Best Sydney Breakfast (& Lunch & Dinner) Spots: Three Blue Ducks

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Best Breakfast, Best Brunch, Best Sydney Cafe, Bronte, Bronte Beach, food, Gluten Free, Gluten-free diet, Nose to tail, Restaurant Review, Slow Food, Spring Wellness, Sprouted Gluten Free Bread, Sydney, Sydney Restaurant, Three Blue Ducks

2 Ducks at Three Blue Ducks
(Image by LM for TSL)

After our Sunday wander around the periphery of Waverley Cemetery (see previous post!), we were a mite peckish. All part of LM’s cunning ‘adventure’ plan. He perfectly executed our arrival at the ever-fabulous Three Blue Ducks to coincide with a recently vacated outdoor table.

And, my fresh coconut water went down a treat…

View to the water from Three Blue Ducks
(Image by LM for TSL)

Fresh Coconut Water
(Image by LM for TSL)

In case you a) have been living under a rock; b) live anywhere but Australia; or, c) have another good reason for never having heard of Three Blue Ducks, I urge you to go and check out their story here. Essentially, five guys living the Sydney life, serving up seriously good nosh in an informal and unpretentious café on the main drag of Bronte. And, did I mention the food is seriously good?

Three Blue Ducks Entrance
(Image by LM for TSL)

…and from the other direction!
(Image by LM for TSL)

LM being artistic at Three Blue Ducks
(Image by LM for TSL)

Three Blue Ducks ‘Street Art’ Wall
(Image by LM for TSL)

Tetsuya’s philosophy was always to get the best ingredients you can afford and do as little as possible to make them amazing. And that’s still what we do now. Despite the fact we’ve got no tablecloths, we’re next to a bus stop, it’s got graffiti and it’s more casual, I think the philosophy is the same. We’re still using the same suppliers I’ve been using for 13 years. (Darren Robertson, Chef – Three Blue Ducks)

While the vibe may appear to be laid back Australian, the food is anything but. And, the service team is both disarmingly efficient and knowledgable* (which this picky gluten-free diner is particularly happy about!).

If your eyes are better than mine, check out the menu…

Three Blue Ducks Menu
(Image by LM for TSL)

I have had the braised lamb shoulder with peas, bacon, cos lettuce, onion and mustard jus on my last couple of visits, so I was determined to try something different this time…

Beetroot, haloumi, red onion, spinach salad with spiced pistachio and almond gazpacho – YUM!!!
(Image by LM for TSL)

I was not disappointed. This salad was the bomb! It would have been great without the pistachio praline and almond gazpacho. But with them… Total heaven. Maybe the lamb has been bumped off my favourite spot?

LM had the slow cooked pork. I don’t think he’s ever tried anything else off the lunch menu, he loves it that much…

Slow cooked pork with apple, brussels sprouts, chilli, honey and fried egg
(Image by LM for TSL)

…the locals were pretty friendly, too!
(Image by LM for TSL)

Three Blue Ducks is at 141-143 Macpherson St, Bronte, NSW 2024.

They are open for breakfast and lunch 7 days from 7am. Dinner is served Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Bookings taken for dinner only.

*Our fab’ waitress recommended we try the gluten-free ‘sprouted quinoa and millet’ bread. I have been looking for a gluten-free sprouted bread for ages and I wasn’t disappointed. It was excellent. She even gave us the details of their supplier. I’ll be ordering some from Spring Wellness next week. They deliver!

Retail Therapy, Baby!

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Adventure, Bed, Bronte, Brunch, Design, Furniture, Interior design, Matthew Hilton, Shopping, Spence & Lyda, Surry Hills New South Wales, Sydney, Travel

 

It all started on Sunday when LM promised me an adventure. We were lying in bed at the time, so he is forgiven for not seeing what the weather was doing. He does this with some frequency – the adventures, that is. He’s a pretty good adventurer, too.

The first thing we always need to establish is whether or not our adventure is to be dog friendly. Sunday’s adventure, it was agreed, was to include the pup. Initially, this adventure was going to consist of brunch at Swell – a great wee dining institution at Bronte complete with a view of the water – followed by a walk along the coast to Coogee – arguably one of Sydney’s most scenic walks along the sea wall.

