Drinking & Eating at The Commons

I've been meaning to take a visit to The Commons since it was that pop - up bar The Pond. Luckily, they have a much wider selection of drinks, including a great bottle of Sangoivese that we tried out, as well as some great food now.

I love the feeling that you're at someone's house amongst friends at The Commons. In the warmer months, I would recommend sitting in the front outside section, on what feels like a front porch, and downstairs in the darker, moodier section in the colder months. It's one of those fantastic old buildings in Sydney that has a lot of character, including giant stone bricks that you can tell have been chipped away by convict labour. There are lots of hanging plants in the front section, including some herbs on the sides. There are cute wooden tables and stools. However, after waiting a while for your food, your tiny little stool will become somewhat of an enemy to your behind.

We both decide to go for the Farmhouse Menu, a four course degustation. On their website, The Commons states that they are "inspired by skilled, traditional cooking that uses regional produce and ingredients that 'taste of what they are.'" This is evident straight away. The first courses are a Charcuterie board and a Seasonal Produce Plate. There is some amazing pâté, gerkins, rocket, wholemeal bread, cured meat and other bits and pieces on these boards. 

For our entrees we had Ana’s ravioli w/ brown butter & sage and a Carpaccio of organic wagyu topside w/ shaved radish. The carpaccio was delicious, but was a little bit too oily. The raviolo however, was amazing, with two giant raviolis for us to share, and the butter and sage sauce was simple, but delicious. They disappeared very quickly. 

Now, what I haven't mentioned so far, is the fact that we had also been given some bread with oil to share and had already drunk half a bottle of wine and a glass of sparkling white. I was starting to get full. This is because after sitting there for over an hour, my dining and drinking companion was starting to get extremely hungry. I had just been to a work Christmas party, so I had already had some nibbleys and some vino. When I inquired as to how our food was coming along, we got a bit of a blank look. "Oh, I think I misunderstood your order" was the waiter's reply. "Huh?" We wondered? I stopped myself from a smart ass reply of "well, just bring us whatever it was that you thought we ordered." The waiters and kitchen then went into overdrive. We had a free plate of bread with oil and olives, our glasses of sparkling on the house, and all of our plates of food came shooting out of the kitchen at lightening speed. We could barely keep up. You could tell that they felt terrible about forgetting our order.

For our mains we had Hunters Chicken braised w/ rosemary, lemon and cannellini beans and Best of farm vegetables. The chicken was cooked extremely well, however was a tad on the bland side overall, and the farm vegetables had some oven baked beetroot in it that was to die for.

For dessert (by which time I was so full, a nap on the table was looking like a good idea) we had Baked lemon & ricotta cheesecake. I could only fit a mouth-full in. It was good. Really good. And was served with a small bowl of fresh cherries. I love cherries, so I managed to fit some in. I'm not sure where I fit them in, but I did somehow. By this point I felt an explosion in my stomach was imminent, and we decided to leave. The food was good, the wine was good, but my bottom was very sore (as we had been there all night). It was quite late, and I knew I was going to sleep well.