Sarah charles (Thewhereto)

The Dolphin hotel has long been in Surry Hills and a popular venue for those that love a good meal and a drink or two. It is open 7 days a week for all day dining from midday til late. You can book or generally be pretty lucky with walk-ins. We often sit out the front on their long tables but there’s also an indoor dining room, and outdoor space on the terrace upstairs as well as private spaces for functions.

We’ve recently been twice as we enjoyed it so much and have thus sampled lots of their food. The food ranges from quite upmarket dishes to pizzas and burgers and you can eat any of the food in any dining space. The indoors is more of an upmarket setting and a little more casual outside.

We began with a few small plates to share; San Danielle Proscuitto (aged 18 months), served with melon, as well as the whipped ricotta dip with Vincotto, roasted grapes lemon and olive oil. This pairs nicely with the fluffy foccacia and a glass of one of their natural wines or cocktails. Their margarita is excellent, a gin and tonic or even a negroni.
Moving on, light dish that can also be eaten as a starter, and one we quite liked is the grilled octopus with salsa verde, marinated nicely with green olives, white beans and herbs, and the octopus was nice and soft and had been prepared well.
The king prawn linguine was another great dish, beautifully cooked, flavoured with the Crustacean XO Butter and lemon, the linguine was superb and not too heavy which is good whilst you’re out having a few drinks.

We had a really nice brined and roasted free range chicken; this method of cooking ensured it stayed super moist inside with a flavourful skin, served with polenta, tarragon and greens. A decent sized dish too.

The 450g T-Bone was a great option to share, the meet perfectly cook to our ordering requirements and served sliced with the bone. Just seasoned with olive oil, lemon and watercress, this is a really good meat.

Whilst you’re there, it’s highly recommended you get a pizza, and our choice was the Pepperoni Du Bufala - double pepperoni, tomato, fresh buffalo mozzarella and woodfired.

We ordered sides of broccolini with chilli and garlic as well as shoestring fries.

We finished off with their Delfina Tiramisu, a huge slice of coffee soaked Savoiardi, Tasmanian Mascarpone, Vanilla Bean, Marsala and Coffee Liqueur provides for a creamy and delicious dessert.

It really is a good space for a meal and catch up with friends.

If you find yourself in Menai and are looking for a good local cafè, make sure you check into Steam Brothers cafe. This establishment is located close at the local shopping mall and is serving up some quality food and coffee. Steam Brothers cafe has a clean modern fitout with plenty of seating both indoors and out. Only open 3 months, but they are certainly making a positive impact on the cafe scene.

The menu is diverse with a range of breakfast and lunch options to cater to many diners. Steam Brothers have a range of heathy breakfast options. The green eggs are a great healthy option with a baked egg kale, sicilian olives, mint and fennel salad on a slice of sourdough. The Mushroom bruschetta with a fried egg and parmesan is another quality breakfast option which we really enjoyed.

If you sleep in and are arriving later in the morning or at lunch time, steam brothers do an all day breakfast and there are a number of tasty lunch items too. The Schnitty roll is a lunch time staple in Australia and the Steam Brothers version is at the top of the list. They use of quality ingredients, fresh salad, the schnitty perfectly cooked and a tasty mustard aioli, all served on a soft brioche long roll. One of the best we’ve had.

The burgers also the source of some food envy as they passed the table, but the portions are so generous, we couldn’t eat everything!

Head to Steam Brothers has a good setting to grab a quality coffee and some tasty food. Be sure to pay them a visit.