From the comfort of our bed (more on that later), LM made a reservation for an outdoor table (no pups inside restaurants). We rose and prepared only to step outside to find reasonably heavy rain…

Intrepid urban adventurers that we are, we continued onto Swell. They’ve changed the menu since we were last there. We reckon it’s better. Outdoor heaters kept us toastie and there was plenty of cover from the rain. However, it was mutually agreed that walking to Coogee was a foolhardy endeavour. LM proposed Plan B…

Spence & Lyda Showroom
(Image from S & L)

Perhaps it was time for us to check out the very fabulous new Spence & Lyda showroom in Chalmers Street, Surry Hills? Of course, we knew from experience that the S&L team are very puppy friendly, especially towards poodles! An easy decision, then.

Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this most swoon-worthy outfit, Spence & Lyda was established in 1997 and quickly become a standard in the retail design industry for its use of colour and pattern. Their product range spans all the areas of life, including feature lighting, loose furniture and textiles, through to area rugs, soft furnishings, bedding and accessories. They also specialise in the manufacture of custom-made furniture and living pieces. So, as you can imagine, in terms of price-point it’s not like heading to Ikea for a few essentials.

At this juncture, I feel it is appropriate to confide a few personal things:

– I am the daughter of an accountant and a German. As you might imagine, I am fond of planning and order.
– LM is an impulsive kind of guy. He trusts his gut. He rarely examines price tags.
– For quite some time, we have been talking about the idea of purchasing a new bed. Ours has a rather large bump running down the middle of it, affectionately known as ‘the Hill’, as in “Oh, I see you have scaled the hill to kiss me good morning”.

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a coloured pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling. (Gilbert K. Chesterton)

With those things in mind, and remembering that we had not planned to buy a bed that day, let me show you a picture of the bed LM purchased approximately ten minutes after walking into Spence & Lyda, while I was still talking poodles with various other parties…

The Hepburn Bed
(Image from S & L)

Designed by Matthew Hilton, the Hepburn Bed is available in solid wood – American Black Walnut or American White Oak – and a range of fabrics for the head-board. Once I had picked myself off the (very nice) showroom floor, we chose the black walnut and dark grey felt head-board for our new bed. You’d think that I would be used to LM’s largesse by now.

I will give you that it is GORGEOUS. As the brochure says – “an elegant lightness of appearance, its slender body raised upon wishbone-shaped timber legs. Innovatively borrowing from traditional chair joinery, the leg joints have maximum structural integrity due to the lone grain connections throughout. Optional side tables connect intuitively to the underside of the bed.”

There’s just one teeny wee thing. I don’t want to seem ungracious. Truly. I’m looking forward to the day we don’t have to negotiate ‘the Hill’ like you wouldn’t believe, but take a look at that image. There’s no way you can have anything stored under that bed. You’ll ruin the lines of the design. I have a lot of under-bed clearing to do before my new Hepburn arrives…

For you out-of-towners, Spence & Lyda have an online store. You can find it here.

 

Sydney’s Bay Run (in my case, walk)

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Australia, Bay Run, Bondi, Bronte, Dogs, Inner West Sydney, Iron Cove, Photography, Photos, Run, Sydney, Travel, Vitamin D, Walk

If you live in Eastern Sydney, you have the world-famous Bondi to Bronte walk. It’s all along the coast and, if you’re a visitor to Sydney, you should definitely put it on your list of things to do.

If, like me, you live in the inner west and don’t want to battle Sydney’s traffic or the cross-city tunnel, you get the Bay Run Walk.

The Bay Walk is a 7 kilometre (that’s  just under 3.5 approximately 4.3 miles for those who think the old-fashioned way!) track following the natural course of the Iron Cove.  What makes it particularly lovely is that you’re never more than 20 metres from the water AND the walk is bike, pram and dog-friendly with lanes for walkers and cyclists.

There are also a couple of (as yet untried) cafes along the way if you get desperate for a caffeine injection.  Not too far off the beaten track, there’s also a dog park WITH a dog café.

The pooch and I try to get out for our vitamin D injection on the Bay Walk 2 – 3 times a week.  These were taken yesterday…

For those of you who know Bella, she managed to lose her ball, roll around on a dead rat while off the lead (BLECH!!!) and go for a swim after having her pic’ taken yesterday. One happy dog!