THE VILLAGE INN - PADDINGTON, SYDNEY

The Village Inn
9-11 Glenmore Rd
Paddington, Sydney

The Village which has been reopened for around three months. It's a lovely old fashioned pub that's been around for 160 years. It's been interestingly decorated with some very quirky ornaments. It transports you back to colonial Paddington. It's a heritage building which  has undergone a complete refurbishment. The update is elegant evoking old world charm. We sat at the bar with a "friend" watching us from above - a stuffed bird perched on a branch. The exposed brick, tiling on the wall, leather banquettes, beautiful solid wooden floors and a hand wrought communal bar gives you an insight into how the pub may have looked in bygone years. It's really quite interesting taking a walk around and noting all these wonderful artefacts. The atmosphere is like you are sitting comfortably in a lovely lounge room relaxing.






















We had some spiced mixed nuts to start with that were nicely presented on a display board. We then had a couple of nice reds to get the evening off to a great start.


Sir had a 2010 Delta Pinot Noir from New Zealand. Mlady had a 2012 Pandalowie Cab Sav Temp from Victoria.

Next was an antipasto which we have to say came with an abundance of biscuits - Hurrah! How many times have you had a great antipasto but wish you had more biscuits? Well there certainly was no issue with that here. There was also a good variety of this tasty and fresh  antipasto assortment. The choice of hard and soft cheese was very palatable. Mlady loves pickled gherkins and made her own "wrap" of combining this with the prosciutto, sundried tomatoes  and cheese - pure bliss! We both thoroughly enjoyed this.

Mlady was in the mood for a burger so she chose the Koby  burger which is a popular meal at The Village. This consisted of an Angus beef patty- (which was nicely cooked) tasty cheese, baby cos, smoked tomato relish and served on a milk bun. There was a serving of tasty chips enclosing the burger. This was all served - on a tin plate which was reminiscent of "camping days".

Mlady feels that a good sauce enhances a burger and this tasty tomato relish really was a winner. The bun had a lovely soft texture and was easy to bite into, to taste the yummy Angus beef pasty with all its yummy trimmings. Mlady could see why this is such a popular dish.

Sir had another red - he does love his "reds". This time he chose the 2011 Accuro Malbec Mendoza from Argentina. Sir enjoys a good Malbec - and this was good.

Sir's main was The Glenmore Guinness braised lamb shank with pickled onion, white truffle and chive mash. Sir thoroughly enjoyed this dish. The lamb was cooked to perfection - as it had been cooked for 9 hours. It was so tender and fell off the bone. The white truffle and chive mash combined very well  in soaking up that all important flavoursome gravy.

Dessert was Tiramisu - one of Mlady's favourite and Sir decided on the Tart Tartin with pear. Mlady is quite partial to the Tart Tartin too and usually this dessert is with apple. Well - seriously with the pear - this was good!   Each dessert was cutely presented and  had it's own ice-cream and this went so well with their respective desserts. OMG these desserts were both so good!

The Village Inn has lovely fresh appetising meals that are served in generous proportions. The two story building has an upstairs dining room seating 60 and a folksy downstairs bar. They are also available for functions.

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of The Village Inn. Special thanks to Rebecca for the invitation and to Leeroy and Stephane for their time and explanations on the night.

LOVE SUPREME - PADDINGTON, SYDNEY

Love Supreme
180 Oxford St

Paddington, Sydney

Ah, Love Supreme. If there is one place in Sydney that feels like a little piece of Italy, it's certainly this amazing Pizza restaurant.

Located on famous Oxford street , right in the heart of Paddington, Love Supreme has been around for over 8 years and is well established as a local favourite.

Love Supreme was recently renovated and now boasts an impressive interior with amazing wooden features and adjustable lighting at each table making it a perfect choice for any kind of occasion, intimate or relaxed.

The restaurant seats approximately 150 inside and the large marble table and acoustic wall at the back make it a perfect choice for large groups and parties.

There is an emphasis on organic food here and everything is made from scratch, including the gelato. Love Supreme uses certified organic stoneground flour for everything, which is fantastic because it has a strong flavour but they also have Kamut bases for customers who don't like wheat or prefer to avoid it.

Today was a special occasion with Contessa Dee and we were dining for lunch.

We arrived at the venue and spent quite bit of time admiring the decor before taking our seats. We noticed a bit of commotion happening in the kitchen which turned out to be a birthday cheer. We started with a glass of Bellenda Prosecco and helped cheer the birthday boy.

Love supreme offers quite an impressive menu so choosing wasn't easy. We decided to begin with a couple of starters to kick off our lunch. Our first starter, The Porcini and Parmesan Arancini balls were crispy on the outside and perfectly soft on the inside,with strings of cheese breaking away from the rice as you took each bite. Absolutely divine.

