GoodTime Diner(Inside The Eastern Hotel)
Level 1/500 Oxford St
Bondi Junction, Sydney
Nestled inside the well known Eastern Suburbs institution - The Eastern Hotel - is GoodTime Diner.
It's new, it's relaxed and it's got the comfort food people love to eat these days. It's not pretentious - it has a very casual, comfortable feel to it.
We were in beautiful downtown Westfield Bondi Junction for a food bloggers dinner - The Dinner Club - to sample the offerings at GoodTime Diner.
As it joins onto a Westfield shopping centre parking is a breeze.
The food here is New Orleans Southern style - think slow cooked and/or smoked in their authentic American Yoder and big flavours too!
There was plenty on the board to try. We really enjoyed the lightly smoked cheese but loved the bigger flavour of the smoked nuts. The variety meant we could mix and match with toppings on the baguette slices too.
Next was the very tasty, and very popular, charred Cajun corn. This was a real hit on the night with the group. Corn can sometimes be, well, just corn. This had bigger flavours than your average corn with the Cajun kick quite prominent.
The platter of garlic bread was again a tasty addition - hot, not overpowered with garlic and in strips that were easy to hold and eat.
The mac n cheese was a killer dish - and again extremely popular with the wider group we were dining with.
Served in individual cast iron pots, it came out extremely hot, with molten cheese oozing through tender macaroni and all topped with crisped breadcrumbs.
The cheese had dribbled over the edge creating slightly crispy shards as well - so delicious.
Served in individual cast iron pots, it came out extremely hot, with molten cheese oozing through tender macaroni and all topped with crisped breadcrumbs.
The cheese had dribbled over the edge creating slightly crispy shards as well - so delicious.
For Sir, his favourite meat dish of the night was the Southern spiced free range BBQ chicken. The meat was nice and tender with a crisp spicy skin encasing the juicy slow cooked flesh and a very subtle smoked flavour.
While the 12 hour slow cooked beef short rib did look like chocolate brownies - as we all noted at the table - it did turn out to be an extremely tender meat dish with even more subtle smoke flavours present.
Comfort food is great but a few salads and healthier options never go astray - and these are certainly available at GoodTime Diner.
First was the fennel, goats cheese, pear and spinach salad - an interesting combination popular with some - but neither of us love fruit in our salads. It's a personal taste thing. On the other hand the cous cous, chickpea, pine nuts and roast pumpkin salad was delicious for us - great colours, flavours and textures!
GoodTime Diner is exactly what you would want or expect from a Southern style diner with a good variety of slow cooked and comfort food available that is tasty and fresh. It has a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere and it's just so easy to get to and find parking.Sir and Mlady dined as guests of GoodTime Diner. Thanks to co-head chef Amir for chatting with us about the menu. Special thanks also to Carlos Raso of Carlos Raso Public Relations for arranging our visit.
