Cafe 279, Marrickville

Nana Boot has come to visit Baby Pea and we pop down to the shops for milk, fruit, chocolate and, er, passport photos. With 20 minutes developing time to kill, we head over the road to 279. The blackboard outside offers scones with jam and cream and there are souvlaki specials for $7, but Nana Boot is under doctors orders to eat beef so we decide to split the steak sandwich with chips.

Two of the tables come with squashy sofas so I plonk Baby Pea down beside me while I eat. Steak sandwich isn't something I order often as I'm cautious about tough meat, but this one is better than expected. With thick white toast, grilled onions and a ton of tomato and lettuce, it's not at all glamorous but the flavours come with childhood memories of summer backyard barbecues. The thin steak is well caramelised and beefy, not too chewy. I get most of the chips and I eat them all up with the little bowl of ketchup. Bliss.

Cafe 279
279 Illawarra Road, Marrickville NSW 2204  
p. 02 9558 7434 ‎

Fishermans Wharf restaurant, Pyrmont

Lazy as we are on Sunday mornings, if dumpling cravings strike we don't usually venture further than the Chinese restaurant down the road, but an interview at Fairfax's Pyrmont HQ for Sydney Story Factory volunteers provides the perfect opportunity for brunch at our new favourite yum cha venue in the fish market.

Arriving just after 11am, we're lucky to snag a small table at the back without having to queue. We're immediately offered a plate of takoyaki and don't say no. I first tried these fried octopus balls topped with mayo and bonito flakes at the Marrickville festival a few years ago and have had a soft spot for them ever since.

Apart from our favourite BBQ pork buns, the rest is pretty much a prawnfest - a mini crustacean degustation, with rice noodle rolls, dumplings and funny fat little sweet corn cakes that need a savoury splash of soy to make them interesting.

As you'd expect the prawns are great here. We love the plain har gow with a dab of chilli sauce but the prawn and chive dumplings stand out for their extra garlicky flavour. 

We leave the back way but on our way out to the car park we see the queue at the front entrance now goes all the way to the bottom of the stairs, so go early if you don't want to miss out.

Fishermans Wharf Seafood Restaurant
Level 1, Bank St, Pyrmont NSW 2009
p. 02 9660 9888
w. http://www.fishermanswharf.com.au/

Clipper Cafe, Glebe

This cute cafe at the southern end of Glebe Point Road attracts a quirky crowd. How do I know? Well, the other day I saw a guy perched on one of the footpath tables holding a kitten on a leash. OK, it's not as odd as the guy I saw in the Harajuku area of Tokyo dragging a leek on a leash, but it's still not something you see every day. The kitten was very well behaved, so the trick must be to start them young. It didn't work when I tried it on my cat Chilli a few years ago – she got startled and jumped clean out of the harness, Houdini style.

Anyway, Clipper is clearly a great place to go for a coffee and a chat (ha ha). It's certainly busy on a rainy Friday afternoon and my friend and I don't fancy our chances getting a table until a kind couple relinquish theirs and we're in.

 
After a quick coffee and catch-up we order two dishes to share from the all-day menu - a panini with salami, tomato relish, feta and babaganoush and baked eggs with lamb sausages.

Baby Pea is a bit cranky and I'm distracted by feeding but the sweet garlicky sandwich hits the spot. Once I've settled him back in the pram I can enjoy the eggs - they're perfectly cooked and taste great with the soft sausage and chunky tomato sauce. You can also have them with chorizo or sauteed mushrooms.

Next door is a fantastic French patisserie selling proper baguettes and classic pastries such as pain au chocolat - they even make mini versions, which I've never seen anywhere else.

Clipper Cafe
16 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW
p. 0411 800 063

Love Grub, Alexandria

For this fortnight's meeting of my RPA mums group (Rippas?), we've arranged to meet at one member's house then head to the cafe round the corner. It's a lovely day and I've left the pram at home – negotiating the stairs at Marrickville at Erskineville stations is easier with Baby Pea in the pod – so there's one less set of wheels to accommodate at our footpath table.

The daytime menu has breakfast and lunch, sandwiches and sushi but as its almost three we also have the option of the dinner menu, which includes a selection of Japas (Japanese tapas). Well, recently pregnant ladies and raw fish are an irresistible combination, and with separate requests for kingfish and tuna it makes sense to order the large sashimi plate to share. We also pick the pork gyoza and chicken karaage.

Japas sounds like a gimmick, but Love Grub takes its cuisine seriously. The regular among us reveals that the chef trained with Shaun Presland of Saké restaurant in The Rocks, and says his food is just as good.

The half-dozen gyoza are first to arrive, pretty, well flavoured and easy to eat - so easy that I only remember to snap the plate when there's one left.

Our sashimi comes with an apology for the wait while all the fish was prepared and the attention to detail and quality is obvious – it's absolutely beautiful, and we savour every piece.

We realise quite late that they've forgotten our karaage and when we remind them we get a little extra. I could easily have eaten a whole portion of the salty fried chicken with salmon pink mayo, so I don't hesitate to nab the last nugget before I bundle up my own little love grub for the walk back to Erko.

Love Grub
38 Mitchell Road, Alexandria NSW 
p. 02 9318 2323
w. http://lovegrub.com.au/

The Kick Inside Espresso Lounge, Erskineville

A few years ago a Melbourne friend took me to those bars that are all comfy couches, long-neck beers and retro knickknacks that work together but don't try too hard. The kind of place that makes you feel at home, or the home you wish you had. The Kick Inside is just like that. We almost miss it as we charge up Erskineville Road to eat lunch at a better-known cafe, but it catches my friend's eye and we think, why not? But is it good? A local overhears and says yes - it's really lovely. So in we go.

