After being dragged away from my comfortable bed at an ungodly hour (weekends are meant for sleeping in), I demanded retribution and got TimmyC to buy me breakfast for driving him to the other side of town so early in the morning. I had recently heard the radio ads for Siren bar and restaurant that they do breakfast, lunch and dinner and it has been a few years since I’ve last been there (see my previous post here). The only thing I really remembered from my previous visit was that the kitchen was closed by the time we wanted to order our desserts and I left disappointed, but this time we were there bright and early and ready for breakfast.
A big open space with lots of natural sunlight; this place is family friendly by day and turns into a drinking hotspot by night. There was still a residue of alcohol, beer and sticky floor smell lingering in the morning.
Freshly squeezed juice(orange, pineapple and ginger $7.50) and a deluxe iced chocolate($6.50). My juice was nice with a good hint of ginger, just the way I like it. I was a bit disappointed with the size of the glass though considering it costs $7.50. My friend said that his iced chocolate looked much better than it tasted, it was almost watery and not very strong.
Flat white in a mug ($4.30). This came out a lot later than the juices which was odd as it is usually the other way around. TimmyC said it tasted quite bitter.
Waffles homemade vanilla bean waffles with ice-cream, berry compote and maple syrup ($14.00). I was happy to find that this was a stack of two waffles, most places would just give you one. I thought they were really nice but it only had a hint of crispiness, if it had more of a crunch to it this would have been awesome. The berry compote was made from frozen berries so it tasted really watery so we just pushed that aside.
Siren extreme brekky eggs done your way (poached) with crispy bacon, chorizo sausages, eye fillet steak, roasted cherry tomatoes, potato rosti, saute mushrooms and baked beans served on sour dough ($22.00). Extreme indeed; this was just protein on a plate. Maybe this was meant for all the hardcore riders that cycle from southside to come here for brunch?
The eggs were cooked well, the bacon was crispy and not overly oily, the chorizo was extremely good and was rather spicy, the eye fillet steak just needed a speckle of salt and the cherry tomatoes just popped straight in your mouth. The sautéed mushrooms could have done with some seasoning and garlic, the baked beans were from a can and the potato rosti (which I was most excited to try) was rather tasteless and limp. Not the best looking plate but a lot of good things on there, maybe some spinach would have broken up all the meaty hearty flavours.
Not the most crispy or flavoursome rosti that I’ve had.
Brekky wrap bacon, scrambled egg and potato rosti wrapped in a fresh tortilla with tomato or BBQ sauce ($12.50). I was torn between two menu items and this was the other; it has all my favourite things wrapped conveniently in a tortilla but this was nothing special. It was okay, just lacking more BBQ sauce which the staff were happy to help with.
Lots of families with kids strolled in and had brunch together and by the time we were finished the young brunch crowd was just coming through. It is nice to have a place like this out in Gungahlin because there isn’t many brunch places choose from.
You have to order and pay for your meal at the bar and while we were there, it didn’t seem like you really needed to book a head for a table.
Don’t forget to use your Entertainment card!
TALES OF A CONFECTIONIST 