Saturday, August 7, 2010

Review : Darley Street Bistro

597 King Street (corner of Darley Street)
Newtown NSW 2042


Mon to Sun
Noon - 10pm


You know what it is like when you stumble upon a place that not only offers amazing food but offers it at an amazing price....part of you wants to keep it to yourself, in case it becomes so popular that either the quality starts to suffer or the prices start to rise.


This is how we feel about Darley Street Bistro. We want to rave about how great it is, but we want it all to ourselves.

Buggles & I decide to pop in for a lazy Saturday lunch. As soon as we walk through the entrance on Darley Street we spot the kitchen ahead. There are 3 blackboards to order from... snacks, mains & specials. We head straight to the 'mains' board.
It is hard to choose from the many dishes on offer....steak, braised beef shoulder, corned beef, pork belly, duck....it is a substantial menu.
Finally I decide on the Corned Beef & Buggles the Pork Belly.
We place our order & head to the dining room upstairs. The dining room is clean, light & airy with a very relaxed vibe. Photographs adorn the walls & several windows allow you a peak out onto the Newtown Streets below.












You can choose to sit inside, where there are a couple of large communal tables and several smaller tables, or you can head outside into the courtyard.
We sit inside & await the arrival of our lunch.













When it does arrive we are very impressed. The first thing we notice is the smell, it all smells divine and we can't wait to dive in. My corned beef comes with parmesan mash, asparagus, wilted spinach & dijon cream and the serving is HUGE.  Two thick slabs of corned beef, a generous mound of lush, cheesy mash and perfectly cooked garlicky asparagus & spinach all sitting within a moat of tangy dijon cream. The meal is sensational but I do struggle to finish.












The pork belly comes with a corn puree, broccoli and chilli jam. The pork belly is definitely the star of the show...crisp on top, the fat underneath delightfully unctious and the meat pull apart tender.
The corn puree is quite smooth yet retains good texture, while the chilli jam offers quite a hit of heat & perhaps the dish could do with a little less of it, a minor complaint as overall the dish is exceptionally good.



Next comes the only disappointing aspect of the meal.....dessert.













After our two huge meals we decide to share the Chocolate Brownie, Pecan & Rum Tower with vanilla ice cream & strawberries.
The brownie is suitably chewy but lacks any chocolate flavour. We also like our brownies thick & gooey, this one is more of a cakey variety. Buggles claims she can taste the rum, but I can't, the ice cream tastes store bought, while the strawberries are quite fresh & tasty. We won't order this again.

What I have so far failed to mention is how incredibly well priced these meals are. These dishes at somewhere like Bistrode for example, would easily be between $30-$35...here though, the corned beef was a mere $18 & the pork belly $24.
We will most certainly return very soon.

Squeak

Darley Street Bistro on Urbanspoon


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