Charlie & Co. Burgers (and other stuff I ate)

I'm back in Sydney.  Time to see friends.  Time to eat.  Lectures?  Yeah, that too but that's too boring to blog.

First stop for Friday's dinner was Shan Cheng Hotpot King.  I didn't take any photos but check out this guy's blog.  His photos make the venue look much more open and cleaner than the reality.  The seating arrangement (one word - crowded) was a fire escape hazard.  The hotpot broths were very tasty and we opted for a half chilli/half non-chilli base to satisfy our various tolerance levels.  

I've never been a hotpot fan as I don't really care much for cooking my own food in a restaurant or more specifically in this case, dipping frozen food into a boiling soup.  That doesn't really require much skill.  Everything tasted the way it should - yum quail eggs - but there weren't any culinary surprises.  The next day wasn't good though.  I woke up nauseous and with a sore stomach.  TK didn't fare so well - she had the runs!  Ok, I am so not coming back here.

Saturday night was dinner at The Passage for Dru-poo's birthday.  Now this was a cosy-almost-hole-in-the-wall restaurant bar.  Food - naice.  We had the $45 sharing platter set menu which included a most impressive antipasto platter.  Wine/cocktail list - naice.  I arrived nursing my sore stomach from last night's venture anticipating that I might have to leave early but alas there's nothing a glass of red can't fix.  It must have washed away all that hotpot bacteria!  As the night wore on, we were treated to an awesome mix of RnB retro hits.  Errr, by retro I mean about 8-10 years ago - uni days!!  The group consensus can't be wrong.  Check it out peeps! 

Sunday lunch was with ##s and JB, the latter whom I haven't seen in 6 years!  The relative tourists that we are, we decided to explore our lunch options at the new-ish fancy food court in Westfield Sydney.  It really was about time that Sydney CBD got jazzed up with a decent shopping centre and the Westfield party surely didn't miss a beat.  If you've been to any of the new Westfield foodcourts lately, you'll see they've raised the bar high above the fastfood, cheap laminex foodcourts of the 1980s.  

After moseying around, I settled on Charlie & Co. Burgers.  I'll have to return for the gourmet hot dog stand another time.  

The Federation Burger - Seasoned Angus beef pattie with tomato relish, tomatoes, lettuce, aged cheddar, fried egg, bacon, sautéed onion and aioli.  $14 take away to the food court or $16 eat in in Charlie & Co. cordoned off area.  

Was it nice?  It sure was.  I was stuffed.  Was it worth $14/$16?  I dunno.  Grill'd do the Mighty Melbourne (aka Almighty if bought outside of Victoria) burger for $12.50 and it's pretty much the same.  I'll eat Charlie & Co. again but if Grill'd opens up shop nearby, I'll be heading there instead.