Bianca: It’s become a bit of a tradition to celebrate my Nonno’s birthday with a weekend away in a hired house in Leura and I was wanting to see what the mountains had to offer in terms of a good burger. I was hard pressed to find something promising but what did keep popping up was a place 30 minutes or so outside of the Blue Mountains called ‘Glenbrook 2773’.
I was getting major Grounds of Alexandria vibes from the set-up, with a great emphasis on space for kids to run amok, areas to picnic and two little miniature pigs. There are definite homely vibes and for the most part service is friendly. They do strive to source ingredients where local which I find admirable.
We stopped in on a Friday for lunch despite the rainy weather it was busy.
Mum can never start her morning without some form of caffeine so she had her usual order of a ‘Skim Mocha’ $4.60. She claims to be some sort of mocha connoisseur and she wasn’t too taken with this one.
The menu is varied with a boatload of delicious sounding options. To nibble on whilst we waited for our substantials we got a serving of ‘Sweet Potato Wedges’ $5. These were very tasty with prominent chicken salt and herb flavourings. Some wedges were crispy but a fair few were hard and a little raw on the inside which is never pleasant for anybody. Unfortunately it all went downhill from here.
The ‘Chicken Pot Stickers’ –w/ginger & soy sesame sauce $16.50 (no longer on the menu) seemed an odd inclusion for a café in the lower Blue Mountains. The minced chicken was enjoyable but the dish as a whole was a little underwhelming. The dumplings were a little on the salty and oily side.
With a big weekend of eating on the horizon, mum went for a lighter option of the ‘Crispy Pork Belly’ –w/braised pork belly, roast potatoes, apple, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, Persian feta, pomegranate, toasted almonds and a fig balsamic vinaigrette $20. We didn’t have luck on our side that day, the pork was under seasoned and in no way crispy. Which for the star of the salad was a major let down. The rest of the salad was pleasant but at the end of the day, it’s just lettuce.
There are a number of burgers on offer but I had my eyes on only one. ‘The All American’ –w/beef patty, lettuce, tomato, chopped onion, pickle, bacon, cheddar, mustard, mayo and ketchup $19.50 with chips. This was a sad state of affairs, I asked for the lettuce to be left off and instead of the chips I opted for a side salad. I requested crispy bacon and they kind of delivered, incinerated would be more apt. I apologise… there really wasn’t anything nice to be said about this burger at all. Worst of all was the patty, massacred, burnt, chewy, flavourless and cardboardy. Whilst I am harsh when it comes to my burgers I’m also fair. I left more than half, the bun was nice……. 0.9/5 pickles.
No one was more disappointed than me, it all sounded and looked so promising but failed to deliver. The breakfast menu looks promising so I would probably drop in again one day.
Bianca
We had items from the breakfast menu, the green bowl w/ poached eggs and the pancakes with bananas. The eggs were hard boiled and the kale was so tough I could not cut it with the knife, the remainder totally tasteless and unseasoned; the pancakes were so heavy, it took a whole day to digest. The place looked appealing, but well, the food was a real let down:(