Ain’t Nonna’s, Wollongong
Husband and wife team Cassandra and Matthew Bugeja aren’t looking to compete with anyone’s nonna’s cooking. At their Wollongong eatery, Ain’t Nonna’s, they’re putting non-traditional takes on comforting Italian dishes. For example, the Sicilian caponata stew gets its agrodolce (sweet-and-sour base) from maple-caraway seeds, roasted carrots, currants and sherry vinegar. Classic chnefflene (small dumplings in cheese sauce) is made with corn and crab, and finished with a fragrant crab oil. At night the space is a cosy restaurant-bar, with seating inside and in the sunken courtyard outside. By day it’s a good place to watch chef Matthew handmake pastas as you sip Ona coffee and eat Italian sweets such as maritozzi cream buns, amaretti, and cannoli filled with cardamom cream.
Butterball, Earlwood
Butterball bears a lot of similarities to your classic neighbourhood chicken shop. Peri-peri-marinated butterflied chooks rotate over charcoal; salads and sides are on display at the front; burgers are on the menu; and there are plenty of specials. But the similarities stop there. Everything is made in-house, from the deep red, paprika-laced chicken salt to the spiced maple glaze for the fried chicken. The chips are so good, Sharon Cook, who co-owns Butterball with Joey Sergio, says even if customers aren’t planning on eating there that night, they’ll still pop by for an order; Instagram’s Hot Chip Guy rated them a nine out of 10. And while the standard Greek salad and tabouleh are delicious, the special salads – black rice with roasted walnuts, chilli chicken, dill and raisins, and Russian potato salad with desiree potatoes, free-range eggs and double-smoked bacon – are outstanding. Earlwood locals will know this corner chicken shop well, but to anyone getting to know the area, it’s part of a handful of new eateries putting the suburb on the map.
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SIGN UPAnnie Makes Cakes, Glebe
Although her Glebe business is named Annie Makes Cakes, Annie Situ makes excellent pies and savouries alongside her exquisite, not-too-sweet cakes and pastries. There’s beef and stout pie with plenty of thick gravy, a comforting lamb and rosemary pie, and char siu pie filled with sticky house-made barbeque pork. But Situ’s roots lie in sculptural cakes that don’t allow sweetness to overwhelm the natural flavours of the ingredients. There’s a strawberry-cream pistachio cake made with layers of strawberry jelly, Chantilly cream and pistachio dacquoise, and a textural rose and lychee cake, with rose-scented Chantilly cream, hazelnut dacquoise and a crunchy feuilletine base. She also makes beautiful versions of classics such as spiced carrot cakes, flourless orange-almond cakes and chocolate-almond cakes, as well as clever creations incorporating ingredients from across east Asia, including mango and coconut sago, matcha and yuzu, Thai milk tea, and taro and coconut cakes.
Archie’s, St Ives
Everything about Archie’s in St Ives is a visual delight, from the cheerful, contemporary mural with its neon art installation, to the elaborate brunch dishes. Fans of the Dover Heights original will find a familiar menu at St Ives, but there are also plenty of new items, including poached eggs with labneh, sumak and chilli, and double-smoked salmon with white taramasalata on sourdough crumpets. Other highlights include the eggs benedict with yuzu-infused hollandaise sauce, and the soba ochazuke: green tea soba noodles with mushrooms, pickled vegetables, furikake and an onsen egg with roasted green tea broth poured over the top. The pretty pink espresso machine pumps out coffee by Seven Miles.
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