BLOODY MARY'S - DARLINGHURST, SYDNEY

Bloody Mary's
332 Victoria St
Darlinghurst, Sydney

If you’ve been to Los Angeles, then hopefully you’ve experienced an LA style brunch. A decadent experience of food and drinks that starts in the morning and flows well into the afternoon.

The good news is you don’t have to travel 14 hours on a plane to experience it. A funky place called Bloody Mary’s has opened right in the heart of Darlinghurst and its been mastering that LA style experience, right here in our backyard.

As the name suggests, Bloody Mary’s is the place to go if you’re in the mood for a Bloody Mary but that isn’t all they offer.

In fact, Bloody Mary’s has such a diverse menu of food and drinks, it’s got you covered for breakfast lunch and dinner, whether you are in the mood to drink alcohol or not.


Bloody Mary’s is situated in Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, an area that has changed so much in the past few years, its gone from nightclub hotspot to cool and trendy in a matter of months. Its boasts a stylish interior with a courtyard out the back making it a perfect choice for a function or event.

We arrived around midday on a Sunday and we can tell you this place was going off. We walked in and clearly everyone was having a great time, trays of cocktails were being delivered across the room and the smell of some very nice food was coming out of the kitchen.

We quickly found a table and ordered, yep you guessed it, a couple of Bloody Marys and by looking at their menu, this place has quite a few of them on offer.

Count J ordered a classic Bloody Mary and Count N, feeling quite adventurous, ordered a Bloody Hell (normally it's the other way around). The classic bloody Mary was fresh and full of flavour. They make their own tomato juice here which really makes a difference to the taste of the cocktail.


The bloody Hell was nothing like we had ever seen before. This drink is not for the faint hearted. It has chilli infused vodka and comes with a slider, buffalo wing and a shrimp. Literally, a three course meal on a drink. The fish sauce, coriander and palm sugar give this cocktail a real Asian Fusion. Its most definitely unique and most definitely worth trying.





















After those two cocktails our appetites (and mouths) were on fire, so we were ready for some food. Blood Mary’s diverse menu has quite a few American inspired dishes so we went with that and ordered two American favourites. The Reuben Sandwich was generously filled with meat, cheese and mustard. Its been years since we’ve had pastrami and this sandwich had loads of it. The bread was fresh and tasted great too.

The salmon bagel was great. Packed with Fresh salmon and homemade salsa wedged in a freshly baked bagel, it was delicious and had us scraping up every last crumb. It was a decent size serving too.

So an hour in and Count N was still going with his bloody hell (this drink is massive) .Count J was up for another drink though, so before you could say tomato juice, a bloody Pirate arrived our table. This version of Bloody Mary is made with pampero dark rum and a lovely spice mix giving it a real Caribbean flavour. Count J who's opinion of dark rum generally isn't very favourable, gave this drink a thumbs up.

After this, It was time for some more food though and this time we ordered a couple of items from the lunch menu. The Yankee Doodle resembled something you would expect to see in a trendy Manhattan venue. A mouthwatering hot dog in a fresh bun with a chipotle truffle mayonnaise that was just sensational. We don't know where they get this mayonnaise from, or if they make it themselves, but we'd sure love to get our hands on some.

The chilli crab linguine was just as impressive.

The chilli was present but not overpowering so you didn't miss the taste of the crab, which was quite generous by the way.

The linguine was cooked al dente and with just the right amount of seasoning, the dish was just perfect.

By this time, a DJ has started and the vibe n the place was getting cooler and cooler by the minute so The counts decided to fit in one more drink and some truffle fries.Our drink, "There's something about Mary", was a refreshing gin cocktail with strawberries, mint, cucumber and lime. Like the movie, you can go a little crazy over this Mary as well. It's a smooth drink and very easy to drink.

Our truffle fries were quite crispy and not too oily which can happen sometimes with truffle oil. Luckily, these were perfect and Count N went a bit crazy over them so we decided at that point it was probably time to go. There was no way we could fit in dessert despite wanting to, very much.

