Across the Border: Kings Cross: Bars: Fountain Cafe

I'm sub-titling this post as ''Bars'' rather than ''Food'', because I would definitely go back to the Fountain Cafe to drink but I wouldn't make a visit just to eat. I started drinking here only a few weeks ago when I discovered that it's loner-friendly and offers two drinks for the price of one until 9pm weeknights. That's about $7.50 for two beers, which isn't bad if you aren't in the mood for a pick-up pub.

It really is a good place to go for a drink when you happen to be on your own and thirsty, because you never have to fight for a table and its prime location on the bend, where Macleay Street and Darlinghurst Road meet, means there is lots of people- and car-watching to be done.

That voyeurism includes watching the countless tourists that like to photograph themselves in front of the El Alamein Fountain on the edge of Fitzroy Gardens:

So when my locally-based friend, Sapphire Tenzing (no relation of Sherpa), was up for a balmy summer evening drink al fresco last week, we chose The Fountain Cafe, because we had no energy to seek out a rare, highly coveted outdoor table at the Darlo Bar or Green Park Hotel. 

We began by ordering four glasses of white wine. As you do.
There isn't a wide selection to choose from on the happy hour menu, but the Rothbury Estate Semillon Sauvignon Blanc seemed like a better bet than the Lindemans. And the first two glasses went down quite well.

We decided to order food to soak up some of the alcohol, but I must admit we didn't have much faith in the kitchen, so it took us a rather long time to make a decision. The cafe is open from 7.30am to 11pm and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. I will have to ask my friend, Ruby Molteno - The Queen of All Day Breakfasts - to try out their bacon and eggs, because I'm sure they would pass the test. The lunch offerings include sandwiches and burgers, while the ''all day'' dinner menu is made up of salads, pastas, pizza and ''Asian dishes''. We eventually settled on the grilled dory with chips and salad for me, and for Sapph, a Moroccan lamb pizza, which we had spied looking good on another table.

The fish arrived in a somewhat unpleasant, rich butter sauce. It was advertised like that on the blackboard so I only have myself to blame. I scraped most of it off and ate the fish, which was dry and unexciting.

The pizza, on the other hand, was quite delicious and enough for two people. The lamb wasn't chewy and there were refreshing blobs of yoghurt and rocket leaves scattered across the top.

I think we ordered about three or four more glasses of wine, but I don't recall exactly, because by that time night had long fallen and the Fountain Cafe staff wanted to close. 

We left a good tip before we were booted out on to the street and at that stage we probably should have gone home to ready ourselves for work the following day. Wise decisions are never made at 11pm, when you have had a few drinks. So we decided to kick on. 

We ended up at the Goldfish Bar in the Crest Hotel on the Darlinghurst Road strip. But it's probably best not to bore you with the drunken details and instead leave you with this lovely festive photograph of the fountain:

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Fountain Cafe

18 Darlinghurst Road

Kings Cross NSW 2011

02 9358 6009

www.fountaincafe.com.au

Across the Border: Kings Cross: Food: KL Kitchen

It was so steamy in Sydney last night, it was just like Kuala Lumpur, so the climate called for beer and Roti Canai. I spent a few hours at the Fountain Cafe, near the El Alamein Fountain in Kings Cross, drinking happy-hour beers, and then I wobbled on down with my photographer friend, John Webber, to Llankelly Place, which is a pretty happening area these days. 

Once the domain of shoe-repairers, dry-cleaners, drunks, piss and vomit, the alley has since had a face lift that coincided with the new shopping-residential development on Springfield Mall, which obviously inspired the City of Sydney council to whip out some of their trademark grey granite tiles and spruce up the area. Really, the council needs no excuse to pull out the grey tiles - they must have a stockpile of them.

It looks lovely doesn't it? The grey tiles seem to have brought about a Llankelly Place Renaissance with new cafes, restaurants, clothing boutiques, a pop-up Tokyo Bike shop and bars opening over the past few months. 

KL Kitchen has been around since the drunk and shoe-shine days, but tonight it felt cleaner and more vibrant, with a fresh lick of paint inside and a cute aqua-coloured picket-fence surrounding the al fresco dining area. 

I just love the way this gorgeous girl is holding her hair. She looked so perfect next to this bright, fuchsia-pink painting. And this man was wearing just the right aqua-coloured shirt: 

I do like the combination of fuchsia and aqua, which is not only on the walls, but echoed on the napkins too, while the blue shade is also highlighted in this sweet wall candelabra that Webber insisted on snapping, and I include here for his benefit:

So the specialty of the house, like any good Malaysian restaurant, is the curry with a side of Roti Canai - that lovely, flaky, fire-hot, flat-bread. But, I discovered tonight, KL Kitchen is also serving Chinese Dim Sum, which was busy steaming away on portable-burners near the window:

Still, I was craving Roti Canai, so that's what I ordered. I also wanted the Mama's Chicken Curry, but it was sold out, so I had to have the beef version, which wasn't as good. The flavour was punchy - and oh, so chili hot - but I really didn't like the cut of meat, which reminded me of the beef and lamb dishes served in Chinese restaurants. It was kind of flat, thinly sliced and without any texture. 

Luckily, we also ordered the Sambal Belachan and Kangkung, or Asian Water Spinach. I love Belachan, which is a mixture of fried chilli, garlic and ground-shrimp, but wow, this one was bloody hot and I couldn't eat much of it, even though it tasted delicious. 

I think we just ordered too much food, because there was so much left-over. And what can you do with it? I considered taking it home, but there's only so much Belachan you can eat in a week. 

A friend of mine, who also lives alone, once took a doggy-bag of left-overs from a restaurant with the intention of giving it to a homeless man who was always mooching around her area. But when she offered the food to him, he looked at her in disgust and shook his head. The homeless people in Sydney don't have much need for food as there are plenty of organisations that cater to them. They just need a hot shower and a roof over their heads, I guess.

With that story in mind, I left the Belachan and Kangkung behind. We had a couple of Heineken beers and the bill came to just under $60. 

We sat outside for a bit to finish our beers and while we were there, a friendly man pulled up and secured his electric bicycle to the aqua picket-fence. It turned out he was Peter Hull, the co-owner of KL Kitchen, and he had just returned from a home delivery. 

Not surprisingly Mr Hull prefers hooning around the streets at night, making home deliveries, rather than being on waiter-duties at the restaurant. Mr Hull paid about $600 for his electric bicycle and told us he can make a delivery to nearby Darling Point and be back at the shop within 20 minutes. Not bad. And now I want an electric bicycle too. 

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KL Kitchen

Malaysian Chinese Cuisine

Shop 7, 133 Macleay Street

Potts Point NSW 2011

Entrance: 38 Llankelly Place

02 9360 8789