The Fine Food Store, The Rocks

The Fine Food Store is a quaint yet spacious cafe located inside The Rocks Centre. Theres the choice of indoor table seating, window seats that look out onto Kendall Lane, as well as outdoor seating.

I stopped by to grab a quick lunch of a roasted vegetable frittata which comes with a complimentary salad and baby spinach. I opted for the pumpkin cous cous salad from their range of salads displaying in the cabinet. The other salads on offer were red quinoa, kale and quinoa, and beetroot and feta.

The frittata was also displaying in the cabinet so I suppose they would heat it up (microwave?) before serving. The frittata was light on flavour but I still enjoyed its fluffy eggy texture with chunks of pumpkin and slices of potato. The cous cous salad was pretty enjoyable too with a lovely crumbly texture. The best element of this dish was the mustard seed vinaigrette on the spinach leaves - tangy and sweet with pops of mustard seeds.

A pot of tea here is (in my opinion) quite dear at $5 a pot, but I was in the need of a calming caffeine hit. The green tea with jasmine was very fragrant and exactly what I needed.    

Roasted vegetable frittata $9.50 and a pot of green tea with jasmine $5

 

        

Overall I had a pleasant experience at The Fine Food Store. The food itself is reasonably priced with decent portion sizes.

Chur Burger, Surry Hills

I can't believe it took me so long to try Chur Burger!

I went on a Wednesday afternoon and luckily got there just in time to beat the lunch time crowd. Between me and two friends, we ordered the grilled beef burger, spiced chickpea fritter burger, crumbed fish burger and a side of sweet potato chips.

The beef burger was recommended to us by the waiter and boy was it one hell of a burger! The juicy grilled beef patty, melted cheese and creamy mustard mayo lightened with the slight acidity of the pickles and tomato jam. It was divine!

Grilled beef, cheese, tomato jam, mustard mayo, pickle burger

After trying the burgers from the Veggie Patch Van I've developed a curiosity for other veggie burgers. The one offered at Chur Burger has a spiced chickpea fritter, grated beetroot and honey labne. Without comparing it to other burgers, the flavours in this burger are good. First bite and I definitely got the punch of the spices which suits my liking. The beetroot with its natural sweetness is a nice refreshing element and the labne balances out the punchy spices. I couldn't taste the honey in the labne though. If I were to choose between this burger and the Veggie Patch Van I would go with a VPV burger (VPV's tomato relish is amazing!).

Spiced chickpea, grated beetroot and honey labne burger

Last of the burgers, the crumbed fish fillet, pickled cucumber, lemon mayo and dill burger. This was a very light burger in terms of taste and texture. The fish was soft and flaky but I felt needed some extra seasoning. There was a generous amount of what tasted like minted slaw which got me a little confused since that's meant to be in the chicken burger. 

Crumbed fish, pickled cucumber, lemon mayo, dill burger

On to the sweet potato chips. Chunky, crispy, soft and pillowy. Now these are what I call sweet potato chips! (I had a disappointing experience at Grill'd - over-salted and not at all crispy). Oh and not to mention these were perfectly seasoned with garlic and lime salt. 

On a side note - the price of the sides increased ): (should've came here sooner). All sides used to be $5. Now sweet potato chips are $8 and the other sides are $6. All burgers are still $10 :)

Sweet potato chips with garlic and lime salt

Atmosphere - they really crank up the music when there are more people so you have to shout even to the person next to you. Bright and open seating area.
Service - minimal - order at the counter, find a table and someone brings you your order. Water is self service with cups and bottles on the counter.
Value - 4/5 - the bowl of sweet potato chips could've been a bit bigger for $8

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience at Chur Burger. High quality burgers paired with equally good sides I couldn't ask for more.