DUCK DUCK GOOSE - RANDWICK, SYDNEY

Duck Duck Goose
136-138 Avoca St
Randwick, Sydney

Duck Duck Goose opened its doors for the first time in April this year and has already become a popular name in Sydney's bustling inner city café scene.

Situated in Avoca Street, Randwick, where the old T's Book shop used to be, Duck Duck Goose boasts a cool interior of exposed brick, cement floors and recycled timber crates with a strong ethos of organic and traceable ingredients for the menu.

This family friendly café has a cute kid's play area at the back complete with games, puzzles and a chalkboard. Their motto is Eat, Drink, Play and they mean it! If you've got a small bub, Duck Duck Goose has you covered as they have high chairs and the bathroom is equipped with a changing table and baby wipes.

All this may give you the impression that it is noisy and resembles something of a kids playground. Not at all. Patrons and kids co exist harmoniously here and if it wasn't for us deliberately checking out the layout, we wouldn't have even noticed the kids playing up the back.
We arrived to a full café so we ordered coffees at the window (there is a cool coffee window with street access which is perfect for picking up a coffee on the go). We had a long black and a machiatto. Good coffee and quite smooth.

If you love a healthy smoothie or freshly squeezed juice this is the perfect place for you. There are quite a few smoothie and juice options on the menu but you can also build your own if you like. We ordered the Immune Kick Juice with orange, carrot, ginger, garlic, parsley, honey and cayenne. It was very refreshing and the cayenne gave it a sense of hotness, a real peppery taste but in a way that blended perfectly with the other ingredients.


We also had the Banana Protein Blend Smoothie with frozen banana, dates, avocado, raw cacao nibs, hazelnuts, protein powder and almond milk. We absolutely loved it! It’s the perfect post workout drink (we had come straight from the gym) and we even had the option of adding a shot of coffee to it.





















The food menu is just as impressive so deciding what to order was proving difficult so we thought we would order a few dishes and share them. Our first dish, the Spicy Chipotle Baked Beans was very hearty. Served with free range organic poached eggs and a super creamy corn and avocado salsa, the combination is a tasty and textural delight. The dish also included our favourite Brasserie Single Origin Bread which is absolutely delicious.

Next up some sweet potato pancakes.

Now, we love pancakes,  but we had never tried sweet potato pancakes before, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.

Well, this dish is definitely something of a taste sensation, especially combined with the crispy streaky smoked bacon, maple syrup and mascarpone - it all literally explodes with flavour.

Our last dish was a special from the board, one we were told was the star of the day and this was not an exaggeration.

A very impressive maple, coconut and chia porridge. Topped with strawberry and rhubarb compote for some natural sweetness, plus the excellent addition of hazelnuts for a real crunch.

We loved this dish and really hope they make this a regular menu item.

Duck Duck Goose ticks all the boxes. The space is cool and the menu is quite diverse with an array of healthy options. It also hosts a very cool deli. We had a quick chat to owner and chef Nicholas Porter who told us about his efforts to not only be family friendly but to engage with the local community as much as possible. Nick told us they have connected with Randwick Public School and will be starting a food composting program very soon. Duck Duck Goose is open 7 days for breakfast and lunch.

The Counts, who are now doing reviews for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, dined as guests of Duck Duck Goose. Special thanks to Nick Porter for arranging this visit.

FOUR FROGS - RANDWICK, SYDNEY

Four Frogs
30 St Pauls St
Randwick
Sydney

Four Frogs Creperie has spread their wings and opened another restaurant in Randwick now.

The team behind the successful place in Mosman are clearly impressing customers too - there was quite a queue at Randwick on the night we visited.

The savoury ones are called galettes and they have a great range of fillings available including several specials each night.

It's a deceptive place in terms of its size and capacity as there's an upstairs area, a downstairs area and outside tables as well.

The food arrives pretty quickly though and its really tasty and great value.

One of the other highlights at Four Frogs - apart from the delicious galettes and crepes - is their tasty cider.

This stuff is seriously good and we found ourselves ordering several refills.

It comes in either semi-dry or dry so you can choose according to your own taste. Mlady went for the semi-dry and I went for the dry. We both love it!

The galettes are quite substantial and they're very tasty. I chose the confit duck, goats cheese, spring onion and mushrooms. It sounded lovely and tasted even better!

I was surprised later on to discover that this was exactly the same dish I had ordered at Four Frogs in Mosman! Go figure.

All galettes also come with a simple but tasty salad.

Mlady chose what would have probably been my second choice. It was the smoked salmon galette with capers, cream cheese and dill.

The galette was a crisp pocket enveloping a creamy filling and it was all heaped with a very generous serving of smoked salmon.

After a squeeze of the lemon provided it was complete.

Of course we were always going to have dessert - why wouldn't you - it's almost mandatory at a creperie isn't it!

We initially decided to share two between us but Mlady wouldn't share once hers arrived!

Her crepe had a generous spiral swirl of nutella, sliced strawberries and a mound of vanilla ice cream on top and it looked and tasted spectacular.

I'm a sucker for flambe crepes - and there are a few options in this category available. I'm a rum drinker so I was nearly swayed by that one - but I ended up sticking with the traditional grand marnier.

It was a pretty big serving of flaming spirit as well - poured all over the crepe. It also came topped with chocolate and a dolop of vanilla ice cream.  I loved it! A glass of calvados went perfectly with this as well.

Four Frogs Creperie is a fun place to grab a really great meal. There are heaps of choices available, the food comes quickly, it's substantial and really good value. This venture is sure to keep growing!

Sir and Mlady dined as guest of Four Frogs Creperie. Thanks to everyone there - we were looked after so well! Special thanks also to Florian Guillemard for inviting us.