We enjoyed our afternoon at Bloody Mary's so much. With cool atmosphere, trendy decor, an impressive drinks and food menu along with a  DJ on the weekends, it's the the perfect choice whether you're looking for a nice place to have a drink, meet some friends for lunch or need to fix a hangover.

They say hair of the dog is the best hangover  cure and you can order a drink here from about 8am on weekends.

See you next Sunday at 8am!

The Counts, who review for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, dined as guests of the Bloody Mary's. Big thanks to Kimberley Stewart of Agency G for the invitation.

 

SOCAL SYDNEY - NEUTRAL BAY, SYDNEY

SoCal Sydney
1 Young St
Neutral Bay, Sydney

SoCal Sydney recently turned 1 - and we were lucky enough to be there to help them celebrate.

If you haven't been to SoCal before you should try it - it's an experience.

The gang behind Applejack Hospitality, Hamish Watts and Ben Carroll, have created a laid back, beachy Southern Californian inspired haunt that transports you to another place and time. They're also the mob behind The Botanist in Kirribilli, Bondi Hardware and their new place that's also going so well - The Butler in Potts Point. They're obviously doing a lot of things right.

Importantly it's a restaurant and a bar - so they have plenty of great food and drinks.

Head Chef Zac Smart has really unleashed some great Southern Californian inspired creations on their main menu, which is all so easy to share.

We'd sampled quite a few of these on a previous visit (click here to see it).

Around 100 people were there to help Hamish and Ben celebrate - and it was a great bash.

Drinks were flowing fast and furiously - and we weren't about to have a dry night. Sir started with their Margarita, made from Reposado Tequila,Cointreau, lime, a dash of sugar and a half salt rim. He loves Margaritas and had quite a few of these! Mlady tried the other main offering, the Garden Party, made from blueberry-infused Tanqueray gin, elderflower liqueur, spiced blueberry syrup, rhubarb bitters and basil. She enjoyed her second as much as the first one! The guys behind the bar were working hard this night - but doing a great job and having fun at the same time. The fun was infectious!

We started our eating with some corn chips that came with house made guacamole and chunky salsa.

It's a hearty dish we'd had there before and enjoyed so we were glad it was on the list for this evening.

This was soon followed by some lovely lamb, ricotta and raisin empanadas.

The tasty filling was spicy, tangy and totally delicious.

It was all encased in a lovely crisp pastry too - just as it should be!
 

The food and drinks  kept on flowing - so like everyone else we kept on enjoying it!

Next out was Sriracha chicken quesadilla's - we just love these toasty, tasty treats!

The dish of the night for Sir was undoubtedly the next one - the ceviche lettuce cups.

He loves ceviche and these little bite sized morsels were simply delicious - with the fresh fish and citrus juice blending so well.

He particularly liked this all being served in small crisp lettuce cups - making them both tasty and easy to eat!

Then there were the chicken and sopressada sliders - quite tangy again and quite substantial.

We were filling up fast and more food was still to come!

Later they also brought out spiced eggplant tostadas, grilled vegetable empanadas, flank steak and chimichurri (and Sir loves almost anything that comes with chimichurri), Southern fried chicken and slaw and spiced vegetable cous cous.

Soooo much food - and all of it so good!

We washed it down with a few glasses of red (after our earlier cocktails) and grabbed a cab home! 

SoCal has a really laid back relaxed feel to it.

If you're looking for somewhere to just escape life for a while and sit back sipping a few good brews and sharing some tangy and tasty food with a few friends then head here!

There's some great retro music playing and it has both an indoor and outdoor area - covering all options.

Sir and Mlady were guests of SoCal for their first birthday. Special thanks to Ben and Hamish for a great event. A big thanks also to Olivia Warne of Pendulum Communications for inviting us. 

