What happy coincidence that a DDT was scheduled on a glorious summer's day perfect for a beach visit, and located at Bather's Pavillion on Balmoral Beach. As with every other sunny Sunday, Balmoral Beach is packed with cheerful beachcombers and people seeking a relaxing afternoon ... and a table at the popular Bather's Pavillion Cafe. No bookings are taken for the cafe, it's first come first serve only. As we were a big group of 8 we had to patiently wait for a table to clear. But that's OK, good DDT CEO arrived early as always, so that the other participants wouldn't have to endure the long (and hungry) wait. (Many many thanks to KT!!)
At 11:30 we were finally seated and ready to order. Breakfast menu was not exhaustively long but had a good variety to choose from (sweet and savoury). The DDT die-hards went for the sweets and those introduced to the idea for the first time were given concession and allowed to have their eggs and bacon (after drizzling with maple syrup to qualify as an official DDT experience). Our breakfasts arrived mouth watering and tantalizing, and it frustrated the hungry DDDs that I demanded no one touch their food until satisfactory photos were obtained. Roasted fig and peach on fig and almond panettone with mascarpone - appetising and hearty, caramelised fruit plus smooth mascarpone perfect with the panettone which to me was better than a heavy fruit loaf or thick cut raisin toast. Vanilla rice pudding stacked with fresh berries, mango and crispy pineapple was beautifully presented, the vanilla rice lightly sweet and very smooth, went well with either of the sweet fresh mango cheeks and tart and tangy berries. Pancake stack with blue berries and maple syrup, an old favourite, was light, fluffy (and thankfully no bicarb taste!!) and just textbook perfect. To me the most unusual and impressive breakfast was the strawberry blintz with poached rhubarb and spiced Meredith honey yogurt - the yogurt was interesting - I'm not sure I liked it because of the spices (my guess is cloves and cinnamon and others), but my compliment to the chef for creating this combination of healthy delicious dish that is highly appealing and has a lot of depth of flavours.
Brownie points to MW - whose experimental and daring mix of left over maple syrup and mascarpone won critical and unanimous acclaim.
After midday, lunch menu replaced the breakfast menu. This menu is significant because it has desserts on it. And we were very delighted to find out that Bather's has recently hired a new pastry chef who was supposed to be very good! With our CEO's persuasion we ordered every dessert on the menu - vanilla creme brulee, lemon delicious (lemon tart/custard type dessert), raspberry and pistachio gateau, yogurt and honeycomb parfait, chocolate fondue for two, rocky road tart. The creme brulee is just classic and perfect, not too rich (like what I had at ArtEspresso Canberra) and incredibly smooth. After this experience I have declared this my favourite creme brulee joint. The other desserts I could only describe according to the one tiny mouthful I've had, as the participants had not submitted their DDT report (they are now on notice for not doing their fair share!) The lemon delicious was as the name suggests, very delicious, it was kind of a tangy lemon curd but wasn't a custard like that of the traditional citrus tart. Raspberry and pistachio gateau was slightly disappointing for our CEO because the flavour was delicate and subtle and if you had the raspberry sorbet with the cake it would overpower it. The rose-water macaroon was muah-tastic. The chocolate in the fondue was rather runny and felt a bit like chocolate sauce used to drizzle cakes and ice cream sundaes, so it was a little less decadent than expected. KT: The rocky road tart had a very thin pastry case, in order not to detract our attention from the marshmellow/cherries/hazelnut combo coated in smooth, almost-date-like, chocolate. Ain't half bad!
Bather's Pavillion Cafe is comfortable, open and airy, that it doesn't feel crammed at all despite the large number of patrons and the constant movements. Their service is attentive and efficient, who were rather amused that this table asked for the lunch menu immediately after the brunch was consumed, and ordered every single dessert on offer. The service and food quality is consistently good, no wonder it is such a popular choice for diners, coffee addicts and DDDs alike. Parking on weekends around this area is a pain - but that's no fault of Bather's!
Some of the DDT die-hards then proceeded to a next (unscheduled but suggested) destination - Le Patissier on Military Rd, Neutral Bay, and were very pleased and impressed with the almond stick (puff pastry with almond and a touch of icing sugar) as well as other pastry/cake purchases. The almond stick was so fresh and fluffy, it was described as moreish. [KT: Apple Slice and Apple Danish were very delicious. Good pastry is hard to perfect. But once perfected, the fruit becomes secondary!! *drool*...] The cakes - again depending on personal preference, are all delectable packages. Next time I happen to be in the neighbourhood I will try their mini fruit tarts and croissants.
That concludes another luscious and indulgent day... until next time.....
CS
