Another visit to Hartsyard, Newtown

First of all, apologies. I’ve been a bad blogger. Life has been incredibly busy lately and I recently realised that I haven’t posted much at all in the last few months!

To make up for it, here are some exciting new dishes from Hartsyard. It’s no secret that Hartsyard is my favourite restaurant in Sydney, and I’ll use any excuse I can to go there for dinner. This particular trip was for my birthday in late October, and I’m going back next week for my hens’ night – the boys are jealous! 

Zheng Hao Chinese Restaurant, Enmore

Mr Black and I LOVE our dumplings. I have spent many an hour beating sticky, cold pork mince by hand to achieve just the correct consistency of filling. I even dedicated six gruelling hours of my precious holiday time in Hong Kong to learn from the dumpling master mistress, Martha Sherpa, how to make the perfect xiao long bao, potstickers and other delicacies.

Hartsyard, Newtown – revisited

Since our first trip to Hartsyard on their opening night, we’ve been looking forward to going back and trying other dishes… and trying the duck again! This time we brought four others with us so that we could order just about everything on the menu.

Hartsyard, Newtown

The space which was once The Gourmet Viking has been transformed into the most exciting restaurant Enmore Road has seen for a long time. Husband and wife team Gregory Llewellyn (chef) and Naomi Hart (front of house) have worked hard to create their ‘seed and feed’ style eatery, complete with greenhouse for herbs and flowers, benches made from rescued extinct Tasmanian timber, and carbonated water on tap.

I like the Duke. Of all the pubs around I think it has the best value food, and the courtyard is cute and cosy. It never gets too packed for comfort and has a relaxed atmosphere, reflected in the staff’s friendly and laidback manner. They also serve up until 10pm on the weekend which is great for a late night out – plus, as we discovered on this occasion, the menu is 25% off from 12-5pm weekends!

Faheem’s and Ocean, Enmore: New takeaways for a new year

Being New Years’ Day, we were both in need of some restorative takeaway dinners. For me that means Vietnamese; for Mr Black, Indian. So we headed to Enmore to try the new Vietnamese ‘Ocean’ (formerly Pho Sure) and Faheem’s Fast Food, neither of which we’d tried before.