SOCAL - NEUTRAL BAY, SYDNEY

SoCal
1 Young St
Neutral Bay, Sydney

SoCal is the relaxed Southern Californian surf influenced place that has rapidly become very popular in Neutral Bay.

If you like comfort food in laid back surroundings with subdued lighting and great music playing then head up the staircase! It's a deceptively big space with several areas that are separate but flowing into each other.

A massive bar - signposted BAR which you can't miss - stretches along the length of the main room. At the rear is a very casual room with a real indoor/outdoor feel to it. Plants at intervals and exposed pipes on the ceiling give it an almost casual industrial feel, and coloured lights, surfboards on the walls, share comfort food and the music ensure that Southern Californian aura.

We studied the menu while our first preliminary order arrived - a very tasty serving of corn chips with guacamole and salsa on an enamel plate.

It's hard not to order this - they looked good and most tables around us had them. Their popularity was a good sign that they'd be good - and they were.

It was a decent sized serving as well with a generous bowl of corn chips and two separate jars - one with salsa and one with guacamole.

The salsa was nice and chunky and very fresh - with a bit of tang as well.

The guacamole was a bit tangier again - and it all went really well together!























Drinks time - we were in a bar after all!

I had a Fee Fi Fo Rum - as a rum drinker I just couldn't resist the name!

It was made with aperol, Pampero blanco rum, lime juice, vanilla syrup a splash of sugar and angostura bitters. Very tasty too!

Mlady had a Garden Party - made from blueberry infused Tanqueray gin, elderflower liqueur, spiced blueberry syrup, rhubarb bitters and basil.

The immediate feedback showed that she really enjoyed this.

Both drinks were very well presented, as expected, and nicely garnished.

Our first entree was a cracker!

The prawn and crab puffs with habanero mayo were actually not quite what we expected - but they didn't disappoint at all and turned out to be great.

We probably pictured something in puff pastry and what arrived was more like a round croquette.

They were so good.

The "puffs"arrived piping hot, crisp on the outside and yet soft inside. The habanero mayo was a winner as well - it combined really nicely with the puffs and had a nice kick yet it didn't overpower the seafood filling.

We'd grab these again any time!

Mlady is quite partial to vegetarian dishes - and I usually politely avoid them. Sometimes one makes the list to be ordered and they're usually quite good - for vegetarian dishes.

This one was an exception.

I'd probably describe it as similar to a vegetarian lasagne. It was rich, substantial, complex and most of all extremely tasty - so much that I think I ate more than she did.

Our next share dish was quite light and yet still a substantial serving. It was the mahi mahi with lentil salad, rocket pesto and veg crisps.

The fish was nicely cooked and the lentil salad and pesto added texture and complexity to the dish.

The veg crisps were to die for! Thin and crunchy we could have kept eating them. If they were available as a side we'd order extra servings!

Dessert time had arrived and even though we had filled up quite a bit, there's always room for a sweet finish to a meal! The sweets weren't shown on the menu but they were written on a surfboard on the wall opposite us and as there were two choices we decided to try them both. The almond and mocha moose was Mlady's choice and I ordered the lemon and caramel cheesecake with raspberries. The concept was to share them, but we failed. We each shared a mouthful but then stuck to our own choices as our favourites. Both were very tasty and the sizes make them ideal to share - if you can!

SoCal has a real buzz to it. It's busy but things keep moving at a nice pace. The southern Californian influence is certainly very apparent in decor, lighting, music and of course food and drinks. It all combined well to create a great place to stop by, chill out, grab a drink and devour some snacks or a full meal. Most tables around us went for the full meal option and shared dishes - giving everyone in each group a wider range of dishes to taste. 

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of SoCal. Thanks to Gemma for looking after us and recommending dishes. Special thanks to owners Hamish Watts and Ben Carroll of Applejack Hospitality. Thanks also to Olivia Warne of Pendulum Communications for arranging our visit.