Taste on Sussex Lane, CBD

I’d always thought of myself as someone who doesn’t like attention. This must be wrong. Because when it comes to my birthday, I keep the celebrations going for days - I love celebrations!  This year I had 5 different birthday dinner/lunch gatherings. Oops.

One celebration was with 3 work friends for lunch last Friday. Taste on Sussex Lane was the second Taste Baguette store to open (after Surry Hills, and there are now 6 Sydney stores in total) and their baguettes are baked regularly throughout the day, filled with fresh combinations, and served to hordes of office workers.

They also have an eat-in restaurant with an enticing lunch menu, and with a plush interior and balcony seating, this is where we placed ourselves that day. We were seated at the furthest table on the balcony, which is quite private for a girly catch-up, but being out of the way meant service was a bit slower when asking for drinks etc.

Our friend K arrived early and didn’t realise we were eating in so she had already bought a takeaway tofu baguette (please excuse the blur!).

Crispy Tofu Baguette: Fried marinated tofu with crisp iceberg, pickled carrot and radish, spring onion, cucumber, coriander and soy dressing

L and E couldn’t go past the special of pork belly with heirloom carrots. The pork was tender and melted in the mouth, and the crackling was satisfyingly crunchy – I love that sound! L felt that the carrots were slightly overcooked but still nice, and the carrot puree was amazing, smooth and full of flavour.

Lunch special, pork belly with carrot puree, and heirloom carrots, $25

I was going out to dinner that night (yep, another birthday celebration) so I ordered light. The ocean trout salad was simply beautiful. The ocean trout was soft and morish, served with kipflers, watercress, radish, salted capers, and crunchy sweet green apple, it was perfect in both texture and taste.

Ocean trout salad with kiplers, watercress and salted capers, $22

For dessert L chose the  lemon meringue tart, my favourite dessert. The lemon curd was tangy and smooth, and topped with a sweet cloud of meringue, it was delicious.

Lemon meringue tart

E chose the chocolate hazelnut cake. I’m not a fan of chocolate cake, but I’m told this was moist and rich without being heavy – she said it was amazing.

Chocolate hazelnut cake

K ordered the gluten-free carrot cake, which is served with a sprig of fresh rosemary. Whilst it was nice enough for a gluten-free cake, she had serious food envy over the rest of our desserts.

Gluten-free carrot cake

Again I was being “light” so I just had a raspberry macaron. The texture of the shell is a bit rougher than it should be, but despite that, once bit it melted in my mouth and the lovely raspberry flavour made it a great end to a great lunch.

Raspberry macaron

Taste on Sussex Lane
http://www.tastebaguette.com

Opening hours:
Monday to Thursday, breakfast and lunch; Friday, breakfast, lunch, and tapas bar til late
Contact details:
Phone: + 61 2 9299 0888
275 Kent Street, Sydney