Cafe XXII @ Pyrmont

This day was quite a long day full of celebrations, love, and lots of food. To celebrate our anniversary, the Man had prepared quite the day and he knows me too well, for it was a astronomical gastronomic day for us <3

First stop was lunch at Cafe XXII. The streets where this is located is beautiful with the sandstone bricked buildings and the sun shining through the green leaves. It was forcasted to rain but luckily, not a drop fell on the day.

Modern Australian food. They also open for dinner Wednesday to Saturday only and brunch on weekends. Apparently their menu changes every 2 days!

Kind of like a barn house.

I'm falling in love with Pyrmont..

Coffee. They do syrups here so the Man got a hazelnut latte. I had my daily cappuccino, which was much needed after a 6am start. The fern on top was so well done I was afraid to drink from it but the design stayed put even when it was half empty!

Shared entree. Calamari XXII. This was different to the conventional calamari rings which have thick crunchy coats. This was more lightly crusted on the outside. The calamari was the softest I've ever had with calamari, so soft that infants may be able to chew on it with ease. Very peppery, I like.

The main course.

Handmade gnocchi with burnt butter sage sauce with chargrilled prawns. As this dish came nearer to our table, we could smell the butter, sweet and delicious. The gnocchi was so soft as well, not chewy at all. The sage sauce is slightly sour but the butter itself is sweet so there's a mix of flavours.

The wagyu steak sandwich with caramelised onion, egg, bacon, cheese, rocket, tomato jam, mustard aioli on turkish & chips. The chips look ugly but they're big and crunchy. The corner of the steak had a lot of fat so I lobbed a huge chunk off :( Other than that, the sandwich was truly the bloke's meal with egg, bacon and cheese on top of the steak. The caramelised onion and tomato jam were sweet but what was unconventional about this dish was that it also had mustard aioli. It was tangy and nice but the flavours didn't really match well together.

I also wanted to try the grilled haloumi and sweet potato salad but that'll have to wait for another time. The staff were also very friendly and attentive, and if the food came out late, we didn't notice it because the day was great and full of happiness. Just the first course of the many courses to come and I was already satisfied, both mentally and gastronomically :)