did the chef do with the rest of the flesh? Saving it in the kitchen for a rainy day?

As you can see from the below extremely disappointing. The so called mornay sauce was not a mornay sauce, it was a very runny béchamel sauce they left out the main ingredient to differentiate it from a béchamel, the cheese. My salad was okay, a bit on the tired side, I was starving so ate it. Mum left hers as it was just a little too tired.
Mac chose the slow spit roasted lamb. Simple, lamb was tender and okay, but greasy. Served with some oven roasted potatoes and tzatziki.
Mum in law had the wild barramundi fillets. I was so happy to see that she didn’t receive the over cooked fish I had seen served up at the table next to us. It was accompanied with salad and resting on mash potato, she was very happy with her meal.

Now for the Chef’s selection for dessert, cool what delights would await us….
Ohhh…. a vanilla or chocolate cannoli, wow, yeah, let’s knock ourselves out here!!

Overall I was extremely disappointed with Enigma. What we were offered for $50/head was a very cheap and easy meal with not much thought put in to it. They definitely have made an incredible profit from people going out to celebrate Mothers’ Day. I felt extremely ripped off by the experience to be quite honest. Unexciting over priced food and extremely poor service by the Enigma wait staff.

The club’s drink servers seemed a lot more relaxed and were very pleasant.

To add to the disappointment there seemed to also be a bistro somewhere in the establishment. We were watching people out on the deck enjoying what looked like really delicious fish and chips. I was so envious!

I won’t be returning to Enigma, but I think I will return to check out the bistro and enjoy a meal out by the water.

Sara xxx


Enigma: Royal Motor Yacht Club Port Hacking, 228 Woolooware Road, Burraneer NSW 2230

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Tuesday 3^rd November was the date this year that stoped a nation, Melbourne Cup Day. In Melbourne you would have been lucky to have had a public holiday, but sadly for the rest of us it was a normal day at work. Hmmmm well that is unless you get the girls together to have a very very long lunch that does not actually get you back to the office in the afternoon!

Bubbly finally arrived, after much prompting and entrees being finished. This is when we all started to melt. It was a hot day in Sydney and the venue’s air-conditioning could not keep up with all the bodies they had crammed in.


The service for food was very quick, drinks not so quick. Mains turned up and we had a choice of Sliver Dory Fillet, Black Angas Fillet, Cashew Pesto Chicken and Pumpkin & Goat Cheese Ravioli. I chose the dory, friend next to me had the chicken. Both were lovely, dory cooked well, still moist and could not fault it, some more salad would have been nice though. Chicken was also still moist and I have been told tasted great.

Dessert was a choice of Raspberry Clafouti, Chocolate Fondant, Passionfruit Pannacotta or a Cheese Plate. I had the Pannacotta, there was nothing wrong with it, but was not exceptional. The other dessert chosen at the table was the fondant, it looked lovely and nothing was left on the plate.

Elouera Surf Lifesaving Club
Mitchell Road, Cronulla

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