Dining Out - Hurstville Bakery & Cafe, and Burger Collective

ratticus (58)in #food • 7 years ago (edited)

A double feature for you as I wasted time around Hurstville while my car was getting serviced.

Hurstville Bakery & Cafe

Hurstville Bakery and Cafe - Outside View.jpg
^{With so many little shops in the area, a photo from outside is helpful}

Being early, a bunch of places weren't open yet, but this little bakery caught my eye with their images of Bahn Mi (Pork Rolls), and when I saw the price up on the back wall I knew what my breakfast was going to be. $4.50 for a bahn mi? Even if it's ordinary, I'm not losing at that price! $6 including my can of soft drink.

Hurstville Bakery and Cafe - Bahn Mi.jpg
^{A bit difficult getting a good photo without a table, but I think I did ok}

With no seating at the store, I wandered the short distance up the road to the park outside one end of the train station, found a park bench to eat at and watch the world go by for a bit of time.

Hurstville Train Station Park.jpg
^{So many pigeons in the small park that there are multiple signs advising to not feed them. And one advising a ban on spitting (with a $100 fine). Some kids loved chasing the birds though}

Despite the look from the image above, there was actually a decent amount of meat in this roll, and it was for my thinking the perfect balance between crisp crunchy roll, and soft and chewy. I was impressed with the smallish amount of crumbs that I ended up wearing. The filling was decent, and certainly had enough for the amount of bread around it too. It could have done with a bit more of the pate spread, and more dressing on the salads, but it was still better than I'd expected for $4.50.

Burger Collective

Having mostly managed to use up the time I needed to, it was time for a late lunch. Earlier in my wandering around I'd found the rooftop eatery section at Hurstville Westfield, just outside from the Cinema. I was really in the mood for a burger, so I gave this place a go.

Burger Collective Outside.jpg
^{A nice fenced yard kind of feel with the fake grass flooring. There's also some inside booths if you want out of the sun more than the shade roof provides.}

As usual with my first time at a new place, I went with their 'cheeseburger', or from their menu "The American Classic" - Grilled beef patty, jack cheese, house pickles, tomato sauce, American mustard. As part of the order process they asked how I'd like my patty and suggested Medium is their 'normal'. I requested Medium Rare. I also decided on a bottle of Huckleberry soda, as I'd not had it before and had no idea on what the berries were. Nice clean taste without being too memorable is my evaluation of it.

Burger Collective - Soda.jpg
^{Turns out that it's a blend with elderberry, not too much, but enough that it made sense when I read the ingredients}

When the burger and chips came out, I was pretty happy with the serving size. Enough chips, and a decent sized burger. The chips could have been hotter, but they were good enough that they were still warm when I finished them all, after the burger had been consumed. The burger was cooked medium, so not sure if they just can't hit medium-rare reliably, but it seems asking how I wanted it cooked was a waste of time. It was however quite a tasty burger, with a bit of a memory of the bbq patties from home as it wasn't a perfectly round patty. Structural integrity of the burger lasted pretty much the entire way through the burger, and there was very little sauce drip, but enough that it existed in every bite. 2 slices of their pickle wasn't bad, but it was a bit thick for my liking, and I'd have preferred 4 sliced that were half the thickness (or even just 3 of them...)

Burger Collective - American Cheese.jpg
^{I also love when a burger and chips comes in a side by side like this.}

They aren't going to take a leap up into my list of best burgers (not even the one limited to Sydney), but for a <$10 cheeseburger, it's better than any of the major chains, and decent value.