Spacewise, on a busy weekend it could be a pram-wielder's nightmare but it's midweek and we're fine at the oval table we choose. The menu is brief and mostly breakfast-related but there are sandwiches, a pizza and two salads on offer - we go for both, plus the kitchen's recommendation of a tuna sandwich. I've done my coffee drinking for the day but the others enjoy their Golden Cobra brews.

The salads arrive on mismatched plates and sharing with my dairy-fearing friend means I get all the feta in the pear and walnut salad, which is filled out with rocket and baby spinach coated in a sharp lemon dressing. The other has free-range chicken, Paesanella bocconcini (again, all mine), avocado, tomatoes and more greens, this time with a hint of balsamic in the dressing. It's refreshing to see a salad assembled before your eyes and with good ingredients - well, the tomatoes could be riper but I can't blame the Kick kitchen for that.

We take up the offer of soy and linseed on the side and it's freshly baked, restaurant-quality sourdough, too. Pea Pa's nicoise-style sandwich, meanwhile, is declared a hit, thanks to the happy marriage of bread and potato. Even the hard-boiled egg, of which he's a fellow hater, is entirely welcome.

Of course, Baby Pea is a long way from demanding his own babycinos and even a kid-friendly cafe wouldn't supply much to hold his interest yet, so it's a nice surprise to find him fascinated by the thick black lines of the We Buy Your Kids wall mural.

Another drawcard, which I discover only after I do my usual in-seat shuffle, is that the bathroom out the back has a lounge room attached with a sofa that could be a comfortable, private-ish spot for feeding the baby. I'll have to come back and find out.

The Kick Inside Espresso Lounge
43 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville NSW 2204
p. 02 9517 2255

BBQ One Kitchen, Eastwood

Confession - there's no pram in today's post, but there are a few greens on the plate if that helps. On our way to visit family on the north side, Pea Pa suggests a detour to Eastwood for Chinese and hands me his iPhone to search one of his favourite food blogs for tips. The review has our mouths watering but the name of one recommended dish seals the deal - Pei Pa duck. 

Prewarned that the restaurant would be crowded, we come in carrying Baby Pea in his capsule and a nice lady puts us at a table against the wall. It takes a while to get our order taken but the wait is well worth it. Not only that, but there's a bonus dish to keep you going while you wait - a big bowl of ugly/beautiful chicken soup - grey-beige, gloopy and utterly delicious.

Don't fill up too much though, because the portions are huge. For $15 each we get two large plates of steamed rice and greens topped with top-quality barbecue goodies. We've gone for the roast suckling pig twice, one serve sharing a plate with the Pei Pa barbecued duck, and there's a dish of hoisin sauce for dipping.

Maybe not everyone could tuck into tender suckling swine with their own little milk-fed piglet sitting beside them, but I have no qualms about it - in fact I can't imagine anything more heavenly, though later I feel like I've pigged out a little bit too much. The duck can't claim the same crispy skin but it's not too fatty and the moist, flavoursome meat is almost as tasty.

We grab a menu on the way out so we'll be ready to try something different next time we're passing through, though it's going to be hard to resist that little piggy ...

BBQ One Kitchen
Shop 10-11/160 Rowe St (Eastwood Shopping Centre)
p. 02 9874 5323

Let's Eat, Marrickville

Thai is one of my favourite cuisines to cook at home but one I avoid eating out for fear of disappointment. Most neighbourhood restaurants aren't bad, they just err on the side of sweet and bland and when you've seen one takeaway menu, you've seen them all.

That was until Let's Eat popped up in the site of a scary old Vietnamese restaurant on the other side of the train tracks. Pea Pa and I stumbled in one lunchtime, ate some crispy fish and fell in love. Now it's our number one pick when we want a pick-me-up dinner delivered (try the tom yum gai), or a place to take visiting friends and family.

Usually packed with people come dinnertime - probably not very pram-friendly - Let's Eat Thai is much more quiet in the afternoon and you can also enjoy the standard noodle, rice, curry and stir-fry dishes at a bargain price. After much debate over the menu we settled on two chilli-licious choices - the spicy noodle and the pad prik sod with prawns.

The spicy noodle is similar to pad see ew - stir-fried flat rice noodles with egg and Chinese broccoli, but with chilli and basil for extra flavour. It arrives with just the right amount of char and kick and we scoff it while it's hot.

 
The pad prik sod with pork is my newest takeaway favourite and I'm not sure how the sweet soy bean paste sauce will go with prawns. To my delight, it tastes even better. Let's Eat does prawns very well - they look barely cooked and taste fresh and succulent. In the way of vegies, there's only onions and lots of long red chilli for flavour as well as heat. The rice soaks up the amazing sauce and we feel very satisfied, but not too full.

That's good because we've got our eye on the desserts. $3.50 buys you sago with coconut milk or sticky rice with Thai custard (for an extra $4 you can have it with mango). We go the sago to share.

The sago spheres are a lovely shade of green and are clustered like frogspawn in a pool of warm, thick coconut soup that's super sweet. We stir them in and slurp, chew and swallow - yum.

We're in and out without overspending or waking up the little one, and with only a twenty minute walk home too. Tops.

Let's Eat
352 Illawarra Road, Marrickville NSW 2204
p. 02 9558 9508