Lydiard Street, Ballarat |
In my last post, I mentioned that I spent a lovely weekend in Ballarat as a guest of Ballarat Regional Tourism, discovering some of the food and wine delights that the region has to offer. Before this trip, I'd only ever been to Ballarat on school excursions to Sovereign Hill - this trip was less about the history, and all about the food! It was a full-on weekend of food, food, and more food - phew! Let's have a look at the different restaurants and cafes we visited.
Lydiard Wine Bar
15 Lydiard Street North
Ballarat, VIC 3350
Phone: (03) 5327 2787
Website
Friday evening saw us stop into the Lydiard Wine Bar. Housed in an old bank, this restaurant has a wide-ranging menu, encompassing European and Thai influences. Normally this type of menu sets alarm bells off for me, but the Asian dishes were well executed, (indeed, they all were), and we really enjoyed the meal.
Lydiard Wine Bar |
Chilli and Lime Oysters - $3.50 each |
House made potato bread, herb oil - $3 |
Fresh fig with labneh, cured spiced Wagyu - $8 |
Crespelle- Italian crepe filled with pumpkin, parmesan, sage & pinenuts - $20 |
Salad of lime cured swordfish, lemongrass, chilli & mint - $18 |
Baby cos salad, radish, cucumber & Crème fraiche - $9 |
Eclectic Tastes
2 Burnbank Street
Lake Wendouree, VIC 3350
Ph: (03) 5339-9252
Website
Eclectic Tastes cafe |
Eclectic Tastes Cafe |
Vintage Asian ads |
I think this was my favourite wall:
Vintage Bollywood |
The menus were housed in old Little Golden Books - blast from the past! (Did anyone else read these as a child?)
Menu |
Cute coffee cup!
Our Turkish Breakie - baba ghanoush, poached eggs, sumac and pomegranate molasses on Turkish bread - $16 |
White chocolate and Bailey's Cheesecake - $7.00 |
That afternoon, we visited two venues on Main Road. Even though Main Road is in walking distance of central Ballarat, it feels like a different place altogether - you really get a sense of Ballarat's history here.
Open Pantry
22 Main Road
Bakery Hill, VIC 3350
Ph: (03) 5334-4007
Website
Open Pantry is a beautiful cafe, serving housemade pastries, salads, focaccias and cakes, and selling a range of grocery items too.
Open Pantry |
Open Pantry |
Pumpkin soup |
Housemade lamb pastry, salads, relish |
Mmm... lamb goodness |
Open Pantry - this shot reminds me of Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist. Hehehe |
Cake Bakeshop
30 Main Road
Ballarat, VIC 3350
Ph: (03) 5333-3384
Website
Right next door to Open Pantry is Cake Bakeshop, a very pretty bakery selling cupcakes and macarons. I have to admit that I wasn't too keen when I first saw it on the itinerary (cupcakes and macarons are everywhere these days!), but I was happy to be proven wrong - it was a great little place, and absolutely worth a visit!
How cute is the wall of baking accessories? I wanted to buy everything and take it home, but managed to limit myself to some yellow cupcake papers.
Wall of awesomeness |
Cake Bakeshop |
Mini chocolate cupcake with cream cheese icing - $1.80 Salted caramel macaron - $2.40 Pot of T2 English Breakfast tea - $4.00 |
Mini red velvet cupcake - $1.80 Pot of T2 Melbourne Breakfast tea - $4.00 |
Bibo Cafe
205 Sturt Street
Ballarat, VIC 3350
Ph: (03) 5331-1225
Bibo is a small yet comfortable cafe, located on the main drag of town. (And yes, by the time breakfast on our last morning in Ballarat rolled around, I felt rather like the girl on their menu!)
Grilled Tuki Lamb sausage on potato rubble with onion jam, roast red peppers & toasted foccacia - $17 |
Some questions: Have you been to Ballarat? Did you go further than just Sovereign Hill? Do you have a favourite Ballarat cafe or restaurant?
Sarah visited Ballarat and ate at these venues as a guest of Ballarat Regional Tourism.
7 comments
Sarah you have captured some of the best spots in Ballarat for fantastic food and drinks, service and atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteIt was great to read your blog - hope you visit Ballarat again soon. Oh and we will be waiting for the next instalment!
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You have definitely captured the best spots in Ballarat. These are the places I recommend to visitors, and our family visit Eclectic Tastes weekly :-) Beautiful photos too!
ReplyDeleteFunny you mention Sovereign Hill-I think we went there as kids too! Love a Little Golden Book appearance :)
ReplyDeleteOMG OMG OMG :) Woo hoo! So glad you decided to blog about Ballarat because I'm going on leave soon and have a couple of days off where I don't know where to go!
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask you to tell me about all these Ballarat places hehe :)
Can't wait to go!
Oh can't wait to visit Ballarat!
ReplyDeleteAnd a big hell yes to the Little Golden Books. Talk about blast from the past. :)
Wow I want everything from the Cake shop too. So pretty. Looks like heaps of awesome eats.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you came to Ballarat Sarah. The places you mentioned are great, but I must suggest you come again as we have many more places for next time: Red Brick Gallery; Cafe Muszika, Church Retro Cafe; Swallow's Patisserie; L'Espresso; Kambei; Vegas & Rose; Forge Pizzeria; The Main Bar; Babushka Bar; Karova...the list goes on
ReplyDelete