On to the next delicious starter.........

Our prawns, bite size and crispy fried, were a great dipping agent for the tasty house made rocket mayonnaise.

We were so heavy handed with our dipping that we started to quickly run out. We should have gone a bit easier on it... oops. Oh well - next time!

Now, you would think that visiting a pizza restaurant means you order pizza (and this place has some amazing ones on offer). but we heard the Calzone here are something of a sensation so we really wanted to try a few.

We ordered two, one filled with silverbeet, ricotta and mushrooms and the other with Salami, Brussels Spouts and fiore D'latte. It's so easy to turn a calzone into a lumpy loaf of bread (most places make the dough too thick) but not at Love Supreme. These calzones have a thin base, quite crispy and very generous fillings. If you're thinking why would anyone want to put Brussels Sprouts in a Calzone (we initially thought it was strange too), we have one word to describe it, sensational.

All this amazing food was going very well with our Italian Red wines, a glass each of a full bodied classic Valpolicella and a lighter Aglianico Del Vulture.




















Next up some very tasty and colourful salads.

The beetroot, fennel and goats cheese salad complete with walnuts was a fantastic combination of flavours and the raisins in the Radicchio and Gorgonzola one added a surprising yet welcome hint of sweetness.

Both were very impressive salads.

Finally, we ended this awesome meal experience with some equally as impressive and delicious desserts.

The lemon meringue tart was, to put it simply, to die for.

It had a tender pastry crust, a nicely tangy lemon filling and it was topped with a soft, fluffy meringue.

The chocolate tart was amazing and was accompanied by a scoop of very divine banana caramel ice cream, made from scratch on premises. It was delicious.

Love Supreme ticks all the boxes. The staff are great, the food is delicious and if you live locally, Love supreme also does home delivery most days from 5pm.

They'll even deliver a bottle of wine from their very impressive Italian wine list.

We're quite keen to try their pizzas too, so it won't be too long before we're back and we can't wait.


Count N and Contessa Dee dined as guests of Love Supreme. Special thanks to Roslyn Mayled for arranging this.

  

CAFE BRIONI - PADDINGTON

Cafe Brioni
393 Oxford St
Paddington

Perched on Oxford Street looking out over Paddington Markets on a Saturday morning is Cafe Brioni - a busy little cafe with a good variety of things to eat and drink.

The coffee was nice - good flavours and taste. A large cup (or really a mug) costs $5.

The florentines come in dark or white chocolate - so the dark was chosen. It was very tasty - full of fruit and nuts and a good sweet taste. At $3.50 it was good value.

The pistachio shortbread was also a tasty treat. It was a good sized biscuit with a nice layer of chocolate under it. Again at $3.50 it was also good value.

Cafe Brioni was well worth visiting. The service was excellent, the coffee and food was good and it has a pleasant outlook.



THE HUGHENDEN - PADDINGTON

The Hughenden Cafe Restaurant
14 Queen St
Paddington

Using a voucher for dinner, accommodation and breakfast we arrived at The Hughenden in Paddington and were immediately impressed with this quaint charming place.

Dinner was two courses but we were always going to stretch this to three - why not!

The first entree chosen was the trio of dips - comprising beetroot mousse, baba ganoush and tzatziki served with toasted Turkish bread. They were all nice with a good mix of colours and textures and were generous servings. The bread was warm, soft and melted in the mouth.

Entree two was the salt and lemon pepper squid with lemon aioli. It was a smallish serving but was cooked perfectly - would have loved a bit more aioli though.

Main course number one was risotto del mare - fresh seafood with a touch of truffle oil. It was a good sized serving with plenty of seafood in it and a light tangy taste.
Our neighbouring table ordered the roast lamb shank pot pie with potato and vegetable ragout and it was a work of art (and almost seemed a shame to eat it). I almost regretted not ordering it!






 

Main number two was the market fresh fish - billed as the chef's selection. Whilst we were told this was Tasmanian salmon the fish that arrived was kingfish - but it was a good sized serving and nicely prepared and presented.




 

A bottle of house wine was also included in the meal deal - and it turned out to be quite nice.

Finally it was dessert time - and the first choice was a no-brainer as the daily special was chocolate mud cake with vanilla bean ice-cream. It was a good sized serving and the cake was rich and gooey with lovely creamy ice-cream.


 

the second dessert was the French lemon tart, again with vanilla bean ice-cream. The flavours were nice without being amazing. The ice-cream was tasty but the serving size was quite small (however another table had a much bigger serving - so they obviously vary).

The Hughenden is very nice - the food is tasty and the quality is good. Its a pleasant place to have a nice meal.