Tuesday 23 September 2008

Viva Italia - Haberfield

Haberfield is one of my favourite suburbs. Ramsay St (near the intersection of Dalhousie Rd) is dotted with patisseries, delicatessens, and pizzerias boasting of Sydney's best authentic woodfired pizza. It is popular with the locals, although Haberfield is slowly being invaded by outsiders who are starting to catch on and discover the goods... such as us DDDs.

We had grand plans of 5 or 6 places to conquer, but were disappointed that our starting cafe Espresso Galleria was closed on Sundays. Then we discovered (on the same side of Ramsay St) Colefax Chocolate Cafe was closed. So was Paesanella's cheese shop. Fine then, we will seek our fortunes across the street - at A&P Sulfaro Pasticceria.

And it didn't disappoint. A counter full of biscuits, a counter of pastries & cakes, and behind us a freezer of gelato ice cream cakes, and a constant queue of 10 people at all times. The long wait to order simply gave us time to examine the goods carefully. So here goes: between the CEO and secretary we had a hazelnut profiterole (given two thumbs up), a pistachio and chocolate shortbread (which I later came back for... and bought a dozen), a brioche (standard), a chocolate cannoli (mmm luscious), lemon melting moment (not lemony enough, not melt-in-your-mouth enough), spiced pastry (interesting... sweet-savoury pastry and spiced filling), and two cups of coffee (decent coffee, not cups of milk - KT: !!). The others opted for a custard filled donut (the look of his face said it was a good donut) and an almond biscuit (nice).

Verdict for A&P Sulfaro - fantastic biscuits, mouthwatering pastries, but service was shocking. I saw one of the waitresses take 10 minutes to make an iced mocha (painstakingly scooped out some chocolate gelato into a tall glass, took her time filling and tampering the coffee grind, then made the coffee, then gently poured the coffee onto the already melting chocolate gelato, then looked for the milk that is sitting just behind her and carefully pouring it into the chocolate mush), while another waitress carefully poured two glasses of water to 1cm from the rim, while no one took orders for 20 minutes. Also in the 20 minutes of no service, only 4 cups of coffee were made, meaning at best 2 tables were served.

Pasticceria Papa - our morning tea stop. The long counter displayed biscuits similarly beautiful compared to those of A&P Sulfaro's, as well as cakes and pastries and gelati, and has a queue as long as A&P Sulfaro, except their service was streamline and efficient. The pistachio gelato was full of flavour - Gelatissimo's got nothing on it!! Lovely strawberry cheesecake - you can taste the tang of the cream cheese. The biscuits were good - pistachio biscuits (made of almond meal) are deserving of special mention. Excellent Lavazza espresso and affogato were enjoyed by fellow dessertees too. Sitting languidly in the courtyard, I started noticing the waitress drag chairs and tables loudly to one side and stacking them up, until we were the last uncleared table... an obvious hint they were closing, at 1pm on a busy Sunday afternoon.


Dolcissimo is just across the intersection from Pasticceria Papa, but with a more casual exterior. Dolcissimo also has a biscuits and cakes counter, and always has a fairly lengthy torte selection, with common favourites such as mud cake and tiramisu. Among the 7 of us, our orders were panna cotta torte (disappointed it's not panna cotta, but otherwise a light and moist sponge torte), baked ricotta cheese cake (luscious, but gets a bit rich after a while), creme caramel (deliciously eggy), tiramisu (good, but a bit heavy), stack of pancakes with vanilla gelato and ricotta hotcakes (not as fluffy as Bill's). The lemon gelato needs to be praised: it was so silky smooth and tangy it really melted in your mouth, and no ice crystals! It was that good. Also, it served as refreshment between various cakes.

Despite the disappointment in shops being closed on Sundays, it was a perfect day of relaxation and enjoyment. Different from the Surry Hills walk, we only visited 3 places this time (not by choice, mind you), but it was sufficiently a good day because the quality of the biscuits, cakes, pastries etc were generally satisfying. Each of our visited location has a great variety to choose from, hence pleasing everybody easily.

Special mention: Rusty, Kim's sweet natured puppy, who enjoyed a sunny day out, as well as crumbs and my accidentally dropped jam shortbread.
CS
KT: 1st time attendees were Kim, Rusty, Rebecca and Donna. Returned attendee Terry had nothing to say about BrisVegas. We were not surprised :P