Bondi Hardware39 Hall St
Bondi Beach, Bondi
Bondi Hardware hasn't been around for ages - it only opened its doors in late 2011 - but it's fast becoming an institution in Bondi and the crowds they are attracting certainly highlight this fact!
If you like a laid back relaxed place with subdued lighting, delicious food, friendly helpful service and plenty of great drink choices then this is your place.
Bondi Hardware is a long place - long, casual and inviting - with strong natural elements from lots of timber, exposed stone and bricks on the walls and even a very large timber lined skylight in the roof allowing natural light in and a view up to the sky! There's even an exposed chimney in the middle reaching up through the ceiling but also plenty of greenery as well with hanging plants all around.
It's a place to drop in for a drink, a drink and a nibble or you can settle in for the night and have a full meal.
Bondi Hardware is owned by Hamish Watts and Ben Carroll who are also behind the successful ventures over the bridge - The Botanist and SoCal. They have transformed this former hardware store yet retained its vibe and it's backyard garden shed feel in many respects.
You get greeted at the door to be seated and if you've booked - which is certainly advisable - your names are written in chalk on top of your table (and rubbed out when you are seated). It's again a bit more of the hardware theme flowing through!
At a bar the first thing you want is usually a drink. Mlady chose a Ginger Tommy which was a special for the day made from ginger, agave margarita with a salty dog rim on the rocks. Mlady isn't generally a margarita drinker but she does love ginger and she said that it looked and tasted great with good flavours and a nice kick. My choice was called Dark and Pear-y made from Goslings black seal rum with a dash of peach bitters, lime and freshly squeezed pear juice, topped with ginger beer and a skewered pear garnish. I love rum but was worried that the pear may not go perfectly with it. I was wrong - it turned out to be a fantastic drink.
As soon as we saw the pumpkin, chia and kale croquettes with lemon aioli on the menu we both wanted them!They just sounded so great - and fortunately when we got them and tasted them they lived up to our expectations.
They were delicious with great flavours on their own and were even better when dipped in the tangy lemon aioli.
The baked cauliflower dip sounded unusual and we like unusual.
It was actually still hot when it arrived at the table and it came served with several pieces of lightly charred sourdough.
Wow - what a dish. This was amazing and with a nice kick to it as well.
We'd certainly grab this one next time!
Sliders are popular for a reason. They're easy to eat and leave you with space for either more sliders - which is a frequent option - or other dishes. There are three varieties available at Bondi Hardware and we decided to skip the tasty sounding beef version and try both the duck (mini smoked and pulled duck burgers with slaw and pickles) and prawn (mini prawn burgers with avocado, spring onion, dill mayo and lettuce) versions. They were both thoroughly delicious.
Next up were the chicken pinchos on sweet and sour eggplant. They weren't exactly what we expected - because we weren't paying complete attention and somehow were thinking of pintxos - the Spanish snack of slivers of bread topped with treats. This wasn't a problem though as these chicken skewers were so delicious. The chicken was extremely tender and the sweet and sour eggplant was a nice contrast.
We both love haloumi so the pan fried haloumi, faro, cherry tomato and oregano was an easy choice from the varied menu.At some places you have to hunt for the haloumi in the dish - but not here. There's plenty of lovely haloumi resting on top of the salad and its golden brown on the outside and lovely and soft inside.
This was great - and the salad went nicely with it as well.
A lovely meal needs a sweet finish and even though there's only one option here at Bondi Hardware it's a good one!The Belgian chocolate brownie comes in a big serving - as its designed to share. It comes with chocolate ice cream, a drizzle of salted caramel sauce and plenty of crushed pistachios.
This is an extremely decadent dessert - and extremely tasty as well!
Bondi Hardware has a great feel to it. There's a great atmosphere combined with lovely food and drinks. If you drop by for a sip and a snack you'll probably end up staying a lot longer than you had planned.
It's a place you'll revisit!
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Bondi Hardware. Thanks to owners Hamish Watts and Ben Carroll. Thanks also to Declan and Imogen who looked after us so well on our visit. Special thanks to Joanna Steuart and Olivia Warne of Pendulum Communications for arranging our visit.
