Mecca Espresso, Ultimo

Where Mecca Espresso sits on a corner of Harris Street, there used to be a Gloria Jeans.  Dare I say, this is a much better use of space?

Mecca Espresso recently won the Cafe of the Year award in SMH's inaugural Good Cafe Guide.

We make plans to visit for a Saturday brunch but unfortunately JUST miss the breakfast menu.  And by just, I mean, on my watch, it says we are on time but according to the friendly staff, it is a minute past and they're onto the lunch menu now.  Boo!

We order at the counter from the limited lunch menu (choice of five sandwiches or four salads) and take a seat amongst the no-frills tables and chairs.  There are a lot of people there, including some families with small children.

The coffee comes out and is very good.

We all ordered sandwiches and when they arrive, they are big! Served on stainless steel plates, the fillings are spilling out from underneath the sourdough. 

Smashed chickpea sandwich ($10.50) 

with roasted eggplant, tomato and parsley

Roast chicken with lettuce sandwich

The chicken sandwich is plain but good.  Cold roast chicken and crisp lettuce is a good combination with the soft sourdough and I quickly polish it off.

Would definitely return and this time, early enough to try the breakfast menu!

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Sydney Fish Markets, Pyrmont

Another trip to the Sydney Fish Markets? Yes please!

We went a bit overboard with enough food to feed 10 people rather than just the two of us.  But that's okay, just meant more to eat and leftovers to take home!

First up were two insanely huge seafood platters

The first platter had scallops in the shell, grilled squid, calamari ring, salt and pepper squid and prawn cutlets

The other had about seven soft shell crabs piled up to form a small mountain

I love eating the bodies of the soft shell crabs and having that distinct flavour of the 'mustard' suddenly fill your mouth along with the crab meat and crispy coating.

Sydney rock oysters

The oysters were delicious and fresh with a quick squeeze of lemon across the top.

Salmon and tuna sashimi

I was a bit annoyed that they gave me two packets of wasabi instead of the two packets of soy sauce that I asked for!  Too lazy to trek back to the store but it meant that we had no sauce for the sashimi (and I don't eat wasabi).  Next time I'll check the packets before leaving!

After consuming as much as we could and packaging the rest for my friend to take home, amazingly enough, we had some room for dessert.

I've never paid much attention to the deli inside the fish markets but we had a good browse around and it is a treasure trove of gourmet goodies!

Including some Maggie Beer ice cream which made for the perfect dessert.

The fish markets never disappoint.

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