The Backyard
Briars Sports Club
14 Ian Parade
Concord, Sydney
What strikes you initially as you walk through Briars Sports Club to The Backyard, is just how family oriented the place is. Children were having a great time playing whilst the mums and dads were enjoying a cool drink and eating an "adult meal". We say this as a lot of the time, places that are children friendly seem to only or mostly be catering to the children with the food. Not so with The Backyard. The menu is varied and has been influenced with dishes from around the world. We saw a constant stream of various delicious meals being delivered to tables. There is of course, a menu for the children, which had a good selection.
We sat outside on a long wooden table. Shade cloth protected us from the suns glaring rays. The children were amused and having lots of fun by playing with soccer balls, shooting "hoops" and playing with the foam obstacles.
- For drinks as it was a nice warm late evening Mlady had a beer - a Tooheys old - which went down a treat. Sir decided to have a cool diet coke.
To start with we had the Fried Cauliflower. Seriously such a humble veggie - but when cooked a little bit differently and teamed with herbs, pomegranate and tahini - you have an absolutely lovely fresh tasting dish with interesting textures. The influence on this dish is clearly Middle Eastern. We loved this dish!
Next we had the Bruschetta - spiced pumpkin, black sesame, yoghurt, almond and parsley. Such a colourful and delish dish. The vibrant yummy spiced pumpkin with the black sesame and cool yoghurt were just perfectly matched. Again great flavours and textures. Having a bit of everything on your fork - lovely.
Our main was the seafood platter - Korean spiced chilli prawns, chargrilled octopus w/ bacon-onion-butter, fried calamari w/nam jim gel & Thai basil, beer battered fish w/tartare sauce, black rice taco w/guacamole & house sugar cured salmon and fries. This had such a good selection and was a case of "where to start". Simply loved the black rice taco w/guacamole & house sugar cured salmon. The colours were so appetisingly vibrant and these were a great taste sensation. Sir loves nam jim gel and he enjoyed this with the lightly fried calamari. Loved the Korean spiced chilli prawns - very finger licking good. There were so many goodies that made up this delectable platter and we both agreed that the chargrilled octopus w/ bacon-onion-butter was divine!
We did manage to fit in dessert and shared the incredible Chocolate Mud Brownie - made from Belgian chocolate. This is a total OMG dessert! It consisted of dark choc mousse, cranberry, hazelnut and berry sauce. Everything blended so well and was such a scrumptious dessert.
The other dessert we shared was Buttermilk Panna Cotta - kaffir lime, mint, orange, grapefruit, passion fruit, blueberry and mango leather. An explosion of fresh mouth-watering flavours that were all so refreshing. The smooth Buttermilk Panna Cotta complemented this yummy array of wonderful flavours, colours and textures. Oh yes - the mango leather - how light and moreish was this! A lovely unique tasting dessert!
The food at The Backyard is upmarket, fresh and appetising with plenty to choose from - so something for everyone. They cure and smoke their meats, pickle their own veggies which is not your average club approach. It's really more of a gastroclub but with a casual relaxed setting.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of the Backyard. A big thank you to Adam for taking such great care of us on the night.