Next Door Cronulla | Cronulla

 

 Next Door Cronulla is a fun and fresh eatery, blurring the lines between cafe, restaurant and bar. Next Door is quite literally 'next door' to their flagship venue, Sealevel Restaurant. You have a great view of North Cronulla beach with ceiling to floor glass windows. The customer service is excellent, everyone is always so courteous, friendly and smiling which is a great way to enjoy your brunch. The last thing you want to see is someone absolutely hating their job - which brings down my mood. It was a very busy Saturday afternoon and we waited a long time for our food to arrive. Next Door Cronulla decided to take our drink order off the bill to apologize for the long wait. That was really nice and unexpected. They were understaffed in the kitchen and being a such popular venue, it affected the food service - especially with the main chef on leave.

 

 Truffle Parmesan Arancini

The truffle parmesan arancini was delicious - crunchy on the outside with a dense, flavoursome truffled risotto on the inside. The thick layer of parmesan was much needed for the extra salty flavour. Unfortunately, we weren't able to finish the arancini as it was served the same time as the mains.

 Wagyu Pastrami Toastie

As we were waiting for a table, we saw quite a few toastie's on tables and decided to give it a go. To be honest, it looked too good not to be ordered. In this non-monstrous toastie (one that you can enjoy without getting grease all over you) was picked cabbage, provolone, pickle and black garlic mayonnaise. The pickled cabbage wasn't as strong, it barely had that picked kick but all the ingredients complemented each other well - and had great texture through each bite!

 Cauliflower Fritters

This dish sounded great on the menu but we wish we could've said the same about the taste. The overall flavour was nice however it needed a crunchy texture to it - which we thought the pita would provide. The pita wasn't crunchy, the cauliflower fritters were not crunchy and the filling was quite dense. The poached eggs could've been left off the plate - it just created another creamy element which was not needed considering the dish already had labneh, hummus and the mushy filling from the cauliflower fritters.

Chai Latte

As you all know, I don't drink coffee. I never enjoyed the taste of coffee and unfortunately can't appreciate it as much as Matt can. Instead, I am an absolute sucker for Chai Latte. Personally, I think the perfect Chai Latte needs to be sweet,have that creamy layer and with a little bit of spice.

 Iced Latte

How good does this iced latte look? Matt thoroughly enjoyed his coffee but slowly realised that there's no sugar! He proceeded to add some sugar into the iced latte but it was too late. Some places have iced latte that are way too sweet, some have it at a perfect balance between sweetness and bitterness but some have no sweetness - and the flavour comes from the coffee itself. Which do you prefer?