Bona Fides Restaurant Cafe, Sydney
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Hello all~ It's been a while! I've been so swamped with university assessments during the past few weeks and now I have finally reached the glorious and anticipated MID-SEMESTER BREAK ✨
Of course there is still lots to do after but I plan to catch up on a lot of blogging here & at my newly revamped other blog. I haven't spoken much about this other blog but basically I've decided to move my other obsessions and musings over there so that I can only focus on food-related posts here. I'll make a post about it later when I'm happy putting together the layout and every thing!
Anyway, a place I want to blog about today is Bona Fides Restaurant Cafe. I had never heard of this place prior to finding it on Groupon but when Francis and I decided to buy the voucher and have a spontaneous date night here, we couldn't believe how close it was to the QVB and Town Hall Station. Surely everyone has walked pass this a few times!
It's quite a small, narrow and comfortably cosy cafe interior. Hence being extremely intimate. It doesn't feel snobby at all. There is also outdoor seating available which I have seen a lot of people choose during the day time, however it was still really cold at night so we choose indoors.
I love that little candle on the table!
We're handed a menu after a few minutes of being seated and told about everything we can order with our voucher. The reason we bought this voucher was because every time it comes up on the Groupon website, it has the thumbs up with a caption like "93% of Groupon customers recommend this business based on 100+ reviews" SOUNDS QUITE IMPRESSIVE TO ME.
The deal we had was…
$59 for two people
2 x entrees
2 x mains
2 x desserts
2 x glasses of wine, Peroni or Pure Blonde beer
We started with our drinks;
House wine - white $8.50
Pure Blonde beer $7
- Both decent and truly showcasing the difference between us both hehe
Then the entrees which didn't take too long to come out…
Both absolutely BEAUTIFULLY plated!
The waiter bringing out our dishes was very bubbly and friendly. Just like we had seen with other diners on the night, the waiters/waitresses would bring out a HUGE pepper mill after each dish was served and ask the diners if they wanted pepper with their dish. Love the novelty and love freshly ground pepper!
After that ordeal, our waiter offered to take a photo for us:
And it's a really bad photo but it's the thought that counts! 😂 😂 😂
Stuffed Zucchini Flowers w/ fresh ricotta cheese, battered and fried $18.90
- Of course I go for one of the most expensive entrees on the menu hehe
- I had never had zucchini flowers before and I actually despise zucchini itself so this might've been quite an unusual choice for me
- I ended up being very pleasantly surprised by this dish because I LOVED it!
- The zucchini flowers were very delicately stuffed, and so delicious. It reminded me a bit of asparagus. The batter was very light but maintained a crispy exterior. Not oily at all, thankfully. It was perfect with the aioli sauce served on the side and freshly ground pepper on top
- The salad bed underneath was simple but very fresh
Francis': Salt and Pepper Calamari w/ garden salad and jalapeño aioli $16.90
- I wanted Fran to order something else but he loves calamari for some reason hahaha
- From what I can tell, the calamari was very big and had a nice crumb/batter coating
- The aioli didn't seem like jalapeño though, probably just plain aioli
We were both very happy with our entrees so we were keen when our plates were cleared and our mains bought out promptly after. They weren't cold as if they had been sitting around for a while which was a plus!
Fran's: Steak of the day w/ mash, bbq prawns, and your choice of sauce $30.90
- Is this expensive for a surf & turf? In my opinion it is 🤔
- The steak of the day was apparently a scotch fillet and it was cooked perfectly at the medium point as seen in the picture below. However while some of it was flavoursome, juicy and tender there were too many edges and a line of gristle through the steak which was SO unpleasant. Really ruined the meal
- The mash was good, a tad chunky, and the prawns were a bit overcooked
Cevapi - Grilled rolls of minced beef and lamb using traditional family ingredients $26.90
- I wanted to try something from the Balkan (south-east Europe) section of the menu since it sounded interesting
- The cevapi was really good, so so so full of flavour! Reminded me of mini grilled sausages or meatballs. It was served with ajvar (roasted capsicum and eggplant) relish on the side which wasn't served into that little bowl so nicely but did taste nice
- Salad was much needed because the chips were soooo salty and I didn't end up finishing this dish
We both thought that the entrees we had were MUCH better than our mains. The mains both had too significant faults. Almost forgot that there was dessert until we were asked to order them after our dishes were cleared!
Fran's: Russian Coconut Cake with cream
- Quite ordinary in my opinion but everything actually did go very well together
- Fran loved this though :)
Tiramisu
- So cute served in this chilled cup!
- The portion of cream was much more than the cake parts but because I love cream, I didn't mind
- The taste of coffee was very strong! It was more of a bitter coffee tiramisu than sweet
Overall we did leave Bona Fides Restaurant Cafe feeling pretty content with our little date night. I think that the mains really let this whole experience down but everything else was really good so we aren't complaining about it. I can see this place being perfect for catching up with a friend for lunch/dinner before heading out to the shops at QVB or anything in the area. Also I've noticed in other peoples reviews of the place their food wasn't plated and presented as pretty at ours so I am so thankful for that hehehehe. Let me know if you've ever tried this place out, I'd love to hear about it 😘
TL;DR:
Price: Quite expensive, but with the voucher it was perfect
Quality: Great, except for that steak
Service: So friendly and nice
Ambience: Small, narrow and cosy, not ideal for large groups
EDIT: I just discovered that Bona Fides Restaurant closed down! It seems they have the same cafe branch over at Tokio Hotel in Darling Harbour though, because that is now where their website directs to. So may be the same as my experience here. Sorry guys!
I've listed the old address below again.
Bona Fides Restaurant Cafe
70 Druitt St,
Sydney NSW 2000
1 comments
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