Cru54 Kitchen & Bar, Spanish, Surry Hills

Cru54 Kitchen & Bar


54 Foveaux Street Surry Hills
02 9281 1054

http://www.cru54.com.au/


Cru54 is a small funky tapas bar located a stones throw away from Central Station. Its just down the road from the Excelsior hotel so the area was buzzing with people. The food was quite good although personally I didn't think any of the dishes were outstanding. However this is a great place to share some food and sangria on a Friday night with friends. We ordered a number of tapas, mains and a salad to share.

Patatas bravas con aiolo (Potatoes with brava relish & aioli)


This was okay but fairly average. Actually I think the kitchen forgot the aioli..





Jamon Serrano, aged 22 months from Spain


Ever since the 'meat plank' from Jamie's I've been craving for some jamon or bresola. This had a deep flavour  and was delicious.




Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Orange & Asparagus


First of all, the goat cheese was incredible. Nutty, creamy and melt in your mouth. However the actual salad was so salty that even the orange failed to make an impact.




Paprika dusted crispy chicken wings with Tequila Salmorejo


Tequila and chicken?? Hell yeah! Unfortunately we couldn't taste (or feel the effects) of any tequila. Perhaps they forgot that as well? Haha. But actually this was a really tasty and probably one of my favourite dishes of the night.




Seafood Paella 


This was quite good, definitely recommended if you're dining at Cru54.




Pork Belly with marmalade braised red cabbage & aioli


This was the dish that we were all waiting for. Personally, I loved it. The crackling.. omgg.. delicious! But I think it depends on the piece of pork belly since the other people I dined with found this quite average. I liked it though :)



The bill came to $25 per head since we used a 25% off ent book voucher.

Toros Tapas and Bar, Spanish, Darling Harbour

Toros Tapas and Bar

Harbourside, Darling Harbour

9280 0706

My ideal start to a lazy Sunday morning is having breakfast along the harbour. Initially our plan was to breakfast at the Mecca Espresso in Ultimo but upon arriving.. it was closed! How disappointing since D had researched it and it was supposed to be open 8am-3pm on Sundays.

Anyways so our second choice was one of the cafes around Darling Harbour. We walked along the promenade and most of the cafes/restaurants were offering similar choices- big breakfasts, eggs benedict etc w/coffee or juice for around $12-$13- which is quite cheap. Toros caught our eye because it served 'canadian style breakfast'- that is pancakes with eggs and bacon. Sounds weird right?

We each started off with coffee.. 2 soy cappucinos and 2 skim cappucinos.

They sort of all look the same so I've just uploaded one photo instead of four. At first D & I were accidentally served the soy caps- which made me go 'this coffee tastes really strange'. But thankfully the waitress correctly it quickly after so we just swapped coffees.. Kind of awkward eating all the froth and then giving your coffee to someone else..

Big Breakfast - Bacon and poached eggs served with toast, tomatoes and mushrooms

The big breakfast is normally supposed to have lamb and rosemary chipolatas but I changed that to mushrooms- which was nice of the restaurant because I know some places are really strict when it comes to altering the 'specials'.

I enjoyed this. The poached eggs were great and runny. Bacon was nice and crispy. Serving size was fantastic, I could'nt finish it and had quite a bit left.

Canadian Breakfast- Pancakes with maple syrup served with bacon and fried egg

Voila! Looks intense huh? The three other girls ordered this and they all seemed to enjoy it. I think the sweetness of the maple syrup goes well with the saltiness of the bacon.

The verdict

I'll start by saying that the food was good, the coffee was good and generally overall it was good. When we asked for the bill I was surprised to see a $2.50 per head surcharge. Now this was unexpected. When we were deciding on which cafe to eat at there was no mention of a Sunday surcharge or any surcharge whatsoever on Toro's menu. It was misleading because if we had known about the surcharge we would have gone to one of the other cafes. I also think that surcharges (At least % surcharges) for Sunday may be illegal?

For us it was more that we weren't expecting a surcharge rather than the cost of the surcharge itself. $2.50 isnt much but its always unpleasant when you are hit with an extra cost that you didn't expect. I understand that the cafe may have higher staff costs on Sundays but there should have been a bigger sign or something.. The breakfast specials were advertised as $12 for the big breakfast with coffee and $13 for the canadian breakfast with coffee.. it didnt mention any surcharge. Anyways I'm not too fussed by the surcharge because $15 for breakfast and coffee is actually quite cheap and we we rent ripped off. But it would have been nice to know about the surcharge before we sat down.. And what if we had just gotten a $3.50 coffee? Does that mean my coffee becomes $6? Now that gets a bit ridiculous.

What do you guys think? Would you also feel annoyed by a surcharge?

Subsolo

Subsolo Restaurant

www.subsolo.com.au

161 King Street Sydney

Very cool spanish tapas & wine bar.

Drinks are a must have.

Sangria. This was quite strong for a sangria.

Manzanilla Martini:

Tapas:

1) Trio of Garlic Mushrooms. I loved this! It has an exotic mix of mushrooms. yum.

2) Paprika Salt & Pepper Squid with Saffron Mayonnaise. A bit too oily.

3) Chicken Chorizos

4) Spanish Meatballs filled with cheese

Mains:

For mains we actually ordered the rump skewers and the chicken skewers or espetadas but they were so good that alas..I only remembered to take a photo after our group had demolished the food. The skewers actually come with 3 sides- potato bravavas, side salad and vegetables. One skewer is easily enough for 2 people to share.

The chicken skewer or espedata was definitely the highlight of the meal. It was tender, juicy, flavoursome and lovingly charcoaled.