The Grounds of Alexandria

As the year's finally winding down and holiday spirit is in the air, I've finally found the time to help dad fix things around the house as well as the time to go for early morning swims and catch up with friends both old and new. Carmen, Manisay and I finally paid a visit to The Grounds of Alexandria, undisputedly the largest cafe in Sydney.

For drivers, both on and off street parking are available but it can be difficult to secure a parking spot due to the cafe's popularity. From Green Square train station it's a ten minute walk or three minute bike ride away.

In order from the top left we ordered:

• Smoothies - banana, homemade yoghurt, honey, LSA mix
• The Grounds ice tea -English Breakfast with lemon
• Smashed avocado - haloumi, sundried tomatoes, olives and salad on a slice of wholemeal toast
• Steak sandwich
• Duck and pear salad
• (not shown above) A side of chips with chilli mayo

Prices were fair and the serving size was very generous, so much so that we entered food coma and had no room in our tummies for dessert after. The smoothies were on the (very) thick side and I think my cheek muscles got major a workout from sucking the contents up the straw. But then again, I like my smoothies like that. Mani enjoyed the ice tea and said it was her first time having English Breakfast chilled. The duck salad was the neatest to eat, lucky Carmen. Mani's steak sandwich was so large that she couldn't fit her mouth around it so that got a bit messy. I had similar problems with my smashed avocado. But every moment of struggle was worth it for the delicious meal.

Customer service is not their forte and a lot of improvement could be done in that area. With such a busy, fast paced workplace the wrong drink was delivered to our table and the waiting staff was impatient when we took a bit of time to place our order. Further, one of the waiters swore quite loudly when something went wrong with another table's order. If we come back again we would definitely be ordering takeaway to dine outside in the lovely garden where you won't feel like you're being hurried away.

They have speciality stands such as this dessert pastry one outside the main cafe and around the garden where you can buy takeaway food items that you can't find inside the main cafe. It is also semi-combined with an independent deli next door called Salt Meats & Cheese which sold every kind of spice, cheese and pickle anybody could dream of as well as a huge selection of Italian imported food and beverage products.

Colourful flowers were blooming and the animals in the pen looked content. Unashamedly, I spent more time observing the animals than most normal grown ups would and clucked at the rooster like that would magically summon it (good for Mani and Carmen, they wandered off and didn't witness that act). Deep inside I am an animal lover and have a childish approach towards them. Someday I might buy a pet chicken to accompany my quails.

They have a dog parking next to the bike parking which I found hilarious but I wouldn't recommend bringing your dog on a hot day as there is no shade. But a quirky idea nevertheless.

Afterwards we caught the train to Central and parted ways as I headed to another friend's house on the other side of Sydney. That trek took an hour and I was sitting in the quiet carriage feeling like such a rude tourist as I snapped away at the scenery (to explore the manual functions of my camera). Believe me, a DSLR camera's shutter can be very noisy. Other than that, not much else happened. Or in contrary, too much happened after that to be photo documented.

Have